Zechariah was a prophet during the time of the exile*. He fills his book with many of the same promises that the other prophets gave. God was going to save his people. He would keep the promises he made to David. He would make Israel* great and their king would rule the world. But these things would not happen right away. They would happen at a time in the future. Zechariah’s book begins while the people of Israel were still in Babylon. But soon they would be returning home, back to their own land.

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The book talks about some things that would happen while Zechariah was alive. Some of the things that he said would only happen in the future. He told the people these things to make them think about that future day. It would remind them of the promises that God made in the past. God had always kept his promises. Zechariah wanted to give them hope*.

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God spoke these words to Zechariah by giving him dreams. These dreams told Zechariah what God would do. So he told the people about his dreams. That way the people would know what God would do too.

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Zechariah talked about a promise in this book. It was the promise that God made to David. If you want to understand this book, you will want to keep this promise in mind. [1]

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Zechariah had many dreams that he told about in this book. One of them was about the return from exile*. He told the people that they would soon go home. They would return to the land God promised them. When they did, they would build the temple* again. God would destroy their enemies. God would help them build up Jerusalem again.

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Zechariah said that God would keep this promise when all of the people obeyed him. ‘All these things will happen if you do what the Lord your God says.’ [2] ‘These things’ were the things that would happen when the Messiah* came. The Messiah* would come and rule the people in the future. He would be the king. But Israel* and Jerusalem did not obey God. This was not the time that God would keep his promise to David.

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When that day came, God would build the temple* again. God would destroy Israel’s* enemies. [3] He would build Jerusalem again. The city would be the place where all nations lived. Israel* would obey God. They would enjoy his blessing. [4] God would build his kingdom* by the power of his Spirit*. [5] Justice* would govern the entire land. [6] God would remove all of the wicked people. God’s wrath* would be sent out against the land of the north. [7]

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Zechariah said that the new king would be a priest like Joshua, the high priest. The Messiah* would be both priest and king.[8]

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When the Messiah* was king, God would again settle in Jerusalem. It would again be called ‘the City of Truth‘. It would be a place of joy. It would be a place of peace* and riches. Jerusalem would be a city of blessing. [9] People would worship* God again in all of the land of promise. People from all nations would come to worship* God there. [10] But just before the Messiah* came, God would judge the nations.

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Read this book with care. Many things that you see here, you will see again in the last book of the Bible.

 

[1] 2 Samuel 7

[2] Zechariah 6:15; see 3:7; 7:9-14; 8:14-17; also Ezekiel 36:24-28

[3] Zechariah 1:7-21

[4] Zechariah 3:1-10

[5] Zechariah 4:1-14

[6] Zechariah 5:1-4

[7] Zechariah 6:1-8

[8] See Psalms 110

[9] Zechariah 8:3-13

[10] Zechariah 8:20-23