The Prophet of Hope: F.B. Meyer's Commentary on Zechariah
In 586 B.C, the Babylonian forces of Nebuchadnezzar overtook Jerusalem, and shortly afterward the temple which formed the centerpiece of Jewish life was destroyed. The Jews spent the following 70 years in Babylonian captivity. Cyrus, king of Persia, overtook Babylon in 539 B.C, and, in accord with his policy that captive people ought to return to their homelands, he issued a decree in 538 B.C allowing the Jews to do so. Now free to return to their homeland, the Jewish people set about to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. A foundation was laid in 536 B.C, but opposition from the descendants of intermarriages between the Israelites and foreigners delayed the rebuilding for 15 years. This opposition came in the form of counselors who persuaded Artaxerxes, the successor to Cyrus, that a newly strengthened Israel would not pay taxes. After work on the temple ceased, Zechariah encouraged the Jews to continue building. Zechariah, known as one of the "restoration" prophets, exhorted the Jews to finish building the temple. The successor to Artaxerxes, Darius, decreed that the Jews should be left to continue to build their temple unharmed, and the temple was completed in 516 B.C.
Zechariah's concern was with the repentance of the Jewish people and the future of Jerusalem. The book of Zechariah records numerous visions regarding these issues, and in F.B. Meyer's exegesis of the book, The Prophet of Hope, the reader is given historical fact, commentary on the biblical record and contemporary application. Meyer draws parallels between the visions of Zechariah for the Jewish people and applications of those visions to the modern Christian.
The beginning of Meyer's book offers biographical information. Zechariah was born into a priestly family in the latter years of the Babylonian captivity. His father, Berechiah, is believed to have died when Zechariah was ...