SUMMARY
Zechariah is positioned as a latter-day prophet, who carries the same message that the Israelites have been hearing for generations
ANALYSIS
Sometime in the late 520s B.C.E., Zechariah burst onto the scene to tell the Israelites about 60 years after the exile that God was still speaking. God notes that the parents of the current generation did not listen to the former prophets (presumably Isaiah, Jeremiah, EzekielEzekiel was a priest and prophet who was raised in Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE., among others). Those people died, along with the prophets who spoke to them (Zechariah 1:5). God’s word and laws outlasted those generations and the Kingdom of Judah. Zechariah spoke to groups of returning Jewish exiles (see Ezra 5:1 & 6:14) as well as inhabitants of Jerusalem who had not been carried off. The visions and messages of Zechariah present a God who is still active and wanting the best for people, even after the national calamity brought about as punishment for injustice and idolatry. Zechariah opens with the Judahite eldersElders are leaders who exercise wisdom or leadership by virtue of their age and experience. In the New Testament elders, along with the chief priests and scribes, constituted the primary opposition to Jesus when he taught in Jerusalem. admitting that the destruction and exile was a just punishment for their sins (Zechariah 1:6).
