The book of Zechariah
Zechariah 12:10-13 and 13:1.
When we first started the series, A Deep Dive into Scripture back in January 2024, yes folks, we’ve been doing this for that long, with Genesis. It was decided as part of the reason for this “deep dive into scripture’ was to increase our understanding of the rescue plan that God has for humanity through Jesus. You may remember that I stood in roughly the same place I am now and talked about how the first eleven chapters of Genesis are about the fall of mankind, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, through to Noah and the great flood and onto the Tower of Babal and then. Then there is a character, an unlikely, a little bit shady character introduced, a bloke by the name of Abram who becomes Abraham. From chapter 12 of Genesis we come to understand that the rest of the Bible describes and highlights God’s rescue plan for humanity and through Abraham’s lineage would come the Chosen One, the Messiah who would save mankind from the curse that befell them through their original ancestors in a garden long-long ago, for us in a place far-far away. Sorry watched some Star Wars this week.
So here we are near the end of the Old Testament at the second to last book. The book of Zechariah, now this book is on your average reading scale a bit weird, well it contains strange imagery, things like stones with eyes and a woman in a basket who is called wickedness who gets carried off by two women with stork wings, mountains of Bronze and chariots with various coloured horses ranging over the whole earth. But relevant to Christians is that Zechariah told the remanent of Judah and tells us about ‘The Coming Servant of the Lord.’ At this time, with Easter approaching the first weekend of next month it is relevant. Where we sit in the history of the world, we have this deep understanding of God’s rescue plan culminating in Jesus.
So, Zechariah has some truly weird and wonderful imagery contained in it, what one commentator described as a wild ride. We have the angel of the Lord with Joshua the High Priest standing before him, and Satan standing to his right hand to accuse him. Then the Lord rebukes Satan. We see then Joshua receives clean garments and a new turban. Joshua is then told that if he conforms to the ways of the Lord and carries out his duties, administers God’s spiritual business correctly and takes charge of the courts, that if he follows the Lord’s commands and direction that, God will “….bring [his] servant, The Branch.” He says, “In one day, I will wipe away the guilt of the land. On that day, says the LORD of Hosts, you shall all of you invite one another to come and sit each under his vine and his fig tree.” (3:9-10).
We as readers are to remember that this is a prophetic message, spoken before Christ, and that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. The book was written at the same time as Haggai wrote his book to the remanent of the people returning from Babylon around 520BC. Of real interest is that the message that both prophets Zachariah and Haggai brought was around those things Rochelle spoke about last week; a couple of my take homes were “Put me first and see what I can do.” And “Whenever we place God first, everything else will find its place.” These messages were to a remanent of the people of Israel who were now settling back in Judah after their exile in Babylon. This remanent returning was also part of God’s rescue plan.
Almost exactly one hundred years earlier before the people were taken into Babylon the prophet Zephaniah spoke these words; Chapter 3:12 says “But I will leave within you the meek and humble who trust in the name of the Lord.” And verse 20 of the same chapter says “’At that time I will gather you; at that time, I will bring you home. I will give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,’ says the Lord.”
So, there’s this remnant of the people who return, they are now home in Judah suitcases unpacked, if I was listening and heard correctly last week, around fifty-thousand people, people who had been in exile for seventy years as forecast by the earlier prophet Jeremiah around 620 BC, He said this:
“’This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.’
‘But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, ‘and will make it desolate forever.” (Jeremiah 25:11-12).
The number of people who initially entered the Promised Land from Egypt back in the day (1406 BC) centuries earlier has been estimated at up to around 2.4 million given that they were to have had an army of six-hundred thousand. Ezra in his account of events says that 42,360 people returned and Babylonian texts stated that the number was around 4,000. So small numbers compared with those taken into exile. Truly, a remanent returned.
But that remnant returns as God had planned at the time he planned and receives this great forecast of a planned coming servant of the LORD through his prophet Zechariah. Did you hear the use of the word planned in that sentence.
Chapter six continues with this theme where Zechariah expands upon the man known as the “, “Branch” this man and what he will do for the people and for the Lord. In Zechariah, Chapter 6 verse 12 NIV; “Tell him [him being Joshua the High Priest] this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is “the Branch,” and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.”
So we have this man, “The Branch,” who will come to the people of Judah, to the remanent, if Joshua conforms to the way of the Lord and The Branch will:
- Build the Lord’s temple
- Rule as King and
- Serve as a priest
While he is not called ‘a servant’ in Chapter six it is implied that “The Branch” is the same character mentioned in chapter three.
