Route 66: Zechariah - Encouragement in Strange Visions

We ask, o Lord, that you sanctify us by your truth.

Your word is truth and your grace on us, amen.

So our study tonight is going to be divided into two parts.

The first part will be setting up the backdrop, looking at the who, when, where, what and why, and then the second part will be three major encouragements that we can get from this book.

We'll see tonight that Zechariah is filled with strange images and visions.

However, the main thrust of the book is to encourage God's people.

So before we get to the encouragement, we're going to take a step back.

Even before we get to the who, when, where, what and why, we're going to quickly look at how the book of Zechariah is structured and then how it communicates.

And when I say how and why, I'm going to quickly look at how the book of Zechariah is structured and then how it communicates.

And when I say how it communicates, I'm just simply referring to the genre of the book.

So how is the book of Zechariah structured?

In our English Bibles we have 14 chapters, and those 14 chapters can be divided into three main sections.

Part one is chapters one through six.

Part two, chapters seven and eight.

And part three, chapters nine through 14.

I'll say that one more time.

Part one is chapters one through six, part two, chapters seven and eight, and part three, chapters nine through 14.

Part one opens with this call to repentance and then from there it moves on to a series of eight night visions that the Lord shows Zechariah.

Part 2, we have two sermons.

The first sermon can be found in chapter 7, and the second in chapter 8.

And then, lastly, part 3 consists of two oracles.

The first oracle can be found in chapters 9 through 11, and then second oracle, chapters 12 through 14.

That's the basic outline of how Zechariah is structured.

As for how the book communicates, I mentioned that there are eight visions in part one of Zechariah, and you can think of those visions as a series of dreams happening in one night of Zachariah.

And you can think of those visions as a series of dreams happening in one night.

If you've ever had multiple dreams in one night, a lot of times you don't remember everything, and they're not necessarily linear, they're more of just like a picture, a picture, a picture, a picture, a picture.

That's kind of Zachariah.

And so the first part is just picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it's kind of like what is this, what's that, what's this and what that?

And these pictures do leave a lot of room for questions and we're going to look at some of them right now.

So look with me to Zechariah, chapter 1.

Zechariah 1 · chapter mention

I'm going to read verses 18 to 21.

Again, this is just an idea of some of the pictures that we get from these dreams.

Then I looked up and saw four horns.

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me what are these?

And he said to me these are the horns that scattered Judah, israel and Jerusalem.

Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.

I asked what are they coming to do?

He replied these are the horns that scattered Judah so no one could raise his head.

These craftsmen have come to terrify them, to cut off the horns of the nation that raised a horn against the land of Judah, to scatter it.

Here's another example you can look at chapter 5 and read verses 5 through 11.

This is another like rather strange image.

Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me look up and see what this is that is approaching.

So I asked what is it?

He responded it is a measuring basket that is approaching.

He continued it is a measuring basket that is approaching.

He continued this is the iniquity in all the land.

Then a lead covering.

Then a lead cover was lifted and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.

This is wickedness, he said.

He shoved her down into the basket and he pushed the lead weight over its opening.

Then I looked up and saw two women approaching with wind in their wings.

Their wings were like those of a stork and they lifted up the basket between the earth and sky.

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me where are they taking the basket?

To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar.

He told me.

When that is ready, the basket will be placed on its pedestal.

A lot of weird images, but without getting too much into it, all of the visions ultimately embody in symbolic form what God plans to do for his people.

All of the visions ultimately embody in symbolic form what God plans to do for his people.

As for the two oracles found in part two and three, they kind of communicate the same thing.

They communicate what God is going to do for his people.

The only difference is the oracles use a little bit more poetic language Now, even though the visions and the oracles themselves demonstrate a rather abstract form of communication.

We do see, in the two sermons found in chapters 7 and 8, very clear communication that leaves little room for question.

So listen to these words from Zechariah 7, verses 8 and 10.

Zechariah 7:8

The word of the Lord came to Zechariah.

The Lord of armies says this make fair decisions, show faithful love and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.

Listen to Zechariah 8, 14 through 17.

