VISIONS CONCERNING CHRIST
In the first of the five visions concerning Christ, Christ is unveiled as the Man as the Angel of Jehovah riding on a red horse and standing among the myrtle trees (1:7-17). The myrtle trees signify the humiliated yet precious people of Israel in their captivity. Christ’s riding on a red horse indicates that He was the redeeming One. His being the Angel of Jehovah indicates that He was the One sent by God to take care of His people with much expectation while they were in captivity.
In the second vision (vv. 20-21) Christ is the last Craftsman used by God to break the four horns—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire—which damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God (vv. 18-19). Christ will be the unique One not only to break the four horns but also to smash the entire human government from the toes to the head, as signified by the great human image in Daniel 2.
In the next vision Christ is the One who measures Jerusalem in order to possess it (Zech. 2:1-2). This One not only possesses Jerusalem but also becomes the center of Jerusalem as the glory within her and the circumference of Jerusalem as the wall of fire round about her (v. 5). Furthermore, He is both the sending One and the sent One. He, Jehovah of hosts, has sent Himself as the Angel of Jehovah (vv. 8-9, 11).
In the fourth vision Christ is unveiled as the topstone of grace (4:7). As indicated in 3:9, upon this stone are seven eyes, signifying the seven Spirits, that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Christ is therefore the topstone of grace to consummate God’s building with the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
The fifth vision involving Christ is the vision of the lampstand of gold and the two olive trees (4:2-3, 11-14). The lampstand here signifies the nation of Israel as the collective testimony of God shining out all His virtues. We may say that this lampstand is also a type of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. In Zechariah’s time the two olive trees were Joshua and Zerubbabel, but during the three and a half years of the great tribulation, the two olive trees will be Moses and Elijah.
(Life-Study of Zechariah, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee)
