Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090419.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Zechariah: Paving The Path Toward A Blessed Future
Part II: Encouraging God's People About The Coming Messianic Kingdom, Zechariah 1:6-6:15
B. God's Consoling Total Sovereignty Over Governments That Oppress His People
(Zechariah 1:18-21)
  1. Introduction
    1. Current events tempt many of God's people to feel afraid or hopeless over evil oppressions by secular ruling authorities, be it at the local, state, federal or international levels.
    2. This temptation is not new, for Israel suffered oppression by Gentile nations even after the Babylonian Captivity, for Gentile rulers still dominated and intimidated her against rebuilding the temple.
    3. In view of this oppression, God gave a consoling vision to Zechariah to give to the people of Israel, a vision of Four Horns and Four Workmen in Zechariah 1:18-21, a passage that instructs and encourages us:
  2. God's Consoling Total Sovereignty Over Governments That Oppress His People, Zechariah 1:18-21.
    1. The second of eight visions God gave the prophet, Zechariah in one night (Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, p. 1549) worked to reveal the consoling total sovereignty God had and would exercise over the Gentile governments that oppressed Israel so that God might set up the Messianic Kingdom, Ibid.
    2. That vision reveals God is so sovereign over even oppressive secular governments that He uses their own powers to achieve His goals in crushing one another for the good of His people:
      1. In the second encouraging vision, Zechariah initially saw four horns, representing the four oppressive powers that had scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, Zechariah 1:18-19. The piel stem of the verb "to winnow, sift" implies an intensive, strong "unmerciful sifting" that suggests "the cruel and relentless rage of the nations and their drastic dispersing of them," cf. Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah, 1974, p. 37.
      2. In view of the prophecies of the other night visions in this series (Ibid.), these powers represent the oppressive Gentile nations of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome that Daniel 2:36-45 predicted would subject Israel between the fall of Jerusalem and Israel's Messianic Kingdom.
      3. To deal with these oppressive Gentile nations ("horns"), the Lord showed Zechariah four "carpenters" (KJV), better here as "craftsmen" (NIV, ESV), Zech. 1:20. The Hebrew noun, harash , is in the piel substantival form that denotes a "trade or professional worker, 'an artisan or artificer of iron, bronze or wood' (Exod. 35:35; Deut. 27:15)," Ibid., p. 39. The craftsmen were skilled in handling the horns!
      4. Well, these "craftsmen" arrived in the vision to "fray" (KJV) or "terrify" (NIV, ESV) and cast down the horns that had oppressed Israel to where God's people could not "lift up the head" in hope, Zech. 1:21.
      5. Viewing the relevant Daniel 2:36-45 prophecy, since each "horn" in Zechariah 1:18-21 is described in Daniel 2 as a succeeding Gentile empire, and each such empire is in turn destroyed by a succeeding Gentile empire (Medo-Persia destroys Babylon, Greece destroys Medo-Persia and Rome destroys Greece) with the final "horn" of Rome being destroyed by Israel's Messiah (Daniel 2:44-45), three of the four horns each become a skilled craftsman who destroys his respective preceding "horn," and the Messiah is the final Craftsman who destroys the antichrist who rules the Revived Roman Empire in the coming Great Tribulation Period, Ibid., p. 40; Daniel 2:44-45; 7:8-11!
      6. In other words, God wanted oppressed Israel to realize HE is SO SOVEREIGN over her Gentile oppressors, He OVERSAW the RISE to POWER of EACH OPPRESSIVE EMPIRE so it might DEVELOP UNIQUE STRENGTHS He could USE to DESTROY its RESPECTIVE FORMER oppressive EMPIRE until He DESTROYS the FINAL oppressive EMPIRE at Christ's return!
Lesson: God wants His people to know that the suffocating oppression of secular government foes is so FULLY UNDER HIS CONTROL, EVEN the DEVELOPMENT of such foes is under His RULE so that He USES EACH NATION to achieve HIS WILL in HISTORY toward BLESSING His people!

Application: (1) May we cease dreading the POWERS of oppressive secular governments, but realize each government is UNDER God's power to be USED of Him in His PERMISSIVE will for His glory.

(2) May we then FOCUS on GOD our Deliverer in JOYFUL HOPE as OPPOSED to getting caught up in VAIN secular efforts to try to offset government oppressions that GOD wants to USE for HIS glory!