Thru the Bible

Steve: Do you have your seatbelt fastened? Well, our journey on through the Bible is going to be exciting and important. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm so glad that you're here as our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, continues our study of the visions of the Old Testament prophet Zechariah.

As Dr. McGee told us last time, both prophets, Haggai, whose study we just finished, and Zechariah, whose study we're just beginning, have a message that is relevant for us today.

So, if you haven't yet downloaded your free copy of our ebook Briefing the Bible that contains the notes of our study, you can do it now by visiting TTB.org or we'll send you an abridged print copy when you call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now, for those of you in the app, just tap on the menu section and you'll find them right away.

Now, before we begin, here's Dr. McGee with more of our discussion on the spiritual characteristics of the millennium.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, back to the spiritual nature of the kingdom, or the millennium. Peter in the theocratic kingdom says this, the kingdom, although visible with a world dominion, is also necessarily spiritual.

And there are certain great spiritual qualities of the kingdom I'd like to talk about because they're so important.

The first one that we're going to talk about is peace. And then we're going to talk about justice. And then righteousness and holiness. Holiness actually, I think, is the most important identification of the millennium.

And then actually obedience is another important word. Truth is another one. And then the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the millennium.

So that these are things that are spiritual and they characterize the physical reign of Christ here upon this earth. Now, the first is peace. The millennium is going to be identified as a period of peace. It is a time when swords are going to be beaten into plowshares. That is certainly the statement of the Word of God.

And it's going to be a time when Jesus will be reigning upon the earth. Hearts of most men will be changed. Russia will no longer be around. And I hate to say it, but I don't think the United States is going to be around during the millennium. I don't find it as one of the nations that enter the kingdom.

Now, will you note that the scripture has so much to say about this kingdom. It was the great heartbeat of the Old Testament. This kingdom that was coming, and the main characteristic of it was not peace, but actually holiness, but peace was important. And many a man long for peace today. And they're saying peace when there actually is no peace. But in Psalm 29:11, the Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace. Now, how important that seems to be.

And then we come over to Isaiah and we find that Isaiah in the second chapter, verse 4 says, "And he shall judge among the nations. He shall rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." In other words, at that time, why, we can have something a little bit better than détente.

We can have a total elimination of all weapons. Nobody'll be carrying on a war. The nations that were so warlike are not going to be around. But until then, we sure better keep our powder dry, because I think that is the clear teaching of the Word of God in this connection.

Now, there are other scriptures that I want to look at, but I want to take them up next time and we'll take them up and talk about them. They speak of this kingdom that's coming on this earth in which there'll be peace. And from the day that Abel was slain by his brother Cain, from that day down to the present, there has been hatred in the human heart and pride in the human heart and that has produced wars and more wars, and peace will come when these are eliminated.

Steve: Even though there'll be no peace in this world until Jesus returns, as believers, we can have peace in our hearts today when we allow Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. You can learn more about peace through having a personal relationship with God by clicking on How Can I Know God in our app or at TTB.org. Again, the website TTB.org or just call us. 1-800-65-BIBLE is the phone number and we'll put a couple of resources in the mail to you. Let's pray together as we open God's Word.

Steve: Heavenly Father, as we study, may your word bring us closer to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Steve: Let's open to Zechariah 1 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, we have come in Zechariah past the very practical section. And I'd say it's the only practical section and when I say that, I don't mean that what we're coming to is impractical.

I just simply mean that we're now going to take up the visions that this man had. And we come now to the seventh verse and there begins with verse 7, 10 visions. And he had all of these in one night.

Now, I recognize that most expositors say there are eight visions here, and I classify them as 10 visions and you'll see why when we come to the place where we make a division where the expositors for the most part and commentators just simply do not make the division. We're not trying to say they are wrong and we are right. We're just trying to say it's just a little different approach to this.

Now, you may get the impression here that because he had these visions at night that they were dreams, but you will notice that he makes it very clear that is not quite it.

I think probably I should read beginning at verse 7 now and read two verses. He says, "Upon the 4 and 20th day of the 11th month." Now the Hebrew day, as you know, does not begin at January.

