This vision of the horns and smiths should be viewed as a continuation or fulfillment of the events of the first vision. During the entire Time of the Gentiles the Jews have been horribly persecuted. God wants Israel to receive a sense of comfort that He is working behind the scenes to amend the excessive punishment the gentiles have and will continue to apply to Israel. Because the Temple is about to be rebuilt (516 B.C.) and it is this vision which is being given in 520 B.C. that the Lord is implying that that Israel was now free from oppression and could attend to rebuilding the Temple that the Babylonians destroyed in 586 B.C. The Temple is of immense importance to God and the life of the Israelites.
Looking back on a period about two and a half thousand years this small nation of people have been “scattered” and “tossed” about, by the Gentile nations, but always preserved from being destroyed from off the earth, and without losing its national characteristics and identity. The Lord God swore that so long as the sun and the ordinances of the moon and the stars continue to be present in the sky, Israel would continue as a nation.
NOTES HERE: https://media-cloud.sermonaudio.com/text/414141552423.pdf
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