Day 263 (Zechariah 1-4) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Yesterday we met Haggai, the first of two prophets who were prophesying to the returned exiles of Judah. And today we met his pal Zechariah, another minor prophet who also happens to be a priest. We haven't read through all the prophets yet, but in what we have read so far, we've gotten a good sampling of different ways God communicates to them and through them. Sometimes he calls them to preach sermons, sometimes he commands them to do sign acts, and sometimes he speaks to them via dreams and visions.

Zechariah at least falls into the latter category. He's a dreams and visions guy. But first, God starts out by telling Zach how angry he was at the past generations of Israel. He wants the current generation to know just how much their ancestor's sins impacted things. And he begs them not to walk that same path. He says those people are gone and even the prophets he sent to warn them are gone, but he's still here with the same truths and the same message because the truth doesn't die.

He says their ancestors eventually repented while in exile and acknowledged that their sins deserved punishment. Then we launch into Zach's first vision. There will be nine total visions in this book, and he probably had the first eight visions back to back, maybe even on the same night. And his visions are among the strangest in scripture, so buckle up.

Vision 1 is a bunch of horses. They're sent out to patrol the earth and they come back reporting that everything is at rest. That sounds great, except the problem is the nation should not be at rest. They've mistreated God's people and he's not going to let it slide. God says he has returned to Jerusalem with mercy, but that mercy is for his people, not for those who oppose him.

He says he will comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem, not his enemies. For those who oppose him, his anger has increased. Verse 15 says, While I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.

One thing worth noting in the midst of all this is that man in the trees. Verses 11 and 12 refer to him as the angel of the Lord, so it's quite possible that this is a Christophany, and that this man who is acting as a mediator between God the Father and his patrolling horses is God the Son, before he was born on earth as Jesus.

Vision number two is of horns and craftsmen, which refers to a broader range of skilled workers like stonemasons and blacksmiths. The four horns represent, guess what, nations and empires. More specifically, the nations and empires that have scattered God's people. And this could be specific, as in Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, or it could just generally apply to any and all nations that harm his people. The blacksmiths come to smash them as punishment.

In vision three, a man is measuring Jerusalem. Just a regular man with a regular tape measure, not a man with eight heads covered in eyes or something like that. Savor it. Then two angels show up and tell Zach to let the man know that God is going to fill Jerusalem and that he himself will be their protection all around them. He tells the exiles to return home to Jerusalem because he'll personally deal with anyone who messes with them. They are the apple of his eye.

And in 2.11, he reiterates what we've heard him saying all along. It says, Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people. We're reminded again that God will bring people from other nations to join with Israel as his people.

The high priest Jeshua slash Joshua is a key figure in Vision 4. He's standing in front of the angel of the Lord, who is probably God the Son, and Satan is right there too, making accusations against Jeshua. The word Satan means accuser, so it logically follows that the accuser is there accusing.

But despite the fact that Jeshua is there wearing filthy garments, the Lord rebukes Satan for his accusations against Jeshua. Then God refers to Jeshua as a stick that was snatched from the fire. That's some powerful imagery. God gives him clean clothes and a clean turban to wear, then tells him, If you obey my ways, you will have the inside scoop on the redemption story I'm writing here. You'll be a part of it.

God's references to his servant, the branch, are almost certainly pointing us to Christ, who is called the branch elsewhere in scripture. And when God mentions the day when iniquity is removed, that's a reference to Christ's triumph over sin. God is letting Jeshua know that he's set up to be a part of ushering in the kingdom, and God calls him to be faithful.

After these four visions, Zach is probably ready for some good sleep, but he gets woken up by an angel again for vision number five. This vision has a lot going on, and you can spend hours going over various theories on what symbolizes what, but we'll keep it at the glasses level, not the microscope level.

Zach sees a golden lampstand, or a menorah, with seven lamps that each have seven wicks for a total of 49 lights. It's like a super menorah. This doesn't really exist, and I couldn't even find drawings of one to link you to. In addition to all the lamps, it has a bowl at the top. If you're trying to picture this, it's not a bowl like Tupperware. It's actually a metal part of the lamp structure where they store the oil. Beside this menorah are two olive trees, and the olive oil from these trees is what fuels the lamp.

By the way, in Scripture, oil often represents God the Spirit. Zach keeps asking the angel over and over about the two olive trees and their two branches and what it means, and the angel is like, "Seriously? You're not kidding me? You really don't know?" The angel finally caves and says they represent the anointed ones. The Hebrew translates to "the sons of fresh oil." Most commentators agree that the sons of fresh oil are Jeshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the civil leader of Judah.

These two men have been newly appointed and anointed to serve God's purposes with the returned exiles. God appointed Zerubbabel to start and finish the work of rebuilding the temple, and Jeshua will be the one who will serve him there. And as the vision implies, they will not be doing it by their own strength or power, but by God's Spirit, the oil flowing through them. My God shot today was in vision number four, where Satan is accusing Jeshua before God.

In addition to Satan, Jeshua, the angel of the Lord, who is probably God the Son, and God the Father, there are a few other beings in the room. Most commentators say they're probably holy angels. Then in 3, 3-5, this is what happens. Jeshua is wearing filthy garments. God makes a command to strip him of his filthy garments and put clean clothes on him. God says, I will clothe you with pure vestments.

First of all, it's absolutely incredible that we get clothed in robes of righteousness instead of our sin-soaked clothes. But what blows my mind about this passage is that God doesn't tell Jeshua to take off his dirty clothes. And God doesn't tell Jeshua to put on the clean clothes.

God himself takes responsibility for it. This is God's doing, not Jeshua's. Righteousness is something done to us and for us, not by us. Because we can't clean ourselves up, but he can. And by his grace, he does. I will clothe you with pure vestments. He's where the righteousness is, and he's where the joy is.

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