God has given us one book that can change the entire direction of our lives, the Bible.

And in this study, journeying through scriptures, we will take a brief big-picture look at every book of the Bible, tracing God's unfolding story

from Genesis to Revelation. Our prayer is that this journey will stir your heart to open God's

word daily. Let's join Scott Pauli for today's study. The minor prophets, for the most part, are fairly brief.

That's why they are referred to as minor prophets.

And yet the prophet we come to today is the longest of the minor prophets.

His name is Zachariah.

His name actually means the one Jehovah remembers. Aren't you glad God has promised

never to forget you? He remembers you today. I hope you'll remember him. The Bible says in

Zachariah chapter 1, verse 1, that Zachariah was the son of a man named Barakai who was the son

of Edo. Now it's interesting but if you look at the

meaning of each of those three names, Zachariah means the one Jehovah remembers,

Barakai means Jehovah blesses, and Ido means appointed time. If you put the names together,

it means Jehovah remembers to bless in his appointed time. And indeed he does. Zachariah talks about such

a season. He was a prophet and a priest who started his ministry as a very young man. And you'll remember

that he is a contemporary of Haggai, who we've just studied. And both of these men concentrated

on the Lord's blessing on the new temple.

Chapters 1 through 8 of this book were written during the work on the temple. And then

chapters 9 through 14 were written after its completion. And so he brings us through this

rebuilding process, this restoration that is going on as the people come back and the temple is rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity.

Now, as a contemporary of Haggai, though he's slightly younger, he focuses on the same goal, but they're different.

You might say it this way, Haggai was the realist, Zachariah was the visionary.

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