Zechariah 1 - 14 (21st and 22nd September) - Alvin

Zechariah was a prophet in the time of Haggai, the first group of Jews who left Babylon to return to Israel. It is believed that Zechariah is younger than Haggai and it was evident that his prophetic ministry was very different from that of Haggai. Whereas Haggai’s messages seemed to be very direct instructions from God, Zechariah tended to speak in visions. Hence, God is able to use different people to speak to us with different means about the same message, as both Zechariah and Haggai’s messages were directed to the people to encourage them to build the temple of God.

When we read the prophetic books, it is important to read each prophecy separately. As in the case of Zechariah, we recognised the different prophecies through timelines, eg: In the eighth month of the second year of King Darius, through these timelines given, we can separate the different messages that God was speaking to His people, instead of reading the entire chapter or book in one continuous flow, which sometimes may become confusing.
Hence, I’ll look at Zechariah, one prophecy at a time.

Zech 1:1-6
A Call to Repentance
God calls His people to return to Him, and His promise will be that He will return to them. This is the grace of God, God accepts us even when we sinned. However, we need to make the effort to first draw near to God. The confidence we have however, is that as we draw near, He desires to draw near to us too, and this is most clearly demonstrated in the death of Jesus; to make drawing near to God possible.

Zech 1:7-6:15
This whole vision mainly speaks about the promise of God’s blessings, presence and protection for His people (remember, they are a people who just returned to their desolate land and are now working on the temple). In the vision we also hear about the coming Messiah who will come and remove the iniquity of the people in one day. However, all these will happened not by human means, but through God, as it is not by power nor by might but by His Spirit.

Zech 7-8
The people of God questioned Zechariah on fasting and God spoke and said that obedience to His Word is much more important than the outward rituals and fasts that the people do. And because of the disobedience of their forefathers, judgement came to Israel. And God’s Word to His people in chapter 7:8-10 shows the heartbeat of God. He is a God who remembers the forgotten people of the land and He is the one who loves them and will care for them and He wants His people to do the same.

“Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘ Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother.10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’

Think about it, do we remember these people, “the widow, the fatherless, the alien and the poor” God remembers them. The Word of God though Zechariah however, promises blessings and mercies, as God determines to do good to His people if they will heed His Word. And more than that, He promises a revival in which people will grab a Christian and ask to go along with him/her because they know that God is with him/her!!

Zechariah 9-14
In this long vision, it is very hard to understand or interpret exactly what Zechariah means. We only know that it is a prophecy of the future which speaks about God’s judgement upon Israel’s enemies, against the shepherds who misled the flock and of other things to come. But in the vision, there are many clear pictures of the reign of the Messiah and of His work. There is a picture of the coming King that will ride on a donkey(which was fulfilled in the of Jesus) and of great mourning for the Pierced One, when Jesus died.