Introduction to Zechariah
Author - Zechariah
Audience - Post-exilic Judeans
Setting
520 BC
Shortly after Haggai’s ministry
During the reign of King Darius
Theme - Turning to the Lord in repentance and serving him with sincerity
The prophet Zechariah was a priest, the son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo, and a member of a prominent priestly family who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel in about 538 B.C.
Nearly 20 years after their return from the Babylonian exile in the time of Cyrus (538 B.C.), discouragement dogged God’s people, replacing their earlier enthusiasm. There was little evidence of the kind of transformation of the state of things that the earlier prophets had anticipated, whether externally in a restoration of Jewish sovereignty, or internally in a moral reformation of the people. In particular, the city of Jerusalem was still only partially rebuilt and was on the sidelines of world significance. Under the circumstances, it was easy for the people to conclude that theirs was a “day of small things” (Zech. 4:10) in which God was absent from his people. In such a context, faithful obedience was viewed by many as useless: pragmatically, it made more sense to pursue the best life possible in spite of the present difficulties.
Zechariah addressed such discouragement by reminding his hearers that, though hidden, God’s envoys were watching everything, and that when the time was right, he would act to reorder the universe.
The main genre of Zechariah is futuristic prophecy. In the first half, the preferred medium is visions that embody in symbolic form what God plans to do. This part of the book needs to be approached much like the NT book of Revelation.
Like other prophetic books, the book of Zechariah is a collection of individual units. In keeping with its dream format of momentary pictures that follow each other quickly and partly disjointedly, little narrative continuity emerges.
The book of Zechariah is densely mined for quotations by the NT, whose authors discerned in it several prophecies concerning the Messiah’s coming. In addition to these are numerous allusions, which are sometimes difficult to assess; one estimate, however, finds about 54 passages from Zechariah echoed in about 67 different places in the NT, with the lion’s share of these found in the book of Revelation.
CSB Study Bible - D. Brent Sandy
Zechariah used a mix of genres. His sermons, poetry, and oracles of judgment and salvation were typical of the prophetic genre.
The book of Zechariah is complex, sometimes with seemingly disjointed units, like a series of snapshots that need to be put in order. The apparent lack of organization may reflect the oral origin of the book, a collection of sermons that were patched together in written form.
The book of Zechariah is full of the language of judgment, but it is also full of God's promises. The Lord challenged His people to undertake an overwhelmingly difficult task, and He assured them of their success through His power.
Zachariah's prophecies anticipate this grand culmination of history, describing a coming glorious king, a God who triumphs over all, and a world with all wrongs corrected.
Zechariah was a fellow worker with Haggai in bringing God’s message to the Jews in Jerusalem at the beginning of the post-exilic period. Their chief concern during the early days of their ministry was to arouse the Jews from their selfish laziness and urge them to rebuild the temple.
Zechariah went on to give teaching over a wide range of issues, as part of his task to prepare people for the era of the Messiah that lay ahead.
Zechariah, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, was both a prophet and a priest.
Since he was a young man when he began prophesying, he was probably born in Babylonian captivity and returned to Palestine in 536 B.C. with Zerubbabel and Joshua. He became a leading priest in the restoration community succeeding his grandfather (or ancestor), Iddo, who also returned from captivity in 536 B.C., as the leader of his priestly family (Neh_12:4; Neh_12:16).
Zechariah ministered to the restoration community to motivate those Jews to finish rebuilding the temple and to rededicate themselves to Yahweh with the prospect of His blessing. The central theme of the book is encouragement and hope.
This book is the second to the last of the Minor Prophets in the second (Prophets) division of the Hebrew Bible. Neither Jews nor Christians seriously challenged its canonicity. One reason for this is the fact that the New Testament quotes and alludes to Zechariah so often, about 41 times. The Gospel evangelists cited chapters 9-14 more frequently in their passion narratives than any other portion of the Old Testament. The Book of Revelation refers to the Book of Zechariah more frequently than to any other Old Testament book except Ezekiel.
Messianic Prophecy
Particularly prominent in the book is the Messianic element. With the exception of Isaiah, there is no other prophet whose book contains such a wealth and variety of this element, not only in proportion to the total amount of material offered, but also as a sum total of passages. - Leupold
Few books of the OT are as difficult of interpretation as the Book of Zechariah; no other book is as Messianic. - George L. Robinson