In this episode of ‘Through the Bible,’ Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes listeners into the heart of Zechariah’s prophecies, focusing on a vision of global conflict and divine judgment unlike any seen before. As Dr. McGee unravels the symbolic representation of the four chariots and the mysterious woman in the ephah, he sheds light on the spiritual significance hidden in these prophecies and their implications for the world today. Join us as we delve deeper into understanding God’s judgment on commercialism and the hope that lies in the Word.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
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Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, where we find ourselves in really a dramatic and violent section of Scripture from the Old Testament book of Zechariah. In this latest vision, Zechariah sees a time of global conflict unlike anything the world has ever known, a war still to come. And Dr. McGee explains that this isn’t symbolic. It’s a glimpse into the really terrifying reality of the end times, when the whole earth will be engulfed in violent conflict. As the red horseman rides through the earth in chapter 6, Dr. Bege says, all hell will break loose. This is the great tribulation, a time of judgment and devastation. So let’s open God’s word together with hearts full of reverence for the Lord, who will one day say enough to evil. But let’s begin with some good news for a change on this one. Greg and I have some great things to share about our ministry, this time in Thailand and connecting to Burma.
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That’s right. So we’re talking about the Karen language. It’s spelled K-A-R-E-N, but it’s pronounced Karen. And as you said, it’s actually in the western side of Thailand and then the border with Myanmar or Burma, depending on how you want to call that country, how you want to title it. I was there and I asked them and they’re like, you can call it either. It’s OK. But powerful impact is taking place and we have some great letters.
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Yeah. This first one is from a listener named Ramon shares this. I live in a village of about fifteen hundred people. I have a family with two children, one daughter and one son. Our livelihood depends on farming and working in the fields. I’ve lived in this village since I was a child and eventually built my own family here. Sometimes life brings pressure and challenges that make it difficult for me to trust others easily. I have been living with stress and uncertainty, but ever since I started listening to this program, things have started to change. Listening to God’s word has strengthened me. I do read the Bible, but often I don’t understand it fully or forget what I’ve read. It’s hard for me to grasp the deeper meaning. However, since I began listening to these biblical teachings, I have come to understand the word of God more deeply. The messages have been very helpful and meaningful to me. Thank you for this program. My family and others in the village are very excited and truly grateful.
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This is so powerful. And Steve, we’re using a medium we don’t use much of anymore. And that’s shortwave radio. But you can tell this is a remote place. And we often say we’re media agnostic. We just want to use the medium that is the most cost effective to deliver. And clearly it’s it’s happening. Yeah. Now here’s another great testimony from a woman named Suporn. I have eight siblings and I am the eldest. I am married and I have one son. I work as a homemaker, taking care of my family. I carry many responsibilities, not only for my own family, but also for my younger siblings. Sometimes it becomes overwhelming and exhausting. Even though I may get tired from all the responsibilities, I continue to trust in God, pray, and read the Bible regularly. That’s how I came across your program. I clicked on it out of curiosity because I saw that it included Bible verses. But when I listened to it, I felt as though a heavy burden was lifted from my heart. It reminded me that God is always with us. No matter how sinful we are, God gave his son for us. I came to understand. How deeply God loves me, his daughter. I saw his greatness, how patient he is, how slow to anger, and how he doesn’t punish us immediately when we turn away from our sins, whether they are small or great. He loves us so much and has never abandoned us, not even once.
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Such an encouragement and a wonderful perspective. They can have it in that part of the world, this listener can, and I think that’s a great perspective that we can have on living the Christian life and just… the whole theology of who God is, who Christ is to us. Here’s another listener who tells us this. My name is Mr. Fanu. I have a family with 10 children, five sons and five daughters. This is interesting. Several of these testimonies, people either came out. Out of or are a part of very large families. I continue. We make a living by farming and working in the fields. Over the years, I faced many challenges. Sometimes I feel discouraged, disappointed, and drained of strength. But I thank God for his daily provision and care. Listening to your program has truly renewed my strength. Even when I feel weary, the teaching gives me encouragement and helps me press on. The days are long and my body gets tired. But when I come home and listen, it gives me hope and motivation. Again, there’s just so much that we can be thankful for. Greg, why don’t you pray for us as we begin?
