Zechariah

Zechariah was a young contemporary of Haggai. Haggai's approach was more concrete and concise in addressing the present concerns through reprimand and exhortation, whereas Zechariah's was more abstract in portraying future promises as he reminded and encouraged the people.

Though young in age, Zechariah was fearless and firmed in proclaiming God's message, and ultimately paid the high price with his life, as mentioned by Jesus in His indictment against the Jews of His time:

Matthew 23:35
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slain between the temple and the altar.

Zechariah is the major Minor Prophet, being the longest among the twelve, and is second only to Isaiah in terms of messianic passages. The book is rich and varied in content, with a total of eight visions, four messages, and two burdens. The focus shifts from Gentile dominion to Messiah's rule, from persecution to peace, and from impurity to holiness.

The prophet appealed to the people to repent and return to God, and not to repeat the failure of their forefathers who rejected God's Word and warnings. About three months later, he received eight visions in one night, five of which are visions of comfort, and three of judgment.

Zechariah's visions covered the work of the Messiah in both advents, and his oracles outlined God's program for His people from the times of the Gentiles until the reign of Messiah on earth. Let's look forward to reading this great prophetic book.

OUTLINE OF ZECHARIAH

1. Eight Visions (1:1-6:15)

a. The Call to Repentance (1:1-6)

b. The Collection of Visions (1:7-6:8)

1:  Horses among the Myrtle Trees

2:  Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

3:  Man with the Measuring Line

4:  Cleansing of Joshua the High Priest

5:  Golden Lampstand and Two Olive Trees

6:  Flying Scroll

7:  Woman in the Basket

8:  Four Chariots

c. The Crowning of Joshua (6:9-15)

2. Four Messages (7:1-8:23)

a. The People's Inquiry on Fasting (7:1-3)

b. The Lord's Response (7:4-8:23)

Rebuke : Spiritual Hypocrisy

Repent : Disobedience

Restore : The People and the Land

Rejoice : Revival of True Worship

3. Two Burdens (9:1-14:21)

a. Rejection of Messiah (9:1-11:17)

Judgment on Surrounding Nations

First Advent | Second Advent | Rejection

b. Reign of Messiah (12:1-14:21)

Salvation—Physical | Spiritual

Final Siege of Jerusalem

Second Coming of Messiah

Messiah's Kingdom

 

Haggai

Haggai was one of the three prophets that ministered in the post-exilic period of Judah's history. Zerubbabel led the first group of returning Jews—42,360 of them—in the first year of Cyrus, the Persian king.

The new generation of Jews, with some of the elderly Jews who survived the captivity, looked forward with great anticipation and hope to their homeland. But optimism soon gave way to despair as they witnessed the desolation of the city and temple —70 years since Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem. To make matter worse, their attempt to rebuild the temple was met with oppositions from neighboring nations.

Consequently, the temple rebuilding work stopped soon after the foundation was laid, and the people became preoccupied with building their homes and cultivating their fields. Living conditions were tough and the land unproductive from years of neglect, compared to the comfortable lives they left behind in the Babylonian province that is now under Persia. Pessimism led to spiritual lethargy and the people carried on with their daily life while the temple stood neglected and unfinished for another 16 years.

God sent Haggai to rebuke the people of their spiritual apathy and challenged them to rekindle their fervor for the restoration of the temple, as well as to renew their faith in the God who could restore their livelihood now and bring forth hope of a brighter future in the Messianic kingdom.

OUTLINE OF HAGGAI

1. 1st Message: Rebuke–Reflection (1:1-11)

Nice homes | Neglected temple

Much labor | Little harvest

2. 2nd Message: Obedience–Assurance (1:12-15)

Leaders obeyed | The people feared

God encourages | God enables

3. 3rd Message: Courage–Glory (2:1-9)

Man's perspective—Insignificant

God's perspective—Glorious

4. 4th Message: Question–Action (2:10-19)

Attitude—Ceremonial or Committed?

Rewards—Feeble or Abundance?

5. 5th Message: Judgment–Promise (2:20-23)

Man's kingdom shall fall

Messiah's kingdom shall rise

 

Zephaniah

Zephaniah was the great grandson of King Hezekiah, one of the few good kings of Judah and a reformer of the nation to true worship of God. Unfortunately, after the corrupt and idolatrous influence of the next two kings, Manasseh and Ammon, Judah had sunk to a new spiritual and moral low.

Despite Josiah's best effort to restore the nation—his untimely death at the hands of Pharaoh Neco in the battle of Megiddo proved to be the final nail on Judah's coffin. Under such ailing spiritual circumstances, with contamination in worship and corruption in leadership, and the people adopting a lukewarm and nonchalant attitude towards God, Zephaniah set forth to proclaim the swift arrival of the day of the LORD, urging the people to repent and return back to God.

Zephaniah's message, however, was not meant for Judah alone; it was also directed to the surrounding nations who were just as guilty in blaspheming God, being boastful of their abilities, and constantly battering God's people on all sides. Ultimately the day of the LORD will descend upon all people and nation, to bring an end to sin and unrighteousness.