And so this would be the 11th month, and it would be February. And this was given February the 24th, 520 BC. And we're going to see the significance of that in just a few moments.

He says, "Upon the 4 and 20th day of the 11th month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 'I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom and behind him were there red horses,' that is sorrel colored horses, 'and white.'"

Now, I want to look at these two verses because they're rather significant and rather important. I said that just because they had these visions at night, it doesn't mean that they were dreams, because they were not.

He says, "I saw by night." He didn't say, "I dreamed by night," but, "I saw in the night," that is, during the night season. And actually, the word behold is sort of like look or behold, as we have it here. And frankly, I think the translator should have put an exclamation point after behold. It would be like this, "Look!"

"There's a man." And the man is riding upon a red horse. Now, that's important for us to know here. It's not a dream that he had. Now, so many people differ with me about whether God speaks through dreams today or by visions.

They like to say to me and I've never tempted to correct any of them because I just let them go on in this connection. They say, "I saw a vision last night." I say, "Well, how did you see it?" Well, they say, "I had a dream." And then I know immediately that it wasn't God giving them a message but it was something they ate for dinner that evening that caused it to come to pass or some experience that they had had that came out in the dream when the mind is, shall I say, unlatched, when it's released, it's unlocked.

And it generally wanders back over something that produces the dream. So that today I think that we cannot say that God speaks in dreams just because he spoke to this man at night. He says, "I saw, I didn't dream. I saw."

And I think we need to be very careful about noting these things because it's important to understand clearly how God revealed himself to this man, this prophet at that time.

Now, there's another thing that's very important. Here's the date. It was in February. Five months before this date here was when the Lord appeared to Haggai, and at that time, the work was begun on rebuilding the temple.

And also two months before this date, this man Haggai, you remember, delivered a very sharp message to the priests because they were impure, and they were expecting God to bless them. And also to the people because of their delay in building the temple, their hesitation in moving forward in that.

Now, this man Haggai really delivered a message to them, but he also told them that there was coming the destruction of Gentile world power before God established His kingdom here upon this earth. And that the one who would rule would be the one that would be the Messiah and He was coming from Zerubbabel.

You remember that God says, "I'll make him a signet on my hand," and that word signet is a mark of rulership. And so the Messiah is not only coming from David, He's coming from Zerubbabel. And both David and Zerubbabel are in both genealogies, the one in Matthew of Joseph, the one of Mary in Luke the third chapter.

Therefore, it was quite interesting that at this time, this having taken place, and the temple was still being built. This man Zechariah now is given 10 visions. And that makes this rather important because it needs to be fitted in at the time that the temple was to be rebuilt.

Now, as we have said, this is not a dream, but a vision that he saw. And I think he was wide awake. And my friend, if you have 10 visions like this man had in one night, I don't think an aspirin tablet would put you to sleep or any of these pills that are advertised on TV today.

I don't think they would help you at all. Wouldn't be any reason for taking it. Now, the first vision here is the riders under the myrtle trees, and that goes from verse 7 through 17.

Now will you notice this, he says to him in a most dramatic way here, he says, "Behold a man!" And this man is riding upon a red horse and he stood among the myrtle trees that were at the bottom. And behind him were other red horses. And the red horses actually are sorrel. They are red horses, sorrel colored, and white horses.

And I think now we ought to stop and examine what the vision is all about. Now, to begin with, what about this man that is here, the red horse rider?

Well, he was actually an angel in human form. "Behold a man." This is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. Somebody says, "How do you know that?" Well, he's called in verse 9, "And the angel who talked with me said unto me, 'I will show thee what these things are.'"

And then down in verse 11, "They answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees." So that this one is the angel of the Lord. Now, the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament.

And so here we see Him standing among the myrtle trees. And let's just stop and look at those myrtle trees for just a few moments. This angel messenger now is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ.

The angel of the Lord or the angel of the presence. In other words, Jehovah Himself, the Messiah. And He's here in His pre-incarnate glory. Now, that shows Him watching over this world.

