The four chariots
I looked up again—and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze! 2The first chariot had red horses, the second black, 3 the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. 4 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. 6 The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”
7 When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth.
8 Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.”
The next vision is of chariots and the horses pulling them. The idea of chariots and horses is not a new picture. Elisha’s servant saw fiery chariots surrounding Elisha and the people. They were for their protection (2 Kings 6:17). Elijah had been taken to heaven in a whirlwind that followed the fiery chariots. It even prompted Elisha to cry out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” (2 Kings 2:12).
It is difficult, if not impossible, to attach any significance to the color of the horses strictly on the basis of what we read here in Zechariah. The book of Revelation, however, does speak of different colors of horses and lists the connection of the colors to what the colors represent. In chapter 6 it speaks of a white horse—white for conquest. We know that white is also a symbol of rightness and of purity. It speaks of a red horse—red for bloodshed and fighting. It speaks of a black horse—black for want and famine. It speaks of a pale horse (comparable to our spotted horse), signifying the awful paleness of death.
The horses were from heaven and they were strong. They appeared between bronze. They came from God to do his will on earth. It is, finally, true that death and destruction are the Lord’s will too. “Whoever does not believe stands condemned” (John 3:18). These horses and chariots represent the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. It is a picture of majesty and power. The horses and chariots were anxious to do their work, even straining to do their work (verse 7).
If we can use the Revelation of John mentioned above to decode the colors of the horses, then the north and south particularly were hit hard. One got death, and the other got famine.
The physical enemies of God’s people always came either from the land of the Tigris and Euphrates in the north or from Egypt and Philistia in the south. There is a God in heaven who vindicates his people and fights for them.
It is difficult to interpret verse 8 with a great deal of certainty from our place in history. Exactly how and when the spirit of God rested in the land we can’t say. We can see from the book of Isaiah that God’s spirit is also described as a spirit of judgment: “He will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire” (4:4). This certainly fits with the picture of judgment already drawn in the appearance of the chariots and horses and by the woman in the basket at the end of chapter 5.