Dr Paul Allen

Zechariah's vision of the four horsemen (Zechariah 6:1-8), engraving by Gustave Doré. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “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 were there red horses, speckled, and white.” ( Zechariah 1:8 ) The Lord divulges ten visions to Zechariah in one night. All of them are among myrtle trees in the “bottom” of a dark, mysterious, and somewhat eerie ravine near Jerusalem . The first vision reveals a man on a red horse responding to questions from the “ angel of the LORD ” and “the LORD of hosts ” ( Zechariah 1:8-17 ). It is likely that the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate form of Christ speaking to the First Person of the Godhead. Two other horsemen are cited, which ties these heavenly envoys to the four horsemen of Revelation and to the horsemen driving the four chariots revealed in Zechariah 6 . When Zechariah asks, “ What are these? ” (8:9), he is told ...

English: Zechariah of Israel was a king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel, and son of Jeroboam II. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel , and Jerusalem .” ( Zechariah 1:18-19 )   Immediately after seeing the horsemen that were sent to determine the state of the earth, Zechariah observes four “horns” amid the myrtle trees. Zechariah is told that they represent the authorities responsible for scattering the people of the two nations of Judah and Israel , destroying Jerusalem in the process as well.   The image of horns usually refers to empires in other passages of Scripture. The horns of the goats in Daniel 7 and 8 and the horns of the seven-headed dragon used in Revelation 13 and 17 are good examples. Zechariah may have understood this specific vision as a reference to N...

English: Jerusalem - Tomb of Zechariah, Cities in Israel עברית: קבר זכריה בעמק קדרון , Original Image Name:ירושלים - קבר זכריה, Location:ירושלים (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem , to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.” ( Zechariah 2:1-2 ) Seeing a human in the vision is a departure from the earlier visions of Zechariah . Each of the prior three visions included only angelic beings interacting with the Lord of hosts. Suddenly a man emerges holding a measuring rod attempting to measure Jerusalem. Immediately, a second angel is sent to the angel who has been explaining the visions to Zechariah, instructing him to “run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein” ( Zechariah 2:4 ). Obviously, whatever tim...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Those who ignore Revelation deprive themselves of a rich treasure of divine truth. Revelation takes a high view of God ’s inspired Word. It claims divine inspiration for itself (1:2), and it has been estimated that 278 of its 404 verses allude to the inspired Old Testament Scriptures. Revelation reveals God the Father in all His glory and majesty, describing Him as holy (4:8), true (6:10), omnipotent (4:11), wise (7:12), sovereign (4:11), and eternal (4:10). Revelation details the depths of man’s depravity. Despite experiencing the final outpouring of God’s devastating wrath and judgment on sinful mankind, people will nevertheless harden their hearts (like Pharaoh before them; 1 Sam. 6:6) and refuse to repent (9:20–21; 16:9, 11).  Scripture contains no clearer summation of the doctrine of redemption than that of Revelation 1:5 , which declares that “Jesus Christ … loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.”...

English: Repent window, Mathon church, near to Mathon, Herefordshire, Great Britain. Beneath the left side: Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" and the right: "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness". (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts . (Revelation 9:20–21) The death of one-third of the earth’s remaining population will be the most catastrophic disaster to strike the earth since the Flood. Yet in an amazing display of hardness of heart, the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent.  It is unimaginable that after years of suffering and death under the terrifying j...

English: Drawing by Dave Pearson from his 4th series from the Book of Revelation (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” ( Revelation 1:13 ) In the beginning, at the creation of Eve from Adam’s side, “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed ” ( Genesis 2:25 ). There was no need for shame at their lack of clothing for neither had any consciousness of sin or moral guilt. They were truly “one flesh” (v. 24), aware that their physiological differences had been divinely created to bring about God ’s purposes for His creation. Any embarrassment would have been quite unnatural. But soon sin entered; they rejected God’s purposes and plan for their lives. Satan had promised they would acquire wisdom, but what was their first taste of wisdom? “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were nake...

English: Description: Left Apsis: Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Fresco in the Parish Church of Zirl, Austria. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.” ( Psalm 118:26 ) This is the climactic verse of Psalm 118 , one of the great Messianic psalms. It was fulfilled, at least in a preliminary way, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a small donkey just one week before His resurrection, thereby acknowledging that He was fulfilling Zechariah ’s prophecy: “. . . behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding . . . upon a colt the foal of an ass” ( Zechariah 9:9 ). As He rode into the city, many “took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna : Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord” ( John 12:13 ). Many Christians even today still commemorate that occasion on what they call Palm Sunday , one we...