God is ready to receive his formerly disobedient people. That’s the message that the Lord gives Zechariah to start off this book of the recorded prophecies that were given to him. So, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts,Īnd I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. KJV Zechariah 1:3 Therefore say thou unto them, That’s verse 3 of chapter 1 of Zechariah. So, in the midst of this situation, God has the following message of encouragement for his covenant people, the Jews. That’s what was happening in Israel in Zechariah’s time.Īnd so, God sent this prophet, Zechariah – as well as the prophet Haggai – and their job was to encourage the people to continue the work that God had for them. Is there anyone in here like that? You have a task that you know that God wants you to perform but it’s hard and you’re ready to quit. And they were charged by King Cyrus of the Persians – and by the Lord himself – to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. But suffice it to say that a certain number of Jews had returned from Babylon at this point in history.
And then the last time-reference we’re given is in chapter 7, verse 1.Īnd we’ll try to get into the details of the time frame discussed in this book as we deal with the individual chapters and verses throughout this study. The second time-reference that we’re given is in chapter 1, verse 7.
And he does so – it says here – in the second year of Darius.īy the way, that’s one of three time-references in this entire book – in chapter 1, verse 1. Now, at this point as Zechariah is prophesying, God is speaking with the children and grandchildren of those exiles. And so, God had to send them out of their land for 70 years. A long time prior to Zechariah’s ministry, God had been calling these people to repent. Now, this is pointing to the reality of the exile of Judah by Babylon. Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us,Īccording to our ways, and according to our doings, Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings:īut they did not hear, nor hearken unto me,ĥ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?Ħ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? KJV Zechariah 1:4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, KJV Zechariah 1:1 ¶ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,Ģ The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Why is that important? Well, because the Jews had been in exile. Well, what does the Lord remember? We’re going to see in this book that the Lord is displayed as remembering his people, Israel. Now, the name Zechariah ( zakar + yah) means “Yah Remembers” – the LORD remembers. A Summary of Zechariah: The Lord Remembers And this book – which is in the Old Testament – features several exciting but veiled references to the coming Messiah.Īnd so, of course, the book that I’m referring to and which we’ll be studying for a little while is the Old Testament book of Zechariah. Chariots, a crown of gold, questions about fasting, and oracles about the nations and about Israel all are featured in this book. And don’t forget the flying scroll and the woman in the ephah being sent to Shinar. There’s a candelabra being fed with olive oil. This book has a man with a measuring line, and the High Priest Joshua standing before the Lord being accused by Satan. Allow me to lead you on for a little while longer! This book has horses and myrtle trees. The book I’m referring to has a number of very interesting accounts. But the Lord is able to give us understanding and help with this, so we’ll press on. And for that reason I initially despaired of even trying to seek to explain this book in front of all of you. Finally, it seemed that the Lord had placed a specific book in my mind as the next subject of our study.īut it’s a really hard book. But unfortunately we came to the end of that book and now we need to move on to something else.Īnd as I prayed, a few different possibilities were in my mind. A Summary of Zechariah: So, for the last year and a few weeks, we’ve grown accustomed to turning our attention to the book of Job.
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