Day 2: Night Visions of Comfort and Restoration
Zechariah 1:7–2:13 Three months after the opening call, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, Zechariah received a series of night visions that form the heart of chapters 1–6. The first three visions establish God’s heart toward His people and His city. In the first vision Zechariah sees a man riding a red horse among myrtle trees in a bottom (1:8). Behind him stand red, speckled, and white horses. These are the Lord’s patrol, sent to walk to and fro through the earth. They report that the whole earth sits still and is at rest. The angel of the Lord then intercedes: “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?” (1:12). The Lord’s answer is full of comfort: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy… I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it… and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerus...