Zechariah 1:7 - Meaning and Application

We do not come to the Lord through visions and revelations now. In Zechariah’s time, God chose to speak that way to wake up the people’s attention, stir humble respect for his word, and help them remember it. Most of the visions that follow were meant to comfort the Jews, who had just returned from exile, and to encourage them to keep building the temple.

This first vision serves as an introduction to the rest. It shows that God cared for his people and was watching over them for their good, even though their situation looked bleak and abandoned. The vision is dated on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, three months after Zechariah’s earlier sermon (Zechariah 1:1). In that sermon, he had called them to repent because of God’s judgments. Since that message had already begun to bear fruit, the promises of mercy are now confirmed: if they returned to God in obedience, he would return to them in mercy.

Zechariah first saw a grove of myrtle trees, a dark, shaded grove in a low place, hidden by the surrounding hills. This pictured the Jewish church at that time: low, overshadowed by other nations, buried in obscurity, and with any help or support concealed from view. The church has not always been visible, but at times it has been hidden, like the woman in the wilderness (Revelation 12:6).

He also saw a man riding on a red horse, standing in the middle of the myrtle grove. This was the Lord Jesus Christ, the same one who appeared to Joshua with a sword drawn as captain of the Lord’s army (Joshua 5:13-14), and later to John with a bow and a crown (Revelation 6:2). Even though the church was in a low place, Christ was present in its midst. Hidden among the trees, he was still there, ready to bring help at the right time and to surprise his people with deliverance. He rode like a warrior, eager to act for his people and to hurry to their aid (Deuteronomy 33:26). The red horse may point to the color of war, or to blood, showing his anger against his enemies and his zeal for Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:14). Under the law, this red horse also fit the fearful tone of that era, when Christ’s conflict still lay ahead. Under the gospel, however, he appears on a white horse, showing that he has won the victory and rides in triumph (Revelation 6:2; Revelation 19:11).

Zechariah also saw a group of horses behind him, some red, some speckled, and some white. These were angels attending the Lord Jesus, ready to carry out his commands for the good of the church. Some would serve in judgment, some in mercy, and some in ways that mixed both. The King of the church has angels at his command, not only to honor him, but also to serve those who belong to him.

Zechariah asked what the vision meant. He had an angel speaking with him as his guide, besides the figures he saw in the vision itself, as Ezekiel and Daniel also had instructors in their visions (Ezekiel 40:3; Daniel 8:16). He said, “My Lord, what are these?” (Zechariah 1:9). It seems that the angel who spoke with him was Christ himself, the man on the red horse, and Zechariah addressed him directly. If we want to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, we must go to Christ himself. We should not turn to angels for that, since they are learners too. Christ alone can open the book and break its seals (Revelation 5:7). Zechariah’s question shows both humility and a real desire to learn. He wanted to know, not out of curiosity, but so he could bring comfort to God’s people in their distress.

Christ answered him and said, “I will show you what these are.” He is ready to teach those who truly want to learn the things of God. Whatever true knowledge we have, or may have, about the world of spirits, we owe to Christ. The answer was that these were those whom the Lord had sent, his messengers and envoys, appointed to move through the earth, observe what was happening, and carry out God’s commands. God does not need their service, but he is pleased to use them. And we benefit from the comfort that comes from knowing how he governs through them.

Zechariah then heard what the angels reported to Christ about the state of the world. Faith comes by hearing, and visions usually included something spoken as well. The angels had been out traveling through the earth like swift messengers, and now they returned with their report to the Angel standing among the myrtle trees, that is, to the Lord Jesus. Angels themselves are accountable to him. They said, “We have walked through the earth, and look, all the earth is at rest and peaceful” (Zechariah 1:11). This reminds us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, because plainly it is not so yet.

The report also shows how active the angelic world is. The angels in heaven do not rest day or night from praising God, which is their work there. The angels sent to serve on earth are also never idle. They are always ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51), like Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12), and always moving through the earth. Satan admits that he is active in doing harm (Job 1:7). It is a comfort that good angels are just as active in doing good. We have guardians walking about continually, seeking to help us, while our enemies also go about like roaring lions, seeking to devour us. Even though holy angels meet much that is unpleasant in this world, they do not hesitate to go where God sends them.

Their own home, which they disliked when they fell from it, they will value more when they return to it.

We also see how careless the world is. “All the earth sits still and is at rest,” while the church is unsettled, tossed by storms, and given no comfort. Those outside the church live in safety, and those who oppose it often seem to prosper. The Chaldeans and Persians live comfortably, while the poor Jews are kept in constant fear, like the city of Shushan, where the king and Haman sat down to drink while the city was troubled.

The children of this world are cheerful and carefree, but no one mourns over the suffering of God’s people. It is sad to think how deeply asleep the world is, how a spirit of dullness has fallen on most people. They are under God’s anger and Satan’s power, yet they remain secure and unconcerned, sitting still and at ease (Luke 17:26).

He then heard Christ’s prayer to the Father for his suffering church (Zechariah 1:12). The angels reported what was happening in this lower world, but we do not read that they prayed for the troubles they described. No, the great intercessor is the Angel among the myrtle trees. After hearing the report, he turned at once toward heaven and said, “Lord, will you not have mercy on your church?”