Now we know that the two prophets of that time roughly 500BC, were speaking to the people about the way they, as a remanent were to behave, prophecy in the immediate moment is forthtelling. The Lord God, through Zechariah reminded the people the reason for their earlier problems was due to their ancestors having not listened to him. He quizzes them about their fasting in the past, then he reminds them to “administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor” (Chapter 7:9). God reminds his people that they hadn’t done this in the past and that was why their ancestors had been “scattered with a whirlwind among the nations.” (Chapter 7:14). It would be like me saying to someone who constantly drives their car to fast that on prior experience, they will at some stage get a speeding ticket or worse be involved in an accident.
But Zechariah was also foretelling, this group what was going to happen in the future, The Lord has proclaimed it. The order of things in the Old Testament is pretty good, well it’s inspired by God and it was his plan and parts of it are still being fulfilled as part of that plan. When you think that, it is very good. As we look back retrospectively’ with what we know, is that Jesus was going to come to the descendants of these people the Jews, he would be The Temple, that in his own words would be demolished and rebuilt in three days, (refer John 2:19,) referring to his death and resurrection. The verses from chapter 12 and 13 that I started my message with that Bible reading points directly to Jesus, “the one they have pieced”, who “one that day opened a fountain of cleansing from sin and impurity. ”Jesus would be the King of the Jews as well as recognised as the King of Kings and that he would be the Priest in the line of and the King in the line of that earlier King and Priest Melchizedek (refer Hebrews 7, whole chapter) as well as a Rabbi to his disciples. But wait there’s more, God’s rescue plan for humanity is so very-very good and I’m only addressing this part of Zechariah’s book.
Like a lot of these books of prophecy and other scripture there is way more involved here that can be gone over in one sermon…this is deep stuff but where I want to go today is that Zechariah points in parts, so closely to Jesus, that if didn’t have much of an understanding of the differences in time scale being five centuries, you would think it had been written by one of Jesus disciples.
This passage from Zechariah is quoted:
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Indeed, the verse is quoted by Matthew in his book referring to the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and is referenced by John in his gospel also.
In addition, the 11th verse of chapter nine, Zechariah talks about the Lord freeing prisoners from the waterless pit; because of his blood covenant with them, he says this “As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.” (Chapter 9:11) Jesus own words; echo long here, down through time, it’s almost like God had planned this. In Lukes gospel 22:21; “’In the same way, after the supper he [Jesus] took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” And Matthew 26:27-28; “Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
There are other verses in Chapter 11, that mention thirty pieces of silver, the handsome price that was paid for the Lord, that were taken and thrown into the house of the Lord to the potter. We don’t have to go far to understand this scripture and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and the silver used to buy the Potters field after Judas’ death. (Refer Matthew 27:6-10 and Acts 1:18-19).
In the thirteenth chapter there is the declaration of the shepherd being struck down and the sheep being scattered and as we see in retrospect, Jesus quotes this verse in Matthew chapter 26, to which Peter replies “Even if all fall away, on account of you, I never will, to which Jesus replies “I tell you the truth, this very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.” (Matthew 26:33-34). Quite handy that we have this historical understanding, we see God’s plan for the rescue of humanity unfolding.
What follows in a Zechariah chapter 14 is some gruesome apocalyptic writing and a description of the city of Jerusalem being sacked and the Lord himself returning and fighting for the city and that he will stand on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west. This is yet to happen.
So; in Zechariah we have this Old Testament book that is like a bell ringing out the coming of the Messiah, the Chosen One who will lead God’s people, as God planned.
The key feature of this is that he will make a covenant in his blood and save the people from their sins, and with Jesus’ death and resurrection he did and does. We can have our sins forgiven, the death of Jesus made that possible, the covenant of Jesus blood made our freedom from our sins possible.
So back to the start of this deep dive into scripture. We have explored and we will explore next week the last book of the Old Testament. But this week let’s remember that as forecast Jesus came, he fulfilled over three hundred prophecies as planned. The mathematical probability of that they tell me of this occurring is 1 in 10^17.
So where does that leave you and I? A wee reminder of Jeremiah 29:11, and this is for all of us, "For I know the plans I have for you," [There’s that word plans again] declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We have an ability as individuals as families to either be in God’s will, in his plan for us or outside of it. We may even be a remanent of who we once were, we may walk in God’s plan for us, after many years of stumbling in the dark, even struggling to find the light switch but it is never too late. In the same way God had a plan for the nations of Israel and Judah. God has a plan for you and I. Will you accept it will you follow it? This week ‘take home question’ that God is asking as we read Zechariah, related to this weeks message is: You know I have a plan for you; will you continue your ways or walk in mine? Place me first and everything else will find its place.
Maybe you are ready to follow God’s plan for your life after a time of wandering, of being in the dark, we have the mercy seat here where you can come and meet with him, or maybe you want to respond to him in the mercy seat in your heart. He has a plan, how will you respond to it?
