Today I want to begin opening the book of Zechariah to you. For all practical purposes, this book and other minor prophets are closed books for most Christians. During our annual reading of the Bible, we read the words, but there is a vast difference between reading words and comprehending the message being communicated by those words. Philip addressed this issue with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:30 when he asked the question: “Do you understand what you are reading?”i The spiritual benefit residing in that Isaiah 53 passage was not experienced by the eunuch until Philip helped him understand the meaning of those verses. My goal is to help you get the benefit of what God is saying in this marvelous book Zechariah.
I don’t know how deep we will go with this study. But I want to give you enough that when you read Zechariah you can enjoy the encouragement God is giving his people in this revelation. To get the most out of this study, read from this book during the week. Read it from various translation. Meditate on the gems that we will discover in the text.
The THEME of this book is communicated in the first verse. Zechariah 1:1: “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet. . . .” Do you see the theme? I did not see it until I dug into the rich soil of this revelation. The theme is this: God Remembers! Where is that in verse 1? It is found in the meaning of the prophet’s name. Zechariah means: Yahweh remembers, or God remembers.ii God is saying through Zechariah, “Israel, you may have forgotten what I promised you, but I have not forgotten it. You may have lost sight of what I ultimately have in mind for you, but I see it clearly and I want to remind you of what I will do for you.” Israel was prone to forget and violate their covenant with God. But God does not forget.
The name Zechariah is built on the covenant name of God: Yahweh. God remembers! Years earlier Jeremiah spoke a similar message to the captives in Babylon: “For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive” (Jer. 29:10-14.
A partial fulfillment of this happens in Zechariah’s day, and Zechariah prophesies a complete fulfillment that will occur at the end of the age.
To appreciate the impact of Zechariah’s prophecy during his day and apply it to our current situation, we need the HISTORICAL CONTEXT in which this book was written.
Verse 1 tells us exactly when Zechariah began to preach his message: “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius.” The eighth month on the Jewish calendar is in October or November of our calendar. Darius ruled the Persian Empire from 522 to 485 B.C. This is Darius I who was also known as Darius the Great and Darius Hystaspis.iii His second year would place the date as 520 B.C.
There are a few key dates in Israel’s history that are extremely important in understanding the prophets of the Old Testament.
? 722 B.C. fall of Northern kingdom (capital Samaria)iv
? 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar carries Daniel and others into captivity. This begins the 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah 25:11: “And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”v
? 586 B.C. fall of Southern kingdom and destruction of Jerusalem (and the temple).vi
? 538 B.C. decree by Cyrus to allow Israel to return home.vii This concludes the 70 years of Babylonian captivity prophesied by Jeremiah.viii Ezra leads first group captive Jews back to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1). Zechariah is in this group as a young child.ix
? 520 B.C. Zechariah begins his public ministry (Zech. 1:1).
So, Zechariah had been born in Babylon during the 70-year captivity. As a young child, he goes with his family to Jerusalem in the first group who returned after Cyrus’s decree. Although Cyrus authorized all the Jews to return. Only a small group returned, especially in this first caravan. During the 70 years, the Jews had settled in and prospered. Most did not want to leave the comfort and prosperity they earned in Babylon by then. Only the most dedicated Jews returned. That tells us something about Zechariah’s family.
Nehemiah 12:16 lets us know Zechariah (like Jeremiah and Ezekiel) was a priest as well as a prophet. Nehemiah 12:16 names his grandfather Iddo, but does not mention his father Berechiah, probably because he had died young, and Zechariah had stepped into that leadership role.
So, let’s get a sense of Zechariah’s early life from all this. He was born in Babylon during the captivity. His family were Levite priests and dedicated to the Lord. They probably talked often of their longing for the promised restoration of Jerusalem (Jer. 29:10).x Imagine the excitement this child felt as his family loaded up their things, joined the rest of the caravan, and headed to Judah. When they arrived at their destination, they had to first settle into their new homes. But they immediately built a temporary altar and began the sacrifices and worship of Lord. Ezra 2:68 describes their zealous, sacrificial giving of personal resources to rebuild the temple.
Then we read in Ezra 3:1-13:
“And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening burnt offerings. 4 They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings in the number required by ordinance for each day. 5 Afterwards they offered the regular burnt offering, and those for New Moons and for all the appointed feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and those of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid. 7 They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the permission which they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
[Now they begin rebuilding the Temple.]
8 Now in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, [536 BC] Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began work and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the Lord. 9 Then Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah, arose as one to oversee those working on the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brethren the Levites. 10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord:
"For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel."xi
Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.”
Three leaders are prominent:
(1) the priest Ezra who led them back from captivity
(2) the governor Zerubbabel who was the political leader and descendant of David and
(3) the high priest Jeshua who is called Joshua in Zech. 3:1-9.xii The vision in Zechariah 3 of Joshua and Zerubbabel lets us know how important these two men were in God’s plan for restoring the temple.
One thing is clear in Ezra 3, these Jews who returned to rebuild the temple began with amazing zeal for the task.
But in Ezra 4, the next chapter, we learn of the intense opposition they encountered from the local Samaritans in the area. Keep in mind: we’re setting the stage for the book of Zechariah by examining the context in which he ministered. The book of Ezra is an excellent commentary on the background of Zechariah.
