Zechariah 1:7-17
Horses among the myrtle trees
Riders sent to walk to and fro through the earth report that all is sitting still and at rest, which is the problem. The answer is jealousy for Jerusalem and comfortable words.
People of the Bible
Zechariah
Given eight visions in one night, and more lines about the Messiah than any prophet except Isaiah.
Zechariah begins two months after Haggai and works alongside him on the same building site, but the method could not be more different. Where Haggai gives dated sermons about timber and wages, Zechariah is shown eight visions in a single night and spends the rest of the book being asked what he sees. Horses among myrtle trees, a man with a measuring line, filthy garments taken off a high priest in a courtroom, a lampstand fed by two olive trees without human hands, a flying scroll, and four chariots.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Zechariah
- 01
- 02
Zechariah 3:1-5
Take away the filthy garments
Joshua the high priest stands in filthy clothes with an accuser at his right hand. The garments are removed, iniquity passes, and a clean turban is set on his head while the angel stands by.
- 03
Zechariah 4:1-14
Not by might, nor by power
A lampstand with a bowl and seven pipes, fed directly by two olive trees. The word to Zerubbabel is that the mountain becomes a plain and that small beginnings are not to be despised.
- 04
Zechariah 9:9-10
Lowly, and riding on a donkey
Rejoice greatly, your king comes to you, just and having salvation, and he shall speak peace to the nations. The chariot and the battle bow are cut off in the same breath.
- 05
Zechariah 11:12-13
Thirty pieces of silver
He asks for his wages and they weigh out thirty pieces of silver. He is told to cast it to the potter, a goodly price that I was prised at of them, and he casts it in the house of the LORD.
- 06
Zechariah 12:10; 13:7
They shall look upon me
A spirit of grace and supplications poured out, and mourning as for an only son. And, awake O sword against my shepherd, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
Why it matters
Zechariah holds the small and the enormous together. The lampstand vision produces the sentence given to a governor laying a modest foundation: not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, and do not despise the day of small things. And then the book keeps handing the gospels their material: a king coming lowly and riding on a donkey, thirty pieces of silver cast to the potter, the shepherd struck and the sheep scattered, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.
17 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
