When we think about redemptive history and the Old Testament things start to get fuzzy around the time of the Babylonian exile. We know the patriarchs, the exodus, the judges, and the kings. We know the kingdom was divided and conquered, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were exiled to Babylon. We know prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, who prophesied before the Northern kingdom fell to Assyria and Judah fell to Babylon. We know stuff happened during exile—like Daniel in the Babylonian lion’s den and Esther as Queen of Persia. Yet for many of us the story of redemption fades and fizzles out after the exile, only to come back into focus with Jesus, who seemingly drops into the story out of nowhere.

This is why we are studying Zechariah. Zechariah, along with Haggai and Malachi are known as the “post-exilic” prophets because they were the prophets who spoke to God’s people after the exile, when they had returned to their home in the Promised Land, during the history recorded in Ezra. We believe Zechariah is part of Christian scripture and testifies to the gospel of Jesus, therefore Zechariah is a book for the church today.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:15-16 that the “sacred writings” which Timothy was acquainted with since childhood, are able to make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” and are profitable for shaping faithful, godly living in the present age. In his letter to the Romans Paul reminds us that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). To begin our series, we need to get an understanding of Zechariah’s world, his book, and his relevance.

Zechariah’s World: Historical Context

Zechariah begins by introducing us to the historical context. Zechariah and Haggai both began their prophetic ministries “in the eighth month of the second year of Darius” (Zech. 1:1; Hag. 1:1). Darius was the Persian king who began to reign in 520 BC, succeeding Cambyses (530–522 BC) and Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC). In 539 BC Cyrus decreed that the Judean exiles in Babylon could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple (cf. Ezra 1:1-4; 2 Chron. 36:22-23). However, “work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia” (Ezra 4:24), which was 520 BC. While some of the exact dates are disputed, this timeline gives the general picture of Israel’s history leading up to the ministries of the post-exilic prophets.

It was into this context―with the Jews under Persian power, a shell of their former selves, with no city, no temple, and no Davidic king―that “the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.” His name means “Yah[weh] remembered” which “is an entirely fitting name for a prophet concerned with the return of God to his people and the fulfilment of his covenant purposes (cf. Ex. 2:24).”¹Anthony R. Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 25, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Nottingham, England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2015), 105. He is identified as the “son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.” Iddo is listed as one of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel and the exiles (Neh. 12:4-7). Thus, Zechariah was a prophet and priest. If he is the ‘Zechariah son of Berekiah’ that Jesus mentions in his rebuke to the Pharisees (Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:51), then he was later ‘murdered between the temple and the altar.’

Just like Acts overlaps with much of Revelation, the book of Ezra overlaps with the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah. Ezra tells us, “Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them (Ezra 5:1-2).” As bleak as the situation might have been, the God’s prophets were supporting the people and the God of Israel was “over” his people.

Zechariah’s Book: Canonical Context

Zechariah must not only be read in light of its historical context but also its canonical context. In other words, we must ask the question, “How does Zechariah fit in with the Old and New Testaments?” Regarding the OT context, Zechariah and the other post-exilic prophets are part of the “minor prophets”, which was known and read as a single book, the Book of Twelve (cf. Acts 7:42). These books are all about the judgment of Israel, the restoration of Jerusalem, the temple, the kingship, and the cleansing of the people and the land. Israel was back in the land, and their exile was over in one sense, but in other sense it was far from over. They were small, weak, and powerless; the temple was in ruins, God’s glory didn’t fill the temple as it did before, and the problem that let to their exile had not yet been dealt with, namely, sin. Yet, despite their presumption their rebellion, and their judgment, God had not abandoned his people. When the people of Judah had returned to a desolate land, with no city, with no temple, and with barely a thread of hope left, God worked through Zechariah to restore faith in his people.

Zechariah plays a vital role in preserving and encouraging God’s people to remain faithful to God’s promises in the face of foreign rule, economic uncertainty, social strife, and internal apathy. While Haggai focused on the rebuilding of the temple, Zechariah’s ministry includes the repentance and renewal of God’s people, and looks forward to a day when Yahweh returns to his people, ends their exile, deals with sin, and brings blessing to the world through a future Davidic king.

