The Prophet Zechariah

[!NOTE] Primary Scripture Reading: Zechariah 1:2-6

I. Background

1. Zechariah started prophesying two months after Haggai started
2. During the period when Judah returned from captivity and was rebuilding Jerusalem
3. Haggai urged the people to rebuild the temple
4. Zechariah urged the people to turn their hearts completely to God
5. Like Ezekiel and Daniel, Zechariah is delivered mostly with visions
6. Zechariah’s prophecy is full of anticipation of the Messiah and the rule of His kingdom.
7. “Few books of the Old Testament are as difficult of interpretation as that of Zechariah. Jewish expositors like Abarbanel and Jarchi, and Christian interpreters such as Jerome, have been forced to concede that they failed ‘to find their hands’in the exposition of the prophet’s visions (using a Hebrew idiom found in Ps. 76:5), and that they passed from one labyrinth to another, and from one cloud into another until they were lost. And, indeed, the scope of the prophet’s vision and the spiritual profundity of his thought challenge the most earnest reflection. In fact, it is no exaggeration to affirm that of all the prophetic compositions of the Old Testament, Zechariah’s visions and oracles are the most messianic, and, accordingly, the most difficult, because mingled and intermingled with so much that is apocalyptic and eschatological.” (Robinson, pg. 149)” from David Padfield class book on The Minor Prophets

II. Reminder to not ignore the prophets, 1:2-6 (reading)

1. Reminded them that God sent prophets before Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation was taken captive and their fathers ignored the warnings.
2. Their prophesies were based on the commandments and statutes: the prophets came and went but God’s covenant, given at Mt. Sinai, continued and their fathers were punished because they disregarded it.

III. Summary of Zechariah’s Visions and their meanings

1. Horseman (1:7-17): God’s watchmen who survey the earth. Though all appears at ease, God is preparing for judgment on the nations.
2. Horns and Craftsmen (1:18-21): Those who afflicted Judah would be punished
3. Measuring Line (2:1-13): Jerusalem would be repopulated and the glory of the temple would be great in this restoration
4. Joshua the High Priest (3:1-10): Joshua, clothed in filthy garments is being accused by Satan. Satan is rebuked and Joshua is given new clothes.
5. Golden Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees (4:1-14): The temple will be restored with God’s power and the worship restored.
6. Flying Scroll (5:1-4): A large scroll with condemnation against liars and thieves who will be purged from the land.
7. Woman in a Basket (5:5-11): Wickedness, personified by the woman, is removed from the land.
8. Four Chariots (6:1-8): In the first vision the horses are going throughout the land, in this vision the horses and chariots carry out the work of God in bringing punishment to the wicked and rest and protection to the righteous.

IV. Prophesies of Jesus

1. The Branch
2. My Servant the Branch (3:6-10)
3. Crown and the Temple (6:9-15) He would grow out and “branch out” to build the temple.
4. Jeremiah 23:5-6
5. Descendant of David who would reign and prosper and save Judah Is “The Lord our Righteousness”
6. Zechariah 3:6-9
7. Bring forth His servant, the BRANCH.He would remove sin in one day.
8. Summary
9. David’s descendant who would reign, build up the temple and remove sin in one day.“The Lord our Righteousness”
10. Jesus is BRANCH
11. David’s descendant who reigns
12. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 establishes His genealogy to David Acts 2:27-32 – The descendant on the throne
13. The “Lord of Righteousness”
14. Romans 5:19 – By one man’s obedience righteousness came Romans 3:21-26 – Righteousness through Jesus
15. He would build the temple
16. Ephesians 2:19-22 – We are the temple1 Corinthians 3:9, 16-17 – We are the temple of God
17. He would remove sin in one day
18. Hebrews 9:28 Hebrews 10:10-12

A. Coming King of Zion (9:9-11, 16)

B. Triumphal entry: Matthew 21:1-10

C. Through His death, Jesus freed us from sin.

D. The doomed flock and the shepherd (11:4-17)

E. Matthew 27:1-10 - betrayal of the Good Shepherd

F. Meaning: Many see in it the destruction that befell Israel and Jerusalem by the hands of the Romans in A.D. 70. Because Israel’s shepherds (leaders) rejected its Good Shepherd for which they paid a paltry 30 pieces of silver (cf. Mt 27:1-10), they were rejected by God. (Mark Copeland)

G. The pierced one (12:7-13:1)

H. Though salvation is given to Judah, they will mourn that over the one who is pierced.

I. But on that day a fountain shall be opened to cleanse them from unrighteousness

J. The struck shepherd (13:7-9)

K. Matthew 26:31-32 – applied to Jesus

L. It will test the followers and refine them

V. Though we cannot study the prophecy in detail, we can appreciate the precise detail with which God’s prophet predicted events in the life of Jesus for which He had no direct control, the plan of God which would unfold over hundreds of years, and the glory of the new kingdom, the church, which they could only see in prophecy but which we enjoy.