Summary
The book of Zechariah belongs to the post-exilic prophets—those who spoke after Cyrus the Persian released God's people in 539 BC to return home. Together with Haggai and Malachi, Zechariah addressed a community no longer under threat from Assyria or Babylon, but still in need of correction, encouragement, and a clearer vision of the Messiah to come. For a map of where Zechariah falls in the prophetic timeline, see Minor Prophets January 27, 2019.
Zechariah's signature contribution is the way he points ahead, in vivid and concrete detail, to the coming King. Chapters 9–11 are dense with messianic promise, and the early church drew direction from his words. When Zechariah declares, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion… Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day and shall be my people" Zechariah 2:10–11, he is preparing the church to recognize that the Messiah comes for Jew and Gentile alike—a word that helped guide the apostles as they welcomed the nations into Christ.
One of the most striking prophecies in Zechariah is the weighing out of thirty pieces of silver and the casting of that "lordly price" into the treasury of the house of the LORD Zechariah 11:12–13. This is a classic example of a double-fulfillment prophecy: it had an immediate application in Zechariah's own ministry, and it found its greater fulfillment in the betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, money later cast back into the temple Matthew 27:9–10. For more on how to read such prophecies, see Desert Flowers #6.
Zechariah is also notable as the setting for one of the most personal moments in the New Testament. The priest Zechariah—father of John the Baptist—was tending the altar of incense, the place where the prayers of God's people rose before the throne, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him with the announcement that Elizabeth would bear a son Luke 1. The same imagery appears in Revelation, where the prayers of the saints rise as incense before God Revelation 8:3–4. The connection between this altar and Zechariah's encounter is unfolded in The Tabernacle: Lesson 4.
Across the prophet's book and the priest's encounter alike, the message is the same: God hears, God remembers His covenant, and God is bringing His promised King. The kingdom Zechariah glimpsed from a distance—Zion's King coming humble and riding on a donkey, the shepherd struck, the silver flung into the temple, the nations gathered in—blooms fully in Jesus Christ. What the prophet announced in shadow, the Gospels proclaim in fulfillment.
Video citations
- Angels- Lesson 1 (12-21-25) — We thank you for the birth that we are so eager to celebrate this week. We are thankful for all the angels that proclaimed of your coming, that proclaimed to the shepherds of your birth, and that…
- The Tabernacle: Lesson 4 — We thank you, Lord, for this time to gather again in your house. We ask that you would lead this time of study by your spirit, that you would draw us closer to yourself and that we would understand…
- Desert Flowers #6 — Well, we continue on in our study this morning. Last week, we took a look at an examination of the last days and understanding that the disciples understood that they were in the last days, but they…
- Minor Prophets January 27, 2019 — Well, last week we took a look at one of the more rugged parts of the prophetic books and that was Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Habakkuk and Zefania. And we saw the weeping prophet Jeremiah, but…