As Christian Scripture, Zechariah must also be read as part of the story that finds is culmination and fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the New Testament. Peter tells us that Zechariah, by the Spirit of Christ, proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus as well as the subsequent glories of the church, the new temple (1 Peter 1:10-12). Zechariah is known as the “prophet of Holy Week” because he is the most quoted prophet in the passion narratives. In the second half of Zechariah, chapters 9-14, a Davidic king enters Jerusalem on a donkey, a covenant is established, a rejected shepherd is worth 30 pieces of silver, one is pierced, a fountain of forgiveness opens, and a shepherd is struck, sheep are scattered, the people are cleansed, and there is resurrection. His book is “part of the script Jesus followed as he went to Jerusalem.”² Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, 91–92. If we want to understand the visions and prophecies in this book, we would do well to look to Jesus, not the latest Fox news report on what’s happening in Israel today.

Structure and Unity of the Book

Zechariah is often divided into two parts, chapters 1-8 and 9-14. Some think it was written by different authors, with chapters 9-14 written much later. But a compelling case has been argued for 1-8 being written around 520 BC with the second half being written shortly after the temple’s completion in 516.³See R. Reed Lessing, Zechariah, ed. Christopher W. Mitchell, Concordia Commentary (Concordia Publishing House, 2021), Anthony R. Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 25, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (InterVarsity Press, 2015), Mark J. Boda, Haggai, Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan, 2004)

In chapters 1-6 we have the famous “night visions” that describe God’s presence with his people, their renewal, restoration, the rebuilding of the temple by God’s Spirit. Chapters 7-8 are oracles about fasting that will turn to feasting when God’s kingdom arrive. These two chapters function as bridge/segue to the second half of the book. Then, chapters 9-14 are all about Yahweh returning to his people and establishing his worldwide kingdom through his Davidic king. Meredith Kline has done extraordinary work with the structure of Zechariah, showing its brilliance and unity.

Like many OT prophets, Zechariah employs apocalyptic imagery that is metaphorical and highly symbolic. Zechariah sees horses, flying scrolls, women in baskets, and other strange images. This imagery is not merely prediction but “unveiling,” exposing present realities for what they really are. “The visual power of [apocalyptic imagery] effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be.”⁴Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 17. Zechariah is rightly called the “prequel” to Revelation, not only because most of its imagery shows up in John’s apocalypse but because Zechariah paints his pictures with an OT pallet.

Zechariah’s Relevance: Bridging Contexts

In many ways the situation Israel in which Israel found themselves mirrors our lives today. God’s promises of restoration were beginning to be fulfilled, but they had not yet fully come. Today, God is working and Christ is reigning, bringing blessing to the nations, but kingdom work is slow, our lives are filled with suffering, sin, discouragement, setbacks, and despair. We are charged with building God’s temple (the church), which is a task that comes with hope and also disappointment. Yes, we live on the other side of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which is what the book of Zechariah is all about, but we still await the final fulfillment of all God’s promises, when the resurrected Christ returns in glory to put the world to rights in a new creation where righteousness dwells.

Like the Jews in the days of Zechariah, we need to be encouraged to persevere, to hold fast to the unshakeable hope we have in our triune God. We need the daily reminder that God “remembers,” that he has not forgotten us. We need to remember that he is sovereign, that he is always working, that he is with us, and that he is for us. “We still need, again and again, to have our vision of God enlarged, and to be reminded that it is ‘not by might nor by power, but by [his] Spirit’ (4:6) that his work is done and his kingdom purposes advanced.”⁵Barry Webb, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), 47.

Check out the BibleProject Guide to the book of Zechariah

References

• 1
  Anthony R. Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 25, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Nottingham, England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2015), 105.
• 2
  Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, 91–92.
• 3
  See R. Reed Lessing, Zechariah, ed. Christopher W. Mitchell, Concordia Commentary (Concordia Publishing House, 2021), Anthony R. Petterson, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 25, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (InterVarsity Press, 2015), Mark J. Boda, Haggai, Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan, 2004)
• 4
  Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 17.
• 5
  Barry Webb, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), 47.