The Message of Zechariah for Today

Zechariah was a colleague of the prophet Haggai and worked with him to advance the building of the second temple (Ezra 5:1); for two are better than one. Christ sent forth His disciples two by two. Zechariah began to prophesy some time after Haggai.

But he continued longer, wrote more, and prophesied more particularly concerning Christ than Haggai had done. He begins with a plain, practical sermon, expressive of the scope of his prophesying, in the first five verses; but afterwards, to the end of chapter 6, he relates the visions he saw and the instructions he received immediately from heaven through them.

In chapter 7, following an enquiry by the Jews about fasting, he shows them their duty for the present day and encourages them to hope for God’s favour, a theme that continues through the end of chapter 8. After this, there are two sermons, both called burdens of the word of the Lord (one begins with chapter 9, the other with chapter 12), which were probably preached some time later. The scope of these sermons is to reprove sin, to threaten God’s judgments against the unrepentant, and to encourage those who feared God with assurances of the mercy God had in store for His church, especially the coming of the Messiah and the setting up of His kingdom in the world.

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Taken from The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, JULY/AUGUST 2020, Vol. 28, No. 4, Page 158-160. Used by permission.