Zechariah
Chapter Four
The Four Horns and Four Carpenters
At the time of Zechariah’s prophecy only two of these four horns had
come into power; Babylon and Medo-Persia. Graeco-Macedonia Empire would
succeed the Medo-Persia Empire as Zechariah 9:13 foretells. The Roman
Empire would be the fourth and last as spoken of in Daniel chapters two
and seven. The Roman Empire will be revived as the one-world Antichrist
government of the seven-year Tribulation period.
“18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. 19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 20 And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. 21 Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these {the four carpenters} are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Zechariah 1:18-21).
These “four horns” are described as “the horns which have scattered
Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem” (Zechariah 1:21). God was giving hope to
the faithful remnant of Israel through prophecies like this. Although
there was going be centuries where Israel would remain scattered, the
promise of God is that He would restore and revive the nation of Israel
one day in the distant future. For people who see the consequences of
their faithfulness beyond themselves into their future generation, these
prophecies were a great encouragement.
What we see in these prophecies of Zechariah, given to the faithful
remnant of Israel, gives us great insight into understanding God’s
empathy for the faithful within the nation of Israel. God gives these
prophecies to the faithful remnant while they are in the middle of the
crisis of chastisement for the failures of the unfaithful in the nation
of Israel. God gives these prophecies because the faithful must never
forget that the unfaithful are a major responsibility of their prayer
life and their ministry in preserving the Word of God through teaching.
In other words, even though God was not going to restore and revive the
nation of Israel for thousands of years, there was something every
faithful person in every generation could do. They could be faithful,
and they could try to persuade the unfaithful to become faithful. We
have a very similar message to the Jews professing faith in Christ
during the Church Age in the epistle to the Hebrews.
“8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and
was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one {Abraham}, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city {New Jerusalem}” (Hebrews 11:8-16).
Every generation of faithful believers must be able to see all the
difficulties and impossibilities of life in the light of faith in God’s
eternal promises. They may have no control over the circumstances of
the governments and wickedness of the people with which they must share
this planet, but they can maintain a faith vision that sees past it all
so as to keep their hope in God’s promises. This is the testimony of
the faithful recorded by God in Hebrews chapter eleven. Faithfulness
remains faithful because these people shared an eternal hope that
transcended the temporal difficulties of their lives. This does not
mean that these people did not struggle with occasional bad choices
within the difficulties of their lives, but that God saw their
faithfulness within those struggles and counted them faithful.
The faithful remnant had to maintain a spiritual perspective of the
work they were sent back to Jerusalem to do. The Temple upon which they
were making reparations was merely symbolic, or typical, of an ongoing
and constant need of spiritual revival in their own lives and in the
lives of every generation that would follow them. The Temple upon which
they worked to restore, repair, and rebuild was just a building made
with stones. God wanted them to see that the real temple they were
building to His glory was the recovery of lost souls and the lives of
people who had lost hope in God’s eternal promises. It is easy to get
lost and discouraged when we are blind to the spiritual and preoccupied
with the daily routine of just working at surviving in the middle of the
temporal. It is a difficulty every person faces; especially the
faithful. It becomes easy to forget God and just give up on spiritual
goals. The satanic influences of this world, the curse upon this world,
and the worldly people we seek to win to Christ entice sinners with
promises of momentary pleasures. They do this while mocking the things
the faithful hold precious.
The prophecy of the “four horns” of four coming world powers that would
dominate, control, and scatter Israel for thousands of years was not a
prophecy to discourage, although it might be discouraging. It is not
discouraging because God does not end with just telling them the bad news. God gives them good news with the bad news. God is going to raise up “four carpenters,” one for every “horn.”
The
prophecy of the “four carpenters” is God telling His remnant that they
are just one of many generations of repairers, restorers, and
rebuilders. God is telling His faithful remnant, to which Zechariah
prophesied, that God was going to maintain a faithful remnant under
every one of these world powers. God’s maintenance of the remnant is
God’s working with them to recover and restore souls. The faithful
remnant was not abandoned by God as the circumstances made it appear.
However, abandonment is how the forces of evil want the faithful remnant
to see their circumstances.
