Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/47

 prophet's address to him, which, as pointed out above, is not Adonai, my Lord, but adoni, my lord. Nothing higher is ascribed to this angel than the explanation of visions. Sometimes (as in i. 9, ii. 3, 4) not even that, but the preparation of the prophet's mind to understand the explanation which is given by the Lord Himself.

(d} To the same conclusion also we are led by the analogy of other apocalyptic places in the Old Testament Scriptures. In Dan. viii. 16 and x. 5-18, for instance, two heavenly beings are seen by the prophet, which stand in exactly the same relation as " the angel that talked with me " stands to " the Angel of Jehovah " in the visions of Zechariah; and in the last apocalyptic book of the New Testament we have another parallelism in our Lord Jesus Christ: "The Angel of Jehovah" of Old Testament revelation, sending by the hand of an angel, to signify " unto His servant John," for him in his turn to make known to the Seven Churches the Revelation which the Father first gave to Him.

We see, then, that " the angel that talked with me " is not the same as the Divine Angel of Jehovah the Messenger of the Covenant but an attendant angel whose mission it was to be God's expositor to the prophet of the meaning of the visions.

The answer to the prophet's question, " What are these? " in ver. 9, is given by " the man " that stood among the myrtles, in the 10th verse: " These are they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth" How full of consolation for God's people is a statement like this! Satan, when appearing as the accuser of Job in the presence of God, said that he came " from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." And what the aim and object of his restless activity in the earth is, we are told by the Apostle Peter in his earnest warning, " Be sober, be watchful, for your adversary the devil (full of hatred and fiendish cunning, as his names imply, and ever ready with fresh traps and snares for our destruction) as