Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [110]
Zechariah preached repentance, obedience, inward spirituality, and a peaceful world in which Jew and Gentile would worship together. His prophecy included a series of eight night visions that Zechariah experienced in 519 BCE. He also thought Zerubbabel, a descendant of King David, might continue the kingly line, but Zerubbabel quietly disappears from this story and from biblical history without further mention. A good guess is that the Persian king Darius viewed Zerubbabel as a threat and deposed him. With any hopes for a nationalistic restoration dashed, Zechariah looked to a messianic future in which the coming leader would banish the “warrior’s bow,” bringing about a time of universal peace.
The remaining six chapters of Zechariah constitute some of the most obscure portions of Hebrew scripture. They include a series of oracles that prophesy the restoration of Israel after the defeat of Israel’s enemies, the coming of the Messiah from David’s line to lead Israel, and a great “day of the Lord,” when the covenant will be reestablished and the God of Israel will be universally worshiped. Christians attach special significance to several passages in these last six chapters, regarding them as prophecies later fulfilled by Jesus. Among them:
“Behold, thy king cometh unto thee…lowly, and riding upon an ass. (Zech. 9:9 KJV)
(Believed to pertain to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem)
“So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” (Zech. 11:12 KJV)
(Seen as a predication of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, for which he receives a payment of silver)
“What are these wounds in thine hands?”… “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zech. 13:6)
(Viewed as a prophecy of the wounds suffered by Jesus during his crucifixion)
• Malachi
Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? (Mal. 2:10)
Nothing is known about “Malachi,” a name that may be a pseudonym, as it means “my messenger.” This book was once thought to have been written by Ezra, but biblical scholars now consider it unlikely that he was the author. Although Malachi stands as the last book of the Christian Old Testament, and the last of the twelve “minor” prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible, it was not the last composed. The historical evidence suggests it was written some fifty years after Haggai and Zechariah and the reconstructed Temple but prior to the reforms carried out by Nehemiah (see page 242).
A very brief book, Malachi is mostly concerned with the laxity of the priesthood in the new Temple who are using sick and blemished animals for sacrifices. Malachi predicts punishment for the priests if they persist in ignoring their obligations. He later condemns divorce and marital infidelity. But like many of the prophets, Malachi decries crimes and sins in terms that remain as timely today as they were twenty-five hundred years ago:
BIBLICAL VOICES
Then I will draw near to you for judgement; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. (Mal. 3:5)
The book ends with two appendixes that tell the people to remember the Law and prophesy that the prophet Elijah will return to herald the arrival of the messianic age, when “the sun of righteousness shall rise,