Overview

1. Ch 1 – 6 consists of 8 visions Zechariah saw in one night (1:8)
2. There was an angel who interprets the visions for Zechariah but leaves some of the symbols unexplained.
3. Zechariah fall as sleep after the fourth vision, the angle had to wake him up (4:1)
4. These visions mix the work of the Messiah in both advents
5. Like other prophets, Zechariah sees only the peaks of God’s program without the intervening valleys
6. These visions had historical meaning for Zechariah’s time, but they also have meaning for all time.

Vision 1 – The Red-Horse Rider among the myrtle (1:7-17)

1. Meaning: God’s anger against the nations, restoration and and blessing upon Israel
2. The report of the scout horses angers God as everything apparently is in peace and order while His people Israel is in captivity for 70 years
3. The Lord proclaims His returning to Jerusalem with mercy.
4. His house will be built
5. Prosperity will come again upon Israel
6. He will confort Zion
7. He will choose again Jerusalem
8. The man riding the red horse (1:8) is Jesus Christ. Christ has returned doing His work for redeeming and restoring mankind to God. His red horse represents the ransom sacrifice. Jesus’ blood that satisfies God’s justice and releases man from death.
9. The angle that stood among the myrtle trees (1:11)
   1. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
10. Meaning of the horses:
    1. Red represents sinful condition
    2. Sorrel represents spotted, sinful patterns conditions still to be removed
    3. White represents prefect and holy condition
11. The meaning of myrtle trees:
    1. Holy children of God. The white flowers of the trees signify the righteousness of those who have made his walk in the path of holiness

Vision 2 – The Four Horns and the Four Craftsmen (1:18-21)

1. Meaning: God’s judgment on the nations that afflict Israel
2. The meaning of the horns:
   1. nations that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem
   2. They were Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks and Romans
3. Meaning of the craftsmen:
   1. these are nations who have come to terrify the horns, to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it (1:21)
   2. They are the Persians, Greeks, Romans and Kingdom of Christ
   3. Horns symbolize power and dominion

Vision 3 – The Surveyor with a Measuring Line (Chapter 2)

1. Meaning:  God’s future blessing on restored Israel
2. The vision: A man was measuring the length and width of Jerusalem with a measuring line
3. Who is the man:
   1. The is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom was riding on the red horse on the first vision
4. Disperse you

Vision 4 – The Cleansing and Crowning of Joshua the High Priest (Chapter 3)

1. Israel’s future cleansing from sin and reinstatement as a priestly nation

Vision 5 – The Golden Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees (Chapter 4)

1. Israel as the light to the nations under Messiah, the King-Priest

Vision 6 – The Flying Scroll (5:1-4)

1. The severity and totality of divine judgment on individual Israelites

Vision 7 – The Woman in the Ephah (5:5-11)

1. The removal of national Israel’s sin of rebellion against God

Vision 8 – The Four Chariots (6:1-8)

1. Divine judgment on Gentile nations

1. Christ is the man riding on the red horse (1:8)
2. Christ’s atoning death for the removal of sin (3:8-9; 13:1)
3. Christ is the servant of God and the Stone (3:8-9)
4. Christ is the Branch (3:8-9; 6:12)
5. Christ is the builder of the house of God (6:12)
6. Christ is a priest and a king at the same time (6:13)
7. Christ is The King that has dominion over this world (9:10)
8. Christ’s triumphal entry (9:9; Matt 21:5; John 12:15)
9. Betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12; Matt 27:9-10)
10. Christ’s deity (12:8)
11. Christ’s hands were pierced (12:10; 13:6; John 19:37)
12. Christ is a stricken Shepherd (13:7; Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27)
13. On Christ second advent, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (14:4)

Author

1. Zechariah means “Yahweh Remembers”
2. Contemporary of Haggai. Haggai was born in Judah before the exile, while Zechariah was born in Babylon after the exile, he was the grandson of Iddo, who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon (Neh 12:4, 16). thus Zechariah was much younger than Haggai
3. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah is born in a priestly family (Neh 12:4)and later was called by God as a prophet
4. Zechariah was a popular name, at lease 30 Zechariah in OT

Date

1. Chapter 1 to 8 falls in the same time frame with the book of Haggai (520 BC – 518 BC)
2. The rebuild of the second temple resumed in 520 BC and completed in 516 BC
3. Chapter 9 – 14 are undated. Some says Zechariah record these chapters between 480 BC – 470 BC, during the reign of Persian King Xerxes (486 BC – 464 BC), whom made Esther queen of Persia.

Background

1. Cyrus the Great decreed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple (Ezra 1:2-4; Isa 44:28)
2. Only 50,000 Jews returned, including Haggai and Zechariah under the leadership of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest (Ezra 2)
3. Levitical sacrifices were soon re instituted on a rebuilt altar of burnt offering (Ezra 3:1-6)
4. On the second year of return, the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:8-13;5:16)
5. However external oppression and internal depression halted the rebuilding of the temple for about 16 years of spiritual apathy till the rule of the Persian King Darius (522-486BC)
6. In the 2nd year of Darius (520BC), God raised up Haggai to encourage the Jews in rebuilding (Ezra 5:1-2; Haggai 1:1)
7. Haggai preached 4 sermons in 4 months, two months later Zechariah began his prophetic ministry, encouraging the people to spiritual renewal and motivating them to rebuild the temple by revealing to them God’s plans for Israel’s future.
8. With this encouragement, the temple rebuild was completed in 515 BC (Ezra 6:16), four years after Haggai started his sermons.
9. Haggai had been preaching for two months, and the work on the temple had already started, when Zechariah began his ministry.

Theme

1. The backdrop of the book is rebuilding the temple.
2. This book is messianic prophecies, mentioning many details of the life and work of Christ.
3. It is the most messianic, the most truly apocalyptic and eschatological of all the writings in OT
4. NT writers quoted or alluded to this book 41 times

Outline

1. Ch 1-8 were written to encourage the remnant while they were rebuilding the temple
   1. Ch 1 – 6 consist of 8 visions
      1. The Horses Among the Myrtle Trees 1:7-17
      2. The Four Horns and Four Craftsmen 1:18-21
      3. The Man with the Measuring Line 2:1-13
      4. The Cleansing of Joshua, the High Priest 3:1-10
      5. The Golden Lampstand and Olive Trees 4:1-14
      6. The Flying Scroll 5:1-4
      7. The Woman in the Basket 5:5-11
      8. The Four Chariots 6:1-8
   2. Ch 7-8 consist of 4 messages
      1. Rebuke of Hypocrisy 7:4-7
      2. Repent of Disobedience 7:8-14
      3. Restoration of Israel 8:1-7
      4. Rejoice in Israel’s Future 8:18-23
2. Ch 9-14 consist of 2 burdens (Oracles). These chapters were written after the completion of the temple to anticipate Israel’s coming Messiah.
   1. Ch9-11: Rejection of the Messiah
   2. Ch12-14: Reign Of The Messiah