Zechariah 6:1-8 And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains… Eminent interpreters translate the words "celestial spirits," and thus present us at once, in our own customary theology, with angels. There is difficulty here, however. In the first place, "spirits of the heavens" is a very unwonted designation for angels in Scripture. I know not that it has a parallel. And secondly, if angels are intended, how come we to have four? Their number is "ten thousand times ten thousand"; and unless they are mentioned in connection with something else that leads and limits to the number four, it is difficult, by any analogy, to account for it. Let me illustrate the remark from another passage — "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree" (Revelation 7:1). Here we have "four angels." But we at once see why they are four. They are, in the vision, employed in "holding the four winds of the earth." Now the four winds, from the four cardinal points — understood as representing and embracing all the intermediate points, and thus signifying the winds in general — was a style of expression familiar to the ancients as ourselves. The word rendered "spirits," as most if not all of you are aware, signifies also winds. The question then is, whether what are called "the four winds of the earth," in the Book of Revelation, be not the same as what are here called the "four spirits," or winds, "of the heavens." I am strongly tempted to think that we have, in this vision, one symbol, or emblem, explained by another. "The four winds" are an emblem — a most natural and appropriate one — of all the powers and agencies by which the earth can be affected; especially agencies of judgment — of wars and desolations, arising from the contending elements of human passions and Satanic malignity. (Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. |
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