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Father, your word is reaching people in remote places, and we rejoice over that and pray you to allow us to continue to fling the seed. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Turn to Zechariah 6 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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Now, friends, we come today to this sixth chapter of Zechariah. And before we do, I don’t want to let go the last chapter without clarifying something there. I’m of the opinion that there are some that have come to the conclusion that I’m a male chauvinist, that I have been rather harsh upon the female of the species in several of our recent broadcasts. And I haven’t really meant to be that way. But we saw last time this woman in a bushel basket flying through the air. She’s the first astronaut, and the first astronaut, therefore, was a woman. And she’s in this bushel basket, and it’s being carried by two women with wings of a stork. And a stork was an unclean bird. That in itself is rather suggestive. And they are taking it down to Shinar, the land of Shinar, to Babylon. And these two women are not the flying nuns either. They represent, in fact, the three women here represent an evil principle. Now, we have said that it represents because the bushel basket And that weight of lead that was there speak of big business. It speaks of commercialism. It speaks of that which is godless. And we said last time that This represented what Israel had learned from the Gentiles in Babylon. They were a pastoral, agricultural people, and they are that when they return to that land today even. But when they leave that land, they go into business. They run a store, and they get involved in that. Now, this is a picture of God’s judgment upon his people. And this woman in this bushel basket symbolizes that which is out of place religiously and spiritually. And that’s true all the way through the Word of God. In Matthew 13, 33, you have the woman that took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal. And then you have the message the Lord Jesus gave to the church in Thyatira, that he wanted that woman Jezebel put out because she was permitted to teach. She was out of place, you see. And then in Revelation 17, you have that harlot riding the beast. Now, that harlot does not represent the church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is his body. But it represents that organized religion that will be left here on the earth after the church, the true church, is removed. And I think it will go by the name of a church. And that picture is the most frightful one that we have in the Word of God. So that what we have here is a picture that represents a system. And that system involves commercialism that’s godless, big business, that worships the almighty dollar instead of the almighty God. And the almighty dollar’s not so almighty today. That’s been reduced down to a two-bit piece. It’s a little fella today. And I tell you, in this day of inflation, the almighty dollar is not a very big god to worship, and yet men still worship it. Now, all of this represents that godless system. Now, somebody says, but you put in your notes here that this is idolatry. Well, isn’t covetousness idolatry? That is the way that it is described today. Paul says, that covetousness is idolatry. And the children of Israel, they no longer worship these handmade idols when they got to Babylon, but they transferred that service over to commercialism, to making money and doing business. Now, God’s going to remove that from them for they are to be his priests during the millennium that is coming in the future. Now, this is this godless system and it originated outside of the Garden of Eden. It is a godless thing. It’s not racial in any way whatsoever. That is, it’s not confined to one race. It’s absolutely true of all races. And I want to give you the description of it that Dr. Unger gives in his book on Zechariah. He says the system comprises The whole mass of unregenerate mankind, alienated from God, hostile to Christ, and organized as a system or federation under Satan. In more than 30 important New Testament passages, a full revelation of the satanic world system is presented. Satan is revealed as its directing head. And you’ll find that in several passages of Scripture, by the way. John 12, 31, Revelation 2, 13 are a couple of them. And then the system is revealed to be wholly evil as God evaluates it. God calls it absolutely a totally evil thing. I think probably that I ought to pass on to you just one scripture, and there are several on this. Galatians 1, 4. It says, “…who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.” According to the will of God our Father, this present evil world, this world system that is wholly evil, another passage is Colossians 1.13, and it’s shown to be limited and temporary because God intends to judge it. It’s doomed to destruction at Christ’s second advent. And it’s characterized by pride and by greed and by war. And I’d like to add another word there, and that’s covetousness. And it is perpetually perilous to the child of God. Now, God intends to remove that because he’ll remove the people that have not returned to him, because though the nation has in a corporate way, yet there are many individuals that haven’t. And God intends to take it to Babylon, remove it there. Why? Because you have in Revelation 17, the judgment of religious Babylon. And you have that harlot vision that John was given. It’s, to my judgment, the most frightful vision that we have in the entire Word of God. There’s nothing quite as horrible as that. Then in the 18th of Revelation, we have God’s judgment of commercial Babylon. Big business, if you please. And this is something that has come under the judgment of Almighty God. And so we have here these frightful pictures that are given. And so I trust that you won’t blame me for adopting this interpretation because this is something that runs through the Word of God. And so we have here this woman representing actually big business, covetousness. Idolatry and all that is to be removed from God’s people because those that are given to it are to be removed themselves and they are to be judged. What a picture that we have here. Now, this is the judgment of God’s chosen people. Now, we come today to chapter 6. And when we come to chapter 6, we’ve come now actually to the last of the visions, and we’ve identified them as ten visions. And I think probably at this point I ought to give each one of them by name again as we have listed them. We had first the riders under the myrtle trees. Then we had four horns. Then the four smiths. And then the man with the measuring line. And then Joshua and Satan. And then the branch and the stone with seven eyes. Then we had seven, the lampstand and two olive trees. Then eight, the flying roll, a scroll. And the ninth, the woman in the ephah. And now we come to the tenth, the four chariots here in chapter 6. Now, some only find eight visions here, but we believe that it’s highly consistent to see that we do have ten visions that are given to us. Now, this last vision is of four chariots, and I think probably we ought to get it before us here today. I’m reading now verse 1 of chapter 6. And I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, And behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze. All right, now, for just a moment or two, let’s look at this again. And this has run all the way through. I’m sure by now it’s a little monotonous