Zechariah: The Jealousy of Yahweh
Lessons From Zechariah
- Dynamic preaching restores drooping faith
- God will grant blessings to those who try to restore true religion
- The true glory of a people is found only in their devotion to God
- Acts of devotion are useless unless ones heart is poured out to God
- True religion is designed to become universal
- The LORD's followers should have an optimistic outlook
- The LORD wants Jerusalem to be called the "city of truth"
Purpose:
To give hope to God's people by revealing God's future deliverance through the Messiah Author: Zechariah Original Audience: The Jews in Jerusalem who had returned from their captivity in Babylon. |
Date Written:
Chapters 1-8 were written approximately 520-518 B.C. Chapters 9-14 were written around 480 B.C. Setting: The exiles had returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, but the work had been thwarted and stalled. Haggai and Zechariah confronted the people with their task and encouraged them to complete it. |
Key Verses:
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the end of the earth" (9:9, 10). |
Key People:
Zerubbabel, Joshua Key Place: Jerusalem |
Key Themes:
God's Jealousy, Rebuild the Temple, The King Is Coming, God's Protection Special Features: This book is the most apocalyptic and Messianic of all the minor prophets. |
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"The book of Zechariah includes a series of visions with vivid but mysterious symbols, together with the appearance of an angel who interprets the vsions but leaves some of the symbols unexplained. These visions mix the work of the Messiah in both advents, and like the other prophets, Zechariah sees only the peaks of God's program without the intervening valleys." —(Nelsons, pg. 282) |