Sermon for Lord's Day February 18, 2024 (pt 17) Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

Zechariah’s Second Vision: Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

Turn to Zechariah chapter 1, stand with us for the reading of God's Word. Zechariah chapter 1, verses 18 through 21 is our text, a very short text this morning. These are the words of the living God. I lifted my eyes and saw and behold four horns.

And I said to the angel who talked with me, what are these? And he said to me, these are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, what are these coming to do?

He said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.

As far as the reading of God's Holy Word, you may be seated this morning. If you would like to put a header on your notes. I had been tattling these, of course, Haggai's first, second, third, and fourth sermon, and then Zechariah's first sermon two weeks ago.

But I think it's significant. We're going to kind of change our terminology, particularly during these eight visions. This is Zechariah's second vision. Of course, it's the second sermon, but these eight visions came at one time.

So Zechariah's second vision, four horns and four craftsmen. If you want to put a hyphen there, the church, the perseverance of the saints, and the sovereignty of God are the doctrines that we really see in and throughout many of these visions of Zechariah, but particularly what we're going to focus on today.

So the church, the perseverance of the saints, and the sovereignty of God. So remembering that these visions, as we talked about last week, we gave the definitions, I encourage you to look back in your notes.

Remembering that apocalyptic visions, which is what we're seeing here, they are intended to comfort and they are intended to encourage the disheartened minds and the souls of the people. As we look at this vision of four horns and four craftsmen.

The Church, Providence, and the Perseverance of the Saints

Now what we have in view here, as we mentioned in the title, is the doctrine of the church. The doctrine of the church is seen in that God's people, Israel, is the church in the Old Testament. So we have the doctrine of the church in view.

We have, of course, the doctrine of God's sovereignty over all creation in view, as well, we see the perseverance of the saints. From the time that God's people came back from Babylon, they encountered trouble, they encountered tribulation, they encountered trials, they encountered problems on every hand.

And what God did was God sent his word to encourage their hearts and their minds, to equip them to keep on keeping on, to press on in the faith. So what we have a picture of in the Old Testament is God's church, God's people being encouraged by God's sovereignty, by his providential working throughout his creation.

And thus, the result of this is the perseverance of the saints. That the saints are not ultimately snuffed out, so to speak. That we are not put down to the degree, we're going to see this at the very end too, we must understand this, that we belong to God.

God cares for his people. He will not leave us comfortless or leave us without aid, as he has promised us throughout the scriptures themselves. So in this first of eight visions, in his first of eight visions, Zechariah saw the Lord, last week remember, he saw the Lord leading his host, and he left his people hearing gracious and merciful words.

And so here in this second vision, we see this vision of four horns and four craftsmen. So the word used here for horns in the Hebrew language is used, in the Hebrew Bible it's used around 76 times, this word horns.

It's used in many ways, meaning that it's used both literally and figuratively. And the literal uses for this word horn, for example, in other places of scripture are referring to a horn as a flask or a cup of oil or a cup for drinking, literally.

Other places it's used in referring to a trumpet, so the shofar. Another of the uses of the word horn is referenced, particularly in Deuteronomy and Leviticus as reference to the horns of the altar. So this is a literal, literal rendering usage of this word, which the horns of the altar are used to keep the sacrifices placed upon the altar from falling off.

The word horn has also even been used figuratively in references to hills and even to rays of light. Here, however, in this text, in the context of this passage, the word horn is being used figuratively, and it's referencing power or might or dominion.

So very, very important here. So it's important for us to understand when this vision was given to Zechariah, he said, I lifted my eyes and I saw, and behold, four horns. So these are four powers that are being referred to by the Lord.

These are four, the four horns that are being represented are powers that are being referred to by the Lord. The surrounding powers or the surrounding horns, it's a reference to those that came at Jerusalem.

They were likely historically to be understood as the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians and the Medes and the Romans. Nonetheless, the point is this, that here in the text, what we see in this short passage of scripture is that God provides the means to his ends by assuring his people that he is going to send craftsmen to counter the wicked intent of the surrounding nations.

Plain talk, what the world shoots at us, what the devil aims at us, God has the answer. There is nothing that the world, the flesh or the devil can do to God's children that God has not already taken into consideration and that God has not already provided a means for you to be cared for in himself.

