Zechariah chapter one, and we're gonna read verse seven through 17 this morning. This is on the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month Shabbat. In the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Edo, the prophet. I saw by night and behold a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were horses red, sorrel, and white. Then I said, my Lord, what are these? So the angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees and said, we have walked to and fro throughout the earth and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which you were angry these 70 years? And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me with good and comforting words. So the angel who spoke with me said to me, proclaim, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease, for I was a little angry, and they helped, but with evil intents. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts. And a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Again, proclaim saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, My city shall again spread out through prosperity. The Lord will again comfort Zion and I will again choose Jerusalem. I'm sure y'all have had those moments where you just can't figure out what it is that God is up to. You see the plans of the wicked and it looks like they thrive. You look at the work of the righteous people and it seems to come to nothing. You wonder if God sees, if God knows, if God cares, if God is doing anything about it. When Haggai and Zechariah were sent to the people of Judah, the basic message of their prophetic ministry was to encourage the people to get to work rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. but the people weren't convinced that God was working for them. As strangely as it sounds, even though God had divinely intervened to bring them out of 70 years of captivity and to restore them to Jerusalem, it seemed like the people could not detect the hand of God at work. Or at least they looked around at the world as a whole and they didn't think God was working very hard for them. Now where Haggai, the prophet, was sent with a scathing, a very straightforward message, if you remember, right, it was get to work. Go up the mountain, get the wood, build the temple. His counterpart, Zechariah, came with a series of visions. Y'all, can I even call them a series of eerie visions? I mean, the writer of Hebrews begins his book in the New Testament by saying that God, at sundry times and in diverse manners, spoke unto the fathers by the prophets. Zechariah is one of those sundry times and diverse manners. There are many times and many ways, and the way that Zechariah speaks to the people is through these visions that the Lord gives them. Our text this morning covers the first in a series of eight visions of Zachariah that will continue through chapter six. And while verse eight describes, I saw by night, I don't think we should assume that Zachariah is having a dream. When Daniel has dreams, he tells us they were dreams, but these visions continue through chapter six, and it becomes evident in the process that Zachariah is awake. He is lucid. He is thoughtful. inquisitive. He's interacting with some of the people in the vision. So for example in verse 14 he describes there's an angel who speaks with me and in verse 12 he sees the angel of the Lord in this vision who's a different entity. Throughout the rest of these visions Zachariah is going to see He's gonna see a craftsman. He's gonna see a surveyor measuring out the city. He's gonna see a gold lamp stand connected to two olive trees. He's gonna see a scroll that is flying over the city of Jerusalem. In one vision, he is going to see a woman stuffed down into a basket by an angel and carried off by two other women who are flying away with it. There's four chariots that are running circuits through the whole earth, right? He's got this really fascinating series of visions, but to begin with in this first vision, Just picture what it is that Zachariah is seeing. Zachariah looks out onto a wooded forest filled with evergreen trees and somewhere down in a ravine, he can make out there is a man sitting on a red horse and behind that man, there are a series of riders coming on red and brown and white horses coming to report to this man on the red horse. As we go through this first vision and the discussion that it includes, we'll find the message is simply this. God is active and jealous. He is at work for his people because he loves us more than we know. Let's see God works for us. Starting at verse eight. I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were horses red, sorrel, and white. Then I said, my Lord, what are these? So the angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees and said, we have walked to and fro throughout the earth and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, Oh Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which you were angry these 70 years? And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me with good and comforting words. Let's make sure that as we read this, our attention is drawn to the same place where Zachariah's attention is drawn. There is, he describes it as an angel who talked with me. This is sort of a guiding angel, a narrating voice, but that angel exists to explain and show things to Zachariah, but that angel is not the focus of Zachariah's vision. There are a bunch of really cool multi-colored horses with riders coming up that's bound to draw our attention, but the horses are not the focus of this vision. Standing in the middle of Zachariah's vision, the focal point of this prophecy is verse eight. There is a man riding on a red horse. I love that there is no description of this man. The most detail we get about this man is a description of his horse. His horse is red. Since this is a vision of one of God's prophets, I think it's safe to assume this is a supernatural figure. He is a man in that he looks like a man, but this is no mere mortal. The