Zechariah Week 1
INTRODUCTION -
Zechariah is easily the longest of the minor prophets. It’s almost the same length as the five shortest prophets combined. I plan to break it up into 5 weeks.
I think now is a pretty good time to do a brief review of our entire timeline here.
6 Major world powers
Abraham, Moses, Kingdom, Split, Fall of Israel, Fall of Judah, Exile, Return
Zechariah takes place at the same time as Haggai. Babylon has been defeated by Persia. And the Persians have allowed Israel to return from exile. There are two important people that we met in Haggai that we’ll meet again in Zechariah.
Zerubbabel - the governor of Jerusalem and the heir to the throne
Joshua - the High Priest
OUTLINE -
Great news. Everyone seems to universally agree on the outline of Zechariah. It’s very straightforward.
There is a brief introduction (vs. 1-6)
There are 8 visions followed by a sign-act (chs. 1-6)
Story of Fasting and Feasting (7-8)
Images of Messiah’s Kingdom (9-14)
2 of them (9-11, 12-14)
I really like Zechariah. One of the reasons you’ll see that Zechariah is so great is because it is much more hopeful then many of the other prophets and it has some of the most incredibly clear references to Jesus Christ of any of the minor prophets. Super clear. You’ll see them as we go.
1:1-6
We’re immediately introduced to this triangle of three characters. The Lord - circle the Lord. (8x) Next we have the prophets - box prophet (4x), last we have your fathers - underline your fathers (4x).
So the triangle is The Lord speaks to the prophets, the prophets told your fathers to repent. Your fathers did not repent. DRAW TRIANGLE
Which prophets was he talking about? What call to repent did he give? Examples of this command
“Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.” - Jeremiah 25:5
“let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him” - Isaiah 55:7
““return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God
- Joel 2:12-13
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.” - Hosea 14:1
You can’t throw a rock in the prophets without hitting the command to return to the Lord.
Ok. So they were called to repent. When did they not repent?
[Fall of Israel] Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
- 2 Kings 17:13-14
[Fall of Judah] The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. - 2 Chron. 36:15-16
So two sides of the triangle were faithful. God spoke to his prophets. His prophets spoke to the people. The people did not turn back to God.
VS 5 God explains that your fathers are gone. And warns the prophets won’t always come to you.
Confronted with this clear evidence, the people do two things
They repent (same word for “return” used earlier”
And say, God has dealt appropriately with us. Notice the words “ways and deeds” are repeated in verse 4 and the end of verse 6. We acted with evil ways and deeds and God punished our evil ways and deeds. He’s fair.
When God lays out the evidence for how he acts, in the end everyone will declare that God has done what is right. In the midst of it, we might not see it, or we’ll argue, but in the end it will be clear.
That’s the introduction to the book. Next we enter into the section featuring Zechariah’s visions. There’s going to be 8 visions and a sign-act (remember when the prophets act out something to teach a lesson to everyone). We’ve seen visions before in the book of Amos - he had multiple. We saw a sign-act before in Hosea - marrying an unfaithful woman. We’re only going to cover the first 4 visions today.
1:7-17
Big Picture of the first vision - he sees four horses. 1 man is in the lead with three following behind him. The lead man is referred to as an angel and he is the one speaking with Zechariah. The three others are presumably also angels, but they have been sent to patrol the earth. They have returned and they say, The whole earth is at rest. Hearing them say this, the lead angel cries out to God for mercy on Jerusalem. The Lord gives him a gracious response and he shares that response with Zechariah.
What should Zechariah gather from this vision?
I ask that intentionally. When it comes to visions in the Bible, we sometimes immediately try to think of what it could mean to us and we might say something like. The horses represent Russia, China, and North Korea.The myrtle trees are the communists party and we go on down the line. But if that’s true, it means that this vision meant absolutely nothing to Zechariah. So we should ask what it meant to the person it was given to, before we jump to what it means for us.
So, what should Zechariah gather from this vision? In verse 11 The lead angel hears a report from the others that all the earth remains at rest. Underline that. So the angel cries out to God for mercy on Israel. Why?
