Zechariah 1

Being a small book at the back end of the Old Testament the minor prophet Zechariah doesn’t get too much attention. It is a great book to study and a provides a great link between the Old and New Covenants.

Zechariah’s prophesies happen in Israel after the nation has returned from Exile in Babylon. Israel as a nation was born out of a promise to Abraham around book and settled in the promised land around 1500 BC. The high point for the nation was the time of King David & King Solomon around 1000 BC, but shortly after this the kingdom split in two, Israel being the northern kingdom and Judah the southern kingdom. God pronounced judgement on these kingdoms as they had abandoned Him as their God. The Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, then the Babylonians overtook the Assyrians. In 576BC they attacked Judah, destroyed the Temple and took the people to exile in Babylon. In 520BC Babylon had been overthrown by Persia, and the Persians restored the land back to the nation of Judah. A remnant returned to the land and started rebuilding the Temple, but the project stagnated, with the people being more concerned with the rebuilding of their homes and farms. It is into this period and context that Zechariah prophecies.

vv 1 to 6

Zechariah’s first prophesy reminds the nation of their context, that God had commanded their ancestors to return to Him and they hadn’t done so. They continued in their evil and were punished for this, just as had been prophesied to them. It was not until after they were punished that the remembered the words of the prophets and repented.

This is obviously a warning to Zechariah’s audience, and to us, to listen and obey the Lord before the punishment, instead of being stubborn and rejecting the Lord as irrelevant.

vv 7 to 17

This introduction leads into the first of eight visions. Zechariah receives these visions at night, and they have a common theme to them, with Zechariah repeatedly asking “What are these, my lord?”. This repeated question gives us an idea of the nature of the vision, they aren’t simple to understand even for the prophet of the day, so it will take a bit of thinking for us as well.

The first of these visions is of a group of horses and a man on a red horse amongst a cluster of trees in a steep valley. The horses were of different colours, some red, some brown and some white. At this point there is the first “What are these, my lord?”. The Angel of the Lord, who was standing amongst the horses, explained that these were the ones sent out throughout the earth, and that they’d found the earth at rest.

Then the Angel of the Lord asked the Lord how long justice would be withheld from Judah. The NIV uses the term “Lord Almighty” in these passages. This can also be translated as “Lord of Hosts”, or “Lord of Armies” and is used to describe part of Gods’ character, that He is the commander of heavenly armies, a power beyond our reckoning.

There is also the reference to seventy years. While it would be seventy years from the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem to the completion of the second temple, at the time that Zechariah was having these vision the second Temple was yet to be completed. Seven and seventy are used in the Bible to indicate a time of completion. 3.5 or 35 are used to indicate something incomplete, or a time cut short. The question of the angel to God could be rephrased as, “Now that your time of anger with Judah is complete, how long will you withhold justice for them.”

The passage continues, saying the God is jealous for Jerusalem and angry with the nations that have brought punishment to Jerusalem. God says He will return to Jerusalem. His house will be rebuilt, His measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem, and that comfort and prosperity will return to Jerusalem.

So, what is the problem with the rest of the world being at peace? What does it mean for God to be jealous for Jerusalem?

We know that another part of God’s character is jealousy, specifically for His name. The Lord does not want people to dismiss Him as irrelevant, or to use His name in vain as if there is no consequence to defying Him. However, the current state was Jerusalem in ruins, being discouraged by the nations around it, God’s house (the temple) was just some walls a few feet off the ground, and the rest of the earth at rest. God had no presence in the world and the world dismissed Judah and their God as irrelevant.

The Lord cannot leave the situation as is with people feeling secure in their sin. Justice needs to be brought to those who laid waste to Jerusalem and who dismiss the one true God as irrelevant. The Lord will return to Jerusalem, making it His residence on earth once more and Jerusalem will again prosper. The Lord will bring comfort to His people.

This raises a few interesting points that should be noted.

1. Although Assyria and Babylon were used by God to bring Judgement upon Israel and Jerusalem it does not absolve them of the sin they committed in these acts. There is a tension between Gods’ overall plan for humanity and the actions of individuals that act within that plan that needs to be wrestled with. This is one of the fundamental paradoxes of the Bible along with others such as freedom and slavery.
2. There is a peace that isn’t good. A peace that ignores God won’t last. Lasting peace will only come when everyone bows before the Lord.
3. God response to injustice in Jerusalem is to restore His presence. Ultimate justice will come 500 years later with the death of Jesus, but Zechariah will have more to say on this later.

While there is a lot more of Zechariah to cover there are still conclusions we can draw for us today from this passage. While we don’t live under the Old covenant as a 5th Century BC Jew we still live with a temple. Paul redefines the temple as being ourselves. Are we acknowledging Gods presence in our lives, or are we trying to live without His influence, dismissing the Lord as irrelevant? If we are trying to live our lives without God any peace we find will only be short. If we have acknowledged Him, have the cares of everyday life pushed Him out from the centre, like it had done for Zechariah’s peers or do we focus our energy for His purposes?