Today is the 21st day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire.

And I'm glad that we can take the next step forward together.

And that next step forward, as you can imagine, this time of year leads us to a brand new book, the 11th out of the 12 minor prophets.

But we get to kind of exhale, settle in and stay with this upcoming text for a while.

Now this is the book of Zechariah and we will hang out here in Zechariah until the last two days of the year together.

Zechariah was a contemporary with Haggai which is the book that we read yesterday, although Zechariah continued his ministry long after Haggai.

But they were prophesying at the same place, at the same time, for the same reason, which was the rebuilding of the temple.

Now what we know as Zechariah's grandfather, his name was Edo, was among the first of the leaders of the priestly families, that were able to return to the ancestral homeland after exile, and Edo came back with Zeruba Bell.

And that tells us a little bit about Zechariah, that he was probably a priest, he was at least a part of a priestly family, and his name means God remembers, and it is a covenantal remembering that is a theme of the book of Zechariah.

And we read Haggai in his entirety yesterday, Zechariah is going to take us to the last couple of days of the year, so it is much longer than Haggai, so there is a bigger scope here, and some different features.

Like Zechariah will tell us of eight night visions that he was able to experience, and they all have an apocalyptic nature to them, they are very highly symbolic, very similar to what we are reading in the book of Revelation right now.

In light of the rebuilding of the temple, God was initiating a much broader plan of sweeping restoration, but the people would have to respond.

And so we find in Zechariah God saying things like return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven's armies.

And Zechariah also foretells of a coming messianic figure, there are verses that should sound familiar, like rejoice all people of Zion, shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem, look your king is coming to you, he is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's cults.

At should sound familiar, that sounds an awful lot like Jesus, and because of that, Zechariah is quoted in the New Testament, so Zechariah being Old Testament prophetic book is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of John, and in the book of Revelation, all in reference to Jesus.

And ultimately, Zechariah is meant to be received as a prophetic encouragement, and to remind us that God is absolutely sovereign in all things at all times and in all places known or unknown.

And we can rest in that, because God is our Father, the sovereign God, is our Father, and if we return to Him, He will return to us.

And so we begin Zechariah, chapter 1.

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the Lord's Word came to Zechariah the prophet, Berekaya's son and Edo's grandson.

The Lord was terribly angry with your ancestors, but you must say to the people, the Lord of Heavenly Forces proclaims, return to me, says the Lord of Heavenly Forces, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heavenly Forces.

Don't be like your ancestors to whom the former prophets preached. The Lord of Heavenly Forces proclaims, turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they didn't listen.

They didn't draw near to me. So where are your ancestors? Do the prophets live forever?

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