The Book of Zechariah
- Jack Schull
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
In the 14 chapters of the book of Zechariah we find a call to return from the Lord to His people. Zechariah has 8 visions in one night that speak to the activity of God with His people even though they find it difficult to see Him at work. God is always more present then we may know. More than any other Minor Prophet, Zechariah points directly to Jesus. The New Testament quotes or alludes to Zechariah over 70 times, especially during Passion Week. There’s much hope for modern day followers of Jesus tucked within these pages and the message of Zechariah.
TRANSCRIPT:
The Book of Zechariah
14 chapters (can be read in 20+ minutes)
Historical Setting:
Scholars note that Zechariah ministers alongside Haggai during the reign of Darius I (520–518 BC). The people had returned under Zerubbabel almost twenty years earlier (cf. Ezra 1–6), but opposition and discouragement caused the rebuilding of the temple to stall out…
The prophet addresses a community suffering from what many commentators call "post-exilic disappointment."
Book OUTLINE:
The Call to Return to God (1:1-6) *(relational reengagement, not just rebuilding)
Eight Visions and Rule of Priest (1:7-6:15)
Question on Fasting (ch 7-8) (what is God asking)
First Burden - Enemies without & Shepherds within (ch 9-11)
Second Burden - Messiah’s Arrival (ch 12-14)
Zechariah is one of the richest books in the Minor Prophets. It is both deeply rooted in Israel's post-exilic situation and astonishingly forward-looking toward the coming Messiah. More than any other Minor Prophet, Zechariah points directly to Jesus. The New Testament quotes or alludes to Zechariah over 70 times, especially during Passion Week.
Zechariah 1:1-6 NLT
In November of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the LORD gave this message to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo "I, the LORD, was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. ’Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’ "Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead. But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said he would do.’”
After a sober reminder - to start the book (1:1-6), Zechariah is given eight visions covering different facets of the protection God provides from the unseen dangers facing these people…(1:7-6:15)
- Horsemen among the myrtle trees — God is watching the whole earth
- Four horns and four craftsmen — the powers that scattered Israel will themselves be broken
- A man with a measuring line — Jerusalem will overflow its walls, and God himself will be a wall of fire around it; protecting them.
- Joshua the high priest in filthy clothes; cleansed and reclothed — the coming Branch will remove guilt "in a single day”.
- A gold lamp stand and the two olive trees — "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit" (4:6)
- A flying scroll written on both sides — judgment on sin in the land. Two hidden sins (lying and thievery) can eat the heart out of a culture seeking to rebound spiritually. God will seek out, root out and deal with both.
- A woman named Wickedness sealed in a basket, carried away — sin removed from the land. “Wickedness” is symbolized as a feral woman who gets removed from Israel and taken to Persia where she is enthroned.
- Four chariots patrolling the earth — God's rule extends over all nations. Zechariah finishes his visions the way he started, with angelic patrollers among the strong empires. ===**But Israel has someone coming who will unite the roles of King and Priest to lead them into the future.
Dallas Willard famously said: (tying to: Zech 4:6)
"Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning."
These visions communicate one repeated truth:
God is far more active than His people realize.
One scholar observes:
"The visions pull back the curtain so God's people can see heaven at work while earth appears unchanged.”
Another section of the book (Ch. 7-8) comes two years later where God reveals to a delegation sent from a resettlement of Bethel why he has not responded to their corporate fasting in the fifth and seventh months.
They’ve been doing these corporate fasts to remember the destruction of the Temple - seeking God’s help… but little seems to be happening…
And God reveals through Zechariah — It is because they have made a division between their religious and their moral practices, similar to Isaiah 58:1-6, “the fast God chooses.”
God explains how his discipline and even wrath came because the Israelites separated their religious and moral lives, just as we modern believers often experience severe cultural pressure to separate and compartmentalize our lives.
Live out your faith in God - authentically, in real time - have it impact how you live — don’t hide it…deny it or dilute it to ‘fit in’ with the ways of the world
The Coming Shepherd - King (Chapters 9–14)
This is where Zechariah becomes breathtaking.
Nearly every major section points toward Jesus.
One could really preach the entire final week of Jesus' life almost exclusively from Zechariah's prophecies…
=This is not incidental.
This reminds us that the cross and resurrection weren't a divine improvisation — they were the fulfillment of a plan sketched centuries earlier by a prophet writing to a discouraged, half-finished community.
*Conservatively, Jesus fulfilled at least 300+ OT prophecies in His earthly life and ministry. (**UNBELIEVABLE VALIDITY TO HIS CLAIM OF BEING THE MESSIAH - THOSE ODDS ARE SIMPLE INCALCULABLE)
The Gospel Connection
Every section of the Book - ultimately leads us to Jesus.
—He is:
the Branch (3)
the Priest-King (6)
the humble King (9)
the Shepherd (13)
the pierced Savior (12)
the returning King (14)
Zechariah isn't merely predicting events.
He's inviting us to trust in a Person. A Savior that is to come.
*We know NOW - on this side of the CROSS - this reality:
A Savior that did come - one who died, rose from the dead on the 3rd day,
He ascended and reigns supreme — and will one day come again!
4 Quick takeaways for us as Followers of Jesus
**1. God's call to "return" is the doorway for everything (1:3).**
Before the visions, before the promises, before the glorious future, comes an invitation: come back to me. This is the offer of relationship restored. Every act of returning, repenting we make is met, not by a distant God tallying our failures, but by One who says, "I will return to you."
In Christ, this promise reaches its fullest expression — experience.
—we’re brought into a Father's house by His grace…adopted & brought home.
**2. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit" - this reorders how we measure success (4:6).**
Zerubbabel was staring down what the text calls a "mountain" — an obstacle too large for a small, discouraged remnant community to move with human strength. God's answer wasn't a new strategy session; it was a reminder of whose Spirit was doing the work.
= Zechariah reorients us - it’s: faithfulness, not force, that’s the currency of God's kingdom. He will supply the strength needed…we are to stay dependent upon Him (Abide - Jn 15)
**3. The cleansing of Joshua is our own story (ch. 3).**
Every one of us stands before God in filthy garments of our own making.
—The accuser has real material to work with….
But the gospel is precisely this: God doesn't dispute the charge, he answers it — by removing the guilt and clothing us in something not of our own. Something he supplies… If you are in Christ, this has already happened to you. You are not defending yourself against accusations; you are already reclothed, forgiven, redeemed.
**4. The pierced Shepherd is the center of history, and the center of our worship (12:10; 13:7).**
Zechariah lets us watch, centuries early, as the nation looks on the one it pierced and grieves — and that grief becomes a fountain that cleanses.
When we come to the Lord's Table, we are literally doing what Zechariah foresaw — looking on the pierced one, mourning our sin, and receiving the cleansing Jesus opened for us - the forgiveness Jesus extends us.
EXTRA
**5. Holiness isn't reserved for religious moments or places (14:20–21).**
The final image of the book isn't a temple scene; it's an ordinary marketplace where mundane / everyday objects — the harness on a horse, a pot in someone's kitchen — bear the same inscription once reserved for only the high priest's turban: "Holy to the Lord."
The end of the story isn't an escape from ordinary life — it’s ordinary life fully saturated with the presence of God.
==All of life - can be lived as Life As Worship
Your Monday commute, your inbox, your laundry, your parenting, your volunteering, your working, your hobby-ing, your leisure-ing — these are the "horse bells" of your life, and God's design is that they too become holy - places and practices where the holy and ordinary can meet together and God is present and active there…all the time
