In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
A Vision of a Horseman
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 8 “I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. 9 Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ 10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.’ 11 And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’ 12 Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?’ 13 And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 16 Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”
A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen
18 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! 19 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” 20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. 21 And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.” Zechariah 1 ESV
Zechariah 1
Zechariah is named for the prophet author, his name means "the Lord remembers".
Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah was also a priest (Neh. 12:12–16) According to tradition, he was a member of the Great Synagogue, a council of 120 originated by Nehemiah and presided over by Ezra. This council later developed into the ruling elders of the nation, called the Sanhedrin. He was born in Babylon and joined his grandfather, Iddo, in the group of exiles who first returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the High-Priest (cf. Neh. 12:4). Because he is occasionally mentioned as the son of his grandfather (cf. Ezra 5:1; 6:14; Neh. 12:16), it is thought that his father, Berechiah, died at an early age before he could succeed his father into the priesthood. ..
Chapters 9–14 are generally thought to come from a later period of his ministry. Differences in style and references to Greece indicate a date of ca. 480–470 B.C., after Darius I (ca. 521–486 B.C.) and during Xerxes’ reign (ca. 486–464 B.C.), the king who made Esther queen of Persia. According to Matt. 23:35, he was murdered between the temple and the altar, a fate similar to an earlier Zechariah (cf. 2 Chr. 24:20,21), who had been stoned to death.
- GTY
1Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them. 3At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”… Ezra 5: 1-3
13In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed. 14So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.… Ezra 6: 13-15
1-6 The Lord was very angry with your fathers - Israel and Judah had been warned prior to the captivity, not once, but many times, and their response was to ignore the prophets, choose their own prophets, torture and kill the prophets. God is patient beyond mortal capacity, for well before Babylon crushed them and took them away, king Manasseh had Isaiah sawn in half. Jeremiah was placed in a sewer, and here we have Zechariah, during the time of Haggai, calling the people to remember and repent. Do not follow in the steps of your fathers. It bothers me to say, and it is sad to to know, that after all they had been through that this revival will be only for a time, they will kill Zechariah too.
…34Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute in town after town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.… Matthew 23: 34-36
…36Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated. 38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.… Hebrews 11: 36-38
Return to Me says the Lord of hosts - This is a call to repent, to change one's mind, to be confronted with the truth, the reality that you are lost, headed in the wrong direction, worried more about decaying things and ignorant to that which is unchanging, infinite, Holy and just. We may wonder why He is having Zechariah say this to these people, the ones who did return after the 70 year captivity, the ones who are building the temple, who listened to the words of Haggai, is he not preaching to the choir? I have slept through many a sermon in church, you can find deaf ears anywhere, and many people make the same mistake that Israel made, we have Abraham as our father, I go to a Bible believing church, we have the temple, I sing in the choir, I am a priest, I am a preacher, my dad is a Levite, my dad is a deacon and I showed up here today, so I must be counted among the faithful. It's not just a building, not just rituals and tithing, but God is calling them to more than that, to a sincere relationship with the Creator of the universe. Come, understand what the building and the sacrifices mean, push everything else down and in it's place, far below the God Who is saying, "return to Me".
…3Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name. 4But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love. 5Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.… Revelation 2: 3-5
And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts - When you read Hosea and then look at this invitation, considering all that Israel has done against God, that the nations have mocked the true God because His chosen people have taken so lightly all that He has done for them and said, what an invitation. Oh, can you hear that?
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.… James 4: 7-9
1Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. 2So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.… 2 Chronicles 15: 1-3
Do not be like your fathers - They rebelled, from the time of Moses leading them out in the wilderness, they murmured and asked for Egypt, they made a covenant with God and broke it straight away. Their fathers came against Moses and Aaron and many died. During the time of the Judges everyone did what was right in their own eyes. God sent them Samuel, He gave them kings, but even the kings rebelled. They followed teachers who would tickle their ears, they wanted prophets who feared the kings and loved their gold more than God.
7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.… Hebrews 3: 7-9
…55He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. 56But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees. 57They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.… Psalm 78: 55-57
Return from your evil ways and evil deeds - This is the message that the former prophets of God gave their fathers, and it is still the message today, repent. We care too much for our opinions and likes, thinking that any of us is a moral high bar, that if we find something acceptable or that if something doesn't bother me or my circle of influences then it must be okay, that is both stupid and dangerous. What does God call what I am doing? That is the measure that will stand.
…18But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. 19Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Christ, who has been appointed for you.… Acts 3: 18-20
Your fathers, where are they - God was the only constant, their forefathers had long past and faith was not heritage, most of them rejected God's word for whatever was shiny and new in their day.
And the prophets, do they live forever - They were only for a time, for a purpose, and they were mortal, passing. Zechariah is a prophet, standing before them, and it will do them no good to say, "I knew Zechariah", did you know God?
But My words and My statutes...did they not overtake your fathers - Though they killed the prophets, the word of God given through the prophets remained. When God labels something as sin, as from a fallen nature, gone away from His design, an abomination, rebellion, it doesn't matter how I feel or who I can get to agree with me. The words outlived the messengers and the rebels.
…34Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. 36No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.… Matthew 24: 34-36
So He dealt with us - God did what He said, they weren't just idol threats. He doesn't, like men, say things just to hear how they sound, He speaks worlds into existence. The complexity of the existence of life itself should say enough to our wayward minds, that He does not speak lightly, that He speaks with wisdom beyond ours and intent, and I can't even exaggerate that fact if I tried, my explanations will always fall short.
“Now, Israel, listen to the laws and to the commands that I teach you. Obey them and you will live. Then you can go in and take the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must not add to what I command you. And you must not take anything away. You must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I have given you.
3 “You have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed all your people who followed the false god Baal at that place. 4 But all of you who stayed with the Lord your God are alive today.
5 “I taught you the laws and rules that the Lord my God commanded me. I did this so you could obey them in the land you are ready to enter and take for your own. 6 Obey these laws carefully. This will show the people of the other nations that you are wise and sensible. They will hear about these laws and say, ‘Truly, the people of this great nation are wise and sensible.’
7 “The Lord our God is near when we ask him to help us. No other nation has a god like that! 8 And no other nation is great enough to have laws and rules as good as the teachings I give you today. 9 But you must be careful! Be sure that as long as you live you never forget what you have seen. You must teach these things to your children and grandchildren. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Horeb. The Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people together to listen to what I have to say. Then they will learn to respect me as long as they live on earth. And they will teach these things to their children.’ Deuteronomy 4: 1-10
25 “You will live in the country a long time. You will have children and grandchildren there. After all that time, be sure that you do not then ruin your lives by making any kind of idol! That is something the Lord your God considers evil, and it would make him very angry! 26 So I am warning you now. Heaven and earth are my witnesses! If you do such an evil thing, you will quickly be destroyed! You are crossing the Jordan River now to take that land. But if you make any idols, you will not live there very long. No, you will be destroyed completely! 27 The Lord will scatter you among the nations. And only a few of you will be left alive to go to the countries where the Lord will send you. 28 There you will serve gods made by men—things made of wood and stone that cannot see or hear or eat or smell! 29 But there in these other lands you will look for the Lord your God. And if you look for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him. 30 When you are in trouble—when all these things happen to you—then you will come back to the Lord your God and obey him. 31 The Lord your God is a merciful God! He will not leave you there or destroy you completely. He will not forget the agreement that he made with your ancestors. Deuteronomy 4: 25-31
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