Zechariah - Introduction

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai and was active during the post-exilic period recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel had made some great promises, as well as their many prophecies of judgement, yet the return from exile clearly had not fulfilled these prophecies. A relatively small percentage of the exiles had actually returned. The city walls were in ruins, as was the temple, and things generally were in very poor state. Israel was a vassal state, and had neighbours who taunted her. Darius I was the ruler of the Persian empire, and while in 522 BC it looked as though his empire might be falling apart Darius consolidated control in 520 BC.

The book of Zechariah consists of various literary forms. There is exhortation, prophetic visions and oracles..Many parts of Zechariah are apocalyptic. Daniel and Revelation are the two other main apocalyptic books. We think of apocalyptic as meaning dealing with catastrophic times, though in fact it means a revealing (hence the name Revelation). Ie it reveals what is really going on behind all the external political and military turmoil.It gives “the view from heaven”, often given through an angelic interpreter. Daniel and Revelation provide a playground for all sorts of silly interpretations. In apocalyptic literature it is vital to remember that the visions and imagery are there to provide a vehicle for communicating the message, they are not the message themselves. It is all too easy to over interpret the visions, seeing things that are not there. Every little detail of a vision or image is not necessarily communicating something! The visions are there to reveal the truth about God, rather than future telling.