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Zechariah
I T ’ S S O E A S Y to fall into discouragement, especially when a lot of
things are going against you. For the people of Judah, discouragement
was the mood of the century, not merely the day or the year. Parents and
grandparents had worshiped idols, turned from God, lived in open sin,
and consequently been judged by God. Their land was conquered, and
they were carried away to foreign lands. Discouraging? Yes. Many lived
the prime years of their lives away from their homeland.
Now, at last, many had come back. But they
What you will be
reading about
came back to a wasted land with the golden
city of Jerusalem utterly destroyed. Weeds and
1:1– 6:15
rubble had taken the place of streets and buildZechariah’s eight visions
ings. It was time to rebuild. One of their first
7:1-14
tasks was to rebuild the Temple, God’s house.
A call to justice and mercy
But the job was unbelievably big and their
8:1-23
resources small. Discouraging? Yes. It was easy
Encouragement to finish the
Temple
to drift away from Temple building into cleaning rubble, building their own homes, estab9:1- 8
Judgment against Israel’s
lishing new careers. For eighteen years, they
enemies
dabbled at the task of rebuilding the Temple.
They were tired and discouraged and needed
9:9 -17
The Messiah King is coming
motivation.
Both Haggai and Zechariah became their
10:1–11:17
Good and evil shepherds
encouragers. They stirred the people to pull
together, put God first, and finish the task. The
12:1-14
God will deliver Jerusalem
people listened, and the Temple was finished.
But Zechariah’s work as a prophet wasn’t fin13:1- 9
An eternal fountain of mercy
ished. He had a further message of hope and
encouragement. Far beyond the stone walls of
14:1-21
God will rule forever
a temple and a city was a magnificent future.
The promised Messiah, Jesus, was coming, and
Zechariah painted the scene for this glorious event. The Temple building was
merely act 1 of a much grander drama to come. King Jesus would arrive on the
scene and bring encouragement and hope far beyond the rebuilding of Jerusalem and reestablishment of the nation.
We can now look back and see the entire drama of Jesus’ first coming played
out. But how remarkable that God allowed Zechariah to see it 500 years before it
happened in order to write it down that the people might have hope. Zechariah
page 843