Revival - Part 2 — J.I. Packer

Well, Brother Walter has already made my day by telling me that he agrees with me on the subject of Spirit Baptism. And if he's able to tell me after this present address that he agreed with what I'm going to say now, I shall be over the moon.

And in light of what he's just said in his review of Dr. Lloyd-Jones' book, I think he even might. And while I don't really know what to say about the saints in glory taking note of what goes on here on earth, I think that if Dr. Lloyd-Jones knows what I say this morning up there, he'll be smiling too.

Revival as God’s Work of Renewal

Our title is The Work of Revival. Our scripture is Zechariah. Chapters 1 through 8. Please have your Bibles open. We shall be referring but much to what goes on in these chapters. And I begin by reminding you of the things that we said yesterday.

Matters on which I hope we were able to agree together. Positions certainly which are basic to what I'm going to say now. What is revival? It is God extending his kingdom through the restoring of his people, the restoring of his church, in a manner that a guy like Edwards could properly compare to the breaking of a wave.

In a manner which Dr. Lloyd-Jones, as we've just heard, pinpointed as unusual and calling attention to itself by virtue of that fact. It's God renewing, intensifying, accelerating and deepening his work of grace in the lives of individuals and of communities.

Revival, we said, is a communal thing. Revival is God visiting his people. Revival is God visiting people in groups. We didn't say yesterday, but we may say now, that Peter, following Joel, celebrates revival as God pouring out his Spirit.

We may properly speak of revival as God pouring out his Spirit, and spend a moment thinking of that picture. You pour out liquid in abundance. The very image suggests that there's much there. And when you pour it out, there's a major flow of liquid.

And so it is when God pours out his Spirit in revival. I gave you a thumbnail analysis of the things that happen in revival. Some of these matters will be reviewed in more detail in a moment. But, do you remember the phrases I used?

In revival, God comes close, and thus sin is seen. And because sin is seen, the gospel is loved as never before. And repentance goes deep. And godliness grows fast. And the church becomes itself. And the world feels the impact.

There's an evangelistic overflow. And Satan keeps pace, trying to spoil and corrupt what's going on. We saw yesterday that revival was the hope of prophets and psalmists. It entered into their prayers, and many of those prayers are there in the Old Testament for us.

Revival entered again into the hopes and prayers of Protestant Christians in the 17th century. In the 17th century, just for the record, they didn't use the phrase revival of religion as it came to be used in the 18th century.

What they talked about in the 17th century was the spiritual aspect of reformation. The Puritans and others in continental Europe used the language of reformation to express the desire of their heart in this matter.

The reformation they sought was spiritual renewal in the church. They saw that as the inward aspect of the work of God, whereby the outward face of the church, as they expressed it, had been washed. And the outward life of the church had been put straight by scriptural confessions and scriptural patterns of worship.

Yes, but the people were not yet reformed. That's how they said it. And so they prayed that the spiritual reality of reformation in human lives might accompany the outward aspect of reformation in the ordering of the church.

In the 19th -18th century, as we saw yesterday, the phrase revival of religion began to be used for this that was being sought. And that's the phrase that we have inherited. And when we use the term revival, well, it's in that sense that we use it.

And it's in that sense that it's truly been said that when the Lord Jesus comes back, he should find the church planning world evangelism and praying for revival. Revival, I hinted rather than explained yesterday, is a characteristic work of God in the same way that regeneration, the regeneration of an individual is a characteristic work of God.

What I mean by that is that though the details may vary from one instance to another, we've heard Walter echoing Dr. Lloyd-Jones who insists that not all revivals have all the same phenomena, all the same trimmings and trappings, shall I say, associated with them, yet they all of them have the same reality at their heart.

Just as when a person is born again, his or her temperament is peculiar to him or her, and that's going to mean that some of the trimmings and trappings of that individual experience will be peculiar to that individual.

But the heart of the matter, the essence of the change, the series of new qualities which mark out regeneration of the reality that it is, those will be the same every time. The regenerate person will always trust Christ, always repent of sin, always love the Lord, always rejoice in Christ, always find emptiness in his or her heart as soon as he or she is seduced away from the Lord back to the broken cisterns of sin.

