Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/38

 that there is probability in the suggestion that it is on account of its sacred connection with Haggai's ministry, and especially on account of it being the day on which they earnestly took in hand the work of rebuilding the Temple, that it was chosen as a day for further Divine revelations.

This 24th day of the eleventh month was, as already stated, exactly two months after the last promise issued through Haggai to the people that the Lord would hence forth bless His nation, and would glorify it in the future.

" To set forth in symbol and imagery this blessing and glorification, and to exhibit the leading features of the future conformation of the Kingdom of God, was the object of these revelations."

These visions, which addressed themselves more to the prophet's mental and spiritual sight than to his ears, are called debhar Yehovah " the word of Jehovah " because the pictures seen in the spirit, together with their interpreta tion, had the significance of verbal revelations, and through them the will and purposes of Jehovah were communicated to him.

Divinely communicated visions were one of the " divers manners " in which God spake in times past in the prophets to the fathers, even as we read in Num. xii. 6:

"If there be a prophet among you, I, Jehovah, will make Myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him (literally, in him ) in a dream."

The whole series of visions which were granted to the prophet, probably in rapid succession one after the other with only short pauses between, in one night, though distinct and in a sense each one complete in itself " form (as we shall see) a substantially connected picture of the future of Israel linked on to the then existing time, and closing with the prospect of the ultimate completion of the Kingdom of God."

The general plan in all these visions is first to present the symbol, and then, on a question being put, to supply the inteipretation.