Categories
Biblical People

Biblical People: Zechariah (22)

Elderly Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, have no kids. They’re past their childbearing years. From a human perspective, having a baby is impossible, yet they pray for one anyway. 

They’re a righteous pair, Zechariah and Elizabeth. They obey all God’s commands and follow his rules—all of them. They’re descendants of Aaron. In addition, Zechariah works for God. He’s a priest. 

Did you catch that?

They’re good people. They’re obedient and do the right things. They have the ideal heritage, and Zechariah lives to serve God. 

For all this devotion, shouldn’t God bless them with the child they yearn for? Yet each year passes and no baby. Still they continue to pray for a kid.

Then things change.

One day the angel Gabriel shows up at the temple, right when Zechariah’s supposed to burn the incense for church. How inconvenient. The people are waiting for Zechariah to kick off their religious ceremony. Couldn’t Gabriel have come a few minutes later?

But Gabriel has good news. God will soon answer Zechariah and Elizabeth’s years of prayers. They’ll finally have a baby, a son. “Name him John.”

And how does Zechariah respond? He says, “Really? Elizabeth and I are too old.”

Frankly, I’d say that too.

Gabriel takes this as a sign of unbelief. To make his point, he removes Zechariah’s ability to talk, which makes it difficult for the poor guy to lead worship. He gestures to let the people know he has seen a vision from God. Astonishing.

When his stint in the temple is over, Zechariah goes home, still mute. Take time to imagine what happens when he arrives, what he communicates through gestures, and most importantly, what happens next.

Elizabeth gets pregnant. God is good.

How long will we wait for God to answer our prayers and give us what we yearn for? Do we have faith to believe in the improbable? The impossible?

[Discover more about Zechariah in Luke 1:5–25.]


Read more about other biblical characters in The Friends and Foes of Jesus, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

Categories
Books of the Bible

Zechariah

The book of Zechariah is a record of the messages of the prophet Zechariah. As with most prophets, Zechariah’s message focuses on current events for the people of Israel, but also has a secondary meaning, anticipating the life of Jesus.

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai. The messages of both prophets concern the importance of rebuilding the temple.

Zechariah is sometimes called a minor prophet. This doesn’t mean he wasn’t important, but merely that the book named after him is shorter. (Compare this to the major prophets, whose books are much longer.)

Dig into the intriguing lives and ministries of the Bible’s twelve minor prophets in Peter DeHaan’s book Dear Theophilus, Minor Prophets: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

Categories
Bible

Posts about the Minor Prophets

For the past several months, most of the A Bible A Day posts have been about the minor prophets.  Recall that they are called “minor” not because their prophecy is insignificant, but because their books are short!

Though more posts may be added in the future, there are no more planned at this time.  See all posts about the Minor Prophets, or look at specific ones:

  1. Hosea
  2. Joel
  3. Amos
  4. Obadiah
  5. Jonah
  6. Micah
  7. Nahum
  8. Habakkuk
  9. Zephaniah
  10. Haggai
  11. Zechariah
  12. Malachi

Read more about the Minor Prophets on ABibleADay.com.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

Categories
Bible

Zechariah and Revelation

The book of Zechariah contains prophecy given by God to the prophet Zechariah about future events.  A few centuries later the apostle John also had a revelation from God in the form of a dream, which he recorded in the book of Revelation.

What is interesting is reoccurring images that are found in both:

  • Four horses: a black horse, a red horse, a white horse (the fourth horse is dapple in Zechariah and pale in Revelation).
  • Four winds
  • Seven eyes
  • Two olive trees
  • Gold lampstand

Several of these images are only found in these two prophecies, while the others are found predominately in these two prophecies.

There are also other parallels, though not as exclusive: horns, measure, stone, temple, bowl, mountain, fountain, scroll, chariots, spirits, Jerusalem, Holy Mountain, and earthquake, among others.

I’m not sure if this means that we can use one passage to interpret and better understand the other, but the similarities are intriguing and compelling.

Perhaps the God who revealed both messages intended for us to connect the dots — or maybe they’re just some really powerful images that are worth repeating.

Either way, there is a sense of awe and wonder contained in both messages.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.