All-In [29996]
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Religious Pron: The End Time, 7A of ?
2
May 2, 2024, 2:29 PM
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Last time, in Malachi and Joel, we spoke quite a bit about Persia and Greece. And specifically, what their periods contributed to the Jewish, and ultimately the Christian, view of the End Time.
We’re gonna pick upon those two nations again, this time in the Book of Zechariah. And we’re gonna add two important guys, Zerubbabel and Joshua. No, not THAT Joshua.
Zerubbabel and Joshua aren’t very big names today, but they were huge in Zechariah’s time. Zerubbabel was the Persian governor of Jerusalem (and the guy who rebuilt the Temple), and Joshua was the first High Priest in that Temple after the Exile. So two very, very, connected dudes. We’ll get back to them in just a moment.
The Book of Zechariah is not very big, but it’s packed with info. Lots of details, lots of dates, and lots of symbolism and fun stuff.
But it’s also slightly deceptive. Like with the Book of Isaiah, either Zechariah lived a long, long time, or multiple groups worked on his book. That’s because Zechariah speaks as if he lived in the Persian era, and he also speaks as if he lived in the Greek era, periods separated by about 200 years. So this post I’ll call Zechariah-I, and the next will be Zechariah-II.
Zechariah-I starts out very specifically, and that’s great.
Zechariah 1:1 “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius…” That would be about 520 BCE, when Jerusalem was under Persian rule.
 
And the setting of the first part of Zechariah’s Book is Babylon. The Jews were freed, but not everyone had gone home yet. Waiting his turn, Zechariah got a vision from an angel messenger on a horse. And behind the angel on a horse were three more horses…
Zechariah 1:8 “Behind him were red, brown and white horses.”
Well now, where have we seen four horses before? Let’s compare Revelation 6, written six hundred years later:
6:2 “I looked, and there before me was a white horse!”
6:4 “Then another horse came out, a fiery red one.”
6:5 “I looked, and there before me was a black horse!”
6:8 “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse!”
It’s initially unclear what exactly the four horses mean in Zechariah, except that they scour the four corners of the earth. Later on, we learn more.
Zechariah 6
5 “The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven…”
6 “The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”
And the Red one from the East, with Zechariah. We’ll see these guys again in Revelation, so they’ll definitely go on our composite list of End Time criteria.
We also find out in Zechariah-I that while God intended Babylon to punish the Jews, they took it a bit too far by destroying them completely. So now Babylon has to pay, too. And then, God’s gonna help the Jews clean up the mess and rebuild the Temple.
1:15 “I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.”
1:16 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt.”
But Zechariah-I differs from John of Patmos in his view of the New Jerusalem that appears in the End Time. John sees it as a walled city:
Revelation 21:12 “It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.”
While God tells Zechariah that God himself will be the wall:
Zechariah 2:4 “Jerusalem will be a city without walls…I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord.”
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, not every vision of the End Time has carried through time. And the fiery-walled version of New Jerusalem appears to be one that got trash-canned somewhere along the way.
Next, Zechariah’s vision takes us to perhaps the most interesting trial in history. It’s the confirmation of the new, post-exile High Priest, Joshua.
Zechariah 2:3 “Then he [the Angel] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.”
Whoa! Court is bad enough, but who wants Satan to be their prosecutor? Fortunately, it’s a quick trial and God finds Joshua worthy to be the High Priest.
Zechariah 3:4 “Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
And then a mystery man enters the scene, in another mysterious passage – The Branch.
8 “Listen, High Priest Joshua, I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.
9 ”See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone…says the Lord Almighty…”
Zechariah never says who the ‘Branch’ is, explicitly. But the next person he talks about is Governor Zerubbabel, who just happened to be a relative of the last King of Judah, Zedekiah.
And that would make Zerubbabel a branch that could continue the Davidic line. At least, that’s the Jewish interpretation.
As for that stone, to Jews it’s the cornerstone of the new Temple, given by God himself, featuring his 7 ever-seeing eyes.
Zechariah 4:10 “…since the seven eyes of the Lord…will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel”
Zechariah’s symbolic vision continues in Chapter 4, with even more mystery…
4:2 [God] asked me, “What do you see?” I [Zechariah] answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps.”
4:3 “Also there are two olive trees by [it].”
To Jews, that’s the Menorah, straight from Exodus 25:31
And, there are lampstands in Revelation:
1:12 “…when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands”
As for the two olive trees, well, there are olive trees in Revelation as well…
Revelation 11:4 “They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Zechariah isn’t explicit on who these two olive trees are, but it’s not hard to guess…we just need to read a few more verses.
4:11 “Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?”
14:14 So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”
Again, we can’t say for certain, but for the Jews, those two anointed guys are Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two new power-brokers in rebuilt Jerusalem; a potential king and his High Priest.
Occasionally in the Bible one can find the same story told multiple times. The four Gospels would be one example. This can occur for a lot of different reasons, and it happens in Zechariah, too. Right after Zechariah tells us about 4 horses and 2 men, he tells us about 4 horses and 2 men, again.
Why? Well, that’s a bigger mystery.
Zechariah 6:
11 “Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua…”
12 “Tell him [Joshua] this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place [Babylon] and build the temple of the Lord.
13 It is he [Zerubbabel] who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And the priest will be on his throne.
And there will be harmony between the two.”
Kings and High Priests. For Jews, they’re like peanut butter and jelly on Wonder bread.
That’s a nice ending. But it’s only 500ish BCE. There’s still the second part of Zechariah, which speaks of Greeks. And Greeks didn’t enter the Levant until 200 years later, in 300 BCE, in Alexander’s army.
We’ve added quite a few more items from Zechariah-I to our ongoing list, but things are gonna get cryptic in the second part, Zechariah-II. It’s pretty daunting.
Don’t worry. We can handle it. But for now, let’s recap, and next time we’ll deal with the troublesome Zechariah-II.
End Times List
850 BCE Obadiah: 1) Everybody loves Jerusalem and Yahweh
740 BCE Amos: 2) Israel gets a permanent home
700 BCE Micah: 3) The Temple is center of world worship and the 10 Tribes return,
630 BCE Zephaniah: 4) The entire world is destroyed with fire by God, but a remnant remains
600 BCE Isaiah-I: 5) 6-Winged Seraphim, God’s throne and train, and a protective canopy over Jerusalem
570 BCE Ezekiel: 6) Multi-faced creatures, eating scrolls, marks on the flesh, 25 Elders, and hellish pits
500 BCE Zechariah-I 7) 4 colored horses, lampstands, olive trees, 7-eyed rocks
430 BCE Malachi: 8) Elijah precedes The End
300 BCE Joel: 9) a Mighty Army and a Trial of Nations precedes The End
Till then, Greek Ladies…
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