The number, four, clearly brings to our mind again the four great Gentile world-powers, whose successive course makes up " the times of the Gentiles," and whose final over throw must precede the restoration and blessing of Israel, and the visible establishment of the Messianic kingdom.
In this connection it is again interesting to observe that these four " chariots " are explained to be the " four winds." Now, in Dan. vii. 13 we read of the four winds of heaven " striving," or " breaking," upon " the great sea," which caused the four great Beasts, " diverse one from the other" (symbolical of the four great Gentile world-powers), to arise; and here we see the " four winds " sent forth to break up these same empires; from which we may surely learn that it is by the will and power of God, and by His direct interposition, either by visible, natural, or by angelic agency, that empires rise and fall.
There is a certain parallelism to be observed also between this vision and the second act of the historical prophetic drama unfolded in the vision of the four horns and four carpenters (chap. i. 18-21) only here we have the great fact still more clearly brought out, that behind visible phenomena and all human motives and actions there is the eternal purpose and power of God, and the invisible active agency of His angelic hosts.
But there is a difficulty in connection with the number of the chariots, and in the description of the colours of the horses, which we must face before proceeding further. The difficulty, briefly stated, is this: In the vision itself (vers. 2, 3) the prophet beholds four chariots, in the first of which were red horses, in the second black, in the third white, and in the fourth grisled horses, to which last is also added the epithet D^ps (amutsim> " strong "); but in the inter pretation by the interpreting angel (vers. 5-7) the first with the red horses is passed over. The black and the white are explained as going forth into the north country, the grisled into the south, and then we read of the amutsim (" strong "), which in ver. 3 are the same as the " grisled," wanting to go forth on a separate, or yet another mission.