READ VS 12 Because this situation seems backwards. All the earth is at rest, but God’s own people are restless. They are struggling to obey God and to eke out an existence in Jerusalem which is no longer very prosperous. Underline “No mercy on Jerusalem”
What are the 70 years he refers to? 70 years is often referred to as the length of time that Israel was in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah prophesied that they would be in exile for 70 years and that after that 70 years he would punish the other nations. Interestingly both the books of Daniel and 2 Chronicles say, Jeremiah told us the exile would be 70 years. If you look at our timeline, you see that there’s a period of time they were away in exile. But this doesn’t look exactly like 70 years. It looks like about 50. But what counts as exile? Because the Jews didn’t all leave Israel at the same time and then all come back at the same time. One way is to count from the first deportation to the first returned exiles. That gets you pretty close, about 67-68 years. Another way is to count the destruction of the temple to the completion of the new temple. That gets you exactly 70, but the problem is that in the time of Zechariah’s prophecy here the temple hadn’t yet been finished. He’s still a few years early.
But the angel is saying, “Are you going to keep your promise? It’s been 70 years. Will you destroy the nations while building up your people?” The Lord responds to the angel with gracious and comforting words and he tells those gracious and comforting words to Zechariah.
The most important line is in vs 16. He says, “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy”. We just read in vs 3 that God said, “If you return to me, I will return to you.” Then we read in vs 6 that the people repented or that they did return. So what should we expect? God returning to them too. And that’s what happens here. He reaffirms his promise - your prosperity is coming and their judgment is coming.
Do the colors of the horses or number of them or myrtle trees mean anything? I don’t think so. I wouldn’t read into things in visions unless the text tells us what they are or it seems like they are presented as significant.
This vision sets the stage for good news for the people. Let’s look at the second one.
1:18-21
This one is pretty simple. There are four horns that attack Israel. Then those four horns are chased off by 4 craftsmen. It’s almost a direct continuation of the ideas presented in the first vision.
The four horns are nations who have oppressed Israel. Who are they? Hard to say. These ones on the board are pretty good candidates. Could be the first 4, the middle 4, or even the latter 4. I think what matters the most is that they are anybody who opposes God’s people.
They are chased off by 4 craftsmen or some translations call them blacksmiths. I read one commentator who said they were farmhands. Whoever they are, they chase off the nations so that they can’t scatter Israel anymore.
The third vision goes down to vs. 13, but I’ll read it in two parts.
2:1-5
Again, we see a continuation of the original vision. God’s enemies will be destroyed in vision 2 and God’s city will be rebuilt in vision 3. This vision has two halves. In the first half a man takes his measuring line and is going to measure the size of Jerusalem. He’s expecting this city which is still quite a bit in ruins to be restored. But he is told, don’t bother measuring. The future God has for Jerusalem is going to spill out of the walls and fill all the surrounding areas. Circle the second half of verse 4 “Jerusalem… in it” God is going to dwell in its midst and he himself will be the only wall they need.
2:6-13
VS 6-7 Then the second half of the vision carries out the implications of that. If God promises that Jerusalem is going to be filled and perfect and full. Then everyone should get up and leave the places they’ve been scattered to and come back to Jerusalem. If they believe his promises, their actions will prove it. They’ll go back.
VS. 8 The apple of his eye is an idiom. It refers to your pupil which is extremely sensitive and vulnerable. So the really romantic way to read this verse is “If anyone hurts you, they are hurting the one whom is the most precious to me.” But the more literal reading might be, “If anyone pokes you, it’s like they’re poking me in the eye”. Either way, God is communicating that he will guard his people like one would guard the most sensitive part of their face.
Now I want you to notice something that takes place in the rest of this vision that would have been rather confusing to the original readers, but makes sense to us.
Vs 9 . Someone is speaking as if they have been sent to save God’s people. “The Lord of hosts has sent me” - underline that. And again it shows up at the end of vs 11 “The Lord of hosts has sent me” - underline that again.