description of the man's appearance never comes, but what does come is over the course of the vision, there is a title change for this man. He is called in verse 11, the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees. But that phrase, the angel of the Lord, when that phrase is used in scripture, it is often a reference to the very Lord of glory himself. Let me give you some examples. In Genesis chapter 16, the angel of the Lord spoke with Sarah's handmaid Hagar, and Hagar concluded, you are the God who sees me. This angel of the Lord was God himself. In Exodus chapter three, it says an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush and spoke with him. But as you read that story, not only did Moses have to kneel and worship and remove his sandals because he was in God's holy presence, but that angel of the Lord who spoke to Moses from the burning bush told Moses his name. I am that I am. It was an angel of the Lord who met and spoke with Abraham in the door of his tent. And in fact, in the New Testament, Jesus later confirms, Abraham saw me and was glad. And when the Pharisees of Jesus's day complained and said, he's not even 40 years old yet. He's saying he saw Abraham. Jesus responded and essentially told them, Before there even was an Abraham, I already was the I Am. So Jesus is God in the flesh. This angel of the Lord, very often in scripture, is the Lord himself. The central figure in Zachariah's vision is Jesus, the Lord of glory. He's the great I am who has authority over all things. This becomes even more evident in verses 10 and 11. when the angel who spoke with Zechariah explained that all of those riders who were coming and reporting to this man are the ones whom he says the Lord, that is Yahweh, has sent to walk to and fro in the earth. And verse 11 says that the ones sent out by Yahweh report back to the angel of the Lord. But wait, there's more. It says in verse 13 that the Lord, Yahweh, answered the angel who talked to Zechariah, and then that angel turns to Zechariah in verse 14 and says, this is what Yahweh just said to me. This man on the horse in Zechariah's vision is Jesus. It is God himself. Now, to just sort of round out this vision, so you can see in your mind Zachariah's description, myrtle trees are a kind of evergreen shrub that grew throughout Israel. They look more like bushes than trees, but they can grow quite tall. They were common, they were plentiful, they were useful. When the Israelites would celebrate the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles, they would go and they would gather myrtle tree branches in order to make little temporary living spaces for themselves. Twice, the prophet Isaiah mentions myrtle trees as a sign of God's future blessings for his people. So down in some ravine, Zachariah here uses the word hollow, We'd say down in the holler where I came from. There is some ravine and it is filled with these thick, bushy, evergreen trees. And the cool thing about them is like if you have ever been into a forest that has pine trees, much like that, they grow up. you get this canopy over the top, but the lower part doesn't have the bushy branches on it. So you have this large canopy, but underneath there is an open area. And this becomes a meeting place for the riders in Zachariah's vision. In fact, when he says that he's in Jerusalem and he's looking down into a ravine, his readers would have surely assumed that he's looking down somewhere into the Kidron Valley, just outside of Jerusalem, which is on top of Mount Zion. So here is the very Lord of glory himself gathering outside of Jerusalem, but he's not entered into the city. You think about this, what a great encouragement for the people to get to work on that temple, right? The Lord's right there outside the city, Zachariah says. It'd be nice if this temple was finished, because he might just join us in there. The horsemen reporting to this main character, Zachariah says they're riding horses that are red, sorrel, and white. Now, does that mean that there are three horsemen? No, maybe, I don't know. It doesn't say or really even imply that. It simply means that the horsemen, however many there were, whether there were three or whether there were 300, they're riding different colored horses. The red is fairly obvious, sort of the reddish brown color of a horse. The white is also obvious. The middle one's sorrel, might be a Hebrew word meaning something like dappled. All right, they're just, they're riding different horses. And verse 10 says, the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are the ones whom the Lord, whom Yahweh has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth. And so they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees and said, we have walked to and fro throughout the earth and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. this report of the whole world resting quietly, meaning that the earth as a whole is enjoying a relative time of calm and quiet, that is not good news in the minds of the people of Judah. I mean, don't get me wrong, they were glad that Persia was not at war with Egypt anymore because now they don't have to worry about a Persian army marching through or an Egyptian army marching through. But otherwise, the peace of the world is not good news for the Jewish people. You think of it from their perspective, they had suffered tremendously. They had endured captivity and slavery. Even when they returned to Judah, they're struggling in order to sort of kickstart things back going again. Much like today, they are surrounded by enemies on every side. So this report of, you know, all quiet on the Western front is not exactly what they would want to hear. Why are the places in the world that had so harmed the people of God, why are those places enjoying tranquility and peace? And you get the idea that this is the concern in verse 12 and 13. The angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which you were angry these 70 years? And the Lord answered the angel who talked with