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Old Testament Notes
Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai, ca. 520 BC, and was active when the Jews had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. They had built their own houses first, and had run into opposition from their enemies and were not putting much effort into rebuilding the Temple (Ezra 4:23-5:2).
Zechariah 1:2-6 - Zechariah told the people to take a lesson from the past, and to get back into a right relationship with God.
Zechariah 1:8-17 - Zechariah's first vision and its interpretation : God had been watching over the nations of the world, and it was now time for Jerusalem to be restored and rebuilt
Zechariah 1:18-21 - Zechariah's second vision and its interpretation : the four horns might represent the four empires - Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Hellenistic, Roman - which caused the dispersion of the Jews; or they might represent four individual foreign kings or generals who had carried the Jews into exile.
Zechariah, chapter 2 - Zechariah's third vision and its interpretation : Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and would becaome the center where all nations would come to worship God
Zechariah, chapter 3 - Zechariah's fourth vision and its interpretation : the priesthood would be restored and cleansed. In course of time, God would provide "The Branch", which became another title for the Messaih.
Zechariah 3:1 - Joshua the High Priest - see Ezra 3:2, Ezra 4:3, & Ezra 5:2
Zechariah, chapter 4 - Zechariah's fifth vision and its interpretation : confirmation of Zerubbabel and Jeshua as the two anointed ones - the leaders of the Jews. This came to be recognized as a prophecy that the Messiah would have two functions, as King and as Priest.
Zechariah 4:6 - Zerubbabel - see Ezra 3:2, Ezra 4:3, & Ezra 5:2
Zechariah 5:1-4 - Zechariah's sixth vision and its interpretation : God's judgment on dishonesty
Zechariah 5:5-11 - Zechariah's seventh vision and its interpretation : wickedness was rooted out of Israel, and settled in Babylon, the land of Shinar
Zechariah 6:1-8 - Zechariah's eighth vision and its interpretation : God knows and is in control of what happens among the nations of earth
Zechariah 6:9-15 - The prophecy of the crowns : Jeshua was to be crowned as the high priest of the Temple
Zechariah 7:3-5 - "weep in the fifth month" - The Fast in the fifth month (July/August) was in remembrance of the Fall of Jerusalem. The Fast in the seventh month (September/October) was in remembrance of governor Gedaliah, who was murdered (II King 25:22-26,
Jeremiah 40:5 - 41:3). The people had been using these fasts for their own gratification rather than as a means of getting closer to God
Zechariah 7:8-14 - denunciation of injustice
Zechariah 8:1-17 - encouragment not only to rebuild Jerusalem, but to rebuild a just society
Zechariah 8:18-23 - the Fasts of the fifth and the seventh months were to become joyful occasions of true worship
Zechariah 9:1-8 - judgment upon foreign nations
Zechariah 9:9-17 - A prophecy of God's reign, ushered in by His Messiah
Zechariah 9:9 - see Matthew 21:1-9, Luke 12:12-16
Zechariah 11:12-13 - see Matthew 26:14-16 and 27:3-10
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
