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In this lesson we will continue the previous lesson to see the prophets and other related people during the return.
The kingship which God established among the people of Israel due to the deterioration of the priesthood was completely destroyed at the time of their captivity. After their return from the land of captivity to their homeland through God’s visitation, the kingship was still not recovered, for they remained under the rule of the Gentiles.
The people of Israel who returned after the proclamation was made in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia were led by Zerubbabel, Joshua, and others (Ezra 1:1-5; 2:1-2). Their number was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty. Besides these, there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven servants and maids, and two hundred singing men and women (Ezra 2:64-65). Zerubbabel, a descendent of the royal house of David and the son of Salathiel (Matt. 1:12), ruled over the people of Israel as the governor of Judah appointed by the Gentile nation of Persia. Joshua (that is, Jeshua), the son of Josedech, served as the high priest taking care of the matters pertaining to the worship of God (Hag. 1:1). Both of their ministries were for the rebuilding of the holy temple.
In the seventh month of the same year the children of Israel returned to the land of Judah and gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. They built and set the altar of God upon its original foundation, they offered sacrifices to God, and they kept the feast of tabernacles (Ezra 3:1-4). In the second month of the following year, they set forward the work of building the house of God (Ezra 3:8). When the builders laid the foundation of the temple, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Jehovah according to the ordinance of David. All the people shouted with a great shout when they praised God. However, many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, the old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy (Ezra 3:10-13).
At that time the enemies of Judah and Benjamin asked that they be allowed to participate in the building work, but they were refused by Zerubbabel and Joshua with stern words. Thus, moved to anger in their shame, they did their best to carry out the damaging work, and they also wrote to the king accusing the returned Israelites of rebellion. Hence, King Artaxerxes (Smerdis) commanded that the building of the temple be stopped. So the work ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia (Ezra 4). The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied in the name of God and spoke words of encouragement to the people in Judah and Jerusalem. Then Zerubbabel and Joshua rose up and began to build the house of God (Ezra 5:1-2). When the house was finished on the third day of the month Adar (the twelfth month), which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king, they kept the dedication of the house of God with joy and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ezra 6:14-21).
During the years when the rebuilding of the holy temple was interrupted, the children of Israel began to build beautiful houses for themselves and gradually forgot the building of the holy temple. Furthermore, the enemy’s opposition and hindrance steadily increased, and desolation and drought continued to plague the land. Therefore, the people of Israel concluded that the time to build the house of Jehovah had not yet come (Hag. 1:2, 4, 6, 10). It was under such a circumstance that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah rose up to deliver the word of God and encourage the returned Israelites to finish the rebuilding work of God’s holy temple.
The word of God came to Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?...Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord” (Hag. 1:4, 6-8). God reprimanded the people through Haggai, telling them to consider their ways because of the disasters and miseries that had come upon them, and to not let the house lie waste, but to go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build God’s house. So, Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Jehovah their God (Hag. 1:12).
Then God spoke through Haggai the prophet to encourage the people to be strong and work for the completion of the rebuilding of God’s house. “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:4).
Zechariah the prophet was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo (Zech. 1:1). Born in the land of captivity, he came back with Zerubbabel to the homeland. As Iddo was one among the first group of priests who returned to Israel (Neh. 12:1, 4, 16), Zechariah was both a prophet and a priest. A contemporary of Haggai, Zechariah began to prophesy approximately two months later than Haggai (compare Zech. 1:1 with Hag. 1:1), and his writings are much longer and their contents more mysterious than Haggai’s.
In order that Zechariah might strengthen the rebuilding work of the holy temple by foretelling its success, God gave him a series of eight visions in the beginning of the prophecies in his book.
The first vision was of a man riding upon a red horse and standing among the myrtle trees (the people of Israel) that were in the bottom (the land of captivity) (1:7-17). The one riding on a red horse denotes the angel of Jehovah, that is, Christ. The angel stood in the bottom, where God’s people were kept in captivity, staying with them and interceding for their return. God answered that He was jealous for Jerusalem with a great jealousy, and He was very displeased with the nations which helped forward the affliction; He would grant mercies that His house might be rebuilt and a line stretched upon Jerusalem.
The second vision was of the four horns and four carpenters (1:18-21). The four horns denote the enemies who oppressed and scattered Israel, and the four carpenters signify the tools used by God to smite the enemies of Israel.
Zechariah’s third vision was of a man with a measuring line in his hand to measure Jerusalem (2:1-13). After dealing with the enemies of Israel, God again visited the holy land. A measuring line is for measuring the land, signifying that God would measure and choose Jerusalem and dwell in its midst. Jehovah who visited Israel is Christ. Christ is the One sent by Jehovah, and He is also Jehovah who sent Him. He is both the sent One and the Sender.