But then when you read verse 10 it seems like the Lord is the one who is with them. “I will dwell in your midst declares the Lord” circle that. And again in vs 11 “I will dwell in your midst”. Circle that too.
So here we have someone who is sent by the Lord, but also the Lord being with his people. So the Lord is the one who is both doing the sending and he is the one who is being sent.
Here’s where it makes sense to us in a way that may have perplexed the early readers - Jesus is God with us. Jesus is both sent by God and Jesus is God. He’s the one who makes sense of this confusing passage.
Vs 13 tells everyone to be quiet and wait for God’s purposes to come to fruition. It would take some time for Christ to arrive, but he was certainly coming.
Let’s look at one more vision today and this one is my favorite. I’ll break it up into two parts again. Remember we have two men who are significant in Jerusalem right now. Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor. We’ll see about Zerubbabel next week, but today we look at this vision featuring Joshua.
3:1-5
So we have a few characters here in this vision. Joshua the high priest is here. Satan is here. And the angel of the Lord is here. Now in verse 2 we see the Lord directly speaking to Satan, but since the Lord has been speaking through the angel of the Lord and the angel is God’s assigned representative, I think they are treated as the same in this passage. So 3 people, Joshua, Satan, and the Lord.
Joshua is standing next to the Lord wearing absolutely filthy garments. The word filthy is used twice and filthy is a gentle translation of it. The word is the word for excrement. He’s describing Joshua as being covered in the most disgusting contamination possible. One translation - the Amplified Bible - had parenthesis next to filthy and put “nauseatingly vile”.
This is not what you wear in the presence of the Lord. So Satan stands up to accuse Joshua. The name Satan actually means accuser. So we have the accuser accusing.It’s very clear what he’s accusing. “Look at this filthy man. He doesn’t deserve to be in your presence. He should be punished for even standing here.” And he’s right!! This is one of those extremely rare occasions where Satan tells the truth. He just picks the truths he likes the most. And this truth is - this man is wicked. Wicked people can’t stand before God. Wicked people should be destroyed. God ought to destroy Joshua. All of this is true.
Joshua has zero defense. He can’t argue. He’s silent. Satan is right. Now Joshua is the high priest, which means he represents all of the Jews before God. If he is condemned, all the Jews are condemned.
But the Lord rebukes Satan. He tells Satan that he has chosen Jerusalem - the people whom Joshua is representing. And he says that he has removed Jerusalem from the fire. They will not be burned.
Vs. 4 The Lord removes his filthy garments. Everything that deserves punishment and the basis for Satan’s accusations are taken off of Joshua. The Lord calls these his iniquities. His sin is being removed. He can’t be accused anymore. Put a box around “Behold… vestments”
And not only does the Lord take off his dirty clothes, he puts on new pure white clothes. Now he is dressed like someone who deserves to be in the presence of the king. Ha has his sin removed and it’s replaced with righteousness.
There is not a single image in the entire Old Testament that perfectly captures the gospel as well as this. We stand rightly condemned before God. But he graciously removes our sin and replaces it with righteousness. It’s beautiful.
Let’s finish this fourth vision
3:6-10
Vs 6-7 The Lord gives a charge to Joshua. Since he has been acquitted and cleansed he now has a responsibility to obey God’s rules and by so doing he will remain in God’s presence.
Vs 8 He presents a sign. “I will bring my servant, the branch!” Underline that. That’s a weird promise. But the Branch is a reference to the Messiah that was established in Isaiah and Jeremiah before Zechariah.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. - Isaiah 11:1
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. - Jeremiah 23:5
Vs 9 - I don’t know what the stone with seven eyes is. Commentators differ. But what’s important is that line “I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day”. Again, that’s a direct reference to the cross. In Jesus’ death, all the sin of God’s people would be removed.
Vs 10 - Under the vine and fig tree was the dream life that they lived under King Solomon.
“And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon” - 1 Kings 4:25
Zechariah says it’s all coming back.