Now, it is true that Satan is called the prince of this world. And this world system, the carnality of this world today is all under Satan. But you see, God has not given up this earth.

And this is one of the most comforting things here this vision, even at this very moment, standing yonder in the shadows is the Lord Jesus Christ keeping watch over His own. And here it's the nation Israel in particular. This is a tremendous vision by the way.

And what a comfort it is out of all these universes that are about us today and they cannot be numbered for multitude. And they fill space. And when you say space, what no world are you talking about? Doesn't seem to be any end to it.

It seems to be infinite today. Out of all this universe, the Creator, the God of this universe, he's watching there in the shadows, keeping watch over His own. What a comforting thought that is. What a message that is.

And Zechariah will give many messages of comfort and this is certainly one of them. Now, here's a red horse. And what is the significance of the red? Well, may I say that it speaks of blood, and bloodshed.

It speaks of bloodshed in war in Revelation, but this one who is riding here the red horse, it speaks of His bloodshed. He's watching over this earth because He died and shed His blood for this earth that you and I live on. What a picture that we have here.

And there was others there though, there were other horses. And these other horses and horsemen were in the background. And the riders I think are implied although nothing said here that would indicate that at all.

We are told and they stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom and behind them there were red horses. It doesn't say there were riders on them. I think we can rightly assume that there are riders on the horse.

And I think that this means that here is a spot that God just hasn't given us all the information. I believe that these are angelic beings and they are under His command and it is their business to watch over this earth.

And I think that these different colors that are given here are all significant. Again, the red horse speaking of warfare, the sorrel horse, speckled in our translation. It means sorrel and I hadn't even seen this word since I was a boy.

But I lived in West Texas and Southern Oklahoma and horses were the means of transportation when I was a boy. I can remember when I saw my first automobile in Springer, Oklahoma. We stood and looked at it for two hours.

Can you imagine going to a parking lot today and looking at a car that long? Well, we did in this little town in which I live. All of the population was out looking at it. A doctor was the one who owned the car.

And it was fearful to behold by the way, an unusual contraption and no one ever thought that in the mud of that day that it would ever become successful. It would never supplant or take the place of the horse, but it sure did.

Well, we've talked about sorrel horses. A sorrel horse is a rather spotted horse, but generally more or less of a red color or yellow color. In fact, I always thought of a sorrel horse as being a sort of a dirty yellow horse. Some folk may resent that, that have horses as pets, but that's the way they looked to me as a boy.

Red horses, sorrel horses, and white horses. Now the red horses would speak of warfare. The white horses, I think they speak here of victory. They speak of the fact that the one on that horse is marching to victory.

I believe that there's significance in everything that you see here. Now let's come to the myrtle tree and look at the myrtle tree for just a moment. The myrtle tree is what here in California they call the laurel tree.

And you find it down in desert regions, down in the Palm Springs area here in Southern California, you see the myrtle trees. The Southern Pacific has planned them all along their track down there so the sand won't cover the track.

You find them in the land of Israel. That's their native habitat apparently, but Israel has set them out literally by the thousands. And they are considered sometimes the badge of Israel.

You see certain trees and plants represent the nation Israel, the olive tree that's native over there, the myrtle tree, the vine, the great vine. All of these have been rather significant. And even the cedar.

You find the other prophets talked about them. In Isaiah 41:19, God says, "I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive, and I will set in the desert the cypress, the plain, and the pine together."

And God says again in Isaiah 55:13, "Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off."

And that tremendous planting of trees over there and most of them are myrtle trees, it could have real significance. And you find myrtle branches together with palm branches were used in the ritual of constructing booths in the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.

And actually Hadassah is the Jewish form of the name Esther. And Hadassah is the word for myrtle. So that when a girl is named Esther and another one named Myrtle, they actually have the same name and it refers to the myrtle tree.

Now it says that it was at the bottom. What does it mean at the bottom? Well, it means down in a valley, down in where the myrtle could probably get water, you see, and there was a grove down there. Now there was this rider on the red horse. Back of him apparently riders on these other horses.

And those that were sorrel or speckled, they apparently were standing under the shade of the myrtle trees and the sun.