Fourth, Zechariah saw a vision of Joshua being stripped of his filthy garments and clothed with festival-robes (3:1-10). Joshua the high priest typifies the people of Israel as a kingdom of priests. In order to make the people of Israel a kingdom of priests unto Him, God first had to remove their filthiness. Therefore, God raised up Christ as the Sprout of life and the stone with God’s seven Spirits (seven eyes—4:10; Rev. 5:6), and judged (engraved on) Him on the cross that He might remove the iniquity of Israel. The Sprout of life, Christ, who is filled with God’s Spirit, also became the festival-robes to clothe them as their righteousness that they might live in God’s presence.
Fifth, Zechariah saw a golden lampstand and the two olive trees (4:1-14). The golden lampstand signifies the purged Israel as a shining vessel among the nations. The shining oil in the vessel is the Spirit of Jehovah. The two olive trees, on the one hand, signify Joshua and Zerubbabel building the holy temple and recovering God’s testimony by the Spirit of Jehovah; on the other hand, they denote the two witnesses in Revelation 11 preaching the word by being filled with the Spirit. For the building of God’s holy temple, there is the need of a topstone. In the previous vision Christ was the stone for removing the iniquity of God’s people; in this vision Christ is the stone for the building of God’s holy temple.
Zechariah’s sixth vision was of the flying roll (5:1-4). This denotes God’s law and righteousness. Zechariah 5:3 says, “Every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.” Stealing and perjury are two representative sins. The former is an offense against man; the latter, against God. This indicates that God wants to cleanse His people.
The seventh vision was of the ephah (5:5-11), An ephah is a commercial instrument, indicating that there were still Babylonian things among the returned people. When the people of Israel returned from Babylon, they also brought Babylonian things back with them. All these things must be sent back to Babylon (the land of Shinar is Babylon).
The eighth vision was of the four chariots (6:1-15). These four chariots that came out from between the mountains of brass refer to the four winds of heaven, which are also the four winds in Revelation 7:1-3. They are specifically for the judgment (signified by the mountains of brass) of the evils of the nations. This judgment will cause the nations to come and build God’s temple (v. 15). Christ as the Sprout was raised up also for the building of God’s temple (vv. 12-13).
All eight visions are prophecies concerning the children of Israel as God’s people. The initial fulfillment of these prophecies took place during the time of Zechariah, but their complete fulfillment is yet to come. The visions as a whole speak of the importance of Christ in the recovery of God’s building.
Besides telling of the importance of Christ in relation to God’s rebuilding work in the preceding eight visions, Zechariah also prophesied of the various aspects of the two comings of Christ in chapters nine through fourteen of his book. In His first coming, Christ would come as the King of Israel, meek and mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey (9:9; Matt. 21:1-10); eventually He would be betrayed by one of His disciples for thirty pieces of silver (11:12-13; Matt 26:14-16; 27:3-10). He also would be smitten as the shepherd, and His disciples would be scattered as sheep (13:7; Matt. 26:31). His two hands would be wounded on the cross in the house of Israel (the house of the friends who loved Him) (13:6; John 19:18a), and His side would be pierced (12:10; John 19:34a), opening a fountain for the children of Israel for sin and for uncleanness (13:1; John 19:34b; Matt. 26:28). Furthermore, He will come a second time, accompanied by His saints (14:5; 1 Thes. 4:16a, 14b), and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is outside of Jerusalem (14:4; Acts 1:9-12). He will fight for the children of Israel, His chosen people, against the nations that besieged them and will save them from destruction (14:2-3, 12-15; 12:1-9). At that time, the whole house of Israel will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him; thus, all Israel will be saved (12:10-14; Rom. 11:26). Afterwards, He will be the King to reign and rule over the nations; all the people will go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship Him, and all will be sanctified unto Him (9:10; 14:16-21).
There were three returnings of the children of Israel from the land of captivity. The first return was led by Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2), the second return by Ezra (Ezra 7:1, 6-7), and the third return by Nehemiah (Neh. 2:5-6).
Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer. When he heard that those who had returned from the captivity were in great affliction and reproach, and that the wall of Jerusalem also was broken down and its gates were burned with fire, he wept, fasting and praying before God. In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (not the same King Artaxerxes who stopped the people of Israel from rebuilding the holy temple), Nehemiah was granted permission by the king to return to Jerusalem for the rebuilding of its walls (Neh. 2:1-6, 17). He was appointed to be the governor in the land of Judah (Neh. 5:14). Ezra was a lineal descendant of Aaron the high priest; hence, he was a priest. He was also a ready scribe in the law of Moses which God had given. In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes I, Ezra obtained permission from the king to lead the people of Israel up to Jerusalem. He had set his heart to study the law of God, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances (Ezra 7:1-10).
