Zechariah’s early visions

Zechariah 1

• The rider on a red horse (v. 7-17)
• The reporters (v. 10-11)
• The angel of the Lord intercedes for Jerusalem (v. 12)
• The Lord’s promise to avenge His people (v. 14-17)
• The four horns, enemies of Israel (v. 18-19). (North-Assyrians; South-Egyptians; East-Moabites & Ammonites; West- Philistines ??)
• The four carpenters, destroyers of Israel’s enemies (v. 20-21). (Babylonians, Medes & Persians, Greeks, Romans ??)

Zechariah 2

• The man with a measuring line surveys Jerusalem and Israel (v. 1-13)
• A land of safety, no walls required (v. 4)
• God protects His people (v. 5)
• Come home, you who live in distant lands (v. 6-9).
• The glorious future that includes the Gentiles (v. 10-13)

Zechariah 3

• The high priest and satan (v. 1-10)
• Joshua, high priest and representative of the priesthood and people, stands in filthy garments to be judged (v. 1-3)
• Satan, as usual, is the accuser (v. 2).
• The Judge chooses to be merciful to the guilty Joshua and orders a change of clothing and position for him (v. 4-5).
• Joshua is warned to walk in obedience (v. 6-7).
• All of the priests are urged to look to the Messiah, the Branch (v. 8), the stone with 7 eyes (v. 9).
• Only then, when men turn to the Messiah, will peace and prosperity (remember chapter 2) prevail in the land (v. 10).

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To build or not to build? That is the question.

Zechariah 1 (v. 1-6)

• Turn, baby, turn (v. 1-3).
• Don’t grow up to be like your (evil) father (v. 4-6).

Ezra 5 (v. 2-17)

• More complaints from the neighbors (v. 1-5).
• More complaints to the (new) king (v. 6-17)

Meditation Points:

1. Apparently the reconstruction work, stopped by order of King Artaxerxes, had begun again.
2. Tatnai and the others sought names that they could document and accuse before King Darius.

Ezra 6 (v. 1-13)

• King Darius ordered a search of the archives and found the original royal proclamation (v. 1-6).
• The Samaritans are ordered not to cause any more delays to the temple project (v. 6-7).
• Even more, the Samaritans are ordered to support the work (v. 8-10).
• With death and destruction the consequences for disobeying the king, the Samaritans quickly comply (v. 11-13).

Ezra 3 (v. 10-13)

• The rebuilt temple brought joy to some and sadness to others. Remember Haggai 2.

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Procrastination-its results and it remedy

Haggai 1

• It’s not the right time to do the will of God (v. 1-2).
• Is it the right time to do your own thing? (v. 3-4)
• Think about it (v. 5, 7).
• You’ve worked hard and you have nothing to show for it; you’ve lost it all (v. 6, 9).
• Glorify the Lord or your economic problems will not go away (v. 8-11).
• The prophet spoke, the leaders obeyed, the people feared God (v. 12-15).

Haggai 2

• Pining for the good old days (v. 1-3).
• God will shake up the world for His own glory (v. 4-8).
• The future He has planned will be much greater than the past and the present (v. 9).
• Dirt (and sin) wears off onto others; but cleanliness (and holiness) is not thus transferred between men (v. 10-14).
• Do the work of God and you will never lack (v. 15-19)
• Assure the king that God will overthrow his worst enemies (v. 20-23).

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Good news and bad neighbors

Daniel 10

• Did you ever meditate on spiritual matters for three weeks? (v. 1-3)
• Did God ever send you a messenger to answer your questions? (v. 4-6)
• Did you ever feel yourself powerless in the presence of holiness? (v. 7-9)
• Do you often recognize the great spiritual battles behind the scenes of human history? (v. 10-21)

Meditation Points:

1. Did Daniel meet AN angel of the Lord or THE Angel of the Lord?

2. Assured that God yet controls the world, Daniel was strengthened (Daniel 10:19). When you are weak, why not turn to Him who is all-powerful?

3. What better source of knowledge about God and God’s plans than in the “scripture of truth”? (Daniel 10:21)

Ezra 4

• When their plan to infiltrate the work of God failed, the Samaritans wrote to the King, predicting the Jews would become seditious tax evaders (v. 7-16).
• King Artaxerxes issued a cease and desist order which halted temple reconstruction until the 2nd year of Darius (v. 7-24).

Ezra 5

• The prophets Haggai and Zechariah ministered to the Jews in Israel at this time (v. 1)

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