A Walk Through the Bible – Zechariah
Scripture Texts: Zechariah 1:1-6, 16-17; Zechariah 9:9; Zechariah 12:10; Zechariah 13:1
We come this evening to the penultimate OT prophet. Only Malachi remains.
After 70 long years of captivity in Babylon under oppressive foreign rule, God raised up the Persian empire to defeat the Babylonian empire. Under the new pagan king of Persia, Cyrus and later Darius allow God’s people to start returning to Judah and Jerusalem. They are completely unaware they are pawns in God’s grand redemptive purposes for Israel and the world.
Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel and Joshua the people return. Only about 50,000 Jews out of a few million return. But what they go back to is nothing like what they left. Their homeland is destroyed, it is no longer that Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, olive oil and pomegranates. Jerusalem, the city of God is laid waste and her walls are torn down, a symbol of shame and defeat. Their temple of worship, the house of God is completely destroyed and looted. Her former glory is gone.
To make matters worse the Samaritans have them hemmed in on the north and hate the presence of the Jews and so are constantly harassing them. The Jews were isolated and small. The people were quickly defeated, dejected, in despair. Where is their God in all this?
God then raises up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to accompany God’s people back home. God sends messagers of hope, calling them to start again, to rebuild. The first message was delivered by Haggai and a couple of months later a second message comes from Zechariah.
Haggai encouraged the people to rebuild the temple based on making God their first priority. Zechariah encouraged the people to rebuild the temple based on the future to show the hope they have because of who God is and what God is going to do through His people.
The context is the same, but their messages are very different. God always has more to say. Their return and their rebuilding are not just about the present. God is going to rekindle hope in God’s covenant with Israel, hope in the kingdom, hope in the priesthood, hope in Israel’s worship, all of this grounded in the hope of a Messiah.
Zechariah is the most major of all the minor prophets. It is the longest of all the minor prophets and it is the most messianic of all the minor prophets and second only to Isaiah in messianic references and in being quoted or alluded to in the NT, over 60 times. The New Testament authors saw Jesus everywhere in Zechariah.