For the Lord of armies says this as I resolved to treat you badly when your ancestors provoked me to anger, and I did not relent, says the Lord of armies.

So I have resolved again in these days to do what is good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah.

Don't be afraid.

These are the things you must do.

Speak truth to one another, make true and sound decisions within your city gates, do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor and do not love perjury, for I hate all of this.

This is the Lord's declaration.

On one level, this book communicates in a way that's not the most straightforward, but in other parts it is clear.

And so what makes Zechariah a difficult book is that it essentially just mixes genres.

But broadly speaking, if the book did have one genre, it would be futuristic prophecy.

It's almost apocalyptic in that it is simply unveiling the spiritual realities behind the physical world.

Futuristic prophecy helps us understand how God is going to work out his eternal plan of salvation.

That's just, briefly, the how.

Moving on to the who, who was Zechariah and who was his audience?

Let's look at Zechariah, chapter 1, verse 1.

Zechariah 1:1

Verse 1 says In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah.

Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Barakaya, son of Edo.

For starters, zechariah was a prophet.

People did not have immediate access to the word of God in the Old Testament like we do today.

When we want to hear God speak today, all we have to do is go to his written word.

We have the fully inspired word of God at our fingertips in our Bibles today, but in the Old Testament times, the writer of Hebrews tells us this long ago, god spoke to our ancestors by the prophets, at different times and in different ways.

Prophets were individuals that God used to speak directly to his people.

Prophets were God's spokesmen, and we see this very clearly in verse 1.

Zechariah was one who received the word of the Lord.

Zechariah was a prophet, but he was not only a prophet.

We also see in verse 1 that he was the son of Barakiah and the son of Edo.

Now most of you are probably wondering who the heck are those guys?

If you turn to Nehemiah 12, you don't have to turn there, but we're given a list of names in Nehemiah, chapter 12.

Nehemiah 12 · chapter mention

And in those list of names you have a list of individuals and families who represent priests and Levites.

And in verse 4 and 16 of chapter 12, you'll see the names Edo and Berechiah.

Zechariah was a descendant from a family of priests and he therefore was most likely a priest as well.

And moving on to Zechariah's audience, you can say that Zechariah had a shared audience.

He shared his audience with one prophet by the name of Haggai Haggai comes before this book and then another prophet by the name of Malachi, which is followed by him.

All of these prophets were speaking to Israelites who were coming out of Babylonian captivity, were speaking to Israelites who were coming out of Babylonian captivity.

The audience of Zechariah's ministry did not include every single Israelite, while there were many who left Babylon to return to the land that the Lord had promised them.

Sadly, there were many who decided to stay in Babylonian captivity after 70 years.

Those who had decided to stay were those who had grown complacent with being in enemy territory.

Those who stayed in Babylon essentially represented those who lacked faith in God's promises.

But the ones who left Babylon to return back to the land of promise, they were the ones who were eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of God's promises to them.

The Israelites returning back to Jerusalem were excited to see God move on their rehab.

However, the Israelites who returned home were met with much difficulty and, generally speaking, when anyone is met with any kind of difficulty, there is going to be some discouragement along the way.

So Zechariah's audience was a discouraged group of people and his message is tailored to them.

Moving on to the when, when did Zechariah's ministry take place?

I'm going to answer this in two ways.

One is going to be very big picture and then one is going to be specific.

If you heard of any Doug's sermons on, if you heard Doug's sermon on Haggai, he touched on three different periods of Israel's history.

There was the pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic.

Pre-exilic is most of the Old Testament.

Then you have the exilic and then you move on to the post-exilic and Zechariah is ministering around the post-exilic.

But another way you can grasp the Old Testament timeline is by following the temple.

The reason why I want to offer this is because the temple in Israel is a big part of Zechariah's ministry.

So the history of the Old Testament history can be divided into four temples.

You have one, the Garden of Eden, and you have the tabernacle, solomon's temple, and then you have the temple after Solomon's.

