Reading: Zechariah 1-4, Psalm 60

Had enough of weird visions, wild prophecies, and things that make your head hurt when you try and understand them? Too bad! Because we are about to embark on reading the book of Zechariah, whose visions are as wild as Daniel’s and who is leaves us scratching our heads like Ezekiel. Just when you think the Hebrew Scriptures are done throwing strange imagery at you, here comes a giant flying scroll.

So what is Zechariah about? Well, we know his message continues that of Haggai in a lot of ways. They were contemporaries, which we see both in the books themselves and in the book of Ezra. Haggai and Zechariah are both concerned with the condition of the returned exiles. Haggai questioned their motivations. Zechariah encourages them to return to righteous living. In both cases it appears the people were waiting for God to bless them and begin their restoration before taking action themselves, not understanding that the key to their restoration was a transformed heart, which would show itself in their own changed actions.

Haggai centered his book around building the temple. Zechariah centers his around the two major institutions of authority among the exiles: the High Priest, a guy named Joshua, and the heir of David, Zerubbabel, the political governor. Zechariah paints a picture of both these authorities being restored and renewed, then being united as the High Priest wears the crown.

The book opens with a general call to repentance, telling the exiles not to be like their ancestors and ignore the call of the prophets. Then Zechariah starts getting visions. Four horsemen start galloping around the world. Horns show up and dominate the people. Some guy with a measuring stick and plumb line pops up and starts measuring Jerusalem. We’ve got horns like in Daniel, horsemen that show up later in John’s Revelation, and a guy with a measuring line from Ezekiel who also shows up again in Revelation. It’s super strange, but by the standards of Zechariah pretty normal. We haven’t even gotten to the stork ladies and the giant flying scroll yet.

So what is this all about? Zechariah is using images to portray what has happened and is happening to Israel in its captivity and return to the land. Like Ezekiel and Daniel, I believe Zechariah is doing more than being creative with expressing history. He is telling the exiles and his future readers that there is more going on behind the scenes than the people see. What they have experienced is not the whole story.

The next scene is of the High Priest, whose name is Joshua. He is wearing filthy robes. Remember that the robes of the High Priest are super important to the proper worship of the God of Israel. They are basically space suits for these guys. Filthy old ones will get you killed. Standing next to Joshua is Satan, or the accuser, who hurls accusations at Joshua. God shows up and rebukes the accuser, telling Joshua that he is one branch plucked from the fire. Then God tells Joshua he will get him new, clean robes. Then, if you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, God will restore access to himself through the High Priest. For the exiles, this is really good news! They have not been able to celebrate the Day of Atonement for many years, which if you recall is the central focus of the entire Temple system. But, it remains to be seen if Joshua will be the faithful priest. God indicates that there remains something, as he promises to send his Servant, the righteous Branch. We’ve seen that character before, in the book of Isaiah. Then the scene ends with a reference to a stone with seven eyes on which God will inscribe his decree to forgive the iniquity of the people. This is very strange. God is forgiving sin outside of the Temple through his Servant and some kind of stone.

Zechariah turns to the other authority, Zerubbabel. He sees a lamp being fed by two olive trees. We are given to understand that these are the two characters Joshua and Zerubbabel, who are feeding a single flame. Zerubbabel is given a reminder, and perhaps an encouragement, that it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit that he does…. anything! The instruction is actually nonspecific. Zerubbabel is to do everything by the Spirit of the Lord. Then he is given the plumb line of the angelic guy who measured Jerusalem, as if Zerubbabel, or whomever he represents, will be given a higher kind of authority.

Zechariah starts off kind of strange, but we can see him using images from other prophetic books to explain his point. Until tomorrow. Then all bets are off and Zechariah sees things no one else has seen, and that he clearly struggles to understand.