This evening I want to start a new study, and we’re going to be looking at the book of Zechariah. We’ve been looking at the prophets of the Old Testament, following looking at the kings of Judah and Israel. We’ve tried to show how they line up with the periods of history, and I wanted to look at the book of Zechariah for a few reasons.
Number one, Zechariah has more prophecies dealing with Jesus’ Messiah than any other prophet other than Isaiah. More than Jeremiah, and more than Ezekiel, and even more than Daniel. And even his introduction in the book speaks about the power of God, and we’re going to look at that in just a moment.
I want to lay down a little bit of background so you understand the period of time that Zechariah is living in. Isaiah wrote his book and gave his prophecies and his words to the nation of Israel before they’d gone into captivity. And it was at the time, well the northern kingdom was being attacked by the Assyrians when he was writing it, but the southern kingdom hadn’t been, but it was during that time that he also was at the time of King Hezekiah, and was an encouragement to Hezekiah, and really was there to talk to him about the significance of his position and the Lord.
Daniel and Ezekiel came after Jeremiah, and Jeremiah came between Isaiah and those two. Jeremiah was at the time when the southern kingdom Judah was beginning to become very corrupt and evil, following the ways of the northern kingdom Israel, and Jeremiah lived through that. He experienced and saw God’s judgment upon the southern kingdom of Judah, and he was there to warn them and call them to repentance, which they didn’t do.
Two, Daniel and Ezekiel, if you remember, were somewhat contemporaries with Jeremiah. They would have been a lot younger than Jeremiah, but they were also taken into captivity. Daniel was taken into captivity when Nebuchadnezzar took the royalty.
He was part of the royal people that were taken into captivity, which was what the Babylonians did. They would take the leaders and the families of the leaders, the children of the leaders, into Babylon, and then they would convert them to the Babylon way of thinking, and the Babylon way of living, and then they would be used to influence the other people that they had taken captive from their countries. But Daniel did not fall into that trap.
He followed the Lord with his whole heart. We saw that Ezekiel came from a priestly family and was taken into captivity after Daniel. When Ezekiel was taken into captivity, he was used by God to not only minister to those captives as a priest, but also to prophetically encourage them about the coming things that God was going to be doing in the nation of Israel.
Well, a number of years passed, and Cyrus becomes the king of the Medo-Persian Empire, and Cyrus decrees that those who had been taken captive by the Babylonians would be able to go back to Israel. There was only about 50,000 that went back in the first wave. These people went back, and Cyrus also decreed that the temple could be rebuilt, and then later on during the time of Nehemiah, the city and the walls were allowed to be rebuilt, and that decree came under a different king of the Medo-Persians.
As these people go back, the time that they’re going back is in the time period that Zechariah is called to be a prophet. We’re going to take a look at the introduction to the book of Zechariah tonight, just the first six verses. Zechariah gives us both the time frame, and he also gives us an insight into what this message of this book is going to be about.
In 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,
2 The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers.
3 Therefore 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.
4 Be 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.
5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
6 But 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.
Let’s just fall in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that you just speak to us this evening and help us to understand that your word is true and that your promises are everlasting. Men can come and men can go, men will live and men will die, but your word stands forever. Help us to understand that.
Speak to us through your word this evening as we look at the introduction that Zachariah gives to the book that you laid on his heart to share with the nation of Israel, but not only with Israel, with us as well. And the promises that have been laid out in this book that were foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets that came. Lord, now speak to us through your word, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I want us to take a look at the introduction where it talks about, first of all, when this book was written. It says in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zachariah.
We know that the nation had been delivered from Babylon in 536 A.D. And we also know from reading and looking at the historical context of that introduction that this prophecy was given probably in 520 B.C. As a matter of fact, some people have been able to say that they can pin it down to the day and the month it was given. He began his prophetic ministry on October 27th, 520 B.C. It’s also interesting that the names that he gives of his grandfather, his father, and himself. His name is Zachariah.
Zachariah is a name that is given in scripture to 27 men in the Old Testament. 27 different men. So it’s a fairly common name in the nation amongst Israel during the time that Zachariah lived.
It’s a name that you may hear even today as people give their children names of the prophets. Zachariah is one of them. Zachariah has a meaning.
It means to whom Jehovah remembers. That’s what the name of Zachariah means. As Zachariah says, his coming before and his name and when the people would say his name, it means they’d be saying to whom Jehovah remembers.
Zachariah talked about his father. He said his father was Berekiah. Now Berekiah, not a lot is said about Berekiah in the Old Testament, in the books, other places in the Old Testament.
A lot of biblical historians believe that Berekiah may have died at a fairly young age because in other places where it refers to Zachariah, it says that he is the son of Iddo. Now that’s also a way that the people in Israel would speak of their ancestors in the sense that sometimes they would say he’s the son of, even though there would be a generation between, but they would show their relationship. But it says that Zachariah was the son of Berekiah and it’s interesting what Berekiah means.
Berekiah means Jehovah blesses. So we have Zachariah and then Berekiah and finally Iddo. Iddo is Zachariah’s grandfather.