It happens. And the regenerate backslider is thus the most miserable person in the world. Regeneration produces all these effects. And revival has its own characteristic features which are always there, whatever else is or isn't there, and it's these characteristic features that are there at the centre of the narrative in Acts 2 through Acts 11, the narrative of revival in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Christian era, just as in fact they are there in the briefer and less elaborate narratives of revival at various times in the Old Testament story.

And it's these central characteristics that are reflected in the epistles of the New Testament. Some of the things that apply here, that appear here, we referred to yesterday. For instance, the way in which those verses at the centre of 1 Corinthians 14 show that it was standard Christian experience in the churches of those revival times for the presence of God when his word was preached to be such a powerful reality in experience that folk wandering in from the streets felt it.

And indeed, in 1 Corinthians in general, what one is seeing is the problems of overflowing and uncontrolled spiritual life. Paul is afraid that some of them are not converted, but he knows that others of them are.

And he's just distressed at the disorder that they have allowed to come in when God's spirit has been poured out on them with such fullness. And then I referred to 1 Thessalonians, where Paul, by the way he writes, shows that these people have matured in Christ in a very remarkable way in a very short time.

And I said this illustrates the way in which God speeds up his work in times of revival. Because remember, Paul was only there for less than three weeks on the mission that produced the Thessalonian church.

And I might have made reference to 1 Peter 1 verse 8, a text of which Dr. Lloyd-Jones himself could never make enough. He would quote it over and over. It's Peter's reference to the fact that the saints, suffering pressure, the beginnings of persecution as they were, rejoiced in the Lord whom though they'd not seen, yet they loved.

They rejoiced in him, says Peter, with joy unspeakable, unutterable joy, joy that has more in it that you can put into words, and joy that is full of glory. The Greek literally says glorified joy. And he would look round challengingly on congregations and say, do you rejoice in the Lord like that?

At times of revival the saints do. And he was right. The whole New Testament comes out of revival conditions. And we do well to realize that. Or take, as yet another example of this from the epistles, what Paul is found praying that the Ephesian Christians will enjoy.

Here we are in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 16, and Paul is praying for them, and praying in words that I don't think would ordinarily enter into our prayers, simply because they don't touch any realities that have become part of our own experience.

But Paul uses these words because he's talking out of his experience. And he needs all these words to express that quality of experience which he now wants the Ephesians also to share. So he prays that out of God's glorious riches, verse 16, he may strengthen you, you believers, with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that so you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What quality of experience lies behind words like that? And I did refer to Jonathan Edwards, picking up from 1 John, the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God in a community, where the Word of God comes to be honoured as never before, and the Son of God loved as never before, and the truths of the Gospel taken seriously as never before, and eternal issues weighed as never before, and love of one Christian to another overflowed as never before, then you know that the Spirit of God has been at work, and that was revival.

This was Edwards' thesis, and he got all his points, as a matter of fact, out of the first six verses of 1 John, chapter 4, and as you know, the whole of 1 John is concerned to pinpoint real, authentic, divine spiritual experience, and distinguish it from counterfeits of whatever kind.

Well, these things give substance, I believe, to my claim that this characteristic work of God in revival is reflected in the epistles. And passages like this give us a theological basis for judging and discerning the essential characteristics of revival in the revival narrative of Acts, chapters 2 through 11.

But it must always be that way, by the way, brethren, I hope you're clear on that. You judge Bible narratives by Bible doctrine. You interpret Bible narratives by Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine tells you what's good and bad, right and wrong, of God and not of God in those narratives.

You need Bible doctrine in order to assess them. And that's even true of the revival narrative of Acts 2 through 11. And then, I said, and this is the point from which we proceed this morning, this characteristic work of God in revival, I said, is patterned out for us in Zechariah, chapters 1 through 8.

Repentance and the Return to God

Zechariah, in the books, is described as a prophet of restoration. I won't argue with the word, I will simply say that if you like to call God's work of revival restoration, that's okay by me. But it's really a total spiritual change wrought by the power of God that Zechariah is talking about from beginning to end.

And that's what I mean by revival. And so, revival shall be my word as I move through these visions with you and try to build up for you the pattern which God is showing us here in this material. We looked yesterday, remember, at verses 1 through 6 of Zechariah chapter 1, which is the introductory prophecy moving us into the whole section.

We saw that in those verses, God, God the Creator, God the Redeemer, the God of revival, God reveals three things, really. His anger. There's much said about his anger with the ancestors of those to whom Zechariah is speaking now.

