(Mui's simple sketch of a horse...learnt from the recent Cavliar show held in Marina Bay, Sep 2014)
Zech1 :The FIRST NIGHT VISION - THE RED HORSES, SPECKLED AND WHITE AMONG THE MYRTLE TREES............
Last Wednesday , a group of us went to watch "CAVALIAR" - some 50 odd horses performance with acrobats. This horse show was their first foray into the Asia market (From Canada).
Today is the beginning of my book study on second last book of the OT - Zechariah. Its name means YWHW Remembers during the period 520-470 BC - the period of the temple rebuilding. Interestingly, my church has been given the green light by the authorities to commence the rebuilding of the church not too long ago. Pretty costly in fact as the additional cost had increased about 2-fold from original budget due to the requirement to compliance with regard to capacity issues...The land which the church now sat on is not even a Freehold but with remaining lease of less than 49 years thereabout.
Zechariah mentioned the Lord of Hosts (Not Horses :).... many times in this book. He saw in particular 8 visions, of which the opening chapter is this one about the red horses and the man who stood among the myrtle trees.
I saw many interesting horses during CAVALIAR. But I did not recall seeing a RED one. LOL. I remember in Rev the white, red, black and pale horse. I pondered - got red horse meh? Never seen one! The following extract kind of satisfied my curiousity!
Vision One
The first vision of horses among myrtle trees is recorded in Zechariah 1:7-17, and it is a beautiful picture of the peaceful kingdom on earth: “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 there were red horses, speckled and white.”
Here God shows Zechariah the end from the beginning by giving him a glimpse of the ultimate goal of his entire Divine Plan of the Ages, the peaceable kingdom of righteousness. The main character in this vision, the man on the red horse, pictures our Lord Jesus. It is through his work of redeeming and restoring mankind that this kingdom will be established. Horses usually symbolize doctrines, and so the red color of this horse represents the doctrine of the ransom sacrifice, the merit of Jesus’ blood which satisfies God’s justice and secures man’s release from the penalty of Adamic death. The myrtle trees symbolize perfect mankind. White flowers on the myrtle trees suggest the righteousness of those who have completed their walk up the highway of holiness. The words “in the bottom” indicate that this peaceful meadow is in a valley—protected on all sides by mountains, the mountain of God’s everlasting kingdom.
What might the other horses represent?There are two reasonable interpretations. Horses usually symbolize doctrines. As the first four of seven seals on a scroll are opened in Revelation 6, John beholds four horses—white, red, black, and pale—with riders; these have come to be known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. These horses represent the corruption of truth during the beginning of the Gospel age. The truth was at first pure when our Lord and the apostles were on the scene, pictured by the white horse. Then errors crept in such as the trinity, and the mass, which denied the ransom sacrifice. The red horse pictures these corruptions of truth. Later more errors darkened the truth to an even worse state pictured by the black horse. Finally the teachings of the nominal systems were devoid of any truth, pictured by the pale, colorless horse. The sequence of horses picturing the corruption of truth was white, red, black, and pale.
Perhaps Zechariah’s horses in their improving colors—red, spotted, and white in that order—represent the atonement doctrines of resurrection, sin offering, and restitution which make possible man’s progress up the highway of holiness from a sinful, red condition, through a spotted condition as the old Adamic patterns of thought and habit are eradicated, to a white or perfect condition.
Another possible interpretation of these horses is suggested by the words of verses 9-11:“These are they [i.e., the horses] whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth, and they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.”
The horses appear to be watchful sentries on the earth who observe and report back to the man on the red horse that all is well. These faithful sentries, sent by the Lord to walk to and fro in the earth, might well picture the ancient worthies. In the last vision we will see a use of various colored horses to represent classes of people in God’s plan.
But whether the horses represent doctrines that lead to mankind’s perfection, or the ancient worthies, the picture of the kingdom, the ultimate goal of God’s plan, is presented with clarity and beauty in this first of Zechariah’s eight visions.
Reflections
I am pretty afraid of horses. Sat on one many years ago in Seattle which trotted for some hours out in the forest. So afraid of being kicked at as it was a pretty big horse!
Well, the corruption that a red horse might signify in the truths is really something that is happening all over the world at this point of penning. Shocking escalation of happenings - Ebolas, Occupy Central, Hong Lim "Heckling" , sickening beheadings , volcano eruption in Japan without even a puff of sign which now has killed more than 48 trekkers (who weren't even aware that they are trekking on an angry mountain just about to erupt! No one knew about its impending spew of ashes!!) ...and a certain mega church now under the spotlight in the court with regard to its use of so called church building fund. Sigh....
Guess, Zechariah's time was the rebuilding of the temple. But it is more than the physical construction of a temple . The Lord urges all in the first few verses in Chapter 1. "TURN YOU UNTO ME ..AND I WILL TURN UNTO YOU.." TURN FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS AND FROM YOUR EVIL DOINGS...It is simply a call of repentance of hearts. Isn't it?? Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote in Act 17:24-28 " God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwell not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he give to all life and breath, and all things, And has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the times before the appointed, and the bounds of their inhabitation, that they should seek the Lord , if they haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being."
No comments:
Post a Comment