But like the other prophets, Zephaniah ends his message with a promise of salvation. The day of the LORD is not all gloom and doom; rather, it serves to cleanse away the filth of mankind's sin and establish Messiah's kingdom and rule. Indeed, for the meek and poor in spirit, it is a day of joy and comfort; but for the unrepentant, it is a day of grave reckoning.

OUTLINE OF ZEPHANIAH

1. Day of Wrath—Judgment (1:1-3:8)

a. The Whole Earth (1:1-3)

b. Judah the Nation (1:4-2:3)

Reasons | Repercussions | Repentance

c. Surrounding Nations (2:4-15)

Philistia—West | Moab and Ammon—East

Ethiopia—South | Assyria—North

d. Jerusalem the City (3:1-7)

Her Injustice | God's Justice

e. The Whole Earth (3:8)

2. Day of Joy—Salvation (3:9-20)

a. Joy of Conversion (3:9-13)

Cleansing of Filth and Pride

b. Joy of Restoration (3:14-20)

Celebration of Favor and Peace

 

Habakkuk

Are you troubled by the evil and injustice in this world? Have you ever wondered why God seems to be silent and inactive, or turning a blind eye to the atrocities and pains around us and in the news? If God is real, shouldn't He be doing something about it and eradicate all evils from the face of the earth?

Habakkuk's faith was severely disturbed as he witnessed what was happening among his own people in Judah. The rich and powerful got away with their crimes and wrongdoings, while the poor and helpless suffered the brunt of injustice at the very hands of their own brethren turned oppressors. The southern kingdom had sunk into the depths of spiritual and moral decay and God did not seem to care or put a stop to it.

In exasperation the prophet cried out to God for an answer, but what he received in reply was even more shocking: God would punish His people using a more wicked nation—the Chaldeans. This was not what Habakkuk had expected to hear and could not reconcile his faith to. However, God assured the bewildered Habakkuk that He knew what He was doing because He is in full control of everything, even though the prophet could not understand His ways:

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In the end, Habakkuk learned an important lesson—we are not to question God's ways but to trust His wisdom in whatever He does—and that was enough to make the prophet regained his faith and broke forth into praise of God's glory and power.

OUTLINE OF HABAKKUK

1. The Prayer of Exasperation (1:1-17)

Faith in Crisis—Why?

a. The Prophet's Doubt (1:1-4)

Why does God allow injustice among His people?

b. The LORD's Reply (1:5-11)

God will surely punish His people via the Chaldeans

c. The Prophet's Dilemma (1:12-17)

Why does God use a wicked nation to do His work?

2. The Prayer of Endurance (2:1-20)

Faith in Calm—Because…

a. The Waiting (2:1-3)

Habakkuk's reaction | God's response

b. The Answer (2:4-20)

Babylon's collapse decreed | Cruelty denounced

God is still in control

3. The Prayer of Elation (3:1-19)

Faith in Celebration—Therefore!

a. Prayer (3:1-2)

The tune | The theme

b. Praise (3:3-19)

God's glory and power | Faith's rejoicing

 

Nahum

Who were the Assyrians? They were a Semitic people with a long history of civilization spanning from its old empire (2025-1750 BC) to the new (911-605 BC). Culturally, linguistically, genetically and ethnically they were distinct from the middle eastern people.

The Assyrians, however, were more well known for their war-like nature and greatly feared for their extreme cruelty. It was not uncommon to dismember their enemies out of pleasure, to cook them in boiling oil, burn them in bitumen, being skinned alive, used their enemies' heads to build towers and bodies as the supporting frames. Such inhumane acts soon brought down God's righteous judgment on that nation.

Not long after Nahum's prophecy, in 612 BC, a torrential downpour burst the banks of the Tigris river and collapsed a section of the wall of the impregnable city. The Babylonians took advantage of the breach and plundered the capital. Ironically, the Chaldeans employed the same cruel treatments on the defeated Assyrians. The city was captured, destroyed and it never recovered.

The name Nahum is a short form of Nehemiah which means 'comfort' or 'consolation', but it was not meant for the wicked city but those who were oppressed by it. Nahum's message is an indictment of all who commit acts of atrocities to humanity —past, present and in the future, and a reminder that God will not hesitate to exact revenge on those who spun His grace and disregard His righteousness.

OUTLINE OF NAHUM

1. Proclamation of Destruction (1:1-15)

a. God's Awesome Glory (1:1-7)

He will not tolerate sin

b. God's Awesome Judgment (1:8-15)

He will punish sin

2. Portray of the Destruction (2:1-13)

a. Nineveh's Siege (2:1-5)

God will do what He said

b. Nineveh's Breach (2:6-13)

God will bring it to completion

3. Predestined for Destruction (3:1-19)

a. The Sins of Nineveh (3:1-4)

Cruelty | Whoredom | Incorrigible

b. The Doom of Nineveh (3:5-19)

God's final verdict