God had exhibited his anger by past judgments on those folk. Earlier prophets had summoned them to return to him, just as Zechariah is now sent to summon the folk of his day to return to God. And those Israelites of past days hadn't taken their God seriously.

They hadn't listened to the word of rebuke. They hadn't changed their ways. So they come under judgments. Judgments. And as I said, we have to ask ourselves whether we today are taking seriously the word of God, the Lord, against sin.

Against sin and unfaithfulness among his own people. Those things bring judgment. God give us ears to hear, and God change our churches before it's too late. Then alongside the anger of God revealed in this passage, we saw God disclosing his appeal.

His appeal to the Jews of the year of grace, 520 BC. Appeal to them to return to him. As their forefathers didn't. But you return to me, says the Lord, and I will return to you. And we ended yesterday asking ourselves whether we've yet learned to take that word seriously.

We weren't able to say as much as I wish we could have said about what's involved in backtracking. Because that's what returning to God in repentance really is. It's backtracking in order to move away from things that are displeasing God.

And move back into ways that rejoice his heart. If we had time, I would give you an analysis in terms of returning first to love of our neighbour. The kind of honesty that reflects real concern for the other person's well-being.

In our own family, with our own spouses, with our own children, with our own friends, with our own fellow Christians in the church. Love, you know, whether to neighbour or to God, is a matter of seeking to make the other person great.

And love of neighbour is a concern to make our neighbour spiritually great. Because that's the only greatness that finally counts. And it would begin with activity like that which you have called for in Zechariah 7, verses 8 -10.

This is what the Lord Almighty says of minister true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Don't oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor in your hearts. Don't think evil of each other.

And it's said again in chapter 8, verses 16 and 17. Speak the truth. These are the things you are to do. Speak the truth to each other. Render true and sound judgment in your courts. Don't plot evil against your neighbour.

Don't love to swear falsely. I hate all this, declares the Lord. That's where love to neighbour begins. And with that, there must be a return to love of God. Love of God which gets us beyond the rebuke issued in Zechariah chapter 7, to the folk who came and asked him, asked the prophet, whether they were to go on fasting in the way that they'd been doing a long time because of the captivity.

The beginning of the prophet's answer in the word of the Lord to their question is to say, look at verse 4, verse 5, ask all the people of the land and the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, was it really for me that you fasted?

First thing that Zechariah does is to nail the formality of their religion. They went through the motions, but their heart was far from their God. Again, we need to ask ourselves very seriously and quietly before the Lord, is my heart in the religious motions that I go through?

Is there love to God my saviour in the outward forms of godliness that I follow? It's already been said in this conference that if the doctrine of God's sovereign grace has taken root in your heart, you have more to love God for, you have more knowledge that should induce love to him within you, than any other sort of Christian in this world.

The knowledge of God's grace does that, if you allow it to produce its proper fruit. But brothers and sisters, there are such things as carnal Calvinists, just as there are such things as carnal Arminians.

And we can go, it's so terribly easy in fact to do it, familiarity breeds content. We can go through all the motions of Calvinistic godliness, and our hearts still be far from the God of sovereign grace.

Do you love me, says the Lord, and he presses that question on us as part of his summons to return to heaven. Do you love your neighbour? Do you love me? Love is the key word. I have this against you, said God, said the Lord, Lord Jesus rather, from his throne to the church at, where was it?

Sardis, wasn't it? Revelation chapter 2 verses 4 and 5. I have this against you, you've left your first love. Repent and do what you did at first. Go back to the beginning and learn all over again to love me, because of who I am and what I've done for you.

Love is the heart of Christianity, love and nothing less. Well, this is God's appeal. I wish I could say more about it, I mustn't. We saw it yesterday, his anger expressed in past judgments, his appeal for a present return to him in love, and his agenda, hinted at in the words of promise, the word of expectation for the people, return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord.

A promise of his future return in grace and power. From which the question comes to us, do we take the hope of revival seriously? Dr. Lloyd-Jones instructs us in the need for revival which we have, I think we can all agree with that.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones himself hoped for revival until he died. He is gone, just as the prophets are gone, but we should still be hoping for revival. Remember we said it, revival is a sovereign work of God, he fixes the timetable.