me with good and comforting words. Now, if there were more than three writers reporting to this person, which I suspect is the case, then calling the Lord the Lord of hosts, the God of armies, is even more appropriate. Yahweh is called the Lord of hosts over 50 times in Zechariah's book. The Lord God himself here is mounted on a horse, he's ready for battle, he's caring for his people, he's overseeing the activities of the world, getting a report of what's happening throughout the world, and he's also then interceding on his people's behalf. Now, let me just address a complaint, because some might complain here, if the angel of the Lord is speaking to the Lord, he can't be the Lord. Yes, he can. He absolutely can. The three persons of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, clearly have discussions with each other. So for example, in Genesis, let us make man in our image. It's Sodom and Gomorrah, there's the account that Yahweh on earth rained down fire from Yahweh in heaven. In John 17, we have an entire chapter of God the Son praying to God the Father. So whenever this angel of the Lord comes in the Old Testament, It is usually a description of this is a messenger from God, a message from God for his people. Now in this vision, verse 12, the angel of the Lord starts to intercede to the Lord for the people. This is even more evidence that this main focal character is The Lord Jesus, He's the God-man. He is the go-between, the mediator between God and man. He intercedes for us. We should know this even better than Zachariah could. Paul writes in Romans 8.34, it's Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. This is what the angel of the Lord is doing for the people in this vision. In Zachariah's vision, symbolically, the Lord Jesus is mounted and ready for battle, and he is still interceding for God's people, and I love that he is with them in the valley, like in the lowest place, in the lowest times. Psalm 34, 18 says, the Lord's near those who have a broken heart. He saves those with a contrite spirit. He's with them in this valley. This is the character of our Lord. So for the Hebrew people in Zachariah's day and for us, when we sometimes start to wonder if God sees, if God knows, if God cares, if God can do anything about it, Here's Zachariah's vision that God is constantly overseeing all the earth. He knows all things. He cares for his people. He is the almighty Lord of hosts ready to conquer the enemies of his people at the time of his choosing. He sees, he knows, he cares, he's infinitely able. God is always active for our good and for his glory. God is at work for his people. He works for us. Starting in verse 13, we'll see God cares for us. And the Lord answered the angel who talked with me with good and comforting words. Verses 13 through 17 seem to come as a response to the plea in verse 12, right? The people had been captive for 70 years. They had been struggling. The strength of the surrounding nations was a continual hindrance, and the Lord appeals to the Lord and asks in verse 12, how long? And that's a phrase of lament in the Old Testament. How long will the wicked prosper? How long will I plea for salvation? There is an ultimate plan of God and we are eager for it. And Yahweh responds in verse 13 with good and comforting words. The answer of God is good. It's righteous. It's comforting. It brings solace and consolation to his people. Everything in verses 7 through 13 has been a vision from God for Zechariah. Starting at verse 14, We get the word that Zachariah is supposed to then take to the people. Verse 14. The angel who spoke with me said to me, proclaim, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. All right. I'm going to quibble over a word choice here for a moment. Twice in verse 14, the New King James translators have given us the word zealous or zeal. I am zealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great zeal. And they're trying here to be helpful because the word in the original language can be a stumbling block for modern readers. The word given to Zachariah wasn't zealous, it was jealous. The King James Version uses, I'm jealous with great jealousy. Other modern translations recognize the repeated use of this word as emphasis, and so they say something like, I am exceedingly jealous. We have a hard time conceiving of jealousy in any kind of a positive manner. Good old Bill Shakespeare didn't do us any help. When he famously wrote in his play Othello, he has a character named Iago who says, beware of jealousy. It is a green-eyed monster. We think of jealousy, we think of being envious, or we want something that others have. We desire something that others possess, right? It can be jealous of somebody's car, or their money, or their ability. But listen, God's not jealous like that. God's not jealous over anybody in that sense. The whole earth is his. Nobody has something, nobody owns something that God wishes he had. Everything is his. He is also omnipotent. He is all powerful. Nobody has some kind of ability that is somehow beyond his reach, that he's envious of what we can do. God's jealousy is an intense emotion, which is why the New King James translators use that word zealous, intense emotion. God's jealousy is an intense emotion of insisting on what is good and right for us. So think of it this way, if you picture a husband who doesn't care how men flirt with and hang on his wife, that lack of jealousy in that man is a bad thing, not a good one. If he loves her and loves what is right, there will be a kind of godly jealousy that will come. Godly jealousy can be expressed in sometimes frustration and even anger here from the Lord, right? When a person does something, when a person you love does something that is harmful to themselves, it's not the best for themselves. There's been times in the past I tried to communicate this to my daughters and I don't think it took. There were times when they were little where I would warn them about doing something that's harmful or destructive, and