(520 B.C.?) [Zechariah, from the prophetic lineage of Iddo, receives his first message two months following Haggai, a contemporary. ( Hag.1:1 & Zech.1:1) Co-ministers of encouragement to Zerubbabel for rebuilding the Temple, Ezra 5:1-2.]

A MESSAGE OF TURNING.
God reminds them of the disobedience of their fathers, leading to their most recent captivity. The brevity and frailty of life stands the unrepentant in imminent danger of judgment. God is long-suffering but man's days are short! He can wait forever, but man has only the moment's breath for confession. It is both foolish and dangerous to wait. Look around. Where are their fathers and the prophets of that generation now?

SECOND MESSAGE.
Three months later, now February, it comes in a vision. A man on a red horse, among myrtle trees, surrounded by white speckled red horses, reporting to God on the land's condition after 70 years captivity. The land is at rest and peaceful under favorable Persian rule; therefore, He is greatly displeased with the interference of the Samaritans and others toward the rebuilding of His Temple. His House will be rebuilt. His cities will prosper.

A VISION OF 4 HORNS, FRAYED BY 4 CARPENTERS.

4 HORNS = Gentiles who come on the land and scatter His people, frustrating His work and people;

4 CARPENTERS = The Avengers.

(519 B.C.?) [Vision of a man with a measuring line for Jerusalem. Now five months into reconstruction of the Temple, her walls yet unrestored.] God is seen as the New Jerusalem's walls of protection for the flourishing population within, a consuming fire, impenetrable by any evil, with Himself abiding in their midst. His people are the "apple of His eye." A call to Zion for the homeless. A call to all nations who hunger for righteousness. God will rule from Jerusalem, His chosen city. A still, a peace, a silence before His revealed presence, now in Zion!

[Vision of the high priest, Joshua, standing in unclean garments, with Satan at his right side in resistance. A foreshadow of the work of Christ.] His unclean (our sins He took upon Himself) to be taken away and given a raiment of purity. He will be the Judge of His house. A Branch will be raised up among them, and in one day, a day of Atonement, all the iniquity of the land will be removed and all the people will be made brothers!

[Vision of a golden candlestick.] Spiritually quickened, a golden candlestick, a bowl atop with 7 lamps and 7 pipes above and 2 olive trees on each side of the bowl is seen. Zechariah appeals to the angel for its interpretation. A word for Zerubbabel. God, not himself, will be his strength for completing the work already begun. He is the author and finisher of all good works. The 2 olive branches are God's chosen Anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole Earth. (Zerubbabel and Joshua.)

[Vision of a golden candlestick.] Spiritually quickened, a golden candlestick, a bowl atop with 7 lamps and 7 pipes above and 2 olive trees on each side of the bowl is seen. Zechariah appeals to the angel for its interpretation. A word for Zerubbabel. God, not himself, will be his strength for completing the work already begun. He is the author and finisher of all good works. The 2 olive branches are God's chosen Anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole Earth. (Zerubbabel and Joshua.)

[Vision of 4 battle chariots, 4 spirits (winds) of heaven coming between 2 mountains of brass, with: (1) red horses, (2) black horses going northward, (3) white horses going after the black, and (4) gilded and bay horses: the gilded going southward and the bay going to and fro in the Earth. Those going northward executing His judgment quieted His spirit in the north country.]

[JOSHUA'S CORONATION.]
Zechariah instructed to make and place a crown of silver and gold on Joshua, the high priest, as a memorial in the Temple. The Branch will come and establish His priestly kingdom, all of which requires obedience by the people.

(518 B.C.?) [Questions Concerning Fasting. As the Temple's completion was about to become reality, a group diligent in their prayers and fasting established in captivity inquire whether they should continue doing so now that they were home. God's answer follows in the 7th and 8th Chapters.] He asks: Who were their annual fasts and prayers to, themselves or Him? Who did they eat and drink to, God, or each to his own pleasure? Remember the prophets' words as their fathers prospered before the captivity. Therefore, get pure religion, do justice, relieve the fatherless, widow, and stranger, etc. Execute righteousness! This their fathers fail to do and was the reason for their severe judgment and captivity. Learn from their failures! The ceremonial is invalid and hypocritical when offered only by the hearer and not a doer of His word.