God is working through
His Spirit anointed and Spirit-filled redeemed people. God will not
over-ride His gift of the free-will given to humanity. God uses the
faithful remnant to persuade those lost in the darkness of unbelief or
within the numerous corruptions of false doctrines and idolatry. We
cannot blame God for the ever-increasing growth of iniquity in the world
when the professing faithful remnant is increasingly being seduced into
worldliness. This is what Paul addresses in Romans chapter ten in his
second of three chapters addressed to national Israel. Any one and
everyone can be saved according to Romans 10:13. However, the problem is
not with God’s provision and offering of the gift of salvation. The
problem is with the silence of the redeemed regarding the message of
Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Whosoever” could be saved, but the “whosoever”
needed to be told they could be saved and how to be saved (Romans
10:1-17).
“13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall
they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach,
except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good
things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:13-17).
God
uses the faithful redeemed to persuade and convince the lost and the
unfaithful of righteousness and His judgment of unrighteousness. This
goes on in the Church and in the world. This persuasion is the
substance of preaching, teaching, and evangelism. Paul’s epistles to
the Church at Corinth exemplify the careful art of persuasion. The
Church at Corinth was a particularly carnal bunch. They had professed
faith in Christ, but were integrating their previous worldly and
idolatrous practices and lifestyles in with their Christianity. Paul’s emphasis in his persuading arguments to them was that what they were presenting to their world as Christianity was not Christianity at all. Paul admonishes these believers in one of the most remarkable chapters of Scripture in the Bible.
“1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God {our motives; Paul was being accused of men-pleasing and of trying to win the following of people for his own personal gain}; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. 12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (II Corinthians 5:1-15).
The faithful remnant’s maintaining of an eternal perspective in life
will always be one of the greatest difficulties in the Christian life.
The world is no friend to maintaining this perspective of time in the
midst of eternity. The very people to whom the faithful remnant
ministers will be the faithful remnant’s most discouraging foes. The
faithful must always remember that their responsibility is to be
faithfully and lovingly persuasive. Peter addressed this problem in his
second epistle as does Jude in his epistle. Notice that each call
believers to remember.
“1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2 That ye may be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and
of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days {the Church Age} scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the
water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat? {maintain a Biblical and eternal perspective of reality} 13 Nevertheless we {the faithful}, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things {the faith perspective of life}, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen” (II Peter 3:1-18).
Zechariah 1:21 says, “these {the ‘four carpenters’} are come to fray them, to cast out the horns {the dominating world empires} of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.” The word “carpenters” is from the Hebrew word charash
(khaw-rawsh’). The word refers to a skilled carver in wood or skilled
engraver in stone. The intent is that skilled craftsmen enabled of God
shape the lives of individuals thereby rescuing those individuals from
the pending and inevitable judgment of God. The world will not be
changed!
The word “fray” in Zechariah 1:21 is from the Hebrew word charad (khaw-rad’). This word means to shudder with terror or to hasten with fearful anxiety.
As the faithful minister to individuals in the world, they must be
careful not to eliminate the warnings of God’s pending judgment. This
is the foolishness of giving the good news of God’s gift of salvation without warning people with the bad news of God inevitable and eternal judgment upon the lost. This is Jude’s reminder to believers in his epistle.
“15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all {to fully convict of their pending punishment} that are ungodly {irreverent and therefore wicked} among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches {harsh and severe comments that are blasphemous towards God and His redeemed}, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling {overloaded} words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. 17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate {disjoin by creating factions and sects} themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 1:15-25).
That God has entrusted the preservation and propagation of His truth
from generation to generation to His faithful redeemed is a reality that
should overwhelm our senses with both gratitude and responsibility.
Many professing Christians spend their lifetimes trying not to offend
anyone. They do not share their understanding of the Bible because of
fear of offending people. They finally discover at the end of their
lives that they have been unfaithful to their primary purpose in life –
confronting the world with eternal realities of God’s judgment and the
provisions of His grace in Christ Jesus.
Francis Schaeffer made an excellent comment about the moral obligation
of faithful believers confronting error and apostasy in his appendix to
his book What Difference Does Inerrancy Make? He says:
“When
[one] come[s] to the central things of doctrine, including maintaining
the Bible’s emphasis that it is without mistake, and the central things
of life, then something must be considered. Truth carries with it
confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but
confrontation nevertheless. If [one’s] reflex action is always
accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved,
there’s something wrong.”
“22
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity,
peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (II Timothy 2:22-26).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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