Bible Study Notes 2/10/2026
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(Much gratitude is given to Dr. Carol Kaminski for her Old Testament Survey course at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the study materials that accompany and inform this teaching.)​
A Royal Branch Will Build God’s Temple
Zechariah, in a vision, sees an angel asking God: “O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?” (Zech. 1:12).
- This question indicates that the restoration following the 70-year exile has not been fully realized.
- God tells the angel that he is exceeding jealous for Jerusalem and Zion (Zech. 1:14) and that he is angry with the nations, who have delighted in the demise of his people (Zech. 1:15; 2:8-9).
- Thus God says: “I will return to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it” (Zech. 1:16).
Zechariah’s prophecies focus on two “anointed” figures, Joshua and Zerubbabel, who have key positions in relation to the temple (Zech. 3-4; 6:11-15).
- At this time, God gives Zechariah a vision of a lamp stand with two olive trees (Zech. 4:1-3).
- Since oil is used for the anointing of kings and priests, and since God’s Spirit is known to have come upon a leader at such times (see 1 Sam. 16:13), it is fitting that olive trees represent two “anointed” leaders (Zech. 4:14).
- At the time of Zechariah, the two key figures, Joshua and Zerubbabel, have an important role to play since the temple is rebuilt under their leadership (Hag. 1:1, 12-15; 2:1-9, 20-23; cf. Ezra 3:1-2, 8-11; 5:1-15).
- Joshua is the son of Jehozadak and is the high priest (Zech. 3:1-10; 6:11-15), and Zerubbabel is the son of Shealtiel (Hag. 1:1, 14; cf. Ezra 3:2), the grandson of King Jehoiachin and therefore represents the royal Davidic line (1 Chron. 3:16-19; Matt. 1:12-13).
- YET, Zechariah’s prophecies concerning these two figures point forward beyond the time of the rebuilt temple, for he has a vision of a PRIESTLY KING who will rule on God’s throne, at which time the two offices will be combined.
Joshua, the high priest, points forward, for God puts a crown on his head, indicating that a priestly king will rule.
The figure “Branch” also appears in Zechariah’s prophecies (Zech. 3:8; 6:11-13), and it is he who will rebuild the temple.
- The name “branch” will spring up from the root of Jesse (Isa. 11:1-5, 10; cf. Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16); Davidic kingship is in view here.
Produce Handout on the Root of Jesse
Zerubbabel’s leadership gives us hope for the restoration of the Davidic king (Hag. 2:23), likely because he was involved in rebuilding the temple – but Zechariah’s vision of a priestly king ruling on the throne points forward to the coming Messiah (meaning “anointed one”).
- Hundreds of years after Zechariah’s prophecies, the writer to the Hebrews notes that Jesus is both the righteous Davidic king from the line of Judah (Heb. 4:14) and the perfect High Priest (Heb. 3:1-6; 4:14-16).
- These two offices merge in the person of Jesus, who is not only the reigning Davidic king from the line of Judah, but also the great High Priest, whose priestly role provides the way for God’s people to have access into the very presence of God.
- The prophet Zechariah is thus given a glimpse of what will take place in the coming days when the
Messiah comes to rule over God’s everlasting kingdom.
God Will Dwell in the Midst of His People
Zechariah’s visions not only concern the rebuilding of the temple but also the restoration of Zion to its full glory when Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of people within it.
Note: The ancient Hebrew word Tsiyon (Zion) is “a Canaanite hill fortress in Jerusalem captured by David and called in the Bible ‘City of David.’" Zion can refer to one of three places: the hill where the most ancient areas of Jerusalem stood; the city of Jerusalem itself; or the dwelling place of God.
- READ Zech. 2:10-11; (cf. Zech. 8:1-3).
- This recalls (1) God’s dwelling with his people in the tabernacle (portable dwelling while Israelites wandered in the wilderness) (Ex. 25:8); God’s dwelling in the temple ((1 Kgs. 6:13); (3) the return of God’s glory in the newly constructed temple envisioned by Ezekiel (Ezek. 43:1-5).
- Here, Zion is the place of God’s enthronement, where he dwells among His people forever (Ezek. 43:7).
- The coming of God’s presence to Zion marks the beginning of a new period, at which time the city of Jerusalem will be called the faithful city; faithful because righteousness will reign there.
- At this time, the nations and people groups of the world will come streaming into Jerusalem to worship the LORD God, for they will hear that “God is with you” (Zech. 8:20-23).