to you. But he says, I turned and lifted up mine eyes. Now, these visions are not dreams. They were given to him at night, but he was not asleep when they were given to him. His eyes were wide open. He saw these things, and a double emphasis is given time and time again, and we have it here. I lifted up mine eyes. That’s enough to let you know that he saw it, but he says, and I looked. And when you look, friends, you’ve got to use your eyes. And behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze. Now, let me go to the end of the verse and attempt to identify these two mountains. What are the two mountains? Well, I have looked at several of the commentators in this particular place here, and their interpretation, and I think most of them agree on it, or at least the majority of the outstanding ones, they believe it’s Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. And that would put you down in the Kidron Valley. So that we have here these four chariots. and they are down in the valley. Now, we assume when we see the four chariots that there are horses that are hitched to them, and we’re going to find out that there were, and that there were charioteers or drivers of the chariots, and we’ll find that that is true also. Now, since there are four chariots here, it seems that it is a reminder of the fact that we have before us here the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Now, there’s another way of interpreting this, of course. There were four great world empires that Daniel saw, and these four empires were judged of God, and they were all Gentile empires, and each one of them has been judged of God, and that part of Daniel’s vision has actually been literally fulfilled. And these four chariots could represent that very easily. But John in Revelation, speaking of that which is future, in fact, he opens that period of the great tribulation period by presenting to us the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And there is a very striking correspondence between these four chariots and the horses and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And very frankly, I’m inclined to go along with the viewpoint that though it could represent these four nations, and I’m not going to fall out with anyone that sees it like that, But that actually what we have here is the great tribulation period. It looks down to the future when God intends to judge the Gentiles. And whether it means these four nations or the great judgment at the end during the great tribulation period, I think that both are involved here. But the important thing is we saw in the last chapter, chapter 5, in both the flying scrolls, and the woman in the ephah flying through the air like an astronaut or the flying nun, why, we saw that that was judgment upon God’s earthly people, the nation Israel. Now, this reveals God’s judgment of the Gentiles. Not only a past judgment as we have in the four nations, but a future judgment that is coming during the great tribulation period. Four judgments that will finally bring to the earth the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of his kingdom here upon the earth. Now, that’s very important for us to see. Now, again, let me read this verse with that in mind. And I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots out from between the two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. Now, bronze or brass, actually, bronze was known in the earth at a very early period. Well, may I say to you, bronze goes back almost to the beginning of civilization. It’s one of the metals that you find that it was used in the tabernacle. It was used in two of the articles of furniture that were used in the judgment of sin. One was the brazen altar. and the other was the lava of brass. Both of them stood in the outer court and had to do with the judgment of sin and sins in the lives of these people. And so here, I would assume that since these mountains are called now the two mountains and they are of bronze, what he’s saying is, that we’re speaking of judgment, that judgment is going forth from God, and the four judgments now are mentioned. And we’ll not be able to get very far here. We’ll want to finish this next time. Now, will you notice we have before us here in verse 2, before the first chariot were red horses, and before the second chariot were black horses. And before the third chariot, white horses. And before the fourth chariot, we have here, the New Scofield Reference Bible has dappled and bay horses. Well, the old translation had gristled. Well, I like the word dappled better, although I don’t know what it means. I’m not Oh, I know what the dictionary says, but I’m not quite sure that I’m clear on what kind of horses they are here, other than they were pale horsey. That, I think, is quite evident. Now, again, may I say to you, we have the same color horses in the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And I don’t think that this is accidental by any means that Zechariah gave this of the chariots, John of the four horsemen, and we’re speaking actually about the same thing. Now, the red horse in John’s vision represents war. And the second one, black horse, that represents the fact of famine that was coming on the earth. And then the pale horse is the pale horse of death, and that is plague that is coming on the earth. All of these being judgments from Almighty God. Now there is the white horses that are here also. Now the white horse is a horse that a great many like to identify as victory. Well, the white horse is the horse that you find in Revelation. The first white horse is ridden by one, and then immediately after him is the red horse of war. I think the first horseman represents Antichrist. and that he will bring a false peace into the world. Because after him, there breaks upon the earth actually the red horse of war, and war breaks out. And I don’t think we’ve really seen a world war yet. I think that this earth will be inflamed. by the war that will break out in the end times, because man is a warlike creature long as there’s sin in his heart. And when that horseman rides through the earth, may I say, and I say it reverently today, all hell will break loose on this earth at that particular time, because no one today seems to emphasize how frightful the Great Tribulation is going to be when it breaks upon this earth. And it will be the riding of that horse. So I think this is something for the encouragement of those people in that day that Zechariah gave it to them, that God would judge the Gentile nations as He’ll judge His own. but that there is coming down yonder in the future. And John picks that up, the judgment of God upon the earth when the four horsemen of the apocalypse ride forth. Now, we’ll look at these more in detail next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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Well, we don’t know when those four horsemen will ride, so we’re urgently and faithfully getting the word out while people still have the opportunity to turn to God. You know, you can partner with Through the Bible in prayer and support by clicking on Give in our app or by calling us at 1-800-65-BIBLE, or you can visit us at ttb.org. The greatest pulpits in the world are not in churches, so where are they? Well, join us for the answer as we continue our journey through Zechariah next time.
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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left the crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?
