Zechariah 1:1-21

     In verses 1-6, God gave a message to His prophet, Zechariah, sometime in October-November, 520 B.C., which he delivered to His people, Israel. Though they had returned from Babylonian captivity back to Judah, they’d not fully returned to a righteous walk with the Lord, so the Lord challenged them, saying, “‘Return to Me,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘that I may return to you’” (Zec 1:3). This language reflects the responsibility of the Israelites to abide by the Mosaic Covenant, which was still in force, knowing their blessing or cursing was directly tied to their walk with the Lord and their obedience or disobedience to His commands (see Deut 28). They were not to be like their forefathers who disobeyed the Lord and died in captivity (Zec 1:4-6). What follows in chapter one is two of the eight visions that were given to Zechariah in one night, on February 15, 519 B.C. (Zec 1:7). Zechariah had an angel with him to help him understand the meaning of the visions (see vs. 9). The first vision pertained to an angel on a red horse—the angel of the Lord (see vs. 11)—who was riding/standing among myrtle trees with three other horsemen behind Him. The angel of the Lord is the second person of the Trinity (cf. Ex 3:2-4; Josh 5:13-15), and the three horsemen with Him were part of an angelic reconnaissance team who had been sent on a scouting mission throughout the earth and found the Gentile nations at ease after going too far in their persecution of Judah (Zec 1:8-15). Because God has great compassion on His people, He promised to restore and bless both the city and the temple (Zec 1:16-17). God’s people would have been encouraged to know the angel of the Lord was among them, and that God loved them greatly and planned to bless them. In the second vision, Zechariah saw “four horns” which represent Gentile nations (Zec 1:18-19), likely the ones that went too far in their persecution of Israel, Judah and Jerusalem. Then the Lord showed Zechariah “four craftsmen” (Zec 1:20), which symbolized other nations that God would use to discipline the “four horns” who persecuted His people. This shows that God knows who persecutes His people and that He deals out just retribution in His time and way.