Four Points Church

We’ve seen horses before in Zechariah (see Zechariah 1:7-17). In his eighth and final vision of the evening, Zechariah again sees horses. This time, the vision is not against the background of darkness, as it was in chapter 1. Rather, Zechariah’s eighth vision is set against the background of dawn. Hope is breaking through for God’s discouraged people. They are to get their eyes off of their bleak circumstances and onto their sovereign God, who is working out His rule and reign in this world for the benefit of His people. Our circumstances are never beyond the reach of hope!

As we begin chapter 5, we see the prophet Zechariah having two separate visions, the sixth and seventh that are recorded in this book: the Flying Scroll, and the Woman in a Basket. Though the two visions are different, they clearly go together to form one bigger message: that sin is revealed through the law, sin is judged, and then sin is removed.

In Zechariah’s fifth vision, he is shown a golden lampstand. The Hebrew word for this lamp is “menorah.” The fact this particular lamp is gold is symbolic of the lamps included in the temple furnishings: one in the tabernacle and later, ten in Solomon’s Temple (Exodus 25:31-40; 1 Kings 7:49). It was the job of the priests to ensure these lamps were filled with oil and kept burning at all times (Leviticus 24:1-4).

In Zechariah’s fifth vision, he is shown a golden lampstand. The Hebrew word for this lamp is “menorah.” The fact this particular lamp is gold is symbolic of the lamps included in the temple furnishings: one in the tabernacle and later, ten in Solomon’s Temple (Exodus 25:31-40; 1 Kings 7:49). It was the job of the priests to ensure these lamps were filled with oil and kept burning at all times (Leviticus 24:1-4).

Imagine that a dear friend you have not seen in years comes by as you are doing yard work. You’d love to throw your arms around your friend, but your clothes are caked in grime and muck and you smell like a barnyard. What you want at that moment is to stop time, go shower up and get a change of clothes! Here in Zechariah 3, God continues to restore His people, whose priests are unclean and unable to stand before Him in worship and sacrifice. God alone can provide the cleansing and the righteousness that they need in order to draw near to Him.

Same evening. Another vision. We have all seen the city limit signs on the side of the road as we drive down the highway. They indicate the boundaries of the city, telling us where the city begins and where it ends. These signs represent defined borders that distinguish a city from other areas around it. Imagine a city with no boundaries, no borders, and no limits. The city is what the prophet Zechariah sees in his third vision of the evening, which is meant to provide great hope and comfort to God’s remnant who are in a very discouraging situation.

Three months after that first oracle of Zechariah’s ministry, recorded in Zechariah 1:1-6, he receives the first of eight visions that come to him in the night. Each of these visions follows a basic pattern: Zechariah sees something, asks the angel about it, and is told by the angel what it means. The general idea of this first vision is that God will overcome whatever difficulties Judah is experiencing. He will rescue His people.

Scripture teaches that “for everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The book of Zechariah begins with a specific time stamp: “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius” (Zechariah 1:1), which means the book dates back to October or November in the year 520 BC. During this time, God’s people, who had returned sixteen years earlier to the land He had given them, were still under Persian rule. Israel was in disrepair with broken-down walls. Just two months earlier, through the Word of the Lord given to the prophet Haggai, work on the temple had resumed (Haggai 1:8). God has already begun His movement towards His people, and now He is about to begin the movement of His people toward Himself. To do this, God raises up another prophet by the name of Zechariah, whose name means, “the Lord remembered.” Zechariah was a younger man who had been born during the exile and raised under Babylonian and Persian captivity. He was of the priestly line of Levi (Nehemiah 12:1-16). We learn in the New Testament from the mouth of Jesus that he was an innocent man who was “murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35). Zechariah was chosen and called by God to speak the Word of the Lord to God’s people at this divine time.

Mixtape in the Psalms - Psalm 3

Legacy: Love Lives On