Zechariah - The Apocalypse Project

Zechariah is a book full of visions where we will see some images that can be found in Daniel and Zechariah. Zechariah begins his prophecies in 520 B.C. At this time, the remnant has returned from Babylonian exile in 536 B.C. However, because of political problems and local unrest, the building of the temple under […]

The vision of the measuring line
Zechariah looks up and there is a man with a measuring line in his hand. Now we have seen measuring lines used many times by the prophets. To stretch out the measuring line was either a symbol of destruction, to measure it for its fall, or it was a symbol […]

Vision of Joshua
Zechariah now sees Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan is standing at his right side to accuse him. Here we see Satan always ready to accuse and oppose those who would be followers of God. The Lord says to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you.â€? Notice that […]

Zechariah is still receiving his repeated visions from the Lord. In the first three chapters we saw the visions speak of encouragement for the present, then move to encouragement in the promise of the Messiah. In chapters 4-6 I believe we see the same movement. The early visions of chapter four are going to give […]

Vision of the flying scroll (5:1-4)
Zechariah now looks and sees a flying scroll. The scroll’s length was 30 feet and its width was 15 feet. It is interesting to note at the least that these are the same dimensions as the porch of Solomon built before the entrance of the temple. The flying scroll is […]

The vision of four chariots (6:1-8)
Zechariah now looks and sees four chariots coming from between two mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horse, the second had black horses, the third had white horses, and the fourth had dappled horses. Zechariah asks the angel what these are. The angel responds that these are the […]

The Lord has some questions for us to answer. What made you decide to come to services this morning? Why were you singing the songs that the song leader chose? Why did you partake of the Lord’s supper? Why did you participate in the prayers that were offered? In short, what are you doing here? […]

God is jealous for our hearts (8:2)
What can we do about this if we find ourselves slipping? First, God tells us that He is jealous for our hearts. Let us not continue to fool ourselves into believing that the course we are on is acceptable to God. God is unwilling to share our hearts with […]

The conquering path of Alexander the Great (9:1-8)
In the first eight verses Zechariah prophesies of the coming judgments upon the nations and cities that surround the land of Israel. In verse 1 we see the burden of the word of the Lord is against Damascus. In verse 2 judgments are pronounced against Hamath, Tyre, and […]

False shepherds and the Messiah
In verse 2 we see Zechariah note that the people wander like sheep without a shepherd. Why were the people this way? The reason is that those who were to be the leaders and teachers of the people had not done their jobs. Therefore we see in verse 3, “I will […]

Destruction of Jerusalem (11:1-3)
The first three verses of chapter 11 seem to be rather tame and of the nature that we would simply pass over these words and look for something of importance. The Jewish temple was made of cedars from Lebanon, and from this some have seen a reference here to the destruction of […]

In our previous study of Zechariah, we looked into chapters 9-11 where we saw the coming of the Shepherd prophesied who would remove the false shepherds. In chapter 11 the imagery was very detailed as the shepherd takes His two staffs called Unity and Favor and breaks them. The wages are given to the Shepherd […]

Cleansing from sin (13:1-6)
Once again we must consider the time markers that are given in this chapter. Notice in verses 1, 2, and 4 that we see the phrase “in that dayâ€? pointing us to the time of the days of the Messiah. The time frame of the events of chapter 12 continues to be […]

Martin Luther said of Zechariah 14, “Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.â€? This chapter has been considered an enigma by many commentators. We will try to do better in interpreting this chapter. Many problems arise for commentators because of their insistence of applying […]