Zechariah 1:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Zechariah 1:1

Comments

Zechariah returned from Babylon to Jerusalem in 536 BC. He was called to assist Haggai in stirring up the people to build. Haggai called the faithful, Zechariah called the less faithful. He was from a priestly family but functioned as a prophet. The book consists of a series of prophecies of entirely different character: very vivid pictures, but with mighty encouragements in every one of them for the people of that time. The first section of the book includes the first six verses of this chapter and is a call to repentance. There are many calls to repentance in the Old Testament but this has a special character. The burden of Zechariah was to explain that they had got it all wrong. The way to serve the Lord now must be entirely different to the way their nation had served him before. Therefore he does not just say, you must do better, but calls them to obedience of the word. If they obeyed, they would make a discovery: that their forebears had wrongly imagined that if they worshipped they would permanently possess the land and have a prosperous life. ‘No,’ he says, ‘if you would only take it seriously you would know what it is to have a spiritual walk with God.’ The book is already showing its characteristic which is to call the people to live as spiritual men and women even before the coming of the Messiah. Verse 1-6 paves the way for what follows: if they would only obey, they would make wonderful discoveries.

Application

Questions

In condemning the scribes and Pharisees, Christ says ‘Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar’ (Matthew 23:34-35). Some think this is not the same person as Zechariah, the prophet, largely because Scripture says nothing about the prophet Zechariah being martyred, but this is inconclusive. We have several cases where the New Testament gives us detail about Old Testament events which is recorded nowhere else. Some identify the Zacharias spoken of by Christ with the one mentioned in 2 Chronicles 24:21. That Zechariah was indeed martyred, but he was not the son of Berechiah, as was the author of this book of prophecy. Because Chronicles was the last book in the Old Testament according to the Jewish arrangement of the text, it is suggested that Christ is referring to the beginning and the end of the written word, but it is much more reasonable to assume that he is covering the entire sweep of Old Testament history so as to include the earliest martyr of the OT – Abel, and the last martyred prophet ministering at the end of the OT period – ‘Zechariah, the son of Berechiah’.

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Introduction

Zechariah 1:1 Commentary and Bible Study