For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Zech 1:1-6

1  In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:

2 “The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. 4 Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?

“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’”

A. Find Out

1. When did God’s word come to who? v.1
2. What did it start by pointing out? v.2
3. So what call is presented to the people? v.3
4. What should they do, and how had they failed? v.4
5. What does He ask? v.5
6. What had happened with what outcome? v.6

B. Think:

1. What is the main thrust, do you think, of this passage?
2. What sort of future does the Lord want for them?
3. How would that be encouraging?

C. Comment:

The first instruction from the prophet Zechariah (v.1) is all about encouraging the present people of Israel, who have just returned from exile in Babylon, to ensure they were not like their ancestors, but instead remained a faithful people.  

The Lord starts by reminding them that he had been angry with His disobedient people (v.2). He will go on to imply that all that had happened to them (the Exile) had been because of their disobedience but for the moment He simply calls them to ensure they truly come back to the Lord and when they do that He will come back to them (v.3).

The warning He brings is to remind them of their ancestors who had been warned again and again by the prophets (see Jeremiah & Ezekiel) (v.4a) but who had constantly refused to heed the warnings brought (v.4b).

But pause up and think about this, he implies, think back to those prophets (now gone) and the people (v.5) – they are gone in the Exile but it was only repentance that brought you back here (v.6).

The context of both Haggai and now here, Zechariah is all-important to understand the thrust and purposes of all the words of the Lord that will follow. They come to the remnant to encourage and challenge them by first of all reminding them of the big picture: they are the faithful remnant who have been brought back from exile to pick up the thread of the life of the nation, the chosen people of God, and as such they are to remember their heritage, both good and bad, and steer clear of the bad of the past.

D. Application:

1. A ‘faithful remnant’ is to be just that – faithful.
2. We need to learn from past failures, not to repeat them.

Zech 1:7-17

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.

8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?”

The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”

10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.”

11 And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”

12 Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” 13 So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

14 Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, 15 and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’

16 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

17 “Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

A. Find Out

1. When did the word of the Lord again come to whom? v.7
2. When did he have his first vision, and what was it? v.8
3. Who did the prophet address, what was he? v.9
4. Who was he told the other three riders were? v.10
5. What did they report? v.11
6. What did the angel of the Lord ask, with what response? v.12,13
7. What message does he pass on to Zechariah? v.14,15
8. What will the Lord yet do for His people? v,16,17

B. Think:

1. What role does the first rider (angel) appear to have?
2. What had been the role of the other three riders?
3. What message was the Lord now conveying? 

C. Comment:

We move on from the introduction to the first of three visions in this chapter, the first of nine visionary pictures in this book. The text appears at first sight to be a little confusing in that Zechariah initially sees a rider on a red horse (v.8) described as ‘standing’ among the trees, and when he addresses him, the response he gets comes from an angel (v.9), the first mention of an angel who we must assume then is that same rider.

He is informed (v.10) that the other three riders in the woods that he has seen (v.8b) are ones (presumably angels) who the Lord has sent to check on the state of the world (v.9) and have come back reporting that it is at peace. (v.11)

The angel then appeals to the Lord on behalf of Jerusalem and Judah (v.12) and the Lord simply comforts him (v.13) but we are not told with what words.  He then adds to this that the Lord is jealous for His people (v.14) and is angry with the nations who went too far in their role to act for the Lord in punishing God’s people (and presumably taking them into exile) (v.15). The Lord confirms that His ongoing will, will involve the rebuilding of the  temple and the blessing of the people. (v.16,17).

The fact of peace on the earth rather suggests the Lord has finished (temporarily at least) His corrective activity in the earth and is now focusing on blessing the returned exiles back in Jerusalem. All very encouraging.

D. Application:

1. The Lord may use the world to bring to bring Discipline.
2. When He does He still holds them accountable if they go too far.

Zech 1:18-21

18 Then I looked up, and there before me were four horns. 19 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these?”

He answered me, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.”

20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. 21 I asked, “What are these coming to do?”

He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise their head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”

A. Find Out

1. What is Zechariah next shown? v.18
2. Who is he told these are? v.19
3. In the next vision, who is he shown? v.20
4. What are they coming to do? v.21

B. Think:

1. How have the different visions in this chapter changed?
2. How is the Lord’s will being revealed?
3. What lessons should we learn from these things?

C. Comment:

There may only be four verses in this section but they reveal amazing things about the ways of the Lord,  (Remember Moses asked to be taught ‘the ways’ of the Lord – Ex 33:13) and they come in the form of two distinct visions.

In the first of these two visions, Zechariah is shown four horns (v.18) and when he asks what these are, he is told that they are the powers that the Lord used to discipline Israel (v.19), causing the destruction of Jerusalem and the taking into exile of most of the people (Remember Jeremiah and some others were left had ended up in Egypt – Jer 40-44). Horns in scripture usually designate political or military powers. Who those ‘horns’ are in the present context is not declared but historically Syria, Assyria and Babylon (and to a lesser extent, Egypt) had been used to discipline Israel.

But then in the second of these two visions, Zechariah is shown four craftsmen (v.20) whose role is to come and ‘terrify’ the first four. We may only speculate who they are: With the fall of Babylon in 539BC the Persian Empire prevailed until about 330BC when they were overrun by Alexanda the Great and the Greeks. In 198BC the Syrian empire prevailed over the areas of Canaan, and in 63BC Roman rule would have been the fourth of the ‘big empires’, all of which swept away all signs of the reigns of those who had dealt with Israel taking them into exile.

The primary double-lesson revealed here is that clearly God uses the empires of the world to discipline others BUT He does hold them accountable for the way they go about it!

D. Application:

1. Learn to understand the ways of the Lord.
2. See how He works with nations in His word.