And you could be wondering, you don't recall an actual temple in the Garden of Eden and there technically wasn't, there wasn't a physical building, but the temple always symbolized God's meeting place with humanity.

Before sin came into the world, god could freely meet with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So the Garden of Eden was essentially a type of temple.

The next temple that we see is the tabernacle in Exodus.

This tabernacle was built around 1450 BC and it was essentially a big tent that served as a portable temple While Israel was wandering in the desert.

For 40 years God's presence was with them by virtue of the tabernacle.

Fast forward many years to King David.

David wants to build a more permanent tabernacle.

He wants to build a house for the Lord.

And God says you have too much blood in your hands, but your son will do it.

So in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord says one of your sons will build that tabernacle, that temple.

And so in 957 BC, solomon builds the first temple.

Think of this as the third temple of the four in the Old Testament.

This temple was gorgeous, it was absolutely beautiful.

It essentially became a symbol of national pride for the Israelites.

But keep in mind, the true purpose of the temple was for worship and for the dwelling place of the Lord.

Sadly, about 400 years later, in the year 586 BC, solomon's temple is destroyed, jerusalem is left to ruins and the Israelites were taken into captivity by the Babylonians for 70 years.

And then that brings us into the year of 520 BC, where Zechariah begins his ministry.

His ministry begins way after the destruction of Solomon's temple, which is the third temple of the Old Testament, and it starts right at the beginning of the temple that followed that, the fourth temple.

This is the big picture for where Zechariah's ministry takes place.

As for the smaller picture, the book of Zachariah gives us multiple specific dates of his ministry, but for tonight I'm just going to look at one.

But before we look at Zachariah's specific date, you can quickly look with me to Haggai, chapter 1.

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

That's page 839.

And you have these words in the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai.

Zechariah 1.1 starts off like this In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Edo.

And one of the main reasons why I said that Zechariah had the same audience as Haggai is because Zechariah started his ministry literally only two months as Haggai is because Zechariah started his ministry literally only two months after Haggai.

Now, moving on to the where and what when did Zechariah minister and what was the focus of his ministry?

Haggai and Zechariah both ministered in Jerusalem.

Now, while they both focused on the rebuilding of the temple, zechariah's concern was more to the heart of his listeners.

Zechariah's message was twofold On one side, he called his listeners to return back to the Lord, and Zechariah wanted his listeners to know that God was not just interested in the rebuilding of the temple, which dealt with worship on an outward level.

In some sense, he was also interested in worship on an inward level.

Listen to these words from chapter 1, verses 1 through 3.

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Edo.

The Lord was extremely angry with your ancestors.

So tell the people.

This is what the Lord of armies says.

Return to me.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies and I will return to you.

And then these are the words from chapter 7, verses 4 through 10.

Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me.

Ask all the people of the land and the priest when you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for me?

When you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink simply for yourselves?

Aren't these words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets?

When Jerusalem was inhabited, secure along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?

The word of the Lord came to Zechariah.

The Lord of armies says this make fair decisions, show faithful love and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against another.

On one side, zechariah's message was that God on the other side of Zechariah's message, that God was completely sovereign and, regardless of how things seemed, god was still a covenant-keeping God.

Moving on to the why, which is the last of part one why was this Zechariah's message and why was it significant?

I mentioned earlier that Zechariah was speaking to Israelites who were coming out of Babylonian captivity.

After 78 years, these Israelites were excited to be going back home.

They were excited to reclaim their name, their land and to start rebuilding the temple.

Excited to reclaim their name, their land and to start rebuilding the temple.

However, when the Israelites got there, they had to essentially start from scratch.

There were Samaritans who had made themselves at home while they were in captivity, and so when the Israelites came back, they had a lot of opposition from the Samaritans once they started to build the temple, and so the Israelites were faced with much difficulty when they were trying to resettle.

And so it was only natural for the people of God to wonder where God was and to wonder what he was doing, because, judging from appearance, nothing seemed to be going as planned.

Now, even though things didn't seem to be in Israel's favor.

The reason why Zechariah called them to return to God first and foremost was because the whole reason why things were looking bad in the first place was because of their own sin.