God's answer continues. Jerusalem will be restored to a city of truth where all are just, one toward the other, with God dwelling in their midst and old men coming and going in peace as children play in her streets. The Diaspora will return from the east and west. He encourages them to be strong and build for their peace and prosperity. His wrath is finally abated; they should not fear. But a warning: Be sure to do justice and get pure religion. Their question of fasts is now directly answered: to love truth and peace, and live that other nations may see their witness to a wonderful God and seek Him as well. (The message of Naomi, a Jew, and Ruth, a Moabite, is clear here. See Ruth's confession to Naomi, Ruth 1:16. Through her, David would be born, and later Christ Himself! Ruth 4:21-22; Mat.1:1,17)

(487 B.C.?) [Judgments on oppressor nations follow in Chapters 9-11.] Judgment upon Hadrach, Aram, and Hamath to the north. Judgment upon Tyre and Sidon to the northwest on the coast. Judgment upon Philistia to the southwest. Judgment of others to come (Greece, etc.). God will defend His people. He will be their salvation. [Wonderful messianic prophecies follow.] He will rule the Earth, and lovingly care for all His people, defending them against evil and bestowing His richest blessings.

Man is enjoined to seek only the true God who cares for His creation, unlike those sought by the foolish, who are no gods at all. He will regather and shepherd His people when all others have deserted them. He will strengthen and defend them and will be as though they were never cast off, dispersed among the nations, and returned again. Their captors and oppressors will be cut down, and they will have complete liberty to come and go in His name.

[Parable contrasting the False and True Shepherd.] Revenge will be exacted from those given charge over His chosen for their injustices against them. He will feed the flock of the slaughter. He will break His staffs of Beauty (Graciousness, protecting care) and Bands (Binders, to be dispersed). Three false shepherds will be cut off in one month. The staff of Beauty is broken with whom He was covenanted because they despised Him. His Bands were broken between Judah and Israel, ending their state of brotherhood. A devouring shepherd will be raised up and a woe issued to the shepherd He chooses who becomes an idol shepherd and deserts His flock.

[Another burden for Israel follows in Chapters 12-14.] The God who made all will make Jerusalem a cup of wrath, a burdensome stone, to those who array against her. They will be invincible, beginning with the tents of Judah unto the house of David, that the latter might not magnify themselves. God will be their defense. The weak will be made as strong as the strongest and the strongest (the house of David) will be as God, as the angel before them (Invincible!). God will destroy all the nations who rise up against her. A redeemer will be given and crucified by them, later to be recognized, and all will mourn with a great mourning, as in king Josiah's death. Each and all separately will know their own guilt, mourning their loss individually!

A promised fountain (blood of Christ) for cleansing of sin and uncleanness to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. A great religious reformation will occur. All idols and their memory will be cut off, prophets and unclean spirits driven out, and any who rise up to prophesy will not be of God, to be executed by their parents. The false prophets will be ashamed at their prophecy, denying their own identity. Smitten, Israel will be 2/3 destroyed, with 1/3 spared and refined as gold and silver through His refining fire. After their call to Him, He will answer and then be their God, accepting them as His people.

The Day of the Lord: Judgment. All nations will gather against Jerusalem, the city taken, houses rifled, women ravished, and ½ the people taken captive, with the other to remain. God will then take revenge on all nations, descending to Mt. Olivet with a great earthquake, the mountain splitting east to west, ½ moving northward, ½ southward, creating a great valley between. He will return, accompanied by His saints. The day will be as no other, not dark nor light. Living waters will flow west to the Mediterranean Sea and east to the Dead Sea. He will be King over all the Earth. Jerusalem will be safely inhabited. Those nations who opposed His people, He will curse with a severe plague, their flesh consuming in a flash while yet standing. A great civil strife will occur, with the survivors of the nations making annual pilgrimage to worship at Jerusalem. A punishment of plagues and drought for nonattendance at the Feast of Tabernacles, for Egypt especially! HOLINESS will be the watchword (Ezek.43:12). All shall be Holy, as God is Holy, and the unclean (Canaanite) will be excluded from the House of God.