Nonetheless, so the point being here is that God provides the means to his ends in assuring his people that he is countering the wicked intent of the nations and it is in these times, this particular section, this particular short vision is intended to remind God's people that the guiding hand of God's good providence and sovereignty is still at work.

We see God at work here and we see God at work in our day and in our time. There are those, there is the argument of cessation versus continuationism. Listen, if you'll just, if these people would just calm down and look at the scriptures, it's obvious that God is still at work in the world.

God is still at work in his church. He has never ceased to care for us as his people, thanks be unto God, for this great truth. There's an old song, actually I think it's in the Razzle Dazzle hymn, an old Psalm 116 I believe.

As I travel on my journey toward the setting of the sun, whether sunshine or in shadows, night or day, Jesus stays so close beside me, helps me through the race I run. There's a hand that's guiding all the way.

And then the chorus says, oh hallelujah. There's a guiding hand or there's a loving hand that is always guiding all life's rugged way, rough and weary way. By his faithful hand, I am safely hiding from the tempter hide every passing day.

And when the storms of doubt are all around me beating, it just makes the sun, the sun all bright to shine. What a joy it is, joy it is in meeting with the guiding hand of love divine. Oh church, we should rest our hearts and our minds on the truth and on the fact that God is still on his throne.

That he shall never be removed from that. Concerning the divine sovereignty of God, Elijah Cole said this, this is the natural adjunct of divine sovereignty, which as we are indispensably bound to believe, so to be well grounded in the faith of it, will be of exceeding great useful to us in every condition, especially, this is a reference to trusting to God's sovereignty, especially under those darker administrations of which we do not see at present the cause or the reason for.

Elijah Cole is speaking and we can look at our text and see, no doubt the people were thoroughly downcast, downtrodden, they were sad in their hearts and in their minds, but God was sending them word as a reminder to them that I am still at work, I am still in control.

Cole went on to say this, especially under those darker administrations of which we do not see at present the cause or the reason for, and he said, when matters of great importance seem to be confused or neglected, when all things in view fall out of light to all, and you cannot know good or evil by all that is before you, trust in the divine sovereignty of God.

And so it is at this point, at this point it will be helpful for us to recall what we have preserved for us, what we have preserved for us, not only in God's word, but in historical record. Let's look at the empires, the Babylonian empire, seemed to be a dominant force in the world at the time, at the time they took Israel captive, they were running things, so to speak, until the Medes and the Persians came on the scene, and then the Medes and the Persians conquered them.

Calvin said this, for as the Chaldeans had raged against the Jews, so the Lord shows that he had enemies ready at hand, as he had already in part made it evident. For how was it that the Persian and Medes had so suddenly taken possession of Babylon, had they not been workmen whom God had employed to strike down this Babylonian horn?

So remember what we're talking about here, what's being spoken of in the text, these horns were these powerful nations who were oppressing God's people. But God said, there may be four horns I'm going to show you, but I'm going to send four craftsmen to handle everything that is being thrown your way.

Calvin went on to say, and whence was it that the Syrians, the Egyptians, and other nations had been made prostrate, or when did this happen, that these other nations bowed down? It was because they were many, they were horns just like the others, but the Lord broke down the ferocity of so many nations by his many workmen, his many craftsmen, for he employed these as though they were hired and ready to do his service.

Church, do not forget this, God was righteous in punishing his people Israel for their sin, and he told them clearly throughout the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, that they would be oppressed by these people, but that after a period of time, he would not forsake them, but deliver them, bring them out of that, and then he would cause those who caused his people, that he would cause those who caused his people to suffer, to suffer and to be done away with in and of themselves.

