His name means “Yahweh remembers”. The prophet is identified as “the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.” Iddo was among the leaders of the priestly families that returned from exile to Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel and the High Priest Joshua (Nehemiah 12: 4).
Zechariah was born in exile in Babylon. Nehemiah mentions his presence in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 8: 4) and Ezra describes his ministry (Ezra 5: 1). Zechariah took over the short ministry of Haggai to encourage the returnees. His was a longer period of ministry; lasting at least three years. He was writing just after Daniel and Ezekiel.
According to tradition, Zechariah was a member of the Great Counsel (the precursor of the Sanhedrin) a group of 120 religious leaders originated by Nehemiah and presided over by Ezra. According to Matthew 23: 35, Zechariah was murdered in the temple area.
The Historical Context.
Zechariah lived and prophesied during the period following the Babylonian captivity. Jermiah had predicted that Israel would return to the land after seventy years of disciplining in exile. Adonai began to fulfil this promise when He raised up Cyrus, king of Persia, whose military exploits brought down the kingdom of Babylonia.
The people of Judah were among those who benefitted from the downfall of Babylonia. The first group of returnees to the land were led by Zerubbabel and came in 537 BC. But their desire to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem was thwarted for some years by enemies. Re-building was eventually allowed to recommence by Darius, king of Persia, in 520 BC.
The Book of Zechariah.
The fourteen chapters of the Book of Zechariah are quoted some forty times in the New Testament. It is the most messianic and eschatological book in the Old Testament after Isaiah.
Primarily, it is a prophesy about the Lord Yeshua focusing on His coming in glory as a means of comfort for Israel at a time when Jerusalem was in ruins and they were under the control of Persia. It is full of the language of judgment but also full of promises of Adonai.
Adonai, through Zechariah, challenges the people to undertake an overwhelmingly difficult task and He assures them of success through His power.
The promises of Adonai extend beyond the rebuilding of the temple. From beginning to end scripture tells the story of Adonai’s redemptive plan; culminating in His triumph over evil and the salvation of repentant sinners.
Zechariah’s prophesies anticipate the grand culmination of history, describing a coming glorious king: a God who will triumph over all and a world with wrongs corrected. These promises set the stage for Adonai’s future kingdom which is why Zechariah is so quoted in the New Testament. This is the overarching theme of the Book: the restoration of Adonai’s people in the redeeming and delivering work of the coming Messiah.
The Themes of the Book of Zechariah.
It is no small task to summarise the themes covered in Zechariah’s fourteen chapters. He covers a great deal.
Haggai was called by Adonai to return the people to work on the temple. Zechariah began his prophetic ministry just two months later. With the people committed to restoring the temple worship and the building itself, Adonai could pour out His blessings on a repentant and spiritually revitalised people.
Therefore, Zechariah had two purposes.
He would encourage the returning exiles to turn to the Lord, be cleansed from sin and experience again Adonai’s blessings.
Also, he could comfort and encourage the people regarding the rebuilding of the temple and assure them of Adonai’s future work among them.
Zechariah encouraged the people by focusing on Adonai’s choice of Jerusalem (despite its present ruined state) and by assuring them that the Lord had not set aside His covenant people. Israel’s enemies will be overthrown; there is a glorious future for Zion. This will come with the universal reign of Messiah.
Zechariah teaches a good deal about the First and Second Coming of Messiah; he also alludes to Messiah’s ministry as Priest-King. He foretells the triumphal entrance to Jerusalem on a colt; His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver; the piercing of His hands and feet and the cleansing from sin provided by His death.
Zechariah’s writing commences with a call to repentance and a returning to the Lord of Hosts. He then provides a striking illustration of the removal of sin and the imputation of righteousness with the account of the removal of the High Priest’s filthy garments and the divine provision of clean festal robes.
Zechariah points out the need for a personal relationship with Adonai. Such a relationship changes attitudes to others. He condemns the oppression of the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the poor. He calls Adonai’s people back to the virtues of justice, compassion and truth.
In eight visions, Zechariah predicts the overthrow of the Gentile nations, the judgment on apostate Jews because of the rejection of the Lord Yeshua, the cleansing restoration and glory for the believing remnant and the future prosperity of Jerusalem.
An Outline of the Book of Zechariah.
Chapter 1 vv. 1 – 6. An exhortation to repent and obey and a warning to learn from the errors of their forefathers.
Chapter 1: 7 – 6: 15. The visions of Zechariah designed to encourage the people to rebuild the temple. This includes: – chapter 1 vv. 12 – 15 The Lord’s choice of Jerusalem; chapter 2 vv. 10 – 13 The lord will reside with His people; chapter 3: 8 The first coming of Messiah.
