Zechariah 1 explained: Come Back, and Jerusalem Will Rise

A call to return (vv. 1-3)

This is late 520 BC. Persia rules, some exiles have come home from Babylon, and the temple still lies unfinished; God's message is a two-way promise that if the people turn back to him, he will turn back to them.

Don't repeat the past (vv. 4-6)

Earlier prophets warned the people before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, and they refused to listen; those people and prophets are gone, but the warnings came true. Verse 6 then says 'they repented' without saying who, so it may mean the generation that lived through the disaster or Zechariah's own listeners responding to his call.

Riders among the myrtles (vv. 7-11)

Three months later, Zechariah sees horsemen who seem to work like an emperor's scouts, and they report that the whole world is calm. Many read that calm as comfortable for the powerful nations while Jerusalem still sits in ruins, and what the myrtle trees in the hollow stand for is unclear.

How long? (vv. 12-13)

The angel of the LORD pleads for Jerusalem, recalling Jeremiah's prediction that the exile would last about seventy years. Christians have often read this angel as Christ, while others see a high-ranking angel.

God answers with comfort (vv. 14-17)

God is 'jealous' for Jerusalem in the sense of a fierce, protective love, and he is angry that the nations punished it far more harshly than he intended. He promises the temple will be rebuilt, and the measuring line pictures builders marking out a city to be restored.

Four horns, four craftsmen (vv. 18-21)

Horns were a common symbol of an animal's or a nation's strength, so these stand for the powers that scattered God's people, and four may mean enemies from every direction. The craftsmen come to break those powers, though scholars are unsure which nations, if any specific ones, are meant.

Key verse: Zechariah 1:3

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether these promises were fulfilled mainly in the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile or point further ahead to a later, fuller restoration.

Something to think about

When you look at the mistakes of the generation before you, what makes it hard or easy to actually choose differently?