BaptistWay Bible Series for March 22: God’s gracious offer

Where are our dreamers? Where are our prophets who see visions?

While these are questions that might best be asked at the end of the lesson under our “Questions to explore” section, they are questions that beg to be considered before the lesson starts.

During our focal passage, the prophet Zechariah relates two prophecies. While the first is a straightforward call from God for the Jews to repent, the second is the interesting relation of the first of a few “night visions” Zechariah experienced all on the same night.

So back to the initial question: Do we still have those who experience visions? Are there prophets among us in modern times who obtain visions from God and are able to adequately voice them? To be sure, we have pastors who do a great job of interpreting God’s word and many are marvelous teaching pastors who have a great message to share. I’ve even heard many of these pastors deliver a prophetic message to congregations. But what if any of these—what if your pastor—spoke up one Sunday and related a dream he had experienced and interpreted it as a vision from God that called us to radically change our lives. Would we filter it through our modern mindsets and dismiss this prophetic message, or would we take it for what the speaker claimed it to be?

I’m convinced we have prophetic voices out there. What I’m not so sure of, however, is if we have prophetic listeners?
 
Context

Zechariah is a contemporary of Haggai, probably younger, since Nehemiah mentions his grandfather Iddo (Nehemiah 12:4) returning with Zerubbabel in about 538 B.C. to the promised land. As such, he found himself in the same situation as Haggai, in post-exilic Jerusalem with a still-unbuilt temple and a group of Jews on the edge of God’s will.

Zechariah most likely is the author of the book that bears his name and with a new message for the people. While Haggai focused on the rebuilding of the temple, Zechariah is more concerned with true spiritual transformation.

Throughout our study this month, we’ve seen the Jews return from Babylonian exile back home with a mandate from God to rebuild his temple and return to worshipping him—to rebuild their future. It is 520 B.C., about 18 years after the return, and while we saw the restoration of the temple’s altar (Ezra 3) early in the people’s return, the temple has yet to be built and God has sent prophets to encourage and remind the people of their duties (Haggai 1-2).

Zechariah is another of these prophets, and he’s also a priest. While his message from God is similar to the others’ in that there is encouragement to rebuild the temple, we find in our focal verses in this lesson he also comes with a vision of forgiveness and restoration for the people that reveals the nature of God and his desire for his followers.  

An introductory reminder

Zechariah opens with a call for the people to return to the Lord, probably delivered in October or November of 520, about a month after the rebuilding efforts had begun. Note the cause-and-effect timing issued by God: “Return to me … that I may return to you” (v. 3). The national news being delivered by prophets like Zechariah during this time period was whether this generation would obey God or fall away from him like preceding generations (vv. 4-6)

Visions in the night

But beginning in verse 7, Zechariah begins to share God’s word from a series of visions that came to him at night (v. 8). These night visions all were received in mid-February of 519, and focus on God’s judgment, blessings for Jerusalem, purification of the land and the rebuilding of the temple, as well as the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua.

Were these visions dreams or did they come to him at night? It’s unsure. What is sure is that they were visions of comfort and prosperity from God about the future of the people—and judgment on other nations.

The first of these visions, a vision of horses and myrtles, is in our focal passage. Zechariah related how he had a vision of horses standing among myrtle trees. In the vision, Zechariah speaks to an angel of the Lord (v. 9), who serves as an intercessor on behalf of Zechariah to God and to another angel riding with the horses.

Zechariah sees in his vision a group of horses standing among the trees along with a single rider and asks the Lord to explain his vision. Speaking for God, the angel replies they “are those sent to patrol the earth.”

The horses themselves answer the lone rider, who himself is identified as an angel, reporting “peace and quiet” across the globe. Then Zechariah’s interceding angel asks God how long will he “have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which thou hast been indignant these past 70 years?” (v. 12).

And God answers with words of compassion and hope for a people who haven’t felt it for a while. In verses 14-17, God pronounces judgment on peaceful nations who allowed disaster to fall on the Jews, predicts the rebuilding of the temple and the restoration of Jerusalem, and promises peace and prosperity on the Jews.

It’s a positive word for a group of people who haven’t heard one in a long time. Through a vision of horses and angels, God gave hope.

Questions to explore

• Read Zechariah 1:3. Does God require us to make the first move in a relationship with him?

• Suppose your pastor or someone you respect shared a vision of angels they said they received from God. How would you respond?