The schedule is his, not ours to set. But there's still hope. Return to me, he says, and then you may expect that in my good time, in my own way, I will return to you. I shall say more about that tomorrow, so I don't develop the thought now.

Interpreting Zechariah’s Visions of Renewal

What we're going to do now is to look through the series of visions which God gave to the prophets, in which the elements of revival, the ingredients we might say, are set before us in sequence in a very wonderful analytical theology of this restoring work of God, which God promises, this restoring work to which he refers as his return to his covenant people.

They're bewildering chapters, they raise all kinds of questions, I can't touch on all those questions. They have in them many bits of symbolism which I shan't be able to touch on either. They raise also for us the problem of how we apply prophecies given in an Old Testament situation, and given therefore in Old Testament terms to our own New Testament situation and the realities of church life today.

Let me just say quickly what I think the answer to that latter question is. Here are the principles of interpretation which guide me in my handling of these prophecies. You ask where do I get them from?

Short answer is I get them from the way in which the New Testament theologians handle Old Testament prophecies first to last. I'm walking on eggs here. I may well be talking to folk who disagree with me about some of the specific applications of this to the book of Zechariah.

There are different schemes for interpreting biblical prophecy as we know, and they can't all of them be right, and I embrace only one of them and reject the others. So I have to walk on eggs. But if we can agree to leave those questions aside and just concentrate on getting New Testament theology, a New Testament theology of renewal from this sequence of visions which exhibits the pattern of renewal, well, we shall do well.

Here now are the principles which seem to me the proper controls for our interpretation. One, God is the same. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. His character hasn't changed.

He still loves what the Old Testament tells us He loves. He still hates what the Old Testament says that He hates. He is triune. He always was. In these prophecies we're going to meet that figure who pops up again and again in the Old Testament, the angel of Yahweh, the angel of the Lord.

Rightly, do Christian expositors understand the angel of the Lord as a theophany, a pre-incarnate manifestation of the second person of the Godhead. And this becomes plain when we see in what connections the angel of the Lord appears.

You will very soon see there that he appears in connection with what we call mediation, that is to say the work of bringing God's mercy as mercy to sinners who don't deserve mercy. Something has to happen if there's to be mercy from God to sinners whose lives evoke His wrath rather than anything else.

And what happens is called mediation. And the mediator fulfills that ministry which means that there's mercy from God to us. Well, the angel of the Lord is found in mediatorial contexts as we shall see.

It's there in chapter 1, it's there in chapter 3 as well. What I have to say, by the way, about the Holy Spirit in Zechariah is being reserved for tomorrow. There are some things to say about the Spirit also.

I've said, however, what I'm going to say by way of introduction about Christ in Zechariah. God, then, is the same. He's the triune God as He was in Old Testament times even though that truth wasn't yet revealed.

He is most certainly the sovereign God and we shall see this sequence of visions highlighting His sovereignty. And He is, let me make this point before we go any further, the jealous God of chapter 1, verse 14.

This is what the Lord Almighty says, I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. He's the jealous God of chapter 8, verse 2. This is what the Lord Almighty says, I am very jealous for Zion. I am burning with jealousy for her.

He is the same God who in Exodus chapter 34 and verse 14 announced Himself as the God whose name is jealous. What does that mean? When we speak the word jealousy, it usually signifies to our minds something rather unpleasant.

But there's a good jealousy as well as a bad jealousy. A lover who has taken his or her spouse into covenant, in other words, a lover married in a right and proper way, is thereafter very jealous for the love of his or her partner.

Married folk bear witness to that. Of course it's so. And if it wasn't so, there'd be doubts as to whether you really love your spouse. That's the pattern. The God of all grace has taken us into covenant with Him to be His bride.

He is now very jealous for the exclusive affection of His own people. And that is bound up with something further. He is very jealous also for His own honour and praise and glory. But the two things are bound together.

God enjoying the love of His people as He blesses them. Is God manifesting His glory? God receiving praise and adoration from His people as He blesses them? Is God being praised as He desires to be? God's glory?

God's praise for His revealed praiseworthiness? Is His end, His goal, the thing that He's always concerned about? We know that. We are reformed Christians and reformed Christians understand this very well.

Well, that goal of God, His glory, is something which He has bound up with the glory of His own people. He blessing them, they praising Him. And it's all part of a single end and a single goal. Don't set the two thoughts at odds with each other.

