टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Zechariah 1 — The Man Among the Myrtle Trees
In the second year of Darius, the word comes to Zechariah: the LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers — turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words took hold of them. Then the night visions begin: a man riding upon a red horse among the myrtle trees in the bottom, with riders sent to walk to and fro through the earth — all the earth sitteth still and is at rest. The angel of the LORD intercedes: O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem? The answer comes with good and comfortable words: I am jealous for Jerusalem with a great jealousy; my house shall be built in it; my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad. A second vision: four horns that scattered Judah — and four carpenters come to fray them.
“Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.”
— Zechariah 1:3
- v.1-6 Turn unto me — learn from the fathers
- v.7-17 The rider among the myrtles; comfort for Zion
- v.18-21 Four horns and four carpenters
Two rhetorical questions level every generation: the fathers who refused the word are gone; the prophets who carried it are gone. Hearers and preachers both pass — only the word remains.
Verse 6 completes the lesson: but my words... did they not take hold of your fathers? The threatened judgments caught up with those who outran the sermons. Scripture has a long arm.
The first night vision. Myrtles in the bottom — a lowly, fragrant shrub in a shadowed ravine: Israel in her humiliation. And in the midst of the myrtles stands the rider — the angel of the LORD (v. 11), the Lord among His lowly people.
He does not survey the ravine from the heights; He stands among the myrtles. The presence of Christ in the low place of His people is the engine of every promise that follows.
The angel of the LORD — distinct from the LORD of hosts yet divine throughout the book — intercedes for Jerusalem. The pre-incarnate Christ pleading how long? for His people is the Old Testament's clearest portrait of our Advocate.
The seventy years of indignation were complete; intercession appeals to promise with a calendar in hand, as Daniel prayed from Jeremiah's seventy years (Daniel 9:2).
God's answer to how long? begins with His heart: jealous... with a great jealousy. Zion's low estate had never signaled divine indifference; His love had been burning the whole seventy years.
Verse 15 adds the counterpart: He is very sore displeased with the heathen at ease — they helped forward the affliction beyond His commission. God measures exactly how His instruments exceed their instructions.
Four horns — the totality of powers that scattered Judah; four carpenters — the exactly sufficient craftsmen sent to fray and cast them out. For every horn God has a workman; the count always matches.
Carpenters, not warriors: God's answers to brute power are often builders. The empire-breaking work of God in history is done with tools as well as swords.
Begin where the book begins: turn ye unto me. Not turn over a new leaf, turn to a Person — and His turning meets yours. Then take the myrtle vision into your low season: the ravine is not abandonment; the Rider stands among the shrubs, and an Intercessor is asking how long? on your behalf. For every horn raised against you, carpenters are already commissioned.
The man among the myrtles and the interceding angel of the LORD are early sketches of Christ — God with His people in their low estate, pleading their cause and receiving good words and comfortable words for them. The jealousy of God for Zion will carry the whole book toward the pierced King of chapter 12 and the reigning King of chapter 14.
Three times in one verse: the LORD of hosts — Zechariah's signature title, the God of armies pledging Himself to a feeble remnant. The invitation is mutual motion: turn, and I will turn.
The promise does not make God's grace a wage — His turning awaits only the about-face of repentance. The father saw the prodigal a great way off because the prodigal had turned toward home.