The Four Horns

And

Four Carpenters

 

Zechariah 1:18-21 The Four Horns and the Four Carpenters.

 

 

While driving to work, I listened to the daily broadcast given on the Christian AM radio station, which always has Dr. J. Vernon McGee on at this time in the morning. Dr. McGee was teaching from the Book of Zechariah and was in the topic of the four horns and four carpenters of Zechariah chapter 1. I was literally right here in the writing of this book discussing the four beasts of Daniel 7. What an amazing time for the Lord to show me that I needed to address this passage, from Zechariah 1:18-21, right at this point. Though I do not totally agree with who Dr. McGee thought were the four horns and four carpenters, I felt God revealing to me who they were. I will bring this to you just hours after this has been revealed to me.

 

¹⁸ Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.

¹⁹ And I said unto the Messenger that talked with me: “What be these?” And he answered me: “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰ And the Lord showed me four carpenters.

²¹ Then said I: “What come these to do?” And he spoke, saying: “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. (Zech. 1:18-21)

 

If a person reads about this vision, they will see that the Lord revealed to Zechariah a vision of four horns, who were those that had and were to scatter Judah. Many want to declare that the four beasts of Daniel 7 are those four horns; that would be incorrect, if a person were to investigate this word “scattered” written in Zechariah 1:19, 21. Only two of the four beasts of Daniel 7 had scattered the Jewish people; the two would be Babylon in 605 B.C. thru 586 B.C. and also the Roman Empire in A.D. 70, when they destroyed the second temple and scattered the Jews among the Gentile nations once again.

In Bible prophecy, one needs to understand what the allegorical meaning of a “horn” is; we can see this explained in Revelation 17. “And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” (Rev. 17:12)  With it understood that these four horns in Zechariah 1 are kings, this will help in realizing who these four horns are.

The first time the Jews of either Judah (southern kingdom) or Jerusalem, were scattered was against an Assyrian king. If we consider that Assyrian King Sennacherib had taken some of the surrounding Judeans around Jerusalem captive, then we have our first horn of this Zechariah 1:18-21 prophecy. “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defensed cities of Judah, and took them.” (Is. 36:1) With that being proven historically, a person must conclude and declare Assyrian King Sennacherib as the first horn of the prophecy of Zechariah 1:18-21.

The second horn of Zechariah 1:18 would have to be King Nebuchadnezzar. As I have already disclosed in previous chapters, he was sent by God to scatter the Jews and take them into captivity. “And Jehozadak went into captivity, when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.” (1 Chron. 6:15)

The third time that the Jews were scattered was not until 70 A.D., when General Titus, (Regent Titus) under his father, Vespasian (reigning Emperor of Rome), invaded Jerusalem; Vespasian had sent his son to destroy the temple and city of Jerusalem, while killing and scattering the rebellious people of Israel.  It is most recognized that Titus was the one that lead the charge over Jerusalem, thus the scattering of the Jews; but to be consistent with the prophecy, one has to declare the king to be the “horn” in the prophecy, therefore, I believe that the third horn of Zechariah 1:18 is Emperor of Rome, Vespasian.

Since the scattering of the Jews in A.D. 70 lasted until May 15, 1948, we should realize that the fourth “scattering” of the Jews has yet to happen. God told the prophet Ezekiel that He would bring them back again to their land. 

 

²¹ And say unto them, “Thus says the Lord God; ‘Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.’” (Ezek. 37:21-22)

 

If one continued and read into Ezekiel 38, they would understand that right after Israel is brought back into their land, there is to be an end-times battle; this battle is now known as the “The Battle of Gog of Magog.” We can then conclude, since Israel is now back in their land since May 15, 1948, that this can be considered the latter days, or last days. Knowing that Israel still will experience another scattering, makes one wonder: “How and why will this happen?” The Scriptures do prophecy of another captivity (scattering) of the Jewish people. Yes, a fourth scattering will happen!

 

 1For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

² I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1-2)

 

In Joel 3:1, the Lord declared that He will bring another captivity to Judah and Jerusalem. “Those days” can easily be understood that it is during the time right before Armageddon as all nations are to be gathered into the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

 

1Behold, the day of the Lord comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you.

² For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zech. 14:1-2)

 

Notice that Zechariah 14:1-2 implied that timing is to be the “day of the Lord” and the gathering of all nations once again against Jerusalem. Most theologians will agree that the “day of the Lord” is the final wrath that God will consummate against the world during the Seventieth Week of Daniel.  Reading further into verse Zechariah 14:2, one can see that the city shall be taken, houses rifled and women ravished, as half the city will go into captivity. As in the other captivities of Israel, the people do flee, while others are killed and the rest are taken into captivity; these horrified Jews will scatter into other lands. If I haven’t convinced you as of yet of the future “scatter” of Israel, I will refer you to a comment that the Lord Jesus Christ made in Matthew 24.

 

¹⁵ When you therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (whoso reads, let him understand)

¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: (Matt. 24:15-16)

 

There is a remnant of Jews that will remember what Jesus has said and will flee and they will influence others to join them. They will flee to a place and be protected by God for the second half of the seven years of the prophecy of Daniel 9:27 (Revelation 12:6, 14). I will cover this prophecy in great detail later on, concerning Daniel 9:24-27.

