Zechariah: 'Jerusalem's Real Glory'

By Neil Earle

The Book of Zechariah illustrates perfectly how jumbled and tumbled Bible Prophecy can be. This is because Past, Present and Future are often blended into Dreams and Visions that scientifically minded 21st century readers find hard to understand. The Past is usually the prophet’s past (14:5), his own geographic present (14:10-11) and a distant future (9:14). Politics and issues from dim antiquity are often confusing to modern readers e.g. the fasts in Chapter 7.

Thus no part of Scripture has suffered at the hands of private interpreters than the Biblical Prophets (2 Peter 1:19-20).

There is a way through the difficulties, however.

First is to understand what the prophet’s main “burden” is for his own time – why he wrote and when.

Secondly, a clear focus on the grand theme of all prophecy – Jesus Christ and His centrality to the Plan of Redemption (John 5:39; Luke 24:44).

Initially, Zechariah’s words were preserved because he stirred on the EXILES from Babylon to rebuild the House of God (Zech. 8:9-15). In so doing he raised issues and themes that went beyond his “dark sayings” (Psalm 49:4, 78:2). If Zechariah can be summarized it is this: Jerusalem as the center of God’s program of Redemption for Jews and Gentiles (8:22-23).

The pivot is Jesus Christ hence the allusion to His Triumphal Entry in Mat. 21:1-11 and John 12:12, the cleansing of the Temple (Zech. 13:1 and Mat. 21:12), the Gentiles coming to Jerusalem (John 12:20), betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, the Shepherd’s wounding (Zech. 12:10), sheep scattered (Zech 12:7), living water from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:8, John 7:37), the Light of the World (Zech. 14:7, John 8:12), prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction (Zech. 11:4). Jerusalem’s troubled future is clearly foreseen (Zech. 13:2). Future hope rests solely on the coming Messiah (Zech.14:3).

Outline:

Zech. 1-6 – Eight Visions in one night – Feb. 15, 519 BCE? The Eight Visions show order in the text but also a clear setting in 500s BCE:

• Vision One: Colored Horses – 1:14-17, Yahweh’s Patrol echoed in Vision Eight, 6:1-8 (an envelope structure)
• Vision Two: Four Horns – 1:18-21, Four Powerful Horns – echoed in Vision Seven – the Woman in the Basket is Babylon 5:5-11.
• Vision Three: The Measuring Rod – 2:15, echoed in Vision Six – the Flying Roll in 5:1-4 – lesson: the curse is removed from Jerusalem, finish the job!!
• Vision Three and Four: High Priest Crowned and Two Olive Trees – visions come to sharp focus on Jerusalem and the first Messianic prophecy – the Branch (3:8)

Zech. 7-8 – Questions, Warnings, Hopeful Messages re. Jerusalem’s Future – always in physical terms. The Spirit vs. the Letter – a NT theme (8:14-17).

Zech. 9-14 – Darker themes sounded, Two Long Oracles with occasional utterances dark and drear (9-11 and 12-14). These include Jerusalem under siege (14:14); false shepherds (10:3), a true shepherd smitten (12:10), division – a calamitous fate for Jerusalem perhaps fulfilled in 70 AD. The two oracles in 9-11 and 12-14 help organize this section. Note the final verse – another intimation of Christ’s cleansing ministry (14:21).