Importance of the book of zechariah

The book of zechariah lacks unity in its contents, style, and vocabulary. It is designed to help christians learn more about the bible they love so much and to think through it. In this promise the remnant of israel found consolation and hope. Zechariah was a prophet who lived in the 6th century before the birth of christ. As we have seen, following several generations of prophetic warnings, the nationstate of judah with its kings palace and elaborate temple came to an. Zechariah the hebrew prophet, zechariah the priest and the father of st. After chapter 8, the book of zechariah changes its tone, its character, its focus.

The prophetic book of zechariah is often neglected when studying the mission. Because zechariah was the last book of the prophets. Book of zechariah overview insight for living ministries. Second zechariah, in the opinion of some scholars, appears to make use of the books of isaiah, jeremiah, and ezekiel, the deuteronomistic history, and the themes from first zechariah. In that respect, its possible to think of the book of zechariah as a kind of miniature book of isaiah. Zechariah and elizabeth, johns parents, are just and blameless folks, as well as devout jews who follow all the commandments and regulations of the lord 1. Most scholars therefore believe that these were three floating and anonymous oracles arbitrarily assigned to. Weve also had the lord declare that he had scattered the jews to the four winds of heaven to every direction on earth. In the book of zechariah, the messiah is presented as the shepherd, the stone, the coming king, and the branch who will remove iniquity. Zechariah, theology of bakers evangelical dictionary of. Its one that calls us as a community of faith to the priority of gods house and.

Zechariah was a contemporary of the prophet haggai, the first postexilic prophet ezra 5. In addition the canonical history of the book of zechariah has always included all fourteen chapters in the book. This prophecy was the eleventh in a collection of a dozen short books known as the twelve minor prophets, coming at the end of the second division of the heb. This article is the first in a series of articles that are designed to give an exposition of the old testament book of zechariah, the next to last book of the twelve minor prophets.

A year later he permitted the people of judah to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple. The traditional view is that this man was a sixthcentury contemporary of haggai and that the entire book was written by him. Haggai focuses explicitly on the present temple work, while zechariah deals with the larger picture of israels history and future. Zechariah is the longest book of the minor prophets. This has led some to believe that the writer s or editor s of second zechariah may have been a disciple of the prophet zechariah. Some modern interpreters believe that what we know as one book was originally two books. After the start of the book in verse 1, zechariah began his book with a short speech in verses 26. Zechariah, as part of his priestly duties in the temple, was chosen to enter the.

Haggai is very literal, directly addressing the economic decline and the tangible solution building the temple. But this cute, old couple isnt getting everything they want in return. They rejected jehovah as their shepherd and protector. David guzik commentary on zechariah 1 gives an introduction to the book of zechariah, and describes the vision of the four horses among the myrtle trees. They played a key role in rousing the elders and people under zerubbabel the.

Haggai s primary purpose was to rebuild the temple. In the book of zechariah, the ultimate salvation of humankind is graphically envisaged. Zechariah joined haggai in rousing the people from their indifference, challenging them to resume the building of the temple. The book of the prophet zechariah the prophets zechariah and haggai wrote about the year 520 bc during the restoration of jerusalem and judah. It is the most difficult of any of the ot books to interpret homer hailey. After the rise and fall of israel, there was a much more important promise, still unfulfilled, which god had made to abraham. Haggai had been preaching for two months, and the construction of the temple had already started.

The book of zechariahpart 1 john ankerberg show john. These two minor prophets speak a major message to the church today. People of the christian faith can this useful short summary of these bible scriptures for an online bible study course or biblical studies. In fact, encouragement is the books central theme primarily encouragement to complete the rebuilding of the temple. The book of luke records that zechariah and his wife, elizabeth, were righteous, godhonoring people who had no children and were well past childbearing years luke 1. Students can also learn about events that will occur before and after jesus christs second coming and feel the importance of preparing themselves for the lords. The above summary details the bible people and summary of important events which occur in the bible scriptures of the book of zechariah. Best commentaries and books on zechariah logos bible. Anyone having any kind of relationship with a jew should also have a basic understanding of the things which are important to jews. The prophet zechariah not only brought a message of hope for the people of his day. He was one of those captives in babylon but, under the leadership of a political ruler whose name was zerubbabel, zechariah, together with some 50,000 of his hebrew kinsmen, returned to their native palestine cir. Zechariah, book of definition and meaning bible dictionary. In the first part we find dates locating the prophecies in the persian era late sixth century b.