Nehemiah, ordered by the king of Persia, went back to Jerusalem to govern the people of Israel, and he encouraged the returned ones to continue and to complete the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, that they may no longer be a reproach. So they strengthened their hands for this good work (Neh. 2:17-18). They were each assigned to rebuild a section of the wall. The enemies, led by Sanballat and Tobiah, were at first very angry, and they mocked the people of God. Then they caused a disturbance among them and sought to harm and bring false accusation against Nehemiah. However, the people, under Nehemiah’s leadership, rebuilt the walls with one hand doing the work and the other hand holding a weapon. They were also encouraged by him not to fear their enemies (Neh. 4:14-20). Because the nobles and the rulers of Israel exacted usury from the people, the people were poverty-stricken and there was a great cry among them. So Nehemiah rebuked the nobles and the rulers, urging them to redeem their brothers and stop the usury (Neh. 5:1-11). Moreover, although he was the governor, Nehemiah had not eaten the bread of the governor that he might not increase the burden of the people. Rather, one hundred fifty people ate at his table daily (Neh. 5:14-17). The rebuilding of the wall from the start to the completion took fifty-two days (Neh. 6:15).
At that time, Ezra joined in to recover the things pertaining to the worship of God contained in the book of the law. All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate, and they asked Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses which God had commanded to Israel. Then Ezra brought the law and read it before the congregation, those who could hear with understanding (Neh. 8:1-3). Furthermore, in accordance with God’s commandment, the people dwelt in booths in the feast of the seventh month (Neh. 8:13-17). They also recovered the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15-22). Both Nehemiah and Ezra strictly forbade the people to marry foreign wives, and they also repented and confessed to God for such practices of the people (Neh. 13:23-31; Ezra 9—10).
Malachi was the most hidden among the prophets, because aside from his name, there is no record of his status or genealogy. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah do not once mention his name. According to his own writing, Malachi might be a prophet at the time of Nehemiah. During that time, first, the holy temple had been rebuilt and the offering of sacrifices had been restored (Mal. 1:6-10); second, the zeal of the priests had gradually grown cold in the service of God (compare Mal. 1:6 with Neh. 13:4); third, the people had neglected to bring their tithes to the storehouse (compare Mal. 3:8 with Neh. 13:10-12); fourth, the people had married heathen wives (compare Mal. 2:11 with Neh. 13:23-25); and fifth, the initial fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi 3:1-5 probably refers to Malachi and Nehemiah initially. Verses 1 and 2 say, “Behold, I will send Malachi [meaning “my messenger” and typifying John the Baptist and Elijah], and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple...But who may abide the day of his coming?” Malachi spoke for God during Nehemiah’s absence from Jerusalem, thus paving the way for the work of rearrangement to be carried out upon his return. When Nehemiah came back, he unexpectedly cast all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber of God’s house and thus cleansed the temple. His action fulfilled the word quoted above. Malachi might also be the last prophet during the rebuilding of the holy temple and the holy city.
Malachi rebuked and admonished the people of Israel for their evils after the rebuilding of the holy temple and the holy city. He rebuked the priests for despising the name of God and for offering polluted bread upon the altar (Mal. 1:6-14), thus departing out of the way (2:1-9). He also rebuked the people for dealing treacherously against their brothers (2:10); for marrying heathen wives, even dealing treacherously against the wives of their youth (2:11-17); for robbing God in tithes and offerings (3:7-11); and for speaking against God (3:13-15).
Malachi 4:5-6 contains the prophecy concerning the coming of Elijah the prophet: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” This refers to one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3-12 who, before the restoration of Israel, that is, three and a half years before the Lord’s coming back to the earth, will prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, testifying for God (Matt. 17:11). This prophecy also refers to the coming of John the Baptist at the beginning of the New Testament to prepare the hearts of the people for the Lord Jesus (Luke 1:16-17; Matt. 17:12-13).
Malachi 4:2 is a prophecy concerning the second coming of Christ: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” In His second coming the Lord will no longer come in a lowly manner as He did in His first coming. Rather, He will be as the rising sun, and the world will behold His glory; moreover, He will heal the remnant of the people of Israel.
After the people of Israel returned to the holy land from the land of captivity, they did not have kings but had only the governor of Judah who was appointed by the king of Persia to rule over them. First there was Zerubbabel, a descendent of the royal house of David, assisted by Joshua as the high priest, for the rebuilding of God’s temple; later there was Nehemiah, joined by Ezra the scribe as the priest, for the restoration of the holy city Jerusalem. During the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua, there were the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who fulfilled the prophetic duties by speaking for God and encouraging the people to finish the rebuilding of God’s temple. During the time of Nehemiah and Ezra the scribe, there was Malachi the prophet speaking for God and instructing the people. Zechariah, in his speaking for God, spoke concerning the importance of Christ in relation to the recovery of God’s building, and he also prophesied concerning the two comings of Christ. Malachi, in his speaking for God, prophesied concerning the coming of John the Baptist and Elijah, and he also spoke of the second coming of Christ in glory.
