Welcome to a Year in the Bible with Daily Grace.

From Eden to eternity, the Bible tells one big story of redemption.

My name is Tiffany, and I want to spend a few minutes with you every day walking through the Bible chronologically.

Together, we will explore God's sovereign plan as the events of Scripture unfold and point to Jesus.

Hey, you're in the Bible family. Tiffany here. And today, we begin the book of Zechariah.

This prophetic book that spans 14 chapters is filled with many interesting visions and prophecies about the

coming Messiah and the end times. During this post-exylic period, Zechariah's words were both

an encouragement and motivation to the returning exiles to complete the temple, worship the Lord,

and walk in obedience. As always, let's establish

some context and then quickly walk through the first six chapters. Zechariah authored this book

over many years. He was a young man when he began his prophetic ministry, according to chapter 2 verse 4.

And it is during that time he penned the first eight chapters.

The final chapters from chapters 9 through 14 were likely written 30 to 40 years later,

after Persia fell and Greece was the new superpower, which he mentions

in Chapter 9. We also know, from our time in Ezra, that Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai.

He is also from one of the priestly families that returned to Jerusalem to rebuild.

As I mention, there are two distinct sections within this book. While the whole book is considered prophetic,

chapters 1 through 8 focus on Zechariah's message of encouragement from the Lord to rebuild the

temple. This comes through eight visions and an oracle.

The second section of the book, chapters 9 through 14, speak about the coming Messiah and

the age to come.

The structure of the book also helps provide us with the overarching themes.

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