#11-ZECHARIAH’S 7TH VISION: THE BRONZE MOUNTAINS & THE FOUR CHARIOTS – PART 11

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT THE SAME AS THE RECORDING. 

YHVH will now tell the 520 BC Jews what lies ahead of them in the next 20 years. This prophecy is a very near prophecy meant only for them in 520 BC. This prophecy was fulfilled. Similar elements arise in the Tribulation but there is no other specific prophecy like this one in scripture.

Zechariah 6:1  Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.

The various Bible translations use the terms “copper”, “brass”, “bronze” and even “brazen”. The Hebrew word is Strong’s H5178, ‘nechôsheth’ which means “copper”. This word is only rendered “copper” one time in Ezra 8:27. This metal is associated with bloodshed for sins.

These mountains copper or brass or bronze. The Near East at that time was still in the silver metal of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue; silver being the metal of redemption. The Persians had acted as redeemers for the Jews who left Babylon in 536 BC.

One would think that because there are 2 mountains in this vision that these must mean a pair of mountains. That is how almost all of the commentaries render these 2 mountains. 

There are scholarly debates about these mountains. Are they Mount Moriah (Temple Mount) and the Mount of Olives? No. Why? Because mountains symbolize governments in scripture. Neither of these are governments in their own right. Their symbolic roles are of YHVH’s government (Mount Moriah) and His redemption (Mount of Olives).

What about Ebal and Gerizim? No. These are about YHVH’s blessings and curses on His people, curses which do contain war for disobedience but YHVH has now reestablished His covenant with the 520 BC Jews. Ebal and Gerizim cannot be warnings of impending judgement against the Jews for the next 500 years because they have repented and He has cleansed their defilement with the Blood of the Lamb for the purpose of the Messiah to come in 500 years. There is no judgement to be had against the Jews at this point.

Are these a prophecy of the Mount of Olives split in two when Yeshua sets His feet on that mountain? Might fit but there is something larger looming closer to that time in the Near East, within the next 20 years. I will tell you what that is in a minute.

Is this vision a symbol of a transition from God’s Heavenly Kingdom to His rule and reign on the earth? A switch from Satan’s Kingdom to God’s Kingdom? No. That is too general. YHVH’s visions to the 520 BC Jews have all been more specific than that even though such a transition will happen in the end of days. This vision is not about the end of days. It is about the times in which the Jews will be building the temple.

What about that these mountains simply are there to remind us of YHVH’s decrees? Again, too general. When YHVH wants people to obey Him He says so in plain language without the use of symbols.

Do these mountains represent the 2 bronze pillars standing in the first temple? What about that they might relate to Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem)? Or are they just general warnings of judgement (because bronze or brass means judgement symbolically) against the nations?

Judgement against the nations? Possible. And perhaps is the closest interpretation. Indeed, Persia is about to be judged for worshiping other gods.

The best interpretations are that the 2 mountains are Ebal and Gerizim or Samaria and Jerusalem. The problem, though, with the latter view is that this is a prophecy of impending war which is the meaning behind those horse-filled chariots. Samaria and Jerusalem, Oholah and Oholibah, have already been carried away to Shinar.

There is no consensus on this and there are no scriptural validations for most of the opinions in the commentaries. And there is another fact to consider in that YHVH has spent all of His prophecies to Haggai and Zechariah telling the 520 BC Jews that war will not affect them. We cannot now have war that affects the Jews. These mountains are something else.

What about the horse-filled chariots coming from between the 2 bronze mountains are the next empire that was yet to conquer the Near East – Greece? That these are the thighs of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue seen from a different angle?

Let’s go to Daniel chapter 2 where Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Daniel 2:31  “You, O king, saw, and behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its appearance was terrifying.
Daniel 2:32  As for this image, its head was of fine gold [Babylon], its breast and its arms of silver [Persia], its belly and its thighs of brass [Greece],

Did you see that? The belly and the thighs of brass? In this vision, these 2 thighs are seen in a cutaway view as if the statue is laid on its back and its iron legs are missing (because this empire has no arrived yet). The ground view, looking toward the thighs, would look like 2 mountains.

