The man among the myrtle trees
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
8 During the night I had a vision—and there before me was a man riding a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.
9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?”
The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”
10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go throughout the earth.”
11 And they reported to the angel of the LORD, who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”
TVerse 7 puts the following visions into a time context. They occurred about three months after the first word of the Lord had come to Zechariah. That was exactly five months after the building of the temple had been resumed (Haggai 1:15).
There is some difficulty with the colors of the horses. First, we are tempted to speculate as to what the colors mean. When all is said and done, we have to admit that we do not know what the colors signify. Second, there is some question as to what should be translated “brown” and what should be translated “red.” The word translated “red” is related to the names Adam and Edom (Esau). Neither Adam, taken from the ground, nor Esau, who was ruddy in complexion, were bright red in color. The word is spelled the same way in Hebrew as the word for ground. This would give us the idea that it would be closer to brown than to red. But then the dictionary also lists as meanings “the color of grape juice” and “blood.”
But let us not get bogged down in trying to figure out the color and its meaning. Can we just notice that to Zechariah’s mind and eye, the horses were of different colors? This was a dream! A vision! They had colors Zechariah could identify.
As to the question of what the horses are, Zechariah asked this question himself in verse 9, and he receives an answer in verses 10 and following.
The horses were beings sent by God himself to go throughout the earth. Angels are pictured as horses in other places. Elisha comforted his frightened servant, who saw the enemy surrounding them: “‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered. ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, ‘O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:16,17). At the time when Elijah was taken up to heaven, we hear, “Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them” (2 Kings 2:11). If we compare this trip to heaven with the trip the angels made with the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16:22), then we can make a connection between horses and angels. We remember, of course, that in their natural state, angels are invisible because they are spiritual beings.
The angels had done their work well. They had gone “throughout” the earth. The word here is the one that means to walk to and fro. It is the same word that the devil said when asked where he had been in Job’s life: “Roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it” (Job 1:7).
The devil is roaming to and fro. It is comforting to know that the angels of God also roam to and fro. They have a special mission of search and rescue (see Psalm 91). They are special forces—crack forces—appointed by God for the safety and welfare of his people.