Hi James and Ellen,
Zechariah is a two part, postexile book. The Zechariah Book’s author was a priest whose name was Zechariah. Zechariah’s grandpa’s name was Iddo. Iddo was the patriarch of one of Levi tribal clan’s families of priests who returned with Zerubbabel to the city of Jerusalem in 538 B.C. Levi tribal clan was one of thirteen tribal clans that made up the Israelite people group of guys and gals. God – 1,500 years or so earlier, made a binding covenant with a guy – whose name was Abraham, that made God’s singular entity Abraham’s extended family of guys and gals being His specially chosen guys and gals. Along with making a covenant vow to Abraham that his ancestors would always be His specially chosen guys and gals, God established that the land area where Abraham was living – which in Abraham’s time was called the land of Canaan, as the land area where He will always have His specially chosen guys and gals live. 500 or so years after formalizing the Abrahamic Covenant, God – on the top of Mount Sinai, met with Moses at which time He gave Moses worship expectations and life norms – that have become known as the Levitical or the Mosaic Laws, to pass on to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, for them to always faithfully obey in the land of Canaan – which is where He was returning them to and where He had promised them they would always have as their very own land to live in if . . . because His specially chosen guys and gals thumbed their noses at His expected sacrificial and living requirements, the ‘if’ came into play. The ‘if’ was that God would have enemy people groups’ armies remove them from the land area where He was returning them to and that they would become exiles in the land of their enemies. Because of their abject unfaithfulness and pigheadedness of His specially chosen guys and gals towards Him, God had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army in 586 B.C. overrun and raze the city of Jerusalem – which by this time had become the central city for the land of Judah – which was Israel’s southern kingdom, in the land of Isreal. Because God said that He would one day return His specially chosen guys and gals to the land area that He wanted them to always to have to live in as their very own land, God had 42,360 guys, gals and kids in 538 B.C. be given the okay – after they had lived as exiles for over fifty years in the country of Babylonia, to leave the country of Babylonia with Zerubbabel.
Zechariah – whose name means ‘the Lord or YAHWEH remembers’, scribed his Zechariah Book’s first part sometime around 520 B.C. Zechariah was a young guy when he scribed the first part of his Zechariah Book. The first part of the Zechariah Book’s fourteen chapters focuses on rebuilding the temple of God which was located in the city of Jerusalem. When God permitted Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonia army to do a number years earlier on the city of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonia army demolished and burned the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. Because nothing had been done over the 18 or so years by the guys among the 42,360 guys, gals and kids who had been allowed to return the city of Jerusalem from the country of Babylonia in the rebuilding of the temple of God that had been located in the city of Jerusalem, God called out a couple of guys – Haggai and Zechariah, to encourage His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem to begin again the rebuilding of a temple for Himself in the city of Jerusalem so that His presence could once again reside in the city of Jerusalem. God gave Zechariah eight visions – as epiphanies, in one night in which God told Zechariah to tell His specially chosen guys and gals – as His way to hearten them, that He was going to richly bless them because of their heartfelt repentance from their disobedient ways and because they had returned to obediently worshipping only Him. Zechariah’s first God-given vision had a guy in it who was sitting on a red horse that was standing in a ravine among some myrtle trees. Zechariah’s second God-given vision had four horns and four craftsmen in it. Zechariah’s third God-given vision had a guy in it who had in his hand a measuring line. Zechariah’s fourth God-given vision had a guy – whose name Joshua, in it who was told to take off the filthy clothes that he as wearing and to put on rich garments. Zechariah’s fifth God-given vision had in it a solid gold lampstand with an olive tree on both sides of the lampstand. Zechariah’s sixth God-given vision had in it a 30 foot long – 15 foot wide flying scroll in it. Zechariah’s seventh God-given vision had a measuring basket in it with a gal sitting inside the measuring basket. Zechariah’s eighth God-given vision had in it four chariots that were coming from between two bronze mountains. Zechariah – a couple of years later, addressed the question about fasting by stating that God desires more that guys and gals keep His moral laws versus spending time fasting. Zechariah – inspired by God to scribe what he did, reaffirmed a maxim that if a guy or gal lives his or her life for God’s sake that he or she will be perpetually blessed and that guys and gals from other ethnic backgrounds will invariably be led to want to know the God who he or she adulates.
The second part of the Zechariah Book – which Zechariah scribed much later, is devoted to the future of God’s specially chosen and elected guys and gals. God – per Zechariah, will pour out His judgment on all the guys, gals and kids who are not His and show mercy on all the guys, gals and kids who are His on the coming Day of the Lord.
Zechariah