Chapter 7: 1 – 8: 23. The question of fasting; the Lord’s rebuke for empty ritualism; the future restoration of Zion. This includes: – chapter 7: 5 – 7 The importance of a personal relationship with Adonai.
Chapter 9:1 – 11: 17 An oracle concerning the nations and Israel.
Chapter 12: 1 – 14:21. An oracle concerning Israel’s future emphasising Messiah’s Second Coming including: – chapter 12:10 – 12 14. The conversion of Israel at Messiah’s second coming; chapter 13: 1 The cleansing from sin provided by Messiah’s death; chapter 14: 16 – 21 Worship in Messiah’s kingdom.
We will look at six extracts from the Book of Zechariah.
Zechariah 1: 14 – 17.
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, “I am zealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; for I was a little angry, and they helped – but with evil intent.”
Therefore says the Lord: “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,” says the Lord of hosts, and a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”
“Again proclaim saying,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion, and I will again choose Jerusalem.””
The Lord is “zealous for Jerusalem”. Adonai’s great passion for the city and its inhabitants is revealed here. He longs to bless them. The use of the term “Zion” indicates His great affection for the city.
The “comforting angel” tells Zechariah to report that Adonai was now angry with the nations. He had used them to punish idolatrous and unrepentant Israel. But the nations had gone too far and had acted with evil intent.
Adonai had been injured by the unfaithfulness of Israel but His great zeal for His people has provoked Him to act against their enemies.
Adonai here reveals His passion in defence of His special relationship with Israel and Jerusalem. He promises to show compassion on His people and to rebuild the temple and the city. The city had been in ruins for seventy years. The use of a “surveyor’s line” indicates plans to rebuild.
Isaiah 40: 2.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her war has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Adonai “will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 2: 12). Although in the end times many nations will join themselves to Adonai, this will not alter His choice of His people.
Adonai’s favour has rested on Israel above any nation on earth. He snatched them from potential disappearance. He confirms His purpose for Israel all the way to the consummation of human history.
Adonai’s Promise to Dwell among His People.
Zechariah 2: 10 and 11.
“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, ”Says the Lord. “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.”
Not only did Adonai choose Jerusalem again for the location of the temple, but He will reside there in the Lord’s millennial kingdom. So great is Adonai’s love for Israel that He will come in full presence to Jerusalem again and dwell with His people.
Chapter 8: 3.
“Thus says the Lord: “I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.”
The label “City of Truth” will be valid only when Messiah brings His righteous reign to the city. Then the land will be indeed “holy”, but only because of the presence of the Lord. It will be the “City of Truth” because the Lord Yeshua is truth.
In the days of Messiah’s kingdom on earth, Israel will bring Adonai’s message as originally intended and bring multitudes to the Lord Yeshua. Messiah, amid Jerusalem, will draw people to Himself. The people of the world will come to Jerusalem to see their Saviour King.
The First Coming of Messiah.
Zechariah 3: 8.
“Hear, O Joshua, the High Priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are a wondrous sign; for behold I am bringing forth My Servant, the BRANCH.”
The coming Messiah is depicted as Adonai’s “Servant”.
Isaiah 53: 11.
“By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”
He is also referred to as “the BRANCH”. Messiah will grow out of the root of the family of Jesse as a tender sprout shoots up from the ground. He will rise from humble origins.
The High Priest, Joshua, cleansed and restored by Adonai (vv. 4 and 5) and his companions were a “wondrous sign” because of the restitution of the priesthood made public Adonai’s continuing intention to fulfil His promise to His people.
In chapter 13: 7, we see Messiah’s sacrificial death.
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,” says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; then I will turn My hand against the little ones.”
Firstly, we should note that Adonai refers to Messiah as “My Companion”, indicating a relationship of equality.
It should be noted that it is Adonai who commands the “sword” (an instrument of death) to strike Messiah. This clearly indicates that the death of Messiah was no accident, but was divinely determined from the foundation of the world.
The phrase “turn my hand against the little ones” causes confusion.
One suggestion is that it is a reference to the remnant of believers who were faithful to the Lord after the crucifixion and could be translated “turn My hand upon the little ones.”
The “scattered sheep” could apply to the disciples who abandoned the Lord after His arrest.
However, it seems likely to refer to the general persecution of the Jews through history as a shepherd less people who had rejected their Messiah. Verses 8 and 9 refer to “two thirds” being “cut off”.