They're not at odds with each other. God in a wonderful way has blended them together. So He's jealous for His own praise. He's jealous for the affection of His people. He rejoices when His people love and praise Him.

He rejoices when His name is glorified among men. God is jealous for these things. And so His jealousy points both to His purpose to bless His people as they love and serve Him, as well as pointing to His zeal for His own honour and praise from His people whom He blesses.

Hold the two things together and then you'll understand. This is the God of Zechariah 1 -8, the God who is jealous. Jealous, He says, verse 14 of chapter 1 again. Jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. Jealous to recapture the affection of His own people.

Jealous because He is zealous to exalt His people again. Jealous because He looks for the day when His people will praise Him as is His due for the grace that He shows them. All of that is bound up in the phrase, I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.

That then is the God of Zechariah and that's our God. Principle number one in interpretation is that God is the same. Principle number two, godliness and ungodliness are the same. Sin displeases God now as it displeased Him then.

And repentance and faith and hope and love and joy in communion with God, those things are the same whether it's Old Testament or New. Those things don't change. The pattern of revival doesn't change either and that's what I trust we're going to see.

God's work in quickening His people when they need to be quickened remains the same whether it's Old Testament or New Testament. Here I invoke a principle which Reformed people have sometimes called the continuous fulfillment of prophecy as distinct from the specific fulfillment.

I'm maintaining that here you've got a pattern which is fulfilled over and over again in God's blessing of His church and as a pattern isn't linked to any one particular set of circumstances even though it was given in one particular set of circumstances in 520 BC.

Every time God revives His work among His people this pattern is fulfilled again. The fulfillment is continuous. But now there are typical things in Zechariah also and we better note what they are before we go any further.

Jerusalem, the city of Palestine and its temple which the people were struggling to rebuild in Zechariah's day these are typical realities. Jerusalem and its temple were the place of God's presence. His manifested, His experienced presence, His presence enjoyed and delighted in under Old Testament circumstances.

From that standpoint Jerusalem and the temple correspond to the church viewed as a fellowship, a gathering of people in whose midst the Lord shows Himself through the preaching and ministry of His word.

That's the New Testament equivalent there. Then the material prosperity which God promised to earthly Jerusalem in these visions, that then was the sign of His favour according to the Old Testament order of things.

But that was typical of the spiritual blessings that God bestows now on His people and the heavenly inheritance that's reserved in glory for all of us who are His. There again, therefore, you have a typical equivalent.

And then finally Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the prince, the secular king they appear in these visions as joint mediators of God's blessing and joint leaders of God's people. They're there as a pair, for instance, in chapter 4 verse 14.

They are pictured by the two olive branches supplying oil to the lampstand which is the church. Again, we'll be thinking more of this tomorrow. But just look at what is said in verse 14. These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.

That's Joshua and Zerubbabel. They, however, in their duality, are typical of one person a mysterious person spoken of in chapter 3 verse 8 and again chapter 6 verses 12 and 13 a man whose name is Lebrunch that's picking up Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophecies of Lebrunch from the house of David there's one coming whose name is Lebrunch who will unite in himself the ministry of both high priest and king.

Well, we know who he is and we need not spend time scratching our heads over the question. The angel of the Lord is indeed a pre-incarnate manifestation of him and is there in the prophecy also to point forward to him.

It's the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, of course who is being referred to in these predictions of Lebrunch of whom both Joshua and Zerubbabel in their different ways are prefigurings and foreshadowings.

There again you've got typology in the prophecy of Zechariah. I mention it simply so that we'll be clear of it. And we remember the historical situation, I trust, into which Zechariah is speaking the people for two months ever since Haggai came and spoke to them have been struggling to get back to the work of erecting the temple and now comes this word through Zechariah calling for a complete spiritual renewal a return to God from the heart which their working for God hadn't yet brought about because, as we said yesterday, doing things for God is one matter it doesn't imply that you've yet returned to the Lord from the heart to love him.

And it's into that situation, as I said, that Zechariah speaks and that God sends these eight visions. They're given to the prophet in one night. There's an angel who interprets them to him. Between them they spell out God's agenda of revival.

