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1) The Four Horns of Zechariah
When speaking of Jerusalem sometime after 520 BCE Zechariah is shown four horns.
The horn of most animals, given mostly to the males of a species, is used for warfare for subduing those others who would assume top position. In the animal kingdom supremacy in a herd is maintained by use of the horn, therefore, a horn is a symbol of the powerful nations in the human kingdom. This imagery was adopted by the ancient nations with many including Vikings, Huns and the ancient Romans associating horns with gods, kings and heroes (and some wore them on their helmets to go to war).
Zechariah is shown 4 horns, or as the Hebrew also implies 'tips of mountains' or great nations.
I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. (Zechariah 1:19)
When was this?
Were there to be 4 great nations or empires that sequentially over time scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, or
Were there to be at one point in time 4 great and powerful entities who would seek to scatter Judah, Israel and Jerusalem?
It turns out both apply. The sequential oppression of the people of Judah and Israel and the city of Jerusalem has been evident in history and is therefore relevant to the servants of God since the time the prophecy was written. The second has become relevant since 2002. The last of the 4 horns that emerged sequentially over time has revealed a further subset of 4 horns.
4 empires who scattered from the time of Zechariah 520BCE until today.
Daniel speaks of the great empires as 'horns' and he names Medo-Persia and Ancient Greece as a ram and a goat respectively locking horns (8:21-22). Nebuchanezzar is shown a vision with all the great empires (Daniel Chapter 2) . There are four great empires shown with the fourth one becoming 2 then becoming 10 nations partly strong and partly weak.
As Zechariah lived after the time of Nebuchadnezzar, there was yet four great empires that would have power to scatter Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. These empires or horns were, Medo-Persia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the partly strong partly weak kingdom which has arisen from the 10 nations that came out of the break up of the Roman Empire. This has re-emerged in recent times in the founding nations of the European Union. Whereas the regimes of the Caliphs and Ottomans occupied the land of Judea and Israel they did not, as the Romans and the Crusaders did, scatter the people of Judah (forcibly evict them from Judea and Jerusalem).
Zechariah specifically wrote in this order: Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. But throughout all this time there was no nation of Israel to scatter. Israel had ceased to exist many years before Zechariah wrote. It may be argued that 'Judah, Israel and Jerusalem' means all the former territory of of the divided kingdom. It seems more likely that Judah and Israel refers to the people in diaspora, and Jerusalem to their centre, as persecution and dispersal by the Roman horns have been accompanied by attacks on the city of Jerusalem in attempts to control it.
In the next verse 4 carpenters or craftsmen are sent to frighten and cast out the 4 horns,
Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to frighten them, to throw out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. (Zechariah 1:21)
Four carpenters are raised up so that the 4 nation powers may be frightened and cast off. A sequential cutting off did not occur. The Ancient Medo-Persian power succumbed to the horn of Greek power, not a 'carpenter', and Greek power succumbed to the 'iron horn' of Rome. In effect, also, Greece absorbed and took over from Persia, And Rome absorbed and took over from Greece. Rome was broken up by many nations' attacks and became the Holy Roman Empire in various phases until they in turn were partially broken up, this time by masses of people inspired by multiple ideological movements and wars.
Only since the era of revolutions and Napoleon do we begin to see the carpenters, inspired by the carpenter of Nazareth, 'frightening' the powers of the day. Those Brethren who took up the Bible and preached it in the Late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment were most often craftsmen, artisans and smiths of the working class. With them were 3 other distinct groups. There were those influenced in part by the Brethren, who sought to fight for freedom. There were also religious Jewish intellectuals who from the time of the Enlightment were more widely read, speaking from the Old Testament and with them secular Jewish voices, as the fourth. Zechariah was shown there were to be two olive trees in the earth to feed the one lampstand, to achieve things not by might, or by power, but by Yahweh's spirit (Zechariah 4). If this modern era was the era of the 4 carpenters, the historic empires are partially cut off at one time.
For a time, due to their work, the last of the historical four horns seemed not to have power over Israel, as from the mid 1860's until recently, Judah and Israel were gathered and not scattered. Any effort to scatter, including that from Europe, resulted in more gathering to Israel.
Are there now great nation powers who seek to scatter Israel?
