worldly paramours in the Babylonish “land of Shinar” have no reason to go back to that “wickedness” that belongs in that place of its inception. Our course of loyalty to Jehovah as the Sovereign Lord and only true God is to persist in his pure, undefiled worship at his spiritual temple under his High Priest, Jesus Christ. We take to heart what his inspired psalmist has written: “Jehovah is guarding all those loving him, but all the wicked ones he will annihilate.”​—Psalm 145:20.

Chapter 13

Chariots of God Safeguard Coronation

1. Are the chariots seen in Zechariah’s eighth vision those brought up from Egypt?

CHARIOTS make their appearance in the eighth and final vision given to the prophet Zechariah. These chariots are not any brought up from Egypt for the protection of the temple builders at Jerusalem in that year of the vision, 519 B.C.E., or the second year of the reign of King Darius I of Persia. The higher source of these more powerful chariots is revealed in the vision. Let us watch with Zechariah as they dash on the scene:

2. From between what did the chariots come forth, how many were there, and by what kind of horses were they drawn?

² “Then I raised my eyes again and saw; and, look! there were four chariots coming forth from between two mountains, and the mountains were copper mountains. In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot, black horses. And in the third chariot there were white horses; and in the fourth chariot, horses speckled, parti-colored.”​—Zechariah 6:1-3.

3. What do the colors of the horses serve to do, and what question comes up as to the mountains?

³ We need not make guesses as to what the differentiating colors of the horses mean. The colors of the horses served to distinguish the chariots pulled by each color group. How many horses were hitched to each chariot, Zechariah does not tell us. But those two copper mountains from between which the four chariots come forth​—what do they represent? They certainly do not picture the mountain height of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives right to its east. What they stand for becomes clear from what Zechariah is now told:

4. From where does the angel say that the chariots come forth?

⁴ “And I proceeded to answer and say to the angel who was speaking with me: ‘What are these, my lord?’ So the angel answered and said to me: ‘These are the four spirits of the heavens that are going forth after having taken their station before the Lord of the whole earth.’”​—Zechariah 6:4, 5.

5. Who is “the Lord of the whole earth,” and why did the four chariots take their stand before him?

⁵ Aha! not material war chariots from the flatlands of Egypt are these, but they are visionary chariots, symbolizing the “four spirits of the heavens that are going forth after having taken their station before the Lord of the whole earth.” And who is that “Lord of the whole earth”? (Zechariah 4:14) It is Jehovah of armies. (Micah 4:13) And where is he located? In the heavens, in his holy spiritual temple. It is before Him that these four symbolic chariots present themselves, taking their stand respectfully before Him to receive their official commission, their assignments with respect to the earth of which He is the Lord. After that they emerge from between the two symbolic copper mountains.

6. Scripturally, what do the two copper mountains picture?

⁶ These two mountains of copper must accordingly picture mountains of God. That is to say, governmental organizations of God. This is not surprising, for in the Holy Scriptures mountains are used as the symbols of royal governments, kingdoms. For example, God’s angel said to the Christian apostle John concerning the seven-headed wild beast that carried the harlot, Babylon the Great: “The seven heads mean seven mountains, where the woman sits on top. And there are seven kings.” (Revelation 17:9, 10) So the one copper mountain would picture the personal kingdom of Jehovah God in which he reigns as Universal Sovereign. The second copper mountain would represent the Messianic kingdom that Jehovah establishes in the hands of his only-begotten Son, Messiah Jesus.

7. (a) That second mountain was seen by Daniel in vision as coming into existence in what way? (b) When and how does the fulfillment of its work take place?

⁷ This second copper mountain is the one seen in a dream by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon just eighty-seven years before this eighth vision to Zechariah. This was at first the stone that was cut out of a large mountain without hands and that then struck and crushed the political image of Gentile domination of all mankind, after which that symbolic stone grew and became a large mountain that filled the whole earth. Explaining this mountain to be a picture of the Messianic kingdom of God’s Son, Daniel said: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:35, 44, 45) That Messianic kingdom was “cut out” in the year 1914 C.E., at the close of the Gentile Times, and in the oncoming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, it will clear the earth of all these Gentile governments.

8. When did these chariots come forth from between the two symbolic mountains, and how does their being of copper comport with what they symbolize?

⁸ Consequently, after the Gentile Times ended in early autumn of 1914 C.E., there were two symbolic “copper mountains,” namely, Jehovah’s royal government of His universal sovereignty and the Messianic kingdom of his royal Son Jesus Christ. So it is from between these two heavenly governments that the four symbolic “chariots” come forth. Evidently they came forth in the postwar year of 1919 C.E., when the remnant