The temple is completed in 516 BC, but the restoration described by Zechariah is not yet fully realized.
- When the temple is dedicated, there is no sign of God’s glorious presence returning to it (Ezra 6:13-18), as there was during the days of Moses and Solomon.
- Some of the vessels from Solomon’s temple are returned, but the Ark of the Covenant is not among them.
- The ark represented God’s throne and the place from which Yahweh dwelled in the midst of his people.
- We will wait several hundred years before we hear of one called, Immanuel, “God with us.”
The OT leaves us waiting for the KING.
The King Is Coming with Salvation Mounted on a Donkey
Zechariah not only speaks of the reign of the priestly king who is to rule on God’s throne (Zech. 6:11-15), but he tells the people that their king will enter Jerusalem at a time when God will fight against Israel’s enemies (Zech. 9).
Remember that the last king of the southern kingdom was removed from the throne in 586 BC, so no Davidic king rules on the throne from 586 BC onward.
- Prior to the coming of the Messiah, Israel will become a battleground, and it continues during the period of EXPECTATIONS, the first section of the NT we will address later.
- Yet Zechariah announces that one day the LORD himself will arise to defend his people and will be seen in the coming righteous Davidic king, who will bring salvation and peace. READ Zech. 9:9-10, 16.
- Zion’s joy will be realized in the salvation accomplished by God’s anointed, the true, legitimate Davidic king, mounted on a donkey and returning to the once abandoned city to take back His throne.
- God will defeat his enemies and speak peace to the nations; His dominion will reach the uttermost limits of the world.
- On that day, the LORD will save his people and they will be his flock.
- Jesus acts deliberately to invoke the imagery of Zech. 9 as he rides into Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Will Be a Blessing to All Nations
Zechariah announces that when God returns to Jerusalem, many nations will become his people (Zech. 2:10-11; 8:13-15, 20-23) and provides the central theme to this book – God will be king over the entire earth (Zech. 14:9-21).
This is mindful of what God promised Abraham, that the nations would be blessed in his seed (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14).
God set Jerusalem at the center of the nations (Ezek. 5:5), so that He might be honored in their sight (Deut. 4:6-8; Ezek. 16:14).
- But instead of being a blessing to the nations, God’s people became an object of horror and hissing.
- With the wrath of God in full view, the surrounding nations clearly do not want to join the people of God, and so, it looks as though God’s promise of old will not come to pass.
YET! God tells Zechariah that one day, instead of God’s people being a curse among the nations, he will save them so that they will become a blessing (Zech. 8:12-13; 14:11).
- Jerusalem will be so blessed that the nations will want to “take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zech. 8:23).
- On that day, many nations will come to seek the LORD, just as Zechariah had made known in an earlier vision: READ Zech. 2:11.
- As with other prophecies, Zechariah is describing future events that begin to take place with the coming of the Messiah.
- God’s plan of redemption through history will be realized when the Messiah, Israel’s representative, takes upon himself the curse of the Mosaic covenant in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles (Gal. 3:13-14).
- It is through Jesus, therefore, that God’s mission will be accomplished.
- He is, after all, the “offspring of Abraham” (Gal. 3:16, 19) and the one “to whom the promise had been made” (Gal. 3:19).
- God’s plan to redeem people from all nations so that they might worship and praise him will be seen by all (Isa. 2:2-4; 66:18-21; Dan. 7:9-14; Reb. 5:6-13; 15:3-4).
The Final Days
Before concluding Zechariah, it is important to realize that the final chapters of the book describe a turbulent period of warfare, not only as God judges the nations and saves his people (Zech. 9-10), but does so as Jerusalem is attacked.
- The shepherd of God, who is the focus of Zechariah’s prophecies, will be rejected and killed, and the house of David will mourn over him, as those mourning over the death of an only son (Zech. 11-13).
- These prophecies foreshadow the death of God’s Shepherd, who is rejected and killed, as he lays down his life for his sheep.
- But even in these turbulent times, God will be victorious when he fights against the nations and reigns triumphantly as king over all the earth (Zech. 14).
- Zechariah is given a glimpse of the cross and the final restoration, when God’s rule is established over the entire earth.
- This restoration begins with the advent of the Messiah, but it will not be fully realized until his second coming.
- Zechariah understands, therefore, that history is moving toward a goal that culminates in the reign of God over the entire cosmos (Zech. 14:9).
The Temple Is Rebuilt in 516 BC
Efforts to rebuild the temple are revitalized through the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1-3).
