Zechariah Chapter 1

Zechariah was a contemporaneous prophet with Haggai. Zechariah has 8 visions. The number 8 has a meaning “to set-apart”.

“The reason that many professed Christians do not have a clear, well-defined experience, is that they do not think it is their privilege to understand what God has spoke through His Word…”

Fundamentals of Christian Education p.187-189  

1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius*, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah**, the son of Berechiah***, the son of Iddo**** the prophet, saying,

• *Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. Darius means “he who holds firm the good(ness)”. Darius mentions several times that he is the rightful king by the grace of the supreme deity Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrianism. Darius built the Royal Road, a postal system and Phoenician-based commercial shipping. The cities are listed in order of delivery in Revelation chapter 3. Darius supported faiths and religions that were “alien”, as long as, the adherents were “submissive and peaceable”, sometimes giving them grants from his treasury for their purposes. He had funded the restoration of the Israelite temple which had originally been decreed by Cyrus, was supportive towards Greek cults which can be seen in his letter to Gadatas, and supported Elamite priests. He had also observed Egyptian religious rites related to kingship and had built the temple for the Egyptian god, Amun-Ra.
• **זְכַריָהוּ ZkarYahuw (zek-ar-yaw’-hoo) “Yah has remembered.”
• ***בֶּרֶכְיָהוּ BerekYahuw (beh-rek-yaw’-hoo) “blessing of Yah.”
• ****עִדּוֹ `Iddow (id-do’) n/p. “timely”.

² The Lord hath been sore displeased (provoke indignation) with your fathers.

• {this is reiterated by Yeshua:  Matthew 23:27-38 (KJV) “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, 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. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”}

³ Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.

• John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

⁴ Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear (shma-adhere), nor hearken (give heed) unto me, saith the Lord.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? (The ones that took you off course, the ancients, they are all gone. Why continue in their leadership? Will you have access to the teachers forever or do you need to learn this for yourselves.)

⁶ But my words (Torah) and my statutes (appointed times), which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold (reach, make able) of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought* to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings**, so hath he dealt with us.

• *H2161 זָמַם zamam (zaw-mam’) v. to plan, or plot, usually in a bad sense./** a course of life or mode of action. God had told them the plan of life and the adversity associated with ignoring these instructions. Funny how we are going through the same today?

Deuteronomy 11:16-28 “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.” 1 Timothy 2:14 “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Luke 21:7-9 “And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.”]

⁷ Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat*, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, (*It is a winter month of 30 days. Gregorian equivalent: January–February)

⁸ I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees* that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

• *The only true myrtle tree is a large shrub or small tree with the Latin name Myrtus communis. In the Judeo-Christian Bible, myrtle trees signify life and fertility. Myrtle, along with willow tree bark, occupies a prominent place in the writings of Hippocrates, Pliny, and Dioscorides. [all ancient physicians] It has been prescribed for fever and pain by ancient physicians since at least 2,500 BC in Sumer. Myrtle’s effects are due to high levels of salicylic acid, a compound related to aspirin and the basis of the modern class of drugs known as NSAIDs. Trees are most often a metaphor for people.

⁹ Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.

[In Jewish liturgy, the myrtle is one of the four sacred plants of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, representing the different types of persons making up the community. The myrtle having fragrance but not pleasant taste, represents those who have good deeds to their credit despite not having knowledge from Torah study. Some of modern Christianity.]

¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. [This makes the people ‘sent by God’ or what we would call evangelists or messengers. The red refers to death or blood, so some of these people are the martyrs.]

¹¹ And they answered the angel of the Lord [Jesus] that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

• Once the work of the evangelists is done there will be rest. This is a picture of life prior to the return of Yeshua and the result of his return. The rest is a picture of the Millennial Kingdom.

Revelation 6:9-11 “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

¹² Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy* on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? (70 yrs) [ H7355 רָחַם racham (raw-cham’) v. (by implication) to express love. (especially) to have compassion.]

¹³ And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable (solace) words.

¹⁴ So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry (to officially proclaim.) thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵ And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease (going about like nothing is wrong.): for I was but a little displeased (I was not happy and then…), and they helped forward the affliction.(they made it worse)

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.

• This is a conceptual statement, it combines two or more words… H6957 קַו qav (kav) n-m. a cord (as connecting), especially for measuring. (figuratively) a rule. PLUS H6960 קָוָה qavah (kaw-vaw’) v. to bind together. Make a point of order and establish it as the standard.

¹⁷ Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

• Revelation 21:1-3 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

¹⁸ Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns*.

*H7161 קֶרֶן qeren (keh’-ren) n-f. (figuratively) power. a peak (of a mountain). Mountains idiomatically are referring to governments, political entities or world powers.] Medio-Persian, Babylon, Greece, Rome. These are the same four beasts of Daniel.

¹⁹ And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

²⁰ And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. [workman, to devise]

²¹ Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head*: but these are come (real agenda) to fray them (cause to shudder in fear), to cast out [to revere or worship] the horns (leaders) of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

*Again, here, we have a conceptual statement….H5375 נָשָׂא nasa’ (naw-saw’) v. to affirmingly lift up one’s hand in solemn declaration (as an oath) according to the leadership.

A pledge of solidarity to a man-made leadership.