Chapter 1
2026 - This year, I will try to keep in mind the three divisions. MSB indicates that we go through it once, again, and a third time. Easy to get confused by that. First section is 1-6.
Year 2, month 8 of Darius. So October/November, 520 BC. Tells us in vs 1 that Zechariah is the son of Berechiah, and grandson of Iddo. We have seen Iddo several times before, but this one must be different given the 70 year captivity. There is an interesting MSB note. Says most prophets who dated their work did so according to the reign of a King of Israel, King of Judah, or both. Haggai and Zechariah date theirs according to a Gentile King, indicating that the Age of the Gentiles had begun. As I have said before. Once Israel was divorced, the Age of the Gentiles was in progress. The remaining question is whether the church also began to coincide with the Gentiles, or is the church an institution started by Jesus during his time.
The first message is this:
3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. [Zec 1:3 ESV] So simple, so unchanged right down to the present day. 2020-The problem for me is that God was angry with Israel, but all Israel are the sons of Abraham. So who is being asked to return? Israel, Abraham's seed, or both? We know they are working on the temple, that sacrifices will be re-started, which would indicate Israel...but how can the divorced return?
Note the repeated "says the Lord". God sets the terms for them, and terms for himself. This sentence is like a "binder". Beginning in vs 7, Zechariah has a vision. This is still the second year, three months after the first prophecy.
First Vision: He sees a man on a red horse. Three colors of horses behind him - another red, a sorrel, and a white. He asks an angel what they are, and the angel interprets. "These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth." So these are not the four horses in Revelation that appear sequentially. They are all here together. They patrol the earth - which would mean they go to and fro and observe the developments of things on earth, and report back. That's what patrols do, I think. They answer and say that they have done so, and all the earth is at rest. This is said during the time Persian Kings are conquering the world. The angel who is interpreting the scene asks the Lord how long He will withhold his mercy from Judah and Jerusalem. After all, it has already been 70 years. Maybe the earth is at rest in that God's wrath was implemented and nothing new has happened. Spiritually, the earth is at rest because we are not in any kind of transition from blessing to curse or vice versa. Forces are stable. I would think this might also mean Satan is not stirring things up. He is likely happy with the situation as it stands at the time.
2025 - Surely it is implied that the other horses also have riders. Else in vs. 11 it is those horses that answer. This seems very unlikely. We might consider the possibility that these same horses ARE in fact the ones in three of the first four seals. For now, they only patrol, but in Revelation they will go out with a mission. But the black horse is missing from this scene.
2026 - The place of horses in this vision, indeed in Revelation, is very interesting. I wonder when horses are first mentioned in the Bible? I note this year that the MSB note on 1:8 says the other horses had riders. It is surely implied.
2026 - The Angel of the Lord questions God directly and asks how long. I don't think we have a lot of passages recording conversations between angels and God. There are some - in Job for instance - but not many.
God's answer to the angel is "gracious", but we aren't told what that answer was exactly. BUT, the angel turns to Zechariah and tells him what to prophesy. God is very angry with the nations that are "at ease". Perhaps meaning they have no fear of Him, nor do they realize all that has been going on is from God. MSB says it means they are occupied with their own business, going about their tasks. This is in contrast to Jerusalem, where there are no walls, and there is no temple. Jerusalem is in a very precarious situation, and the nations pay no attention. Thus God is angry with them. Also this MSB note:
"Zech. 1:15 Moved by his great love for his people, the Lord acted in anger (cf. v. 2) against the nations that mistreated his people. Although they were his instrument of judgment against Israel, they had exceeded God’s instructions in meting out punishment. They did not understand that God’s intention was to punish for a time and then show compassion (cf. Isa. 54:7–8)."
Zechariah is to say that God has returned to Jerusalem with mercy, that His house WILL be rebuilt, and the measuring line stretched out. My guess is that this means they get another chance to do things right, but the measuring line over it means the standard will be high and exacting. No slack will be given. God has returned, but so have His covenant requirements. He will see how they do this time - He will measure them. Then verse 17 says that Israel will again overflow with prosperity. This is sort of a repeat of vs 16, indicating a near, then a far fulfillment. Vs 17 starts with "cry out again", also indicating a second fulfillment of the same prophecy. Israel does get rebuilt, as does the temple, but never ever is the nation or the city or the temple like they were before Babylon. There is a rudimentary restoration of the people, perhaps as a sign that God's promises to Abraham are not forgotten. But remember that 70 AD is still coming. It is all going to be wiped out again. Why this interlude? Maybe to show that even after Babylon the people did not truly look to God. Maybe it had to be rebuilt so the punishment could be double. In hindsight, this rebuilding after Babylon seems a sad thing.