I removed the half circle under the ground level because the vision only shows what Zechariah saw above ground. You are standing at ground level looking at Nebuchadnezzar’s statue as it lays on its back and the iron legs are not yet there because it is not time for that empire to arrive yet. The next empire to come was Greece.

Greece will be prophesied about in Zechariah chapter 9 verse 13. We are not there yet and the Persia-Greece wars won’t begin for another 21 years in 499 BC but this cutaway was there to warn the 520 BC Jews not to be alarmed at the horse-filled chariots that would come soon. The Persian-Greek conflicts would continue through the times of Ezra and Nehemia even though there would be a peace treaty for a time. YHVH was giving the 520 BC Jews ample warning and time to get His Holy Place and Holy of Holies reconstructed before the wars began. YHVH was telling them this was coming and that He was in full control and they should keep building because none of those battles between Persia and Greece would come to Israel’s or Jerusalem’s doorstep. His protection was sure, as it always is.

That is why this vision was for them, not us, even though the color of horses are similar. People try to equate this vision with Revelation 6 but that doesn’t work. Only 3 of the color elements are the same and they are presented in different order, and the Revelation 6 horses are single horses with single riders, not chariots full of horses with no riders.

CHARIOTS & HORSES

Zechariah 6:2  In the first chariot were red horses; in the second chariot black horses;
Zechariah 6:3  in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot spotted and red ones, all of them powerful.

The various English translations render the horses in the 4th chariot as “grisled and bay” (spotted and red). But these horses are not about their color but their strength and resoluteness. ‘Barodim’ (H1261), called grisled and spotted strong-ones and ‘amotzim’ (H554) called “red”, but this word does not mean “red”. It means “resolute-ones” and “strong,” “courageous,” or “mighty” as in the phrase “chazak ve-amats” meaning “be strong and courageous”. ‘Amats’, the root word, is Strong’s H553 which means “alert”.

Notice that the chariots are not drawn by horses. The horses are inside the chariots. Today, we would call this the delivery of heavy armaments to the war theater. YHVH was already way ahead of Persia and Greece delivering everything that would be needed to keep the Jews safe during their time of their rebuilding of the temple.

Chariots symbolize 2 things: war and the glory of the kings who rode in them. These chariots are for war.

We now know these were not single horses as they are in Revelation 6. These horses were being delivered. They were not being “sent” or “called out” as is implied in Revelation 6. This is a huge prophetic distinction because it indicates a different reason for their appearance in Revelation 6. Someone other than YHVH sent the Revelation 6 horses out of the gates, so to speak.

Also, each chariot had an unknown number of horses. YHVH was moving them onto the many battlefields ahead of the time when the Persians and Greeks decided it was time to strike each other. Here is the horses’ order of appearance compared to their order of appearance in Revelation 6.

Can you see the prophetic differences? What we can say is that horses of different colors do symbolize specific conditions. What we cannot say is that Zechariah 6’s vision and Revelation 6’s vision have anything to do with each other even though there are similar colored horses.

The first chariot had red (‘adom’, Strong’s H122) horses in it. Red is the color of blood and bloodshed. In the Book of Revelation, the first horse was white with a single rider. The bloodshed still lay ahead while with the Revelation 6:2 horse, victory via the white horse is already had. But in Zechariah’s vision, there would come bloodshed first and that would not even yet be followed by the white horse of victory because the second chariots full of horses were black.

Black is the color of judgement. Black horses symbolize YHVH’s judgement of the Persian empire for its idolatry even though He has used the Persians to help get His temple back in place. The lesson here is that all sins have consequences even when we are doing YHVH’s will in other areas of our life. He will not share His glory with other gods. Period. Just keep that in mind!

Revelation’s black horse’s judgement is economic. The war between the Persians and Greeks wreaked economic havoc all over the Near East, even into Egypt, where the wicked Jews had fled. We can’t get away from YHVH’s judgement. We can only have His protection as long as we stay in His will, and His protection is only for those who do not worship other gods.