The reason why Israel went into Babylonian captivity in the first place was because God was judging them for their disobedience.

Israel was always quick to turn to other gods of the other nations rather than trusting and worshiping the one true God.

That is why we have those strong words in verses 3 and 4 of chapter 1.

So tell the people this is what the Lord of armies says.

Return to me.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies and I will return to you.

Declaration of the Lord of armies and I will return to you, says the Lord of armies, do not be like your ancestors.

The earlier prophets proclaimed to them.

This is what the Lord of armies says Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds.

But they did not listen or pay attention to me.

This is the Lord's declaration.

Or pay attention to me.

This is the Lord's declaration.

His message was significant because, more than ever, god's people needed to be greatly encouraged to return back to him and, in addition to that, god's people needed to be reminded that God would dwell with them again.

Remember that the temple served as a symbol for God's meeting place with his people.

And at the time of Zachariah's ministry, the second temple wasn't finished yet, and so the question that would have lingered in their hearts would have been is God's presence going to return to us?

Is God going to meet with us again?

And the simple answer is yes, regardless of the threats of the surrounding nations and the questions of the temple being completed.

The people of God had these words from chapter 8, verses 1 through 3, and 6 to 8.

The word of the Lord of armies came.

The Lord of armies says this I am extremely jealous for Zion.

I am jealous for her with great wrath.

The Lord says this I will return to Zion and live in Jerusalem.

Then Jerusalem will be called faithful city.

The mountain of the Lord of armies will be called the holy mountains.

The Lord of armies says this.

Though it may seem impossible to the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be impossible for me?

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

The Lord of armies says this I will save my people from the land of the east and the land of the west.

I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem.

They will be my people and I will be their faithful and righteous God.

This was Zechariah's message, because the people of God needed encouragement in the midst of their hardship.

And this message is significant because it pointed the people of God to the hope of the Messiah.

It points them to the time where all things would be made new and restored.

And it pointed them to that greater day, the day of the Lord.

And this is why I said that in the beginning, zechariah is to be a book of encouragement.

It ultimately takes us beyond the immediate and helps us to see what the Lord is doing at large.

And with that said, now moving into our second part, and this will just be three major encouragements that we can receive from this book.

Encouragement number one God is abundantly gracious.

God is abundantly gracious.

Listen to these words from chapter one, verses two and three the Lord was extremely angry with your ancestors, so tell the people.

This is what the Lord of armies says.

Return to me.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies and I will return to you.

If you understand Old Testament history correctly, you will understand that God's anger towards his people is a fair and righteous anger.

One of the best illustrations that helps us to understand this is a faithful and loyal spouse finding out that her husband or his wife is having an affair, and it is an illustration that we see in scripture, where God makes a covenant with his people, as a husband would with his wife.

God promises to bless, to cherish and to love his bride, but the sad theme of Israel's history is that, instead of it being the faithful wife in return of God's goodness, they play the prostitute instead.

Keep in mind that we are well along in Israel's history when these words were given.

That we just read.

And again, the reason why Israel fell into captivity in the first place was because of their own sin.

If God wanted to, he could have left them in captivity and he would have been fair and just in doing so, but he doesn't do that.

In his mercy, god freed the Israelites from captivity so that they may freely worship him again and so that they may be known as his special people.

However, along in that journey of God slowly working out his promises, his people were losing hope in him.

They had stopped working towards the building of the temple.

They stopped looking forward to God's promises being fulfilled.

So, as mentioned earlier, so as mentioned earlier, zechariah was speaking to a group of discouraged people, but the words of encouragement are these, found in verse 3.

He says to the people of Israel return to me and I will return to you.

Return to me and I will return to you.

Return to me and I will return to you.

We sometimes tend to focus only on the condition of that statement.

We like to focus on what we must do in order for God to return to us.

But may I encourage us to consider more the grace of God in this statement.

Consider the promise and the promiser more than yourself.

Consider the fact that God has absolutely no reason to return to you or to return to us.

He does not need us, but in actuality we need him.

