Zechariah (Supplement)

The Book of Zechariah

Zechariah 1:1-6: A Challenge to Repent

Zechariah 1:7-6:15: Dream Visions on Exile and Rebuilding

Zechariah 7-8: Invitation to Participate in God’s Kingdom

Zechariah 9-14: Images of the Messianic Kingdom

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Old Testament Overviews

Zechariah

One important aspect of the ancient TaNaK order of the Hebrew Bible is that the 12 prophetic works of Hosea through Malachi, sometimes referred to as the Minor Prophets, were designed as a single book called The Twelve. Zechariah is the 11th book of The Twelve.

Zechariah is set after the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. We are told in the book of Ezra (Ezra 5:1-2) that Zechariah and Haggai together challenged and motivated the people to rebuild the temple and look for the fulfillment of God’s promises. Long ago, Jeremiah the prophet said that Israel’s exile would last for 70 years (Jer. 25:1; Jer. 29:10) and that afterwards God would restore his presence to a new temple. That’s when God would bring his Kingdom and the rule of the messiah over all nations (Jer. 30-33). The dates at the beginning of this book tell us that the 70 years were almost up, but life back in the land was hard, and it seemed like none of these hopes were ever going to be fulfilled. The book of Zechariah offers an explanation about what went wrong.

The book has a fairly clear literary design. There’s an introduction that sets the tone for a large collection of Zechariah’s dream-like visions in chapters 1-6. The dreams are concluded in chapters 7-8 and followed by two more collections of poetry and prophecy in chapters 9-11 and 12-14, respectively. Let’s dive in and see how it all works.

The Big Idea Zechariah invites us to look above the chaos and hope for God’s Kingdom to come, motivating faithfulness in the present moment. That’s the challenge Zechariah offers to all generations of God’s people.

Zechariah 1:1-6: A Challenge to Repent

The book begins with Zechariah’s challenge to his generation to turn back to God and not act like their ancestors who rebelled and refused to listen to the earlier prophets. That rebellion is what landed them in exile. The people’s response to Zechariah was ideal, as they repented and humbled themselves before God—or so it seemed.