Daniel’s Vision of the Kingdoms and the Stone Cut Without Hands

So this, this, we have a point of practical application here, this should be no surprise to the people of God, if they had only remembered as well, let's look at Daniel, if you would turn to Daniel chapter 2, if they would have only remembered his words, for Daniel, Daniel was written during the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream at one point in chapter 2 and verse 31, and these are the words of the living God, nobody could answer, nobody could interpret, King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, but God gave Daniel the interpretation of his dream, and this is what the word of God states, Daniel said to the king, you saw king and behold a great image, this image mighty and exceeding brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening, the head of this image was fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay, and as you looked a stone was, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and it broke them into pieces, then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, they were just disintegrated, they went into dust, and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found, but the stone that struck the image, became a great mountain, and it filled the whole earth, now not unlike any of the rest of the Old Testament scripture, it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, compared to the kingdoms of this world, they hold not a candle to the kingdom of our God, and of our Savior, the kingdom of God is a living and an unshakable kingdom, that shall never be moved, Daniel went on, he said this in verse 36 there, this was the dream, now we will tell the king its interpretation, so he told the king his dream, now he's going to give him the interpretation, in verse 37 he said this, O king, the king of kings, notice it's not capitalized, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, understanding this,.

Nebuchadnezzar,.

You have a kingdom, but you have not earned it by your own right, or by your own power, but it's been given you by God himself, everything that anybody has, is because God has given it to them, he went on to say this,.

He said,.

You O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven, making you rule over them, you are the head of gold,.

So he says,.

Look Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of this statue, another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth, and there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks the pieces, and shatters all things, and like iron that crushes, it breaks and crushes all these, and as you saw the feet, and the toes, partly of potter's clay, and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay, and as the toes of the feet, were partly iron, and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly brittle, as you saw the iron, mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron, does not mix with clay, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven, will set up a kingdom, that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom, be left to another people, it shall break all these kingdoms,.

And bring them,.

To an end,.

And it shall stand forever, just as you saw, that a stone was cut from the mountain, by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God, has made known to the king, what shall be after this,.

The dream is certain, and its interpretation, is sure, during their time in Babylon, this interpretation came, this truth, this reality was made known, that certainly, Nebuchadnezzar was the head, as Daniel said, but just as the entire body, would be found to be, disintegrated into dust, and blow away like the tap of the wind, that this kingdom, that was an everlasting kingdom, that was founded, not on the world, or its ideologies, but founded upon the rock himself,.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords,.

And the King of Kings, that this kingdom, would be an everlasting kingdom, that his dominion, cross dominion, cross power, should have no end, so again, this interpretation is sure, and its certain,.

As Daniel said,.

The Enemies of the Church and the Citizenship of Heaven

And so again, back to Zechariah now, verse 19, and these are the horns, notice what this text says, and I said to the angel, who talked with me, what are these, so we have this conversation, as it is in apocalyptic literature, remember, this conversation, between the prophet, and the angel here, he says, what are these, and he said, these are the horns, that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, it is evident here, that the scripture, does truly interpret the scripture, there was no great mystery, to what was being spoken here, the horns, nor to what the horns, being referred to here were, now there are some specific views, in relation to the horns, as well, so seeing the horns,.

Quote unquote, the horns,.

As nations, in the general view, and in the detailed view, would be to give these horns names, so if we looked at them, as we mentioned to you earlier, so there was Assyria, Babylon, Medes and Persians, then there was Rome, of course, but if we looked at these, even in a greater detail, because within these nations, these nations were made up of people, and historically, and providentially, and by inspiration of scripture, we have some specific names of people, that gave God's people, problems, even particularly, in this day, and in this time, of the context that we are reading, so seeing the nations,.

The horns as nations,.

Is, for example, if we read in Ezra 4, in the detailed view of the horns, back in Ezra chapter 4, we read, in the latter part, of that chapter, how Rehum and Shemshi, wrote a letter against Israel, to Artaxerxes, in the latter years, and you'll remember, before we last left, and eventually we'll be going back, to finish everything up, in Ezra, but you'll remember, during that second year, how that there were those folks, the governor, Tachni, the governor of the province beyond the river, there was Shittar Bosni, who tried to get the work to cease, on the temple, they wrote, Darius searched the archives, found out that Cyrus had already decreed this, he's going to hold true to the previous king's word, and they're going to continue on, all by the sovereignty, and the providence of Almighty God.

In the book of Nehemiah, we have the accounting of the enemies of the church, this terminology is significant here, we have this accounting of the enemies of the church being named in Nehemiah. In Nehemiah, we have Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gishom the Arabian.

And it's important that we know, that there had been, church, there had been, and there ever shall be, until Christ comes, and makes all things new, there will always be enemies of the church.

The significant.