2026 - So consider this prophecy...It was made to the people of Zechariah's time. Therefore, there had to be a fulfilment of the prophecy of returning prosperity in Zechariah's time. All we can pin to that is the rebuilding of the Temple, the rebuilding of the walls, the establishment of at least some sovereignty to Israel. What a poor "preview" of the Millennial, and yet that seems the best way to look at it. It is a restoration, in that day, that will be closely watched, and will be judged by a very strict standard.
2026 - I think it is also quite important here to note 17b:
17 Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'" [Zec 1:17 ESV].
This is not called a continuation, it is called a re-choosing. God divorced them...but is choosing again to put His name in that place - Jerusalem. Hmm. Maybe that is the key. He has promises to Abraham that were never ever withdrawn. Also promises to Israel. But he took his name OUT of Jerusalem, allowed his house to be ransacked by pagans after he withdrew. But now He is choosing Jerusalem as the place where He will abide with His people. That did happen, in those days, fulfilling this prophecy. Perhaps Ezekiel's Temple is the future, more perfect fulfilment of this prophecy.
Verse 18 starts another vision: Second Vision: Four horns. (MSB says this is the second of 8 night visions. MSB is just crammed with notes through here. More is note than is text.) MSB says these horns are symbols of power (as in Daniel and Revelation, NOT horns that you blow and make noise!). In this case, they represented the nations that had scattered Israel. So very possibly they refer to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia (since Greece was not yet in the picture), or more likely to the four world empires of Daniel - which would be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Next, four craftsmen are seen. The craftsmen have come to "throw down the four horns". Spiritual warfare in the heavenlies? The MSB notes on the craftsmen are unsatisfactory to me. Essentially though, the craftsmen mean that each of the four nations that scattered Israel will in turn be scattered.
2026 - The immediate, visible, confirming prophecy would have been, very likely, about the four nations that had in recent history scattered Israel, and in fact continue to do so. They were all still nations I suppose, but all in some lesser position of world power than they had been. To small - all of them really - to be embarking on great conquests as they had in the past. This was the reason there was peace in the world. No one had the power to go out conquering.
2026 - The craftsmen are also called four horns. They are both. So they are powers/nations also...no...they are not both. The answer to the second question revisits the first question. The horns are the ones that scattered, and the craftsmen will terrify them.
2026 - Looking at BLB, we see in the definitions that this word is used of those very skilled at what they do. A majority of the time it is about artisans, workers in metal, wood, stone, gems. But BLB also mentions that in Ez 21.31 this word is used of those "skilled to destroy". This is Strong's 2796. I think we need to go with this Ezekiel version of the word. So what Zechariah means is that adversaries are coming along that will, through great skill in war or battle or related force, will bring down each of the four horns. And we know they all - those listed above - did fall, and have remained fallen to this day. So did Greece for that matter, and Rome after that, but I think Zechariah is first and foremost here talking about those who scattered in the past, so up through the Medo-Persians.
2020- Zechariah's prophecies must be about the time remaining before 70 AD, and then about Trib/Great Trib possibly, and then the Millennial. Nothing is prophesied by any prophet about events between 70 AD and the start of the tribulation. So Zech is no different. His near prophecies have to be about the next 600 years or so - very short horizon as prophets go. It should be quite possible to connect his prophecies with real events. And perhaps the four horsemen are there just to sort of watch over Jerusalem during that 600 years until the double part of the punishment is fulfilled.
2025 - The short version as I read this year seems to be that Israel will return home from Babylon. The Temple will be restored. God will return to Jerusalem as the city of his name and will protect the through the restoration. That's the first vision. The second one about the craftsmen is more difficult. Craftsmen? The middle class, the merchant class. There will be no King in Jerusalem - not to this day - so Israel is not led by nobility, not by a descendant of David at this time. They are flailing around. Ezra and Nehemiah are not Kings - appointed governors at best. And it's going to stay this way. Israel's leaders are to come from the "second quarter" so to speak. Under this unusual leadership, Israel will thrive, will grow in power, will be divinely protected. The craftsmen will throw down the horns. This may just mean that Israel will regain her independence after Babylon. She will be a sovereign nation again, though without a King.