This means to be sorry for the wrong things that they did. Zechariah was contemporary with haggai, but his book is in direct contrast to haggais. So, in this book of zechariah we saw four horns in one of the visions. His preaching has a tone of rebuke for the peoples indifference, sin, and lack of trust in god. The lord calls haggai and zechariah to preach to the people to rebuild the temple and put their spiritual lives back into order. The book of zechariah contains the clearest and the largest number of messianic about the messiah passages among the minor prophets. As a result, they forfeited the blessings that come from maintaining a covenant relationship with him. Those horns were being pursued by four craftsmen or smiths. The dates mentioned in the book confirm that he was a contemporary of haggai zechariah 1. Zechariah prophesied to the people of judah soon after they had returned from exile in babylon.

Their faith in god was weak and they were not motivated to build the temple. Zechariah joshua zerubbabel christ as both priest and king. Zechariahs amazing prophecy of the betrayal of christ. The missionary perspective in verse 11 is important for zechariah, but was not a. In the dark day of discouragement which blanketed the remnant, he saw the glory in all of the rapture and vision of hope. On that day his feet will stand on the mount of olives, east of jerusalem, and the mount of olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. Zechariah is the most messianic, the most truly apocalyptic and eschatological, of all the writings of the ot robinson. The books of ezra and nehemiah are also key literary sources on the restoration. They needed to learn and conform to the law of god again. So, for the last year and a few weeks, weve grown accustomed to turning our attention to the book of job. This is therefore an important and interesting book. Zechariah emphasized that god has used his prophets to teach, warn and correct his people. And as i prayed, a few different possibilities were in my mind.

The development of zechariah and its role within the twelve x this first volume focuses on the composition of zechariah. Zechariah 911, zechariah 1214, and malachi also three chapters in hebrew are each called a masa, a burden. Perspectives on mission in the book of zechariah scielo sa. The books of haggai and zechariah represent a golden period in old testament history, but they are often overlooked.

Baldwin writes, even the tiny fragment of the greek manuscript found at qumran, which includes the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9, shows no gap or spacing whatsoever to suggest a break between the two parts. The book of zechariah contains the clearest and the largest number of messianic about the messiah passages among the. The zechariah we are referring to in this gallery is the hebrew prophet who began writing his prophesies the book of zechariah. John the baptist, and zechariah the king of israel are three entirely different figures in the bible. Blue letter bible is now partnering with wordboarda whiteboard animation project developed by james street that focuses on explaining books or passages in the bible in a fun, simple way. But unfortunately we came to the end of that book and now we need to move on to something else. The book of zechariah, although a prophetic work of singular importance in developing an understanding of biblical eschatology and the role of the promised messianic king, is one of the most overlooked and least studied of the old testament books. These twelve prophets were sometimes named the minor prophets, not because they are of lesser importance, but because their writings are brief. Zechariah foresees a day when jerusalem is the center of the world. The prophecies of first zechariah can be dated to the late sixth century b. The book of zechariah was likely written in two primary segments, between 520 and 470 b. Jews have a great respect for the writings of jewish prophets.

Zechariah is a commonly used name in the old testament and means the lord remembers, a meaning that contributes to the hope of the messiahs first and second coming prophesied in zechariah s book. Because of the length and importance of the book of zechariah, this prophecy will be discussed, chapter by chapter. Also, it tells the people to promise to try not to do these wrong things in the future. He has more messianic prophecies than any of the other minor prophets. Interesting facts about zechariah barnes bible charts meaning. They seem to be doing everything right on lukes terms. Speaking of the messiah, jesus christ, zechariah recorded the words of the lord declaring the treachery and betrayal of his people. Through the prophet zechariah, god repeated this promise. The book of zechariah falls naturally into two parts.