Zechariah

Overview

Zechariah began preaching two months after Haggai and to the same congregation, but where Haggai is blunt and practical, Zechariah is full of night visions: horsemen among myrtle trees, a measuring line, a flying roll, a lampstand fed by two olive trees.

The second half looks further out — a king coming lowly riding upon a donkey, thirty pieces of silver, a shepherd struck and the sheep scattered, one they have pierced and will mourn for. No prophet outside Isaiah says more about the Messiah.

Background

Zechariah was a priest as well as a prophet, of a family that had returned from Babylon. His work overlapped with Haggai’s and outlasted it by decades.

The visions address a community wondering whether their small work mattered. The answer runs through the book: not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.

Key themes

• God’s work is done by His Spirit, not by human strength.
• Small beginnings are not to be despised.
• God is jealous for Jerusalem and will dwell in her midst.
• A coming King, humble and pierced, who is also a priest on His throne.
• A day when the LORD shall be king over all the earth.

Outline

1. Eight night visionsChapters 1–6

   Horsemen, horns and carpenters, a measuring line, Joshua re-clothed, a lampstand, a flying roll, a woman in an ephah, four chariots.

2. A question about fastingChapters 7–8

   Should we keep mourning? — answered with what God actually asks, and promises of a city full of old men and playing children.

3. The coming KingChapters 9–11

   Riding on a donkey, the shepherd rejected, and thirty pieces of silver.

4. The last daysChapters 12–14

   Mourning for the pierced one, a fountain opened, and the LORD king over all the earth.

Key passages

• Zechariah 1:3 Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you.
• Zechariah 3:4 I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.
• Zechariah 4:6 Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.
• Zechariah 4:10 Who hath despised the day of small things?
• Zechariah 9:9 Thy King cometh unto thee: lowly, and riding upon an ass.
• Zechariah 11:12-13 They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
• Zechariah 12:10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.
• Zechariah 13:7 Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.

Christ in Zechariah

The Gospels quote this book at the triumphal entry, at the betrayal price thrown into the temple, at Gethsemane when the disciples scattered, and at the cross where John says they looked on him whom they pierced. Joshua the high priest crowned in chapter 6 is called the BRANCH — a priest upon his throne.

Where the Gospels quote Zechariah

Reading it

• Read the visions without demanding every detail; the message of each is usually stated plainly at the end.
• Mark the passages the Gospels quote, and note where each is used.
• Read chapter 3 as a picture of how anyone stands before God.