Distinction that you and I have to understand and know is this, we do not fight as the world fights. We are not called, like in the Spanish Inquisition, to go out and kill people who do not see things.

Our way.

Can I get an amen? In case you're asleep, know this. The scriptures do not teach us to kill people that are not, that do not think like us, look like us, or act like us. We are called to pray for those who despitefully use us.

To pray for our enemies. And friends, brothers, and sisters, there is.

No worse, or no better.

Place than you can put somebody than in the hands of Almighty.

God.

Going on, in the book concerning enemies of the church, in the book of Philippians, chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3, verse 17 through 21, the word of God states this,. Paul states this, brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us.

For many, many, and he says this, with tears in his eyes, for many of whom I've told you often, and I tell you and tell you even with tears, that there are those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

And he gives a description of these people. Who are these enemies of the church? Who are these enemies of the cross of Christ? Their end is destruction. That is the end of those who fight, kick, tooth and nail against Almighty God.

This.

Is the end of those who refuse and rebel and kick against the pricks as the Lord addressed Saul in his life. You can be religious, but religion will not save you. You can be baptized, baptism will not save you.

You.

Can have your name on the roll, but.

They will not save you.

You must be born.

Again. And that is the work of the Spirit of God. Paul says their end is destruction. And then he goes on to describe them, their God, these enemies of the cross of Christ. You can know them because their God is their belly.

Meaning, they only want what they want. Their desires are in and of and for themselves, and they are not for the honor and the glory of God. Can somebody answer me this question? Why did God make.

You?

That's right. To glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. That is the chief end of man. Paul says their God is their belly, and they glory,.

They rejoice, they exult.

In their shame. And their minds are set on earthly things. But Paul draws a sharp line in the sand. And he says this, but our citizenship is in.

Heaven.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, from heaven, we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to even subject all things to Himself.

We see the sovereignty of God at work in the text. We see the sovereignty of God testified to in the Philippians passage there. Matthew Henry said this concerning God's sovereignty, concerning His church, concerning the perseverance of the saints.

Matthew Henry said this, it is with an eye of sense that we see the power of the enemies of the church. We can know it. We can be aware of it because of our senses, because with our eyes open, with our ears attuned and alert, you have to either be blind or deaf not to know that there are enemies of the church.

Matthew Henry said we sense the power of the enemies of the church with our senses, but he said, look which way we will, no matter which way we look, it's there. The world shows us that, but he said, but it is with the eye of faith.

That we see.

The church safe. Do not fret. The church is not going.

Down.

The church is going up.

God loves.

His church. It is His church. We say my church at times, and we know what we mean, but friends, do not ever forget the core and the heart of the matter. We are God's church. God's people. So these craftsmen, these craftsmen that are next spoken of, verse 20, then the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, what are these coming to do?

And He said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one raised his head, and these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.

These have come to defeat the enemy. These have come to destroy the accuser. Concerning the sovereignty of God, this is what the Scriptures teach us.

The Craftsmen, God’s Wisdom, and the Hope of Salvation

In the book of Isaiah,.

In the book of Isaiah, particularly chapter 40, if you want to turn there, in the book of Isaiah chapter 40 concerning the Word of God, we see in this passage of Scripture, this term craftsmen used in the sense of one who makes detailed idols, one who makes false gods, though these false gods can do nothing, and I want us to consider this today, if God can give men ability to fashion detailed pieces of art, if He gives to men the skill to be carpenters and masons, as we read in other sections of the Scriptures about how the Lord gave skilled craftsmen for the work of the temple building itself, if God gives this ability to men, does it not stand to reason, Church, that the giver of these gifts and these abilities is Himself, far superior to those that He has given these gifts to?

Because where did the gift come from? Let no man say that what he has, he's got it from himself, but it is from the Lord. This is what the Scriptures teach us. So in this particular Isaiah passage, what we see in this passage, what we see in this passage is how God contrasted, how God.

Contrasted with.

How God is contrasted,.

Let me say it like that, how God is.

Contrasted or set side by side up against His creation, and we read here the Word of God concerning who He is and what He is like. For example, in verse chapter 9 of Isaiah chapter 40, this is what the Word of God says.

Go on up to a high mountain,.

O Zion, herald of.

