Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday we met Haggai, the first of two prophets who are prophesying to the returned

exiles of Judah, and today we met his pal Zachariah, another minor prophet

who also happens to be a priest. We haven't read through all the prophets yet, but in what we have

read so far, we've gotten a good sampling of different ways God communicates to them and through

them. Sometimes he calls them to preach sermons, sometimes he commands them to do sign acts, and

sometimes he speaks to them via dreams and

visions. Zachariah at least falls into the latter category. He's a dreams and visions guy. But first,

God starts out by telling Zach how angry he was at the past generations of Israel. He wants the current

generation to know just how much their ancestor's sins impacted things, and he begs them

not to walk that same path. He says those people are gone, and even the prophets he sent to warn them

are gone, but he's still here with the same truths and the same message because the truth

doesn't die. He says their ancestors eventually repented while in exile and acknowledged

that their sins deserved

punishment. Then we launch into Zach's first vision. There will be nine total visions in this book,

and he probably had the first eight visions back to back, maybe even on the same night. And his

visions are among the strangest in scripture, so buckle up. Vision one is a bunch of horses. They're sent out to patrol the earth, and they come back reporting that everything is at rest.

That sounds great, except the problem is the nation should not be at rest.

They've mistreated God's people, and he's not going to let it slide.

God says he has returned to Jerusalem with mercy, but that mercy is for his people, not for those who oppose him.

He says he will comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem, not his enemies.

For those who oppose him, his anger has increased.

...