Zechariah 1

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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Zechariah Chapter 1

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: Zechariah

Date Penned: (1-8 520-518BC)(9-14 480BC)

Overview: Messages while Rebuilding the Temple (c 1-8)

Theme: Zechariah's Night Visions (c 1-6)

Message: A Call to Return to the Lord (v 1-18)

Zechariah: Chapter 1 Commentary

(1:1) Born in Babylon during the exile, Zechariah was a fairly young man when he returned to Jerusalem in 538 BC King Cyrus of Persia had defeated Babylon in 539 and decreed that captives in exile could return to their homelands. Zechariah and Haggai were among the first to leave. Zechariah, a prophet and a priest, began ministering at the same time as the prophet Haggai (520-518 BC) His first prophecy was delivered two months after Haggai's first prophecy. Like Haggai, Zachariah encouraged the people to continue rebuilding the Temple, whose reconstruction had been halted for nearly 10 years, Zechariah combated the people's spiritual apathy, despair, pressures from their enemies, and discouragement about the smaller scale of the New Temple foundation. Neglect of our spiritual priorities can be just as devastating to fulfilling God's Purpose today.

(1:2-4) The familiar phrase , "Like father, like son" implies that children turn out like their parents. but God warned Israel not to be like their forefathers who disobeyed him and reaped the consequences of His Judgement. We are responsible before God for our actions. We aren't trapped by our heredity or environment. We can choose, and individually, we must return to God and follow him.

(1:5,6) The words God had spoken through his prophets a century earlier before the captivity still applied to Zechariah's Generation, and they are still relevant for us. God's Word endures. Since God's word endures we must read, study, and apply it to our lives. Wisdom will keep us from repeating the mistakes that others have made before us.

(1:7-10) The horses and their colors were symbols of God's involvement in world governments. The full meaning of the colors is unknown, although the red horse is often associated with war and, and the white horse is associated with a final victory.

(1:11) The angel saw that all the nations were peaceful and prosperous while Israel was still conquered and despised. But God was planning a change. He had released his people, and he would allow them to return and rebuild his Temple.

(1:12) Seventy years ("threescore and ten years") was the time God had decreed for Israel to remain in captivity (Jeremiah 25) This time now completed, and the angel asked God to act swiftly to complete the promised return of his people to Jerusalem.

(1:13) God's people had lived under his judgement for 70 years during their captivity in Babylon. But now God spoke words of comfort and assurance. God promises that when we return to him, he will heal us (Hosea 6) If you feel wounded and torn by the events of your life, turn to the Lord so he can heal and comfort you.

(1:15) Although the heathen nations afflicted God's people beyond his intentions, he was not powerless to stop them, God used these nations to punish his sinful people. When they went beyond his plans by trying to destroy Israel as a nation, he intervened.

(1:18-21) The horns were the four world powers who oppressed Israel - Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia. The carpenters were the nations used to overthrow Israel's enemies, God raised them up to judge the oppressors of his people.

Dave Burnette's Life Application
Discovering God's Plan for Your Life

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we start in the book ofZechariah with Chapter 1. In our text today we see Zechariah getting messages while rebuilding the temple. Here the Lord speaks to Zechariah as he works and follows instructions. In making application we see a principle of how the Lord reveals steps of His plan for our lives as we walk and obey each step. As we walk in the light He reveals more light for His master plan for your life. How about you? Are you walking in His light in your life? Let us learn from our text today and the example of Zechariah to see that the Lord will speak to us and reveal His plan for our lives as we walk in His light then He will reveal more light for His Plan for our lives.

Zechariah 1

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Zechariah 1

¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

²The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

³Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

⁴Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

⁵Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

⁶But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

⁷Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

⁸I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

⁹Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.

¹⁰And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

¹¹And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

¹²Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?

¹³And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.

¹⁴So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.

¹⁷Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.

¹⁹And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

²⁰And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.

²¹Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

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