Iddo is also mentioned other places in scripture. He was a priest and Zachariah took over some of the priestly duties of his grandfather Iddo. That’s another reason they feel that something happened to Berekiah because Berekiah didn’t take these over, Zachariah did.
But the word Iddo means in his time. I want you to look at these three names and then I want you to look at some of the things that are going to be said in the introduction to this book. So Zachariah to whom Jehovah remembers, Berekiah Jehovah blesses, Iddo in his time.
So you put these three names together and it means to whom Jehovah remembers, Jehovah blesses in his time. Now these names when they were spoken, they don’t mean anything to us in English because we can’t interpret Hebrew. But to the Jewish person who is reading this, that’s what they’d be saying as he said these three names.
And it’s a very powerful statement because you remember these people had been taken back out of captivity. They’d been sent by Cyrus back into the land. They were told to rebuild the temple.
And then an interesting thing happens. They lay the foundation of the temple and then it remains a number of years with no more being done to it. It’s as if the people just became so discouraged that they quit.
And then Ezra comes and he encourages them to continue to build and the temple is rebuilt. But when the temple is completed under Ezra, one of the amazing things is those that are older who were just probably young children or teenagers when they were taken into captivity and now they’re back in Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple.
They see the temple that’s been rebuilt and they begin to cry. And they weep. Because they remember the glory of the temple of Solomon and they see the temple that has been built and the glory isn’t the same.
It doesn’t have… Remember when we went through and looked at the temple when Solomon built it, all of the gold, all of the bronze, all of the brass, all of the things that were put together, the beauty of it, and a lot of that wasn’t in this temple. Even though it was structured in the same structure with the courts being the same, the holy place being the same, the holy of holies being the same, it just was not the same in its appearance and beauty. And so they wept.
They’re also experiencing, those of you who have gone through the study of the prophets with us, you remember that when they were back in there, first went back into the land, that there was a lot of attacking on Nehemiah. We went through and looked at Nehemiah. This would have been a study that we did a while ago.
And saw how that he was constantly under pressure and the people were under pressure to give it up. And to again become enslaved to those nations that were around them. But Zechariah comes.
And he comes with a powerful message. God has not forgot. God has not forgot.
And in his time, he remembers and he will fulfill his promise. Now let’s just take a look and pull apart these six verses a little bit and see what they say. First of all, why were the people in the state they were in? They were in the condition they were in because of their fathers.
And what had happened during the time of Daniel and Ezekiel and prior to that Jeremiah and prior to that Isaiah. When these prophets foretold what was going to happen and you had other men as well, other prophets that lived at the same time, that also spoke the same message. Repent.
And what was going on? Their fathers had fallen into idolatry. And if you remember during the times of the kings, there were various kings of Judah that caused repentance to come to Judah to a degree. But the majority of the people did not change their hearts.
They cleaned themselves up on the outside, especially during the time of Josiah. They really cleaned themselves up during the time of Josiah, got rid of the high places, got rid of all of the idols, got rid of all of these things. But the minute that Josiah died and his sons and grandsons became the kings in succession, every one of them introduced more and more idolatry back into Israel and the people were happy to have it.
Because they really had never, a lot of the people as we saw when we studied that portion of Scripture, they had kept their idols in their houses. They kept them secret. They didn’t let the people know that they still had them, but they still were worshipping them.
And God knew, even though the people would walk by and wouldn’t see the idols that had been there during some of the previous kings and the false worship going on on the outside, yet it rose up immediately. When the heart isn’t transformed and changed and people are still in revolting and rebelling against God, the minute that a righteous man that is leading is removed, the unrighteousness tends to come back very quickly. That’s exactly what happened during the time of the fathers of the people that were coming into the land now and rebuilding the temple that Zechariah is speaking to.
And so he says, their situation and their condition is because their sword is pleased with their fathers. That’s why they were taken into captivity. Therefore say thou unto them, Thou 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.
This is the message that was given to their fathers. It’s now being given to their children and grandchildren. And it’s being given by Zechariah.
And the Lord tells him, give this same message. This is going to be the underlying theme of this. Repent and turn unto me, because I haven’t forgotten about you.
And I want you to come back to me. Be 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, turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings. But ye did not hear.
Well, what were the former prophets? Well, four of the major ones, which we refer to as the major prophets, were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. That was their message. Turn and repent.
God hasn’t forgotten. God wants to work in your hearts. Turn and repent and come back to me.
And it was the same message that Hosea brought. The same message that Haggai brought. And as you go down the list of what we refer to as the minor prophets, because their books are shorter.
It’s not because their message was any less powerful. But we see that the message was the same. And that’s what he’s saying.
The prophets told, but nobody listened. Then he goes on and he says in verse 5, Your fathers, where are they? Well, where were their fathers? Their fathers had died. And the prophets, did they live forever? Will the prophets continue to preach? Will they continue to call the people to repentance forever? The answer is no.
Man is appointed once to die. And so we see that all men die. And the prophets don’t live forever.
