NL-Day356 Zechariah 1-2; Isaiah 59; Revelation 13

ZECHARIAH 1-2:
Yesterday we read both chapters of the little book of Haggai, and heard how Haggai motivated his discouraged audience to return to the task of rebuilding the temple. Haggai certainly must have known and worked with our next author— Zechariah.

While there are at least 27 men named Zechariah in the Old Testament, we do know which one was the writer of this book. 

The biblestudytools.com site says that Zechariah “was born in Babylonia and was among those who returned to Judah in 538/537 b.c. under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua (his grandfather Iddo is named among the returnees in Ne 12:4). At a later time, when Joiakim was high priest (see note on Ne 12:12-21), Zechariah apparently succeeded Iddo (1:1,7) as head of that priestly family (Ne 12:10-16).” 

(See https://www.biblestudytools.com/csb/zechariah/ for a very helpful timeline showing where Zechariah’s prophecies fit in with the book of Ezra and Haggai’s prophecies.)

The name Zechariah means ‘Yahweh remembers’, and his name is appropriate to the message of his book. The HCSB Study Bible gives this good overview of the book of Zechariah: 

Zechariah sought to encourage those who had returned from captivity to rebuild the temple and rededicate their lives to the Lord. The message of encouragement involved surrealistic visions and vivid poetic images, focused on reversal of God’s judgment and calling for a reversal of the people’s behavior.

It is because of the surrealistic visions that people have called this book the ‘Apocalypse of the Old Testament’. Since we are also reading Revelation, you will get a double dose of the apocalyptic genre.

Mears gives this interesting comment, and this is something I suggest we watch for as we read this book:

Someone has said that to correctly read the visions of this book, you must shine two lights on them— the light of the cross and the light of the crown. Otherwise, you will find that you don’t have the proper perspective or background to understand Zechariah’s visions. The prophet, looking far into the future, saw two aspects of the future Messiah— one Person, but two appearances. First, he saw Him in humiliation and suffering; then he saw Him in majesty and great glory. Jewish people who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah ignore the Christ of the cross. Christians too often ignore the Christ of the crown. Both are wrong.

ISAIAH 59:
Although chapter 58 didn’t use the word ‘hypocrisy’, that is what God was preaching against. After telling us the kind of fasting that God desires most, God gave beautiful promises to those who live as He teaches.

REVELATION 13:
Following the 7th trumpet blast in chapter 11, the vision in chapter 12 is an overview. The woman who gives birth to ‘he who will rule the nations with a rod of iron’ is not a picture of Mary. This is an overview. I encourage you to dig deeper to find out more about the picture of the glorious woman. I will give you my take about the dragon’s seven heads and seven crowns. The dragon, as we will see will do his best to masquerade as God. He is doing that right now in our day! Look out, and don’t be fooled! An important foundational teaching in that chapter is to explain about the source of the spiritual battle we now see being played out in the world.

NLT Translation Notes:
Zec. 2:8 [The messiah speaks:] After a period of glory, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me against the nations who plundered you. For he said, “Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession. 9 I will raise my fist to crush them, and their own slaves will plunder them.” Then you will know that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has sent me.
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Is. 59:15b The LORD looked and was displeased
[when he saw that//to find] there was no justice.

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.