Zechariah

Prepares God's people for suffering. When evil has done its worst, God remains king and will be perceived as such by the nations (all?).

Author could have been the Zechariah of Neh 12:16 (12:4) in which case he would have been a priest which seems to be borne out by his concern for the temple being rebuilt, and the responsibilities of the priest as in vision four.

When? End of exile in Babylon. Contemporary of Haggai, (malachi--similar message) Yet he knew and used the language of the pre-exilic prophets like Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah, as well as Jer and Ezek his immediate predecessors. i.e. 3:2 cf Am 4:11 (brand snatched from fire.) 520 BC after Darius had taken over from Cyrus's successor (suicidal?) Cambyses.

1:1-6 Message sent to Zechariah (for whom? them? The ancestors? His contemporaries?) Take a lesson from your forefathers. I (God) told them to return to me, but they didn't heed my warning. Now look at them. They're dead, but my words and principles (statutes) last. Everything that I said would happen to them did happen, so that even your ancestors admitted that what happened to them was their own fault, just as I said it would be. (When God deals with us according to our deeds, He is being fair. In other words, He sets up laws of cause and effect.)

This passage points to the consistency of God.

What three steps does God give to deal with His anger?

1. He calls to them

2. They return to Him, making possible the last step

3. He returns to them

At the heart of dealing with God's anger, then, is His being reconciled to His people.

Is God's anger something that hinders His love for us? No. How do we know?

Verse 3. God takes the initiative. He is interested in His people. He wants them to return. He has not given up on them.

How is it that the people of God have such power to hinder the Almighty God from returning to them? Why can He not return to us even if we do not return to Him? (In context?) Is this salvation by works?

God has given words and statutes which promised destruction for the deeds they are doing. God is consistent between what He says and what He does. V.6 Proclamation, demonstration

What is God getting at when He asks where their fathers are, or if the prophets live forever? What are the answers to these questions? Where are your fathers? They are dead. They died in exile. Do the prophets live for ever? No, they are dead also. But did not My Words and My statutes which I Commanded my servants the prophets overtake your fathers? Yes, they did. The were exiled just as You said. Then they repented and said that I had done just what I had promised to do. Will you outlast me? Do you think I am kidding around when I say that trouble is coming upon you if you do not repent of your evil deeds? Be assured I am not kidding. Look what happened to your fathers. For once, trust me! Take my word for it, evil sown is evil reaped. My statutes cannot be changed. They will overtake you. Therefore to avoid my anger, turn from your wicked ways!

The question here is, "Is God trustworthy? Did what He said come to pass?" The answer is a resounding, "Yes!" even if what He said would happen is not pleasant, He spoke the truth.

1:7-17 Setting: a grove of myrtle trees. The horseman on a red horse. Also red, sorrel, and white horses (and riders), those sent by Yahweh to patrol the earth. The said the earth was at peace.--Perhaps the horsemen of Darius who traveled the new roads.

Setting: the end of the 70 years of captivity. The angel of the Lord asks how long God's anger will go on, and how long the Lord of hosts will withhold mercy from Jerusalem.

They'd been in captivity--trial--for 70 years because they'd not lived the principles of love which give life and reveal God's wisdom to the universe. To take the gifts of God and horde them is to reject those gifts and the giver since they are worthless unless shared. Love does not bless the recipient unless it is given away!

God gave comforting words in response. God is very interested in helping his people. He was only a little angry (only wanted them to experience the consequences of their sin a little bit?), but the enemies of Jerusalem have gone overboard. That's why He has returned (repented?) to Jerusalem with compassion. He will take up dwelling there among them. The measuring line will be spread out over Jerusalem. (Does this mean that much building will go on in Jerusalem again? Much growth by NT analogy. Just as God is glorified in Jerusalem being physically built up by a prosperous and socially/ spiritually healthy Jewish nation so He is glorified as we are built into a dwelling place for Him now.) This is the message, since God says proclaim further that prosperity will come again as God comforts them (though they are now miserable) and chooses them (though now they are under the rule of God's chosen instruments.)

What has kept the Jews so unified during the centuries? Is it not the combined sense of choseness and painful trials that has bound them together. Where are the Amalekites and the Samaritans? God masterfully kept a "people of the book" together to keep the truth alive until the end when technology would allow it to be transmitted more easily. One way he did it was to subjugate them to stronger nations during times of political and social and spiritual crisis, making it plain that it was their spiritual weakness that led to it, so they would in their pain take stock and recommit themselves to the truth!

Zechariah 1:18-21	April 15, 1998

Zechariah sees four craftsman or artificers. Why blacksmiths? They have big hammers to strike down horns? I don't know. I wonder if it is a way of connecting the building of the temple. These builders will throw down the tyrannical powers that have scattered God's people. They have been God's instruments of discipline, but now they must reap the consequences of their own acts. They are four who will judge the four who have stepped on God's people.

Zechariah 2:1-5	April 30, 1998

This is a prediction of the prosperity of Jerusalem. It comes out later that God will save them in order to make them a blessing. Here He says that He will protect them, and they will be numerous. Their protection does not come from their numbers, but from God. God will both protect them by surrounding them with fire, but will be in their midst as a bright glory. No wonder the fiery furnace didn't hurt the worthies, God was surrounding them with fire already. This speaks to me of God's protection of our bodies, and His indwelling Spirit. God truly became a wall of fire around the church, not that no one was hurt ever, but their mission of blessing could not be stopped by persecution or war. Likewise the only way to have that protection on the outside was to have God inside the members of the collective church. It's the same today.

2:6-

Here God says, leave Babylon, for it will soon be destroyed. I wonder if the phrase "daughter of" means simply the daughter (woman) who is . . . Babylon . . . Zion, etc. In that case it would mean. Escape you who are living with the woman Babylon, the false church, the adulterous nation, a people whose name means confusion. Maybe it says flee from the North because the Israelites had been scattered to the south, east, and west as well and judgment was only coming on the North, Babylon--though Babylon could embody all that meant exile. If verse 8 means he has sent me urgently against the nations, that would fit well with the sense of urgency and speed in this exhortation to leave Babylon.

God will reveal that He has not given up on His people. He is still Yahweh of the covenant even if he is stirring up the nest, trying to teach His people to fly (near the reference to apple of the eye in Deut 32) When their enemies become plunder for their own slaves, it will be apparent that He is Yahweh, God of the covenant, their Daddy.

Verse 11 says that they will become a blessing to many people in that day.

8:1-8

Chiastic center of the center chiasmus. Young and old will both thrive--the ultmate in messages of peace and prosperity. Streets is mentioned three times. I wonder why? Old will sit in the streets, and the streets of the city will be full of the young playing in the streets.