Remembering what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:15-16, there will be an event that will cause these people to flee. There is the Antichrist, who becomes a sudden enemy of the Jews; when he will declare himself as God, he will demand people to worship him, or die; this causes the Jews to flee Jerusalem. This Antichrist is the fourth horn of the prophecy in Zechariah 1:18, because he will cause the fourth scattering of the Jewish people.

The fours horns of Zechariah 1:18 are: Assyrian King Sennacherib, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, Roman King Vespasian, and world king, the Antichrist.  

Now that I have covered the four horns of Zechariah 1:18, I will gladly go over the four carpenters mentioned in verses 1:20 and 1:21; “…but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles…;” this comment about the four carpenters indicates that these four men will “fray” the horns who had, and will have scattered the Jewish people. A person must refer to the carpenters as men, since each of the “horns” were men as well. The word “fray” is translated from the Hebrew verb: “charad,” which is defined as: “to drive in terror, rout (an army).” Knowing that the first scattering of the Jews, when they were taken captivity by the Assyrians, we can determine the first “carpenter” as the one that “frayed” the Assyrians.  

King Nabopolassar was an Aramaean of the Kaldu tribe, also known as the Chaldeans. After a year of guerilla-type warfare, Nabopolassar sat on the throne of Babylon in November 23, 626 B.C. This was the Eleventh (and last) Dynasty of Babylon, known as the Chaldean Empire, or the Neo-Babylonian Empire.[1] 

             King Nabopolassar took Nippur, while also liberating Sumer and Akkad. By 617 B.C., he had cleared out of Babylonia, the Assyrian garrisons south of the neck. In 616 B.C., he marched up the Euphrates River to the district of Harran, to Arrapkha and Assur; he established bases in this area. In 614 B.C., Cyaxares of Media marched against Nineveh, which was too strong for him, but he took Assur and Tarbisu and inflicted great destruction. King Nabopolassar met him after the battle and they established a friendship. A marriage did seal this union in which the Babylonian prince, Nebuchadnezzar, would marry Amytis. In 613 B.C., the Medes were inactive; this allowed Assyria to mount a counterattack. In 612 B.C., Nabopolassar united with Cyaxares and the Ummanmanda in an attack on Nineveh. After a two to three-month siege, they destroyed the famous city of Nineveh. The city was sacked and plundered; the people were enslaved.[2]

The Sovereign God of the universe started to make his move to accomplish the second scattering of Israel (known as the Babylonian Captivity), when He brought the overthrow, or “fray” of the Assyrians, or first horn country of Zechariah 1:18. Nabopolassar can be declared the first carpenter of Zechariah 1:20, as he accomplished the demise of Nineveh, which was the capital city of Assyria; he set up the Babylonian Empire which his son, Nebuchadnezzar, would rule over in the future.

As I have established already that King Nebuchadnezzar was the second horn of the four horns prophecy, one can then figure who the second carpenter of this prophecy is. The Babylonians went down in defeat by King Cyrus of Persia in 539 B.C. God had declared that Cyrus would be the one who would also make the first order to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah wrote this prophecy between 700 and 681 B.C.

 

That said of Cyrus: “He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure:” even saying to Jerusalem: “You shall be built; and to the Temple, your foundation shall be laid.” (Is. 44:28)

 

If King Cyrus was God’s shepherd, I would think it would be safe to say that he was definitely one of the four carpenters as well. Understanding the Isaiah prophecy, the defeat (fray) of the Babylonians (second horn empire), we should absolutely declare King Cyrus of Persia the second carpenter of Zechariah 1:20-21.

With the scattering of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by the Emperor of Rome, Vespasian, we already know that the scattering had lasted 1,878 years. At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed the new State of Israel. On that same date, the United States, in the person of President Harry S. Truman, recognized the provisional Jewish government as de facto authority of the new Jewish state (de jure recognition was extended on January 31). The U.S. delegates to the U.N., and top ranking State Department officials, were angered that Truman released his recognition statement to the press without notifying them first. 

Though it is known that President Truman was a bit of an anti-Semite, he was the commander and chief of the victorious United States military, who had defeated the Nazi war machine under Adolph Hitler and brought peace to Europe. The Jews were heavily persecuted by Hitler and his dreadful holocaust. The Jews were then involved in an incredible series of events, which fulfilled Bible prophecy, as they regained their Jewish homeland; President Truman made a mysterious move to confirm the Jewish declaration of a new State without U.N. approval. To be consistent with the prophecy of Zechariah 1:20-21, we should declare the one who was clearly the one king most responsible for the “fray” of the “third horn;” the scattering of Israel was ended, because of the victory over Israel’s oppressors and deliberation in order to return to their land; therefore we must declare that Harry S. Truman is, in fact, the third carpenter of Zechariah 1:20-21. This can be confirmed more accurately, when we consider that the fourth beast of Daniel 7 (Roman Catholicism) is still ruling the Earth, while Harry S. Truman defied their rule, by making this amazing declaration.   

With the biblical prophecy already mentioned that confirms that there will be a fourth “scattering” of Israel, we can rest assured that it will be the Antichrist of the seven-year Seventieth Week of Daniel, who will send the people of Jerusalem scattering. It is very easy to declare the fourth carpenter of the Zechariah 1:18-21 prophecy. Ironically, He was born a carpenter’s son and became a carpenter Himself, until He started His ministry. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is the fourth carpenter of the Zechariah 1:18-21 prophecy. He will return and free Israel and cast the Antichrist into the lake of fire, Amen.

 

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Rev. 19:20)