Making Sense of Zechariah
So it was my (Byron’s) task to teach Zechariah. I honestly knew very little about the book, and in the past, it proved too daunting to even read it devotionally. These last 4 weeks have been the hardest for me to prepare for teaching. So with my inductive skills (and some helpful notes from a colleague), I got to work, to make sense out of the difficult book of Zechariah. Since most people don’t read it or know what it means, I thought it might be helpful to share it with you.
Essentially it is a very similar message to Haggai, who started prophesying to post-exilic Judah at the same time. The nation of Judah had been taken over by Babylon, and when the Persian Empire downed the Babylonians, they sent some of the Jews back to Jerusalem to build the temple. Awesome! But their efforts only made it to the foundation before they got pre-occupied with their own lives, building their own houses, getting worried about opposition, and not continuing to obey God. Fearing man and not God. Loving themselves more than the Lord who brought them out of exile. That is what both Zechariah and Haggai speak into.
So what do the people need to hear?
- Trust in the Lord, and build, even though there is opposition. I know you are weak and Persian oppressors are strong, but trust in me. “It is not by your own might or power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord.
- Obey me! I didn’t tell you to stop building, the Persians did.
- Build the temple, but know it is not about the temple, it is about you engaging in relationship with me, and about you looking towards my plans, my coming Messiah, my coming Priest King.
If they don’t even invest themselves in building the temple, they are missing the whole covenant relationship with the Lord. He is wanting to re-establish with them the covenant culture he always intended for them, with the temple in the midst of it, being a place for them to worship, a place to challenge growth with in them, and a place from which God’s witness to the nations would emanate. God’s hope is not just in the temple, but also in the people, that they would be a witness, be a blessing to the nations, like he covenanted with Abraham.
So with that being the setting, Zechariah has 8 visions that sound very cryptic, using an early form of apocalyptic literature, similar to Daniel and Revelation. He tries to paint vivid pictures to show the people what God is up to, how he is for them and against their enemies, how he has judged them and is now showing compassion to them, and how he wants to cleanse them and for them to again enter into covenant relationship with him through building the temple and resuming observance of the Mosaic/Deuteronomic covenant.
A major message of the book is that even though there is opposition against them, God wants them to trust in him and obey him when he speaks, when he encourages, and when he commands them. They don’t have any might, and their oppressors have all the might in the world, but God tells Zerubbabel to build, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Reliance on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Lean not on your own strength, but on the strength of the Lord. Listen to these prophetic visions, because God wants them to take encouragement and confidence from these. They are meant to be a confidence boost, a reason not to fear in the midst of opposition.
The last thing of note is the wealth of Messianic prophecy, second only to Isaiah in verses about the coming Christ. There are vivid pictures about things that Jesus does, like riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, his side being pierced, and being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. But then there are also the theological images of him being prophesied as a priest and king through an enacted symbol where Zechariah places a crown on the High Priest, Joshua. They placed that crown in the temple to remind them of the coming Priest King who was personified in the coming of Jesus. Amazing concepts!
Well worth a read!