"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.
Zechariah 1:4 "Do not be like your fathers." This prophetic book has been called the Apocalypse of the Old Testament because it visually represents the destiny of all God's people. The prophet Zechariah was contemporary with Haggai, and helped him in his work. Zechariah's book is divided into 4 parts: 1. An opening message to people who were looking back (1:1-16, delivered about a month after Haggai's second message). 2. A series of 8 dramatic visions (1:7—6:15, delivered 2 months after Haggai's fourth and last message). 3. Messages of encouragement (chapters 7-8, delivered 2 years later). 4. The coming King of kings and Lord of lords (chapters 9-14, delivered after the Temple was rebuilt, at least 4 years after Haggai). This opening message is to people looking back and lamenting the past greatness of Solomon's Temple, which was completely destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. That was over a lifetime ago. Haggai announced the tremendous news that the glory of the new, smaller Temple would actually exceed the glory of the other. Zechariah reinforces Haggai's announcement from another standpoint. He charges them to learn the true lesson of the backward look: the glory of the former Temple was lost through the disobedience of their ancestors to the Word of God. This remains a life-giving message: it is a persistent habit to talk of "good old days" to the point that we weaken our powers to serve in our own age. It serves us well to remember and be reminded that in many ways, they were bad old days. When we take warning from failures of the past, we make our current work of a more abiding nature.
Zechariah 3:8 "I will bring forth My Servant, the Branch." This chapter (3:1-10) contains the fourth vision: that of Joshua the high priest, dressed in filthy garments and accused by Satan before the Lord, but then defended by the Lord and cleansed spiritually and physically. Through the Jewish people would come God's special Servant called the Branch, which speaks of that which rises or springs up. The equivalent word used in the New Testament is Dayspring, where it is prophesied of John the Baptist and Jesus: "You will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace " (Luke 1:76-79). Zechariah will have more to say about this divine Branch.
Zechariah 4:6 "'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." In this chapter we have the fifth vision (4:1-14), that of the golden candlestick. In the Holy Place within the Temple, just outside the Most Holy Place, stood the golden lampstand or menorah with 7 pipes leading to 7 lamps: a perpetual symbol of the people's service to God, just as the table nearby with loaves of fresh bread was a symbol of their fellowship with Him. Israel was created to be a center of light to all the nations. The visions granted to Zechariah represent an ideal Israel with a cleansed priesthood and renewed call to service as light bearers. Not by might or power among the nations could Israel as a nation reveal the truth about God, but only by lives illuminated and energized by His Spirit. Zerubbabel and Joshua stood symbolically for the offices of king and priest, merged in the Messiah, whom Zechariah will go on to describe prophetically. 
Zechariah 5:11 "A house for it in the land of Shinar [Babylon]." Two visions, the sixth and seventh, appear in this chapter: that of the flying scroll and the flying basket. The flying scroll contains a curse against evil, specifically against thieves, liars, and religious hypocrites. It represents the principle of law, for evildoers will be discovered and punished. The basket, inside and out, is associated with wickedness incarnate in feminine forms. That basket is set in the land of Babylon, where it waits to be unleashed in a final economic and religious conglomeration called the whore of Babylon and Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation—the New Testament counterpart to the book of Zechariah. Evil continues to be kept in check, but it will get exponentially worse, only to be finally and forever defeated.
Zechariah 7:3 "Should I weep in the fifth month and fast, as I have done for so many years?" In this chapter and the next, Zechariah gives 3 messages from God to the people 2 years after he gave the 8 visions, and 2 years before the completion of the Temple. The highlighted verse refers to one of 4 monthly fasts listed in Zechariah 8:19. This question came to Zechariah from people wanting to know if they should keep on mourning over their past national tragedies now that things were going better for them, such as their walls being rebuilt. The Lord answers in two ways: first by reminding them that He did not command those fasts; they themselves instituted them. He does not say it was wrong for them to have done so, but implicated in His words is the warning not to give divine sanction to human arrangements. The second reminder is that the calamity that led them to create the fasts came because of their disobedience. This suggests that human appointments may be justified by circumstances arising out of human attitudes that are not justified. They never should be equated with divine ordinances.
