Exposition by Max A Forsythe
The
Reformer's Fire
Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Every summer I always used to know when my boss at school ordered our Time magazines for fall classes because my personal copy began to arrive. Once upon a time, that magazine was at least literate in its presentation of liberal values and viewpoints. However, like several other magazines, they have dumped down their articulation level and their morality in favor of open bias and diatribe. I was particularly incensed with one article that openly attacked the Christian world view. In addition there were the faddish assents to political correctness.
When school began I asked the other half of our department what he thought of the new depths to which our magazine had dropped. Like me he wonders what we can offer our students for current events next year. At least for that fall, Time has backed off from its summer low to be a little more palatable for school use! Eventually, I canceled the subscriptions.
The more I read and see what is happening in our world today, the more I feel like I'm living in a strange and savage land. Like David's invective noted in our psalm today, it is easy to work up a real head of steam. One is tempted like very many other Christians to join some hapless quest like that of Don Quixote. Remember that character who rode forth under the tarnished name of Dulcinea? Like Dulcinea the Church in our time is in desperate need of character improvement. And for that reason I have chosen to share with you the cause of revival through these chapters in the Restoration Prophets.
The more we look around the world today, the more likely we as Christians may sense the world closing in. Just like the little band of Jewish exiles who returned home to rebuild Zion's temple in the midst of ever present hostility we may begin to realize the world's hostility to our Lord's providential agenda. More and more we may wonder if the Lord has abandoned us in the midst of a world gone sour?
Well, take heart, the visions given to Zechariah in our passage today may certainly encourage us. We begin with the vision of an angelic scouting party in the service of our King. Notice how the party is hidden from view in a ravine. Perhaps the ravine is deep enough that the Hebrew description of the leader standing on his horse is literally appropriate.
The officer, which we believe to be the pre-incarnate Christ, appears to be receiving reports from various troops of scouts. The several groups on differing colors of horses would not seem strange to an old hoss cavalryman. You see, the common habit in cavalry was to group like colored horses together so that a whole troop would have uniformity. Let us not read into these colors anything more. Perhaps, I have even gone to far to suggest this possibility.
The important thing is not the horses but the One who hears the reports of the far ranging riders. The world, He is told, is at peace and the nations are resting in their triumphs over the weak and godly. Notice the reaction of the Angel of the Lord in verse twelve: "Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?"
Here is a picture of Christ praying for God's people in the same manner that He prays for us before the Father today. "How long will you withhold mercy ...?" These facts should be encouraging to each and every person who feels like they are on the firing lines day in and day out. God in Christ is present even when we can't see Him and He is constantly praying on our behalf to the Father.
And as we see in the second half of the first vision, God the Father has not abandoned us, but is planning great things for all of those who belong to Jesus Christ. He will indeed rebuild the temple of Haggai and Zechariah's time even as He planed to resurrect the greater temple of Jesus Christ centuries later. Remember these visions whenever you feel discouraged. God is with us just as certainly as He was with the Jews of Zechariah's time. Also, Christ prays for us even as He petitioned for blessings in the time of restoration.
The second vision involves two foursomes. This vision follows logically after vision one. In the first vision God in Christ expressed righteous anger against Israel's enemies. In this vision He tells Zechariah how the enemies of Christ and Church will be dealt with in their day.
The horns of triumph and authority here mimic a hunter's common habit of taking the rack from a deer killed for meat by hunters from the beginning of time. A couple years ago, a very large buck was killed by a dump truck near my father's place. When we heard how many points were in the rack, the boys and I went over with a hacksaw. Unfortunately, another "hunter" had beat us to the trophy we desired. The magnificent rack was already gone to grace another's den. Imagine the tales that would be told about how the antlers were acquired!
In the same way, would ancient kings raise up monumental reminders of their militant skill in battle and on the hunt. But, Zechariah reports that God can deal with trophy hunters who deal in whole countries. As we read further into vision two we note well that four craftsmen are called by the Lord to His divine task. And what is the task? Well, the craftsmen here are by implication in the Hebrew, those with hammers called to cleanse Palestine so that the real faith might be built up once again.
Zechariah well knows that whatever the power raised against God's people, God also has His power and representatives to oppose and throw down the worldly horns of triumph. Boice reports in his commentary that Church history confirms the vision given here. Every time in history that some power raises its horn even against the elect, then God provides a man to labor for God's grace and glory.
In the early years of the Christian Church unbelievers within Christ's own Church raised up the heresy of doubting the deity of Jesus. God's craftsman was Athanasius. After a long struggle the enemies of Christ were scattered. A short century later, Augustine was raised up to defend the Church from Pelagianism. In the Reformation there were a good half dozen Reformers. Even so, in His own good time, the Lord will raise up His leaders to deal with the false gods and triumphant trophies of the godless worldly today.
As I read this passage this week I was reminded of a popular song in the late sixties that contained the words "If I had a hammer". How often we would just like to take a hammer and destroy. Yet, we may better understand that like the Israelites of the Restoration, we are called to build up the Church instead of pulling down the world.
And we know that God has given us the hammer in the weapon of His eternal Word. Jeremiah asks us: "'Is not my word like fire,' declares the Lord, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?'" (Jeremiah 23: 29). We do not have to ask "If I had a hammer?" because we already have.
We would do well to encourage master craftsmen who to be content with building up Christ's Kingdom rather than tearing down the temples of the contemporary worldly. May the Lord encourage and enable us in this direction as we seek to serve Him above all else.
Resources Used:
Baldwin, Joyce G. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Bentley, Michael. Welwyn Commentaries: Building for God's Glory.
Boice, James M. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary.
Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. Revival.
Places Preached:
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America)
Box 13926 -- Columbus, OH 43213
Zec01b 10 October 92
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