IV.  Zechariah’s Assurances of Jehovah’s Care.  In his initial vision concerning the angelic horsemen he recognizes that the storms that have swept over the Persian Empire are beginning to subside, but he tells his fellow-laborers that, if they persist, Jehovah’s temple shall be rebuilt and that the lands about Jerusalem shall again be sold to eager buyers, and the cities of Judah shall enjoy their former prosperity, for “Jehovah will surely comfort Zion.”  In the vision of the four horns and of the four smiths whose mission it is to smite the horns, he assures the people that Jehovah in his good time and way will overthrow the nations that now wrong and oppress them.  Although there is no promise that Jerusalem will be surrounded by walls, he declares that it shall enjoy a prosperity and a growth which no walls can confine, and that Jehovah himself will be its protection, as well as its glory, that he will gather the scattered exiles, and that they, together with the nations which shall acknowledge Jehovah’s rule, shall yet come streaming back to Judah.

In his next vision the prophet graphically presents a scene in Jehovah’s court.  Joshua the priest, representing the ceremonial service of the polluted temple, is charged by the adversary with uncleanness.  Here for the first time in Hebrew literature we catch a glimpse of Satan, who is regarded not as hostile to God but as the prosecuting attorney of heaven.  As in the prologue of the book of Job, he is an accredited member of the divine hierarchy.  His task is to search out and report to Jehovah the misdeeds of men.  In Zechariah’s vision, however, the divine judge acquits Joshua of the charge, and causes him to be clad with clean garments, thus proclaiming the divine approval of the modest yet devoted service of the Judean community.

V. Preparations for the Crowning of Zerubbabel.  Regarding Zerubbabel, Zechariah declares, in language highly figurative, that he shall yet be crowned and rule over a happy and prosperous people.  He is spoken of as Jehovah’s servant, the Branch.  The term is probably original with Zechariah, although again used in the supplementary passages in Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15.  The word is akin to the term “shoot of the house of Jesse” used in Isaiah 11, to describe a certain scion of the house of David, who in all probability was the young Zerubbabel.  Zechariah’s figure describes the prince as an offshoot of the same royal tree.  The obscure passage seems to mean that upon the stone, with its seven facets, which was to be set in the crown prepared for the head of Zerubbabel, Jehovah himself would engrave a fitting title.

In Zechariah’s fifth vision he defined the relations between the civil and priestly authorities.  The golden candlestick represented the temple and its service.  The two olive trees beside it stood for Zerubbabel, the civil ruler, and for Joshua, the high priest.  The duty of each was to contribute his part toward the support of the temple service.  They were both Jehovah’s Messiahs, that is, men anointed as a symbol of the task which each was to perform.