Zechariah 9:17 "How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!" The last 6 chapters of Zechariah focus on two aspects of the Messiah's work: near and far. His previous chapters inspired the people to finish building the Temple by showing them the far-reaching effect of their work in its relation to the coming Kingdom of the Messiah. Some of the prophecies in this chapter have already taken place: the protection of Jerusalem from Alexander the Great (9:1-8), the victory of Judas Maccabeus against Antiochus IV (9:10-16), and the coming of King Messiah not on a war horse to drive out all enemies, but on a humble donkey colt as a minister of peace (9:9). We learn that the Messiah will return on a war horse in a final triumph yet future over all enemies, establishing everlasting "peace to the nations, and His dominion shall be from sea to sea" (verse 10). This revelation from God leads Zechariah to praise the greatness of His goodness and beauty as seen in the face of the Messiah. We who have the further revelation of the New Testament have all the more reason to give this praise.
Zechariah 10:1 "Ask the Lord for rain..." This chapter begins after the high point of the previous chapter on the beauty of the Messiah, whose final Kingdom will be so abundant that "grain shall make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women" (9:17). Zechariah makes a direct appeal for his immediate audience to seek those blessings now by asking the Lord for rain. This is an element in prophecy of perpetual application: never to forget the importance of an immediate response of obedience to prophetic truth. Prophecy is never meant merely to satisfy curiosity, even on matters of the highest level. Let those who long for ultimate blessing remember it will come from lesser blessings the Lord will send, including rains available now if we but ask. Let there be an immediate seeking for the divine rains by which both present and ultimate fruitfulness will come.
Zechariah 11:7 "So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter ... and I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty [or Favor] and the other I called Bands [or Union]." This chapter speaks of the rejection the coming Messiah would experience, an echo of where it is described best: Isaiah 53. The Messiah exercises the double office of King and Shepherd over His people, represented by two staffs called Beauty and Bands. The Jewish people are seen oppressed by false shepherds, but then God raises up the Good Shepherd, who is the true King. Beauty speaks of the grace of the King, both in His method and purpose for His people (cf. John 1:17). Bands tells of His might, but verses 12-13 reveal what is shockingly given to Him as His due: 30 pieces of silver—the price of a slave! Therefore He breaks both staffs and throws them away. The nation of Israel then passes under the oppression of other false shepherds, all of this pointing to their leadership's rejection of the Messiah and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. "Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you," says the Lord (Isaiah 48:5). Let us therefore praise Him for the exact foretelling and fulfillment of every detail of His prophetic Word.
Zechariah 12:10 "They will look on Me whom they have pierced." The King whose rejection was foretold in the previous chapter is now seen coming into His Kingdom. 12:1—13:6 shows how opposing nations will be dealt with in judgment, and how Jewish people on a large scale will be restored to God through the acknowledgement of their rejected Messiah, and by their own spiritual cleansing. 13:7-14 views the same events from the standpoint of the King, going back first to when He was rejected and struck down, and then to the spiritual blessings that will result from His return in glory. The highlighted verse is most striking here and in its New Testament counterpart: "Behold, He is coming with clouds,
and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. All the
tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen" (Revelation 1:7). Hundreds of years before crucifixion even existed, Psalm 22:16 gives this prophecy about the Messiah: "They pierced My hands and My feet." In addition, detailed eyewitness testimony is given about what happened when a Roman soldier pierced Jesus' heart with a spear to confirm His death beyond any doubt (John 19:31-37). What a day it will be for God's ancient people when many of them discover that the One whom most of their ancestors rejected is indeed their Messiah—what sorrow will be theirs, yet because of God's grace to them, their sorrow will turn to joy!
Zechariah 14:9
"The Lord will be King over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one." That verse describes the ultimate victory, the divine event toward which all creation is moving, the goal of God's activity, and the realization of humanity's highest experience of life. That hour will come when the feet of the once-rejected King stand again upon the Mount of Olives, no longer in the pathway of sorrow, but in recognized and acknowledged authority. Zechariah begins this chapter, "Behold, the Day of the Lord is coming.... [He] will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem ... and fight against those nations.... In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east" (verses 1-4). Notice these last words of Jesus and what happened immediately after He said them: "'You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' When He said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. While they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold: two men stood by them in white robes and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.' Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet" (Acts 1:8-12). Since then, Jesus' disciples have been serving as His witnesses, which includes telling people that He will return as the perfect King in a manner similar to the way He left. Zechariah's prophetic counterpart, Daniel, summarizes Christ's Ascension and Return in two amazing verses quoted often by Christ Himself: "Behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days.... Then to Him
was given dominion and glory and a Kingdom, that all peoples, nations,
and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His Kingdom the one that shall not be
destroyed" (Daniel 7:13-14; 2:44). |
| How Zechariah (about 520 to 490 B.C.) relates to other prophetic writings and historical events. |
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