The Prophet Zechariah

Zechariah, whose name means “the LORD remembers,” is a figure in the Hebrew Bible, a prophet of the Kingdom of Judah, and the author of the Book of Zechariah (the 11th of the 12 Minor Prophets).

Like Ezekiel, Zechariah also came from a priestly family. He was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo, born in Babylon during the Babylonian captivity.

Around 520 BC, in the second year of King Darius I of Persia, and 16 years after the first group of Jews had returned, Zechariah was among the returnees. Led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, the Jews had come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, and Zechariah served as the head of the family of Iddo.

Through the prophet Zechariah, God not only declared how He would prepare the circumstances for rebuilding the Temple but also how He would bring this Temple into glory. This was not just for the transformation of the people of that time (Zechariah 1-8) but also for the preparation of the people of the last days (Zechariah 9-14). Therefore, Zechariah looks down from heaven, gazing into the future and surveying the entire earth, revealing the grand process of the Messiah’s coming, the establishment of His kingdom, and eventually the entrance into the new heavens and new earth. God wants us to clearly understand the ultimate purpose of spiritual building and to clearly see that He is the sovereign Lord of history. All the raging storms of the earth are under His control, serving to accomplish His will. Therefore, we can confidently trust and commit everything to Him, “because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).