Zechariah’s vision has the white horse in third place while the Book of Revelation has the white horse with a rider in first place. I have already addressed that means victory.

The “grisled” horses, the ‘barod’ (Strong’s H1261) is a kind that we have not encountered in Zechariah and they are not the same as the single “green” horse of Revelation 6:8. We have already learned that these brown-sorrel-chestnut horses symbolize a mixture of general negative factors that cause upheavals to governments and people which is what happens during war. ‘Barod’ is not equivalent to the “green” “pale horse” of Revelation 6:8 which is G5515, ‘chloros’, or “greenish”.

The Greek word “chloros” is the root word of our modern term, “chlorine” and “chlorine gas”. Can anyone say “chemical warfare”? There was no chlorine in 520 BC.

We will keep reading to find out more of what these are and where they will go.

Zechariah 6:4  Then I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
Zechariah 6:5  The angel answered me, “These are the four winds of heaven, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

Let me just say that I think the common interpretation of these chariots as “spirits” and “winds” (‘ruach’, Strong’s H7307) does not really explain what they are because of how modern people view these things.  These are powers of YHVH and they arrive from the 4 directions because of his sovereignty over the earth. He controls where the bloodshed is, what the judgement contains, who has the victory and who suffers from the economic and other discomforts of wars.

Remember, He said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’ (Zechariah 4:6). His Spirit is the power! In other words, His Spirit is way greater than anything man can come up with, including today’s modern nuclear and other weapons! And His power is able to “blow” these winds to make the chariots stop in just the right place, too. They stopped over the Near East, not China, for instance. He has total control!

There is, however, a dual meaning in the 4 chariots. These are not only portraying YHVH’s power to control all the nations and all the conditions humans have to live with, but the 4 are also telling us something about the coming Greek empire. They prophesy from Heaven about the breakup of the empire into 4 parts after Alexander’s death.

Daniel 8:8  The male goat magnified himself exceedingly. When he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable horns toward the four winds of heaven.

Since YHVH said these chariots express the 4 spirits/winds of heaven, we now know that He was telling the Jews that the war between Persia and Greece is coming and that it would be a war that ended with the defeat of Persia and the breaking up of King Alexander’s new prize empire into 4 parts.

DIRECTIONS

Only 2 directions of dispersion are mentioned in this vision – north and south. That is because Israel’s enemies were on their northern and southern borders. There were, of course, other empires to the east but only the ocean to the west.

The presentation of these horses is different than the directions to which they rode in verse 6. The chariots they rode in followed the order of red, black, white and brown. But now, they will leave their chariots in this order: black, white, brown and red.

Why is that? Because YHVH was telling the 520 BC Jews the order of events to come, as commanded from Heaven. Judgement would come first – the black horses – followed by victory, the eventual victory of the empire represented by the bronze mountains, even though this would take 165 total years.

Zechariah 6:6  The one with the black horses (H7838 (shachor)) goes out toward the north country; and the white (H3836 (laban)) went out after them; and the dappled/grisled/spotted (H1261 (barod)) went out toward the south country.”

The “dappled” or spotted horses carrying the economic effects of famine and disease went to the south, to Egypt. The historical fact was that Egypt suffered much economic and other damage during the Persian-Greek war which lasted 50 years.

Zechariah 6:7  The red (‘amots’ (H554)) went out, and sought to go that they might walk back and forth through the earth: and he said, “Go around and through the earth!” So they walked back and forth through the earth.

That leaves out the ‘adom’ (H5483 (adom)) horses from verse 2. Where did they go? They did not go anywhere. The vision was had in Jerusalem. They stayed with the other red horses in the Kidron Valley ravine from Zechariah 1:8. The red ‘adom’ horses were patrolling the area around Jerusalem. YHVH “beefing up” His forces around His people.

Zechariah 6:8  Then he [pre-incarnate Yeshua] called to me [Zechariah], and spoke to me [Zechariah’, saying, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have quieted my [pre-incarnate Yeshua’s] spirit in the north country.”

Why did the black horses going to the north quiet pre-incarnate Yeshua’s spirit? Because His plan continued.