The Importance of a Personal Relationship with Adonai. Chapter 7: 5 – 7.
Here we have a delegation coming to the priests to ask if they should continue the pattern of fasting, they had inaugurated in captivity now that the temple was rebuilt. The fast of the fifth month was to mark the destruction of the temple in 586 BC and the fast in the seventh month lamented the assassination of the governor, Gedaliah (2 Kings 25: 25).
“Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years did you really fast for Me – for Me? When you eat and drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited.”
Biblical fasting is meant to be a time taken from normal routines of preparing and eating food to express humility and dependence on Adonai. There is only one required fast in the Law of Moses; the Day of Atonement.
The fasts this delegation was talking about were a ritual for themselves and were not held out of a desire to honour Adonai. These people would have been better off listening to the warnings provided by the pre-exile prophets.
“Did you really fast for Me?”, asks the Lord. Zechariah points out that they were not fasting out of genuine sorrow or repentance but out of self-pity. The important thing is not carrying out ritual but obedience to Adonai’s word. In the past Israel had enjoyed peace, happiness and prosperity when they obeyed. But Zechariah’s generation, while avoiding the idolatry of their predecessors, were in danger of substituting ritual for obedience and would therefore lose blessing.
The people were beginning to fall into the evil of regarding their ceremonies superstitiously; losing the vitality of godliness. They multiplied ceremonies to themselves and neglected the weightier matters of the law. The spirit of pharisaism had commence to take its grip.
The Conversion of Israel at Messiah’s Second Coming and Cleansing from Sin Nationally. Chapter 12: 10 – 14.
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.”
Clearly here, Zechariah is looking forward to the time when the Lord has destroyed the armies of the nations that came against Israel. The people of Israel who have survived are ripe for repentance. Like heavy rain, the “the spirit of grace and supplication” will come down on them i.e., the gracious working of the Holy Spirit that leads to conversion and repentance. This will provoke an attitude of repentance and prayer for Adonai’s mercy. They will look on or to Messiah who was pierced with a nails, and a spear after His death on the cross and everyone will greatly mourn Him.
The reference to “Hadad Rimmon” concerns the death of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35: 20 – 24). But this sorrow and mourning is over the Lord Yeshua and will include members of the royal family and the priesthood. This sorrow will be felt by each and every individual personally. (Shimei was Levi’s grandson).
Zechariah 13: 1.
“In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.”
Having been brought to a place of repentance over their rejection of Messiah, the “fountain” for cleansing (an abundant provision) will be made available by Adonai. The “fountain for cleansing” which was opened at Golgotha will be available to all Israel for cleansing from the impurity of sin at the Lord’s Second Coming.
Worship in the Messianic Kingdom.
Zechariah 14: 16 – 21.
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This is the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.”
The repentant and believing people among the nations which attacked Jerusalem, will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord Yeshua and to celebrate Sukkot. Tabernacles will be the only festival of thanksgiving not fulfilled in the new kingdom where thanksgiving will be a continuing theme.
According to Ezekiel chapter 45, the other feasts to be kept in the kingdom will be the Festival of New Year (the first day of the first month) and Passover (the fourteenth day of the first month). These represent a symbolic anticipation or remembrance of the Lord Yeshua’s unique and once-for-all sacrifice at Golgotha.
The words “Holiness to the Lord” was on the turban worn by the High Priest (Exodus 28: 37). But in Messiah’s kingdom, holiness will permeate all aspects of life even cooking pots and horses’ harnesses.
In that day, holiness will be the guiding principle for every aspect of common life. Ordinary actions of human life in obedience to Adonai’s law will be as much to the worship of Adonai as a sacrifice on the altar or the High Priest entering the veil.
Verse 21. The reference a “Canaanite” may simply mean a morally and spiritually unclean person, or to the merchants who frequented the temple and the temple court selling their goods; the sort of people that the Lord expelled.
In this coming age, profit will come from the worship of Adonai.
Conclusion.
It seems quite ridiculous to describe Zechariah as a “minor” prophet. He covers so much; not least the future of all mankind. Therefore, we can take a great deal from his writing.
Trust in the Lord can empower us with every encouragement and hope. In the ruins of Jerusalem, with the people still under Persian control, Zechariah could describe to them Adonai’s promise of a glorious future Kingdom under Messiah.
Judgment for wrongdoing leads to disciplining but does not lead to abandonment by the Lord. Repentance leads to restoration.
In what seems the most hopeless of situations, the Lord is in control and on His loyalty we can trust.
AMEN