We can, of course, only zoom through them quickly. That's all that time allows and that's all that I'm going to attempt to do. But take them as a sequence and I think you'll be amazed, as I was years and years ago when I suddenly realized that this was revival, no less, is the thing that Zechariah is delivering God's message about.

Vision One: Revival Flows from God’s Sovereign Mercy

Vision number one, chapter one, verses seven through seventeen. A vision of divine intercession. Three parts. Verses eight through eleven. Information from angelic observers. There's a man, verse eight, identified shortly as the angel of the Lord, verse eleven, riding a red horse and on that horse standing, that is to say the horse is stationary, among the myrtle trees in a ravine.

The myrtle trees probably signify Israel. There are messengers, other horses, pictured as other horses, end of verse nine, whom the Lord, look at verse ten, has sent to go throughout the earth. They report, verse eleven, to the angel of the Lord, who is standing among the myrtle trees, and this is what they report.

We've gone throughout the earth and found the whole world in rest and at peace. Everything's quiet and Jerusalem is still in ruins and the temple not built. Now comes the second thing, verse twelve, intercession by the angel of the Lord.

The mediator does intercede for his people, as we know from Hebrews seven, verse twenty-five, and Romans eight, verse thirty-four, and what a precious truth that is. The Son of God, at the Father's right hand, in the power of His atoning work and His mighty resurrection, makes intercession for God's own people.

Look at verse twelve, the angel of the Lord said, Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah with which you've been angry these seventy years? And here is the answer to the sovereign intercession of the angel.

Verse thirteen, the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with Zechariah. And verses fourteen through seventeen now tell us what the message was. Information from angelic observers, intercession by the angel of the Lord, and now the initiative of the sovereign God.

The angel who was speaking to me said, proclaim this word, this is what the Lord Almighty, the sovereign Lord says. I'm very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, very angry with the nations that feel secure and indeed are secure in this quiet world.

I was only a little angry. I used them as my executioners of judgment against my people. They added to the calamity. They let out their malice against my people. Now it's their turn for judgment and it's Israel's turn for renewed blessing.

So this is what the Lord says, verse sixteen, I will return to Jerusalem with mercy. And there my house will be rebuilt and the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem to measure its new dimensions as a rebuilt and extended city.

Verse seventeen, my towns will again overflow with prosperity. The Lord will again comfort Zion with that joy from himself that's unquenchable and unconquerable. The Lord will again choose Jerusalem as the place where he shows his glory in salvation and blessing.

I am jealous. I was angry. I will return. Those three phrases express it all. And what do we learn from this? What we learn from this first vision is that revival flows from God's sovereign, merciful decision.

Revival comes when it comes because God is jealous for his own people and for his own glory. As we said, we can't induce it. We can't twist God's arm. But there's hope of revival always because God is jealous, is concerned for his glory, and does love his people.

Thank God he does. Where would we be otherwise? But it's God's sovereign decision, you see, which explains why God sent this message and gave this help, actually, to Zerubbabel and company in the year 520 B .C. and not in the year 536 B .C. when they first arrived.

It's this principle that explains why God sent his blessing on the day of Pentecost, neither before nor after. I mean, the day when he poured out his Spirit was the day of Pentecost and wasn't another day.

It's his sovereign decision. And we must simply accept his sovereign decision about the timing of spiritual revival. That's the first thing which the first vision teaches. Revival is a matter of divine sovereignty.

Vision Two: God Overthrows Hostile Spiritual Forces

Right. Now look at the second vision. This is verses 18 through 21 of Zechariah chapter 1. It's a vision of God overthrowing secular powers. Just look at this. There before me, verse 18, were four horns.

I asked the angel who was speaking to me, what are these? And he told me, these are the horns. You know, in the Old Testament, a horn is a symbol of a secular, military, human, this-worldly power. These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

Then, verse 20, the Lord showed me four craftsmen. Smeth was the older translation. The Hebrew word means folk who work in wood or stone or metal. Demolition agents is the best way, I think, to render the term here.

Four demolition agents. I asked, what are these coming to do? And the answer is there in the latter part of verse 20, verse 21. The craftsmen have come to terrify the four horns and throw them down. There the horns of the nations have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people, and the smeths have come to terrify and throw them down.

What do we learn from that? We learn, second principle, that revival means the overcoming of hostile spiritual forces. Forces against which the people of God have thus far been impotent. Forces which have run all over them.