Ezra 4:1-4:
“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers' houses, and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel said to them, "You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us." 4 Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, 5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.xiii
The rest of this chapter expounds on the opposition they experienced from the Samaritans. It includes a letter sent during Ahasuerus’s reign which was many years later. Since this is not in chronological order it is a distraction for our purposes this morning.xiv
However, the comment in verse 24 is very important for getting the context of Zechariah’s message. “Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased, and it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia” (Ezra 4:24). The foundation of the temple had been laid in 536 BC. But fierce opposition from the Samaritans and the failure of other Jews to come from Babylon to help them, left these people discouraged.xv “Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased.” Their bubble of optimism was burst. It was much harder than they expected. Their zeal was gone. The fiery devotion they had during the first two years there waned. They continued to name Jehovah as their Lord. But their attention turned to other things.xvi They gave themselves to personal success and the accumulation of worldly things. “Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased.” It ceased for 16 years until God raised up a prophetic voice to remind the people of their calling. That prophetic voice is revealed in the next verse.
Ezra 5:1: “Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.” That corresponds with Zechariah 1:1. “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius [520 BC], the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Ber-e-chi-ah, the son of Id-do the prophet. . . .” Haggai who was probably older began his ministry two months before Zechariah,xvii but Zechariah’s ministry extended longer. Haggai’s focus was on getting the temple built. He begins with the confrontive statement in Haggai 1:4-5, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins? 5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’” The people were not outright refusing to do the work God had given them to do. They were simply putting it off by saying it is not yet time to build the temple. It was a way to justify their selfishness, and Haggai confronts it head on. Zechariah is also encouraging the building of the temple, but his focus is more on the spiritual condition of the people. How many know, when the hearts are right, the work will get done.
In that setting God’s people were discouraged by two things: (1) the opposition was much worse than they expected and (2) the laborers were few. Relatively few Jews came from Babylon to join them in the effort. Have you ever been discouraged for reasons like that? Out of their discouragement they lost the initial zeal for God and the work he gave them to do. They turned their attention to more worldly things. Instead of building God’s house their building bigger and better houses for themselves. In short, they got their priorities turned upside down. Haggai and Zechariah’s message was a call to consider their way, adjust their priorities, and make God number one in their lives.
Perhaps this is a good time for each of us to consider our ways. Am I seeking “first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”?xviii Or have other things captured my attention and become the priority? The world is always pulling on us in the wrong direction. That’s one reason we need to come together regularly and encourage one another in the faith.xix Make God number one, and you will never regret it.
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Strong’s Concordance, O.T. 2148. The name Zechariah was popular with the Jewish people, and several people in Scripture have the name. Therefore, when we encounter the name there we must not assume it is the same Zechariah as in other passages.
iii DARIUS (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers). Darius II ruled from 424-405 B.C. and Darius III ruled from 336 to 330 B.C. We must not assume the name Darius refers to the same person throughout the Old Testament. For example, Darius the Mede in Daniel 5:31 may have been Cyrus who defeated Babylon in 538 B.C. during his reign. CYRUS (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers).
iv H. I. Hester, The Heart of Hebrew History: A Study of the Old Testament (Liberty, MO: The Quality Press, Inc., 1975 [1962]) 222. Cf. 2 Kings 17:5-6.
v Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014) 1143, 1303.
vi Hester, The Heart of Hebrew History, 244-245. Captives were taken to Babylonia in 605, 597, and 587-86 B.C. Cf. 2 Kings 25:9. Daniel was taken to Babylon in the 605 B.C. Cf. Barker, Kenneth L., ed., The NIV Study Bible, 1985 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995) s. v. “Dan. 1:1” by E. Yamauchi. and R. Youngblood, 1291.
vii Victor P. Hamilton, Handbook on the Historical Books (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001) 504. This is variously dated at about 536 B.C to 538 B.C. It was prophesied by Isaiah (45:13) 200 years before it happened.
viii Barker, Kenneth L., ed., The NIV Study Bible, 1985 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995) s. v. “Ezra 1:1” by G. Archer, Jr. and R. Youngblood, 665.
Some calculate the 70 years from the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. to the completion of the temple in 516 B.C. It is not certain which method is correct. Hester, The Heart of Hebrew History, 254, 258-259.
ix ZECHARIAH (from Smith's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved). Cf. Ezra 5:1; 6:14.
x While many of the Babylonian captives turned their attention to personal prosperity and were comfortable in the pagan land, the more dedicated Jews longed for the promise land and Jerusalem in particular. Psalm 137 expresses this deep desire for the restoration of temple worship.
xi Cf. 2 Chron. 5:13; 7:3; Ps. 107; 118; 136.
xii JESHUA (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers).
xiii Later when Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall there was similar opposition. Nehemiah began rebuilding the wall in 445 BC (75 years after Zechariah began his ministry), See Barker, Kenneth L., ed., The NIV Study Bible, 1985 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995) s. v. “Chronology: Ezra-Nehemiah” by G. Archer, Jr. and R. Youngblood, 667.
xiv Ahasuerus ruled from 486 to 465 BC. See Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014) 644.
xv Only a small remnant returned to Jerusalem to build the temple. The historian Josephus comments concerning the other Jews who stayed in Babylon saying, “many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions.” Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI, 1, p. 228.
xvi This collective reaction to the discouragement is much like that which Peter experienced after the crucifixion (before Jesus revealed himself as resurrected). In his deep discouragement he simply turned to his career as a fisherman. In John 21:3 “Simon Peter said to them [some of the other disciples], ‘I am going fishing.’” Discouraged as well, “They said to him, We are going with you also.’”
xvii Compare the sixth month in Haggai 1:1 with the eighth month in Zech. 1:1.
xviii Matt. 6:34.
xix Cf. Heb. 10:25.
