Year: 2015

Zechariah  was  a  postexilic  prophet, a  spokesman  for  God  to  the  people  of  Israel  fresh  from  the  return  from  exile  in  Babylon. The  underlying  and  undergirding  question  of the book  is, “God  has  allowed  us  to  come  home, but, will  the  relationship  be  the  same? Can  we  still  count  on  Him  to  do  miracles  as …

After  laying the  groundwork  in  chapter  1  for  the  declaration  of  His  true  intentions  for  Israel  in  the  wake  of  the  return  from  Babylonian  exile, the  Lord  continues  in  concrete  terms  in  chapter  2  to  make  clear  that  there  should  be  no  doubt. The  chapter  opens  with  an  angelic  figure  appearing  with  a  measuring  line,…

In  the  third  chapter  of  Zechariah, we  see  an  example  of  what  Bible  scholars  would  call  “corporate  solidarity”, where  one  person  stands  as  a  representative  of  a  larger  group, a  group  determined  by  context. The  representative  here  is  Yehoshua, the  “Kohen  gadol’,  or great  or  High  Priest. Those  he  represents  are  the  newly  returned  exiles …

In the beginning of the 10th chapter, Adonai urges the people to again ask for what they need, as embodied in the rains. He contrasts asking Him with asking the idols and other false gods whom they had been worshipping for generations. Those gods, obviously, had no power, yet had received credit for what the…