Ambassadors for God
Not an easy vision to interpret and the angel’s explanation does little to help.
If we accept the view that Zechariah’s vision is to be seen against the fact that in the third millennium the Mesopotamian Sun-god was depicted as rising between two mountains we may assume that Zechariah saw the four chariots as messengers (or ambassadors) from God with a job to do in the four corners of the earth. The NRSV dispatches the white horses to the west country and for people living on the east coast we need not worry that the east is not specified. Take it as figurative.
What they are to do is equally unclear but v 8 seems to suggest that success is establishing some kind of stability which would ‘quieten the spirit’ of the Almighty. In other words, if Yahweh is pleased because things have settled down a bit in the north (Babylon) this is what he (and presumably Zechariah) would like to see happening everywhere else. So it might be worth asking what could have brought about the change in the north. There are several possible answers.
The most likely is ‘a new boy on the block’ in the person of Darius, ruler of Persia, with a more open attitude to religious beliefs, tolerant of faiths other than his own, willing to lift some of the restrictions under which immigrants and minorities have been living and, far from exploiting them, more than ready to give those who wish to return the right to return and those who wish to stay the right to stay. Of course the ambassadors to the south and the west are going to find things different but if the essence of their role is to quieten the spirit of the Almighty their over-riding task is no different. Peace, harmony and freedom for people in general (and for the Jews in particular) is what matters.
Ponder Zechariah’s vision in the light of your own experience. What would such ambassadors for peace need to address in your situation. In some places the job may be very similar to that of the black horses, but what is needed where you are to bring ‘quiet to God’ and what can we do as ambassadors to bring it about?