So the abundant grace of our God is revealed in the promise is that he will return to us when we return to him.

That was the hope of Israel when they continued to build the temple and that is our hope when we continue to live our life in this fallen world.

Return to God and he will return to you, amen.

Encouragement number two.

This next one may seem a little bit funny, but it is true.

We see it in Zechariah and we see it in the rest of scripture.

Encouragement number two Sometimes God is hard to understand.

Sometimes God is hard to understand.

One of the first things that stood out to me when I was reading this book was how often Zechariah was asking questions about the visions he was seeing.

He was constantly trying to understand what God was showing him.

And I'm just going to read a couple of verses from Zechariah to show you.

Chapter 1, verses 8 and 9.

I looked out in the night and saw a man riding on a chestnut horse.

He was standing among the myrtle trees in the valley.

Behind him were chestnut, brown and white horses.

I asked what are these, my Lord?

Verses 18 and 19 of chapter 1.

Then I looked up and saw four horns.

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me what are these?

Chapter four, verses 11 through 13.

I asked him what are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?

And I questioned him further what are the two streams of the olive trees from which the golden oil is pouring through the two golden conduits?

Then he inquired of me don't you know what these are?

No, my Lord, I replied and one more, chapter five, verses five and six, when the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me look up and see what this is that is approaching, and so I asked what is it?

I have to be honest and say that I can truly empathize with Zachariah from these verses that I just read.

I felt like him as I was reading this book and preparing for this message.

But all of that to say is that sometimes God is hard to understand.

We not only see this in Zechariah, but when we get to the New Testament and Jesus is giving parables, his disciples often go to him and say can you explain this to us?

Second Peter Peter, when speaking about the Apostle Paul, he says Also regard the patience of the Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.

He speaks about these things in all his letters.

There are some things hard to understand in them.

The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of scripture.

So when I say that God is sometimes hard to understand, I'm not saying we can't understand God at all.

What I am saying is that it is okay and normal for us, as limited and sinful creatures, to struggle as we try to comprehend an infinitely holy God whose ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

I heard Pastor Michael put it like this we can't fully know God, but we can truly know God.

And this brings me to my last encouragement for this evening, encouragement number three Jesus Christ is the sure fulfillment of the pictures, prophecies and promises in the book of Zechariah.

Zechariah is one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament and so much time could be looking at all of the prophecies in this book, but for this evening I'm just going to wrap up with reading two more sections from Zechariah.

One is a popular passage that really paints the picture of what Christ does for us as sinners, and the second is a verse that inspired the first song that we sang.

There is a fountain filled with blood.

So I'm going to read chapter 3, verses 1 through 4.

And then from there I'll move on to chapter 13 and read verse 1.

Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand, at his right side, to accuse him.

The Lord said to Satan the Lord rebuke you, satan.

May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you.

Isn't this man a burning snake snatched from the fire?

Now, joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.

So the angel of the Lord spoke to those standing before him take off his filthy garments.

Then he said to him see, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with festive robes.

Isn't this such a clear picture of what our Lord Jesus does for us?

We once stood, condemned and accused.

All of our works were nothing but filthy rags, absolutely no hope in and of ourselves, but God in and through his Son.

He says see, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you in festive robes.

The guilt of your sin is removed and you are now clothed in the righteousness of my Son.

And for the last verse, chapter 13, verse 1.

On that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David, for the residents of Jerusalem, to wash away sin and impurity.

Friends, it is the blood of Christ, and only the blood alone, that is the fountain that washes us and makes us clean and acceptable before the Lord.

Amen, all right, let us pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your son, jesus Christ.

We thank you so much that he is our good shepherd.

He is a branch of David.

He is a faithful high priest who intercedes for us, and we thank you so much that in him we have forgiveness of his sins.

We thank you, Lord, for the word of Zechariah.

We thank you, lord, for how you remind us of what you are doing at large, though we cannot see it.

You are working to advance your kingdom and to bring glory to your name.

We thank you so much for the hope that we have in Christ.

May we proclaim him faithfully and live a life that fully pleases him in every way, and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.