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At this time, the many Jews have been allowed to return to Jerusalem after their long exile in Babylonian captivity. Not only were they slaves under the Babylonians, but later the Assyrian-Persian Empire took over and they became slaves to them. Some 70 years had past, and now many of the Jews were moving back into their homeland trying to rebuild their lives from scratch. Jerusalem had been destroyed and there wasn't much to leverage.
However, as excited as they were initially to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God, many of them some 16 years later are starting to becoming complacent about building the Temple to its former glory and the people had become focused more on their own homes than on God's house. Thus, God sent both Haggai and Zechariah to speak to the people and to help set their priorities straight. God wanted them to seek Him first, not to be totally blinded to their own goals and dreams.,
But now God is calling His people back to Jerusalem to rebuild it. In doing so, God gives Zechariah a very unusual vision during the night. He saw a man sitting on a red horse standing among some myrtle trees - this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Behind the Lord were other horses of different colors each with its own rider - which were angels whose job it was to patrol the earth and to report back to the Lord.
As they reported, the Lord heard that the nations were at peace. However, the Lord's heart wasn't at peace. He had seen how gravely these nations had cruelly treated His people. At the moment of the report, the Lord prays to the Heavenly Father asking Him to have mercy on His people and to help restore Jerusalem.
After Jesus had prayed to the Father, He spoke a message to the angel who then repeated it to Zechariah. "This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong. But I am very angry with the other nations that are now enjoying peace and security. I was only a little angry with my people, but the nations inflicted harm on them far beyond my intentions." (1:14-15
As a result of what He had seen, Jesus decides to destroy the leaders of those nations. And, then He encourages Zechariah about the future day when He will rule in Jerusalem (during His millennial reign), that's what chapter 2 is about!
Satan Is There To Accuse The High Priest
Sadly, Satan is the "accuser of the brethren" according to Revelation 12:10. He is constantly accusing us before God! Notice in 3:1, Satan accuses the high priest of many things, hoping the Lord will curse him. Instead, the Lord forgives the high priest of his sin and changes his filthy "spiritual" clothes for clean ones. This is much like Jesus does for us when we give our lives to him. He takes off our clothes of unrighteousness and puts on a robe of righteousness. Now, we stand righteous in the presence of God!
As we read the rest of chapter 3 and 4, Jesus is commanding Jeshua, the high priest, and all of his associates to live clean before the Lord and to do their job unto the Lord.
In chapter 5 and 6, we see a lot of symbolism. We see the following:
- A scroll - this scroll contains the curse that will go out over to warn people not to be wicked again.
- A basket - which is filled with the sins of everyone throughout the land. The Lord sends what looks like two women with wings like a stork (not an angel) to drop this basket within the temple of the gods of the Babylonians.
- Four angels on horses - who were sent to patrol the earth and report what they see to the Lord.
Even thought God is all-seeing, He chooses to use angels and us to serve His purpose on earth. He shares His work with us.
Are you sharing in God's work? Have you allowed Him to use you?
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