Christ in Zechariah

Zechariah 1 opens with the word that stands at the heart of every prophet’s call: Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts (v. 3). It is a return met halfway and more - the people take a step toward God, and God comes the rest of the way. The New Testament keeps exactly this shape: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you (Jas. 4:8); and the father who, while the prodigal was yet a great way off… ran, and fell…

Zechariah 2 turns on a promise the whole of Scripture is straining toward: Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD (v. 10). A man sets out to measure Jerusalem as if the city could be sized and walled, but the word that comes is far larger than any wall: the LORD Himself will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her (v. 5) - the protecting Presence that needs no st…

Zechariah 3 sets a single scene that the whole gospel will later fill in. Joshua the high priest stands before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him (v. 1) - the accuser at the very elbow of the accused, and the accusation is not groundless, for Joshua is clothed with filthy garments (v. 3). Yet the verdict does not go the way the accuser presses for. The defence is spoken by the LORD Himself: The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan… is not…

Zechariah 4 turns on one sentence that the whole Bible keeps echoing: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts (v. 6). A discouraged people are rebuilding a temple that looks like nothing beside the old one, and the word that comes is not a strategy but a Person - the work will be finished by the Spirit of God, not by armies, numbers, or human cleverness. The New Testament carries the same conviction straight into the life of the church: the go…

Zechariah 5 is two visions about sin - how God reckons with it, and how He removes it - and both reach toward the cross. First a huge scroll flies overhead, and the angel calls it the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth against every one that stealeth and every one that sweareth (vv. 3-4). This is the verdict of the broken law, and Scripture says it hangs over everyone who fails it: Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written…

Zechariah 6 ends the long night of visions with the most direct messianic act in the book. The four chariots go out as the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth (v. 5), patrolling the troubled earth until God can say His spirit is quieted (v. 8). Then the word turns from vision to sign: silver and gold are taken from three returned exiles, crowns are made, and they are set on the head of Joshua the high priest (vv. 10-11…

Zechariah 7 turns on a single searching question. A delegation comes from Bethel to ask whether they should keep the fast of the fifth month, and the LORD answers not their question but their hearts: When ye fasted and mourned… even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? (vv. 5-6). It is the question that exposes all religion done for show or fo…

Zechariah 8 is a cascade of ten promises, each opening Thus saith the LORD of hosts , and at the heart of every one is a single thing: God coming back to live among His people. I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem (v. 3) - the whole hope of the chapter is the divine presence returned, the very promise the Gospel says was kept when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and will be kept finally when a voice cries, Behold, the t…

Zechariah 9 holds one of the most precisely fulfilled prophecies in all of Scripture. After a burden of judgment sweeps down the trade roads of the north and along the Philistine coast - with the LORD vowing to encamp about mine house… and no oppressor shall pass through them any more (v. 8) - the prophet turns to the city with a summons of joy: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and ha…

Zechariah 10 sets the failed shepherds of God’s people against the LORD who Himself visits His flock, and from that visited flock brings forth everything a nation needs to stand. The people had been left to wander, troubled, because there was no shepherd (v. 2) - the very condition that moved the Lord Jesus when He saw the multitudes… because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd (Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34), and came as the good shepherd w…

Zechariah 11 is among the most exactly fulfilled prophecies in all of Scripture, and it is fulfilled in the betrayal of Jesus. The prophet plays out a parable of a rejected shepherd. He is sent to feed the flock of the slaughter (v. 4); his soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred him (v. 8); he breaks the staff Beauty , the covenant (v. 10); and then he asks his wage: If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces…

Zechariah 12 holds one of the clearest and most-quoted Messianic verses in the whole Old Testament, and the New Testament reaches for it at the foot of the cross. The chapter opens with the Maker of all things staking His word on Jerusalem’s rescue - the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him (v. 1) - and promises to make the city a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone for all people (vv…

Zechariah 13 holds two of the most pondered prophetic words in the Old Testament, and the Gospels draw on both. It opens with a fountain: In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness (v. 1) - a spring thrown open to wash away guilt, and the source of the old hymn that begins There is a fountain filled with blood. The New Testament names where that cleansing finally flows from: the blood o…

Zechariah ends where the whole Bible is leaning: a King reigning over all the earth, His own feet planted on the ground, every nation gathered to worship, and the last wall between sacred and common thrown down. The book’s great line is unmistakable - And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one (v. 9), the universal reign toward which the New Testament strains: The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of ou…