And the people that they’re preaching to don’t live forever. But the word goes out. And the word is going to be the same whether the prophet is there to say it or the next prophet comes in his place.
And the people that are being brought the message need to hear repentance because they need to do that during their lifetime. They can’t do it afterwards. Once they’re dead, they’ve been sealed with their destiny.
And if they are walking in open rebellion against God, they’re not going to experience His forgiveness there. They’re going to experience His presence. But they will experience His judgment.
And that’s what the prophets were constantly preaching. But the people that they were preaching to are all dead. What was the result? There were some that listened.
There were some that believed. We know that because Daniel and his friends did. Ezekiel did.
There were others that did. But the vast majority did not respond to their fathers. And they walked in rebellion.
And now they’re dead. And so the warning that Zechariah is giving is you’ve got one chance. And the prophets are bringing the message.
And one day the message is going to be silenced because they won’t be there anymore. But you won’t be there to hear either. And so you need to respond today.
He goes on and then he says in verse 6, Well, what about the Lord? What about the Lord? Is the Lord here today and gone tomorrow? Is His message here today and gone tomorrow? Does the Lord just fade out the scene like these wicked men? Or does the Lord’s words stop when the prophets’ mouths are stopped by death? Well, Zechariah tells the people this. He says, But my words, He’s speaking on behalf of God. He’s speaking on behalf of the Lord.
But 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. And remember when they were taken into captivity, they began to realize what God had said was happening. And remember when we studied during the time of Jeremiah, they kept denying that it was going to happen.
Jeremiah would bring a message and they’d deny it. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.
But they finally saw it happen and they couldn’t deny it any longer. They said, Oh, the temple’s still standing, so God will deliver us, even though we’re worshiping false gods and have rebelled against Him, don’t want to follow Him, don’t want to do what He wants us to do, are living in total defiance of who He is and His character. But because the temple’s here, He’ll still be with us.
And then the temple’s destroyed and they still deny it. And then they’re taken into captivity and they still deny it. And some of them try to go to Egypt, do you remember? And God told them, Don’t go.
But they didn’t listen to that either. And they went and they died in Egypt. The thing is, the fathers saw the words of the prophets come true.
Now, I want to just flip this forward to today. And we’ve been studying in Ezekiel, we’ve been studying in Daniel, we’ve been studying in Jeremiah, we’ve been studying in Isaiah. And I’m looking at these prophets and their words.
And what we’ve seen is they foretold things that were coming. And then we looked also at the words of Jesus. And we looked at how Jesus told His disciples what it was going to be like in the last days.
And we saw what happened in the last days, according to what Jesus told them. And we’re seeing that very thing happen now. Is the church any different than Israel was during the time of the prophets? If you look at what’s happening in the church today, it’s very interesting.
The prophets foretold all these events would happen in the last days. They said that this was going to happen and then the Lord would come and deal with Israel. Daniel said the 70th week of judgment and dealing with Israel is going to come upon the nation of Israel.
But there was going to be a period between the 69th week when the Messiah was cut off and the 70th week when God would again deal with Israel. And this period of time we know was given so that the church could be born and the message taken out and Gentiles redeemed. But we’re seeing that it’s coming closer and closer to the beginning of the last days.
But instead of the church acknowledging what the prophets said and what the Lord Himself told the disciples, we deny it. We deny that these things are really happening and I’ve shared with you before there are some people that even believe that Satan is bound now and we’re in the millennial kingdom now. I’m going, wow, Jesus is ruling in righteousness and truth right now from Jerusalem.
First of all, I don’t see Him ruling from Jerusalem. Second of all, I don’t see a bunch of truth and righteousness being dealt with in the world as the lies and unrighteousness and horrible behavior continue to grow. I see exactly what Jesus said and the prophets said that in the last days it would grow worse and worse and worse as it was in the days of Noah where finally God had to judge because of the wickedness.
I don’t know if the church is going to wake up and see what’s happening around us or if they’re going to continue to go down this road. Now I know that there’s a vast majority of Christians that do see and do believe and are waiting for the rapture to occur. They’re preaching the gospel and trying to go out and proclaim the truth even as Zechariah is going to proclaim the truth to the people that are left back in the land.
But he wants them to understand that their fathers had all of it told to them but they didn’t listen and finally when it happened and they could no longer deny it they said, you know what, God was right. His word was delivered exactly like He said it would be. I think there’s a lot of people that are going to see that that happens and just pray that it’s not too late for them.
Well, this is kind of a brief introduction to the book of Zechariah and we’re going to be looking at it. Zechariah is a very interesting book. It’s got a lot of prophetic things that also tie into things that we’ve studied in Daniel and Ezekiel.
Some of the same prophecies. So, I hope that you’re excited to take a look at the book of Zechariah. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord, I pray that you just speak to us tonight through your word. Lord, I pray that you just help us to understand truly even in the name of Zechariah, Berekiah and Ido to whom Jehovah remembers, Jehovah blesses in His time. And Lord, sometimes we think, have you forgotten? But you remember and you will bless in your time.
And Lord, help us to look for you and to look for your blessings. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.