The thing he asks for is mercy, as in “Show us your mercy, O Lord” (Psalm 85:7). God’s mercy is everything to the church’s comfort, and all of it must be hoped for through Christ’s mediation, that is, his priestly work of bringing us to God. The thing he laments is the delay of that mercy: “How long will you not have mercy?” He knows that mercies through Christ will last forever (Psalm 89:2), yet he feels the delay deeply.

The ones he commends to God’s mercy are Jerusalem, the holy city, and the other cities of Judah, now lying in ruins. God had been angry with them for seventy years. He names those seventy years because that was the time fixed in God’s plan for the captivity. Though some mercy had already been shown, enough to give them fresh hope (Ezra 9:8), the pain of those years still felt sharp. That long discipline remained the sorrow they kept speaking of, God’s anger during those seventy years.

Dr. Lightfoot thinks these seventy years may be counted from the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem and the temple were burned, not from Jehoiakim’s fourth year. On that view, they would end in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, about nineteen years after Cyrus’s proclamation. In that case, the captivity eased away gradually, just as it had come on gradually. Their cry is, in effect, “Lord, we are still under the burden of those seventy years of wrath. Will you be angry with us forever?”

He also heard a gracious answer to Christ’s intercession for the church, because it is a powerful prayer and always acceptable to the Father, who always hears him (Zechariah 1:13). The Lord answered the angel, this Angel of the covenant, with good words and comforting words, promising mercy, deliverance, and the finishing of what he had begun for them. These were comforting words to Christ, who feels the pain of his church’s troubles, and they are comforting to all who mourn with Zion.

God often answers prayer with good words before he shows great works. Those words are real answers to prayer. Human promises will not feed the body (James 2:16), but God’s good words feed faith. With him, speaking and doing are not two separate things, as they often are with us.

He then heard that answer repeated to himself, with the command to pass it on to God’s people for their comfort. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, he made known to his servant John, and through him to the churches (Revelation 1:1, Revelation 1:4). In the same way, all the good and comforting words of the gospel come to us through Jesus Christ, who received them from the Father in answer to the prayer of his blood. His ministers are appointed to preach these words to the whole world.

Now that God would speak comfort to Jerusalem, Zechariah must be the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” The voice says, “Cry out.” So he must cry. The prophets must now speak as loudly to show God’s people their comfort as they once did to show them their sins (Isaiah 40:2, Isaiah 40:3, Isaiah 40:6). If he asks what he should cry, he is told.

He must first announce the wrath God has ready for Jerusalem’s enemies. “I am very jealous for Zion,” says the Lord (Zechariah 1:14). God is deeply offended by the insults and injuries done to his church, just as he had once been offended by the sins found in his church. The earth sat still and was at rest (Zechariah 1:11), showing no regret at all for the harm done to Jerusalem, like Joseph’s brothers, who sat down to eat after selling him. God took this very seriously (Zechariah 1:15): “I am very greatly displeased with the nations that are at ease and feel no concern for the afflicted church.” He is even more displeased with those who are at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1), Zion’s own children, who do not share her grief.

But it was worse than indifference. They were not only unconcerned for her, they acted against her. “I was only a little displeased with my people,” God says, meaning he intended a moderate correction. But those used as his tools threw off all pity and, in great rage and cruelty, made the suffering worse. They persecuted those whom God had struck (Psalm 69:26), and they mocked those whom he had troubled. See Isaiah 47:6, Isaiah 10:5, and Ezekiel 25:12, Ezekiel 25:15. God is displeased with anyone who worsens the suffering even of people who deserve punishment, because true humanity in such a case is also true godliness.

He must also announce the mercy God has ready for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah (Zechariah 1:16). He must cry, “This is what the Lord says: I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy.” He had been going away in anger, but now he is returning in love. He should keep proclaiming the same message (Zechariah 1:17). There must now be repeated words of comfort, as there had once been repeated words of warning.

The Lord, even the Lord of hosts, promises them that the temple, which is only now being built, will be finished. This good work, though it faces much discouragement, will be completed. They will again enjoy the signs of God’s presence, and they will have access to him for fellowship and worship, as before. It is indeed good news for any place to hear that God will build his house there.

Jerusalem would be rebuilt as a city joined together, which had once been part of its glory (Psalm 122:3). A measuring line would be stretched over Jerusalem, showing that its rebuilding would be careful, exact, and orderly.

The nation would also become populous and rich again, even though it was now small and poor. Not only Jerusalem, but other cities that had been reduced to small places would spread out again. Their outskirts would grow, and new settlements would be sent out from them through prosperity. They would become so many and so wealthy that there would not be enough room for them, and they would say the place is too cramped (Isaiah 49:20). As they had once been scattered because of their troubles, they would now spread out because of their blessings. "Let your springs be scattered abroad" (Proverbs 5:16). The cities that grew in this way are called God's cities, because he blesses them, and they multiply and fill the land.

All their present sorrows would not only be outweighed, but finally ended by God's comfort. "The Lord will yet comfort Zion." At last, even if her grief and troubles last a long time, God still keeps comfort ready for Zion and all who mourn with her.

All of this would come from God's first and special favor. "He will yet choose Jerusalem" means he would renew his choice and confirm his covenant. He would show again that he had chosen Jerusalem. Just as he first formed them into a people when he brought them out of Egypt, so he would now rebuild them when he brought them out of Babylon, not because they deserved it, but because of his own choice (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Jerusalem is the city he has chosen, and he will not reject it.