AUTHOR

Zechariah is the eleventh of the so-called Minor Prophets. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah was a priest as well as a prophet. This is fitting since the book largely concerns the temple and priesthood and the purification of the people. Zechariah’s grandfather Iddo was a priest who returned from exile with Zerubbabel (Neh 12:4), making it likely that Zechariah was Haggai’s younger colleague. Whereas Haggai’s focus was on the rebuilding of the temple and the reinstitution of the sacrificial system, Zechariah’s was on the people’s spiritual transformation.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ZECHARIAH

Zechariah’s book contains three exact dates. The first two (1:1,7) pertain to the second year of Darius (Hystaspes), or 520 BC, and they correlate with the prophecies of Haggai (see the Introduction to Haggai). The third date (7:1) is from Darius’s fourth year and marks the arrival of a delegation that came to worship the Lord and to ask about keeping a fast that commemorated the fall of Jerusalem.

While chapters 1–8 deal with the rebuilding of the temple, the priesthood, and the future of Jerusalem, chapters 9–14 deal mostly with the distant future and the coming messianic kingdom. Because of this division, some have thought that these later chapters were written by another author. However, it is just as likely that the social and political climate had changed in the country, and Zechariah’s prophecies changed as a result. In this case it may be that these messianic prophecies were delivered sometime around 500 BC.

THE MEANING OF ZECHARIAH’S MESSAGE

Zechariah stressed the presence of the Lord with his people (1:16; 9:9-10; 14:4,9) and also the necessity to obey the Lord, especially in matters of justice, mercy, compassion, and truthfulness. He was concerned that the returned exiles not repeat the mistakes of their forefathers whose disobedience had brought upon them the Lord’s judgment (1:1-6).

Zechariah’s eight night visions focus attention both on the Lord’s purposes for his people in Judah and Jerusalem and on his purposes for the nations. The colored horses in the first and last visions represent different aspects of judgment that the Lord intends to carry out on the nations. The central visions speak of how the Lord is prepared to restore his relationship with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Steps toward that restoration include reinstating the priesthood, rebuilding the temple, and cleansing the land of iniquity.

Zechariah, like Haggai, addresses not only the present condition of the land but also its future. Some aspects of the visions relate to the future messianic kingdom, especially in the promise of the coming Messiah (3:8-10). Zechariah taught that the Messiah would combine the offices of priest and king in one person (3:8; 6:12-13) and that he would be the Lord himself (12:10; 13:7). Zechariah clearly stated that the Lord will be “king over the whole earth” (14:9; see 2:10-12; 8:20-23) but also said that the Lord’s messianic representative will be “King” (9:9-10; see 3:8; 6:12-13; 11:4; 13:7). Zechariah also foreshadows the work of Jesus Christ on the cross by emphasizing the rejection of God’s representative (11:4-13) and the subsequent need for cleansing in the land (12:10–13:1).

The Lord abides among his people and desires to bless them, but they continue to disobey him and go their own way. That is the tension that Zechariah (in common with many of the other prophets) raised. And that is a tension that is still with us in the church. Zechariah’s book is needed to direct our thoughts to the Lord’s plan for blessing and also for cleansing.

It is also an encouragement for the believer, as well as a sign to the unbeliever, to realize how much about the ministry and life of Jesus Christ was seen ahead of time in the Old Testament prophets. In this regard Zechariah stands alongside Isaiah and the Psalms as books with a wealth of messianic teaching.