DEVOTION//Four carpenters

Then I looked up, and there before me were four horns.  I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these?”

He answered me, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.”

Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.  I asked, “What are these coming to do?”

He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise their head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people” (Zechariah 1:18-21)

Spurgeon

London's famous preacher, Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), encourages us to wait patiently when we or his Church are assailed by "monsters." He points us to the King James translation of the Zechariah 1:20, God will raise up "carpenters."

The Hebrew word has a broader sense than carpenter. It includes blacksmiths, manufacturers, masons, and workers, in general. Current translations favor "craftsman." But no matter the specific craftsman we think of, the point is clear, God will always prepare the right worker to protect his people. How could the God who "showed his love among us …[and] sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9) do otherwise?

Four horns

“And the LORD shewed me four carpenters” (Zechariah 1:20, KJV).

In the vision described in this chapter, the prophet saw four terrible horns. They were pushing this way and that way, dashing down the strongest and the mightiest; and the prophet asked, “What are these?”

The answer was, “These are the horns which have scattered Israel.”

He saw before him a representation of those powers which had oppressed the church of God. There were four horns; for the church is attacked from all quarters.

Four carpenters

Well might the prophet have felt dismayed; but on a sudden there appeared before him four carpenters.

He asked, “What shall these do?”

These are the men whom God hath found to break those horns in pieces.

• God will always find men for his work, and he will find them at the right time.

• The prophet did not see the carpenters first, when there was nothing to do, but first the “horns,” and then the “carpenters.”

• Moreover, the Lord finds enough men. He did not find three carpenters, but four; there were four horns, and there must be four workmen.

• God finds the right men; not four men with pens to write; not four architects to draw plans; but four carpenters to do rough work.

Specially created carpenters

Rest assured, you who tremble for the ark of God, that when the “horns” grow troublesome, the “carpenters” will be found. You need not fret concerning the weakness of the church of God at any moment. There may be growing up in obscurity the valiant reformer who will shake the nations: Chrysostoms may come forth from our Ragged Schools, and Augustines from the thickest darkness of London’s poverty.

The Lord knows where to find his servants. He hath in ambush a multitude of mighty men, and at his word they shall start up to the battle; “for the battle is the Lord’s,” and he shall get to himself the victory.

Let us abide faithful to Christ, and he, in the right time, will raise up for us a defense, whether it be in the day of our personal need or in the season of peril to his Church.