2) The Quartet on the Middle East
:The 4 who seek to scatter or toss about Judah, Israel and Jerusalem:
In the context there is a finality to the vision of the throwing out of the 4 horns, by the four carpenters. There will be a time when,
Thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 1:16-17)
As yet this is not fully achieved. It was not achieved in the last two centuries. To achieve this completely there must be no nations (horns) raised against Jerusalem. The vision implies the scattering by the 4 occurs simultaneously and the throwing away by the carpenters all at one time, which is remarkable as there are four entities related to the last Roman horn who are now (since 2002) seeking to scatter Israel, Judah (West Bank) and divide Jerusalem.
Scatter might also be 'winnow', 'disperse', 'toss about'. The nations first diffuse and winnow Jews, (or Judah) before they become Israel. This occurred in a weak form right from the first Aliyah in 1883. They then winnow or shake to spread out and disperse Israel from 1948. They then seek to disperse the inhabitants of Jerusalem from 1967. Who are the 4 super-powers who rule the nations who have since 1967 done this?
We might not have been sure, except that in Madrid in 2002 they emerged and are amazingly called 'the Quartet on the Middle East'. They are led now by the former Prime minister of Britain, who has adopted the Latin speaking religion of the Romans. One member of the Quartet is America, and it was Britain and America who formed the United Nations, the second member of the Quartet. The third member of the Quartet is Russia, whose power from 1883 to 1990 was heavy over Jews in their midst. And the fourth, is the last revived power of Daniel's image (Daniel 2), the newly emerged superpower of the European Union.
As an aside, four horns may belong to two beasts. The United States of America and the United Nations are of one, but have a cultural inheritance from Rome and Greece. Russia from the Byzantines and the European Union together are from Rome.
All of the above powers over the other nations have had a role in interfering with Judah returning from Diaspora, to Israel, to Judah and to Jerusalem. Not even America is innocent of the scattering of Judah, as they turned away Jews, just as Britain did in Israel before WW2. The UN becomes particularly evident in relation to the partition of Israel and the preponderance of anti-Israel resolutions since.
Since the Quartet on the Middle East was formed in 2002, the 4 super-nationals have acted together to 'toss' and 'winnow' Judah (Judea) which they dispute, Israel proper through harsh policies and Jerusalem which they seek to control and divide. Their project is not peace in the Middle East but ensuring Israel has less of a piece of the Middle East.
If the 4 horns are revived again in the Quartet, the scattering might be in the near future somewhat more a real dispersal of Israel, rather than a mere shaking. But they are all to be thrown out and cease to be super-national powers. It is interesting to note how the 4 horns relate geographically to Israel. Russia is to the Nor-North East, The EU to the North West, America in the West and if the UN has any location in terms of those who work to malign Israel it is in the Islamic dominated nations in the South East and East of Israel. Four horns covering four diagonal corners of the world from Israel.
But no nation who seeks to push against Israel will prosper. All are to be thrown out. And if carpenters are to throw them out, they will need to be cut off!
Who are the 4 carpenters?
The word in Hebrew covers all forms of skilful craft and fabrication work, from carpenters, stone masons to smiths and engravers. Yeshua is a carpenter (Mark 6:3 Matt 13:55) Paul is as a masterbuilder,
According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man be careful how he builds on it. For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is. If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward. (1Cor 3:10-14)
This implies that all that follow Yeshua are also 'workers'. That there is four indicates the completeness of their work and places them in a relationship to the fourfold aspect of the Cherubim (Ezekiel 1) and the Living Ones (Revelation 5:8). Though the workers of the gospel go forth and their presence in the nations breaks the power of tyranny anywhere their preaching has a growth in human minds, as yet it only 'frightens' the powers of the world, so they hate it. As yet the final 4 carpenters have not emerged to throw away the horns. There is a day when, as surely as it was proclaimed in the book of Zechariah,
“I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it,” saith the LORD of hosts, “and a (string) line (for a building) shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 1:16)
There are two houses built. A literal house of prayer, a temple, over the entire city, and a spiritual one of the servants of God. The temple of Ezekiel's prophecy has timber and will be built by carpenters. Thus the work of the servants of God is like that of a carpenter.
For more on The Carpenter
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