I would say something like, don't do that to yourself, you're hurting my little girl. And they would look at me like I was, a madman. Like, no, I'm not hurting your little girl. I am your little girl. That's why I did it to myself. How could you be angry about that? And the best explanation I've got is if you are engaging in some activity that is harmful to you, I will have a fatherly anger toward that part of you that is hurting the entirety of you that I love. This is a kind of godly jealousy. We said a moment ago that God is always working for our good and for his glory. If you do something that is in opposition of your good or in opposition of his glory, you are in danger of igniting the flames of his jealousy. Not because he's selfish, but because he's loving and demands the best for you. So throughout scripture, we get examples of God's jealousy in terms like, do not worship any other gods for the Lord your God is jealous, right? And you can hear that as merely selfish, or you can understand that there is an intense emotion of a God who loves us and knows what's best for us. In this case, in Zachariah's vision, The emotion displayed by God is he is jealous with a great jealousy over Jerusalem and Zion. In verse 15, there's another repeated use of a word that's quite telling. Just like God is jealous with great jealousy for his people, verse 15 describes he is exceeding angry, or literally, he is angry with great anger over the nations. Look at verse 15. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease. For I was a little angry, and they helped, but with evil intent. Think this verse through for a moment. God says he was a little angry. And he's talking about that 70 years of anger mentioned in verse 12, his anger toward the Jewish people and why they were taken into captivity to begin with. God was a little angry at their rebellion, but he says he is exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. when God brought his wrath against Israel and against Judah, it's because he was, relatively speaking, a little angry. He used other nations like Assyria or Babylon to accomplish his divine will. And so he describes here in verse 15, they helped, right? But they helped with evil intent. You remember when Joseph talked to his brothers in Egypt after everything had happened, and he told his brothers, what you did, you meant for evil, but God meant for good, right? Similarly, the Gentile nations who had arrayed themselves against the people of God did so with evil intent. They were wicked, they were cruel, they behaved badly and it's part of God's sovereign wonder that he can use those nations as a tool in his hand to correct his people and then afterward punish those nations for their arrogance and wickedness and the evil intent of their heart. Meanwhile, the message through Zachariah here is clear. You cannot judge God's heart or God's intentions or God's love through what you see with your eyes going on around you. Judah felt abandoned, but they weren't. God sees them, he knows them, he loves them, he's working for them. And the wicked nations that they look at and they see prospering, God says, don't be fooled. I'm angry with those nations that are at ease. The intense, the exceeding anger of God, His wrath abides on them. So verse 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts. and a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Again, proclaim saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, my cities shall again spread out through prosperity. The Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem. As we go through Zechariah's sometimes puzzling visions, It's easy to get caught up in the details of those visions. Like what does a sorrel horse symbolize? If you've noticed, I haven't even tried to explain that today. I don't know. It's easy to get lost in trying to define details of the visions and miss the main emphasis of his ministry. The people in Judah need to get back to work, rebuilding the temple, reestablishing worship, and reaffirming their trust in God's promise of a Messiah Savior. And so we get reminded of that main emphasis of his message in verses like this, verse 16, God says, I'm returning to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it. This encouragement for the people to get to work is part of what this vision is all about. The measuring line here, verse 16, a surveyor's line will be stretched out over Jerusalem. It is a symbolic promise of a plan for restoration and rebuilding the nation. It's gonna be, it's this surveyor's line or measuring line, it's like a measuring string that's used to mark off a foundation before construction so that the walls are straight. This is going to come up again in more detail in the next vision of Zachariah. If you want to cheat and look ahead, you can look at chapter 2, verse 1. He has a vision of a man with a measuring line in his hand. He's going to measure Jerusalem. Right? God's not done with Israel. He has a plan for them. In verse 17, he promises prosperity in the cities of Judah and comfort on Zion and to reaffirm his choice, his sovereign election of Jerusalem as this holy city and the Jews as the people of God. This first vision of Zechariah is a great motivation for the people who feel like, well, God's not watching, God's not working, He's not working for our good, I can't see Him working for His glory. As Zachariah sees this in his vision, God's not only right there at the edge of their life and experience, He is the sovereign overseer of all the world. He knows what's going on right there in His presence. He knows what's happening in all places. And He is intense in His emotion of jealousy, anger at sin, and love for His people. So God sees, God knows, God cares, God has a plan and the foundation of that plan is being laid and it will surely come to fruition. It will be blessed. So God is active. and jealous. He is active in the sense of he is at work for his people, and he is jealous in the sense of he cares about us more than we even know.