But there is opposition from Tattenai, a Persian governor, along with other officials.
- They arrive in Jerusalem to ascertain who has given authority to the returning exiles to rebuild the temple.
- The people tell them that Cyrus issued a decree, granting them permission to rebuild the temple.
- Tattenai sends a letter to King Darius (Ezra 5:7-17), reporting to him what the people told him.
- King Darius conducts a search for the decree, finds it, and sends a letter back to Tattenai and his colleagues, informing them that they found the decree and that they are not to disturb the rebuilding efforts.
- Darius then issues his own decree (Ezra 6:8-12), instructing Tattenai and his colleagues that the money needed for rebuilding the temple was to come from the king’s treasury of taxes, and that anyone who violated his edict would be impaled on a stake!
- The first return from exile thus concludes with the completion of the temple in 516-515 BC, which is accomplished through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 6:14-15).
- The next month after completing the temple, those who had returned from exile celebrate the Passover with great joy.
Remember that there was a “mixed multitude” that joined themselves to Israel at the first Exodus (Ex. 12:38); so then the first Passover after the return from exile “was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by everyone who had joined them and separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the LORD, the God of Israel” (Ezra 6:21).
- The rebuilt temple becomes known as the second temple, since the first temple built by Solomon had been destroyed in 586 BC when Jerusalem/Judah fell to the Babylonians.
- It will remain standing in Jerusalem for the next few hundred years until it is destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.
Haggai and Zechariah had prophesied that God’s glory would fill the temple (Hag. 2:1-9; Zech. 2:1-13).
- Their depiction of God’s glorious presence is reminiscent of God’s glory filling the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34-35) and the Solomonic temple (1 Kings 8:10-11).
- But when the temple is dedicated under Zerubbabel and Joshua (Ezra 6:13-18), there is no indication that God’s glory fills it.
- This is significant because God’s glorious presence is central to God’s plan of restoration, which will be addressed by the prophet Malachi.
A few years after the completion of the temple in 516 BC, other important events take place in the city of Susa, during the reign of the Persian king Xerxes (486-465 BC), and these events are recorded in the book of Esther.
Esther Becomes the Queen at Susa
King Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus, which is the Hebrew name for Xerxes), son of Darius, reigns from 486-465 BC.
In the third year of Xerxes’ reign, he shows off his enormous wealth with a lavish feast that lasts for 180 days.
- It includes an abundance of wine “as each man desired” (Esth. 1:8).
- On the seventh day, with his “heart merry with wine,” Xerxes commands seven eunuchs who serve him to bring Queen Vashti before him, but she disobeys the king’s request and refuses to attend.
- In a furious rage, the king banishes Vashti from ever appearing before him, and decides to give her royal position to another (Esth. 1:20).
- Xerxes proclaims an edict throughout his kingdom and selects a beautiful woman from among the women in his kingdom to be his queen, whose name is Hadassah (Esth. 2:7), who belongs to the people of God in Susa.
- She becomes Queen Esther (Esth. 2), although her identity as a Jewish woman is not yet known.
Trouble is coming: an official names Haman rises to a very responsible position.
- People bow down to him, but Esther’s own adopted father, Mordecai, refuses. (Esther is really Mordecai’s cousin, but he raised her after her parents died.)
- This echoes the conflict many years earlier between Saul and the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15; cf. Exod. 17:8-16), since Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin (Esth. 2:5), whereas Haman is identified as an Agagite (Esth. 3:1; cf. 1 Sam. 15:2-9) – an Agagite is a member of the Amalekite people and descendants of Agag, who was king of the Amalekites. The Amalekite people were opposed to the Jews.
- As the conflict heightens, an edict is issued on the eve of Passover, requiring that God’s people be killed because they have not observed the laws of the king (Esth. 3).
- Esther hears of the edict and is greatly distressed.
- Mordecai warns her not to think that she will escape because of her royal position and asks her to consider the situation carefully. READ Esth. 4:14
Esther then fasts for three days and enters into the king’s court, which is very risky.
- She makes her request of the king and Xerxes responds favorably.
- Through a series of events, Mordecai is promoted to a position of authority, while Haman and his sons are hanged (Esth. 7-8).
- Then, the king issues another edict, authorizing God’s people to kill all those who plotted against them (Esth. 9).
- The deliverance of the Jews is commemorated at a time called the Feast of Purim (Esth. 9).
God is not mentioned by name in the book of Esther, but the turn of events that protected God’s people demonstrates his sovereignty at work, protecting and preserving his people.