Good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up. Fear not. Say to the cities of Judah,.

Behold your.

God. Behold, the Lord comes with might, and His arm rules for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He will tend His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arms.

He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. And then He asks the question, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hands, and marked the heavens off with a span?

Or who has enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed in the mountains in scales and heels in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows Him His counsel? Whom did He consult, and who made Him understand?

Who taught Him? This is talking about God. Who taught Him the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales.

Why? Because He takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel. In other words, there's not enough wood in the forests and in the cedars of Lebanon to burn. Nor are its beasts enough for burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing, the Scripture says before Him. They are counted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then?

To whom then.

Will you liken God?

Or what likeness.

Will you compare with Him? Verse 19.

An idol.

A craftsman casts it,.

And a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. He who's too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman, that's the same term that's used in Zechariah, to set up an idol that will not move.

Do you not know? Do you not.

Hear? Has it not.

Been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth that.

It is He who sits above the.

Circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spread them like a tent.

To dwell in?

Who brings princes to nothing and who makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness? Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, and when He blows on them, when God blows on them, they wither, and the tempest carries them off.

Like stubble.

To whom then.

Will you compare me? That I should be like Him,.

Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created.

These, who brings.

Out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob,.

And speak, O Israel,.

My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by Him. My God, have you not known, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God. He is the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint, nor grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might, He increases strength, even youth. Young people shall faint and be weary, and young men will be exhausted.

But these,.

They who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength,.

And they shall.

Mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

I think about.

Sporting events. Some of us.

Like football. Roll.

Time.

Thank you, Jesus.

But you know what.

Folks get caught up in? They get caught up in the stats. They get caught up in the info given about the players, and about the team, the records, the trophies, so on and so forth, and folks put great confidence in those things, but those things one.

Day are going to do just like everything.

Else, fade away into nothing. But all the attributes of God, the holiness of God, the creative power of God, the strength of God, the glory of God, the might of God, the majesty of God, these do not fade away.

And church, if you're saved today, this is your God. Therefore, in the midst of this world in which we live, I encourage you to take heart. Take courage just for you. You shall walk and not grow weary.

You shall run and not faint. And we shall mount up with wings as eagles.

There are those.

In the church who speak ill of the sovereignty of God, who are appalled at the idea of God having absolute authority over His creation. There are those who go so far as to say that it makes God to be evil to have creative control over His creatures.

And in doing so, I would say that these.

Churchmen.

That are claiming these things, men within the church that claim these things, that basically they have neutered the Almighty to the point that God is reduced to one who is subject to His creation rather than the creation being made subject unto Him.

But it should.

Not be so.

Spurgeon said this, There is nothing for which the child of God ought more earnestly to contend than the dominion of their.

Master over all of.

Creation. The kingship of God over all the works of His own hands, the throne of God, it is right to sit upon that throne. The church should be earnestly contending for this fact, this truth, this doctrine from the scriptures.

Spurgeon said on the other hand, There is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah God.

Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and to make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonery to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties.

They will allow Him to sustain the earth and to bear up its pillars or they'll allow Him to light the lamp of heaven or to rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean. But when God ascends His throne,.

When God.

Ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And when we proclaim and enthrone God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well without consulting them in the matter, then it is, Spurgeon said, that we are hissed at and execrated.

And then it is then that men turn a deaf ear to us. For God on His throne is not the God.

That they love.

Spurgeon closed and he said this, they love Him anywhere better.

Than they do.

When He sits with His scepter in His hand and is crowned.

Upon His head.

Which is the only way.

That we should look unto our God. Why would we worship a God who is thwarted by my mind?

Why should.

You worship a God who would cease to exercise.

Providential care.

Over all creation just because one of His creatures says.

Nah, I don't think you should do it that way.

What kind of a God would we serve today? I'll tell you what kind of a God. It would be an idol.

And the message to you would be repent.

You idolater. For you worship a false God. A God of your own making. So here, back to the text. Here, the horns who scattered Judah. The horns who scattered Israel have turned in on themselves. We see this by providence in the text of scripture.

They've turned back in on themselves and they've begun to destroy one another. The Medes and the Persians destroyed the Babylonians. The Assyrians were given power and authority to rule in the lands but only within God's stated bounds.