If someone challenged me to share the gospel from the Old Testament, with the stipulation that you could only use one book, I think the book of Zechariah would be one of my first choices. The gospel shines brightly in this Old Testament prophet.
In fact, I’d almost venture to say that if you’ve ben in church for any length of time, you’ve likely heard a sermon or two during the Easter season. Zechariah’s portrait of a humble king on a donkey is explicitly picked up by New Testament writers. But it’s not only a few explicit pieces of prophecy that are picked up in the New Testament, it’s also the whole story of Zechariah that intersects with themes of the gospel.
I suppose before understanding how to find the gospel in the OT, it’d be helpful for us to define the gospel. The simplest definition is one given by JI Packer: God saves sinners. If you’d like to put a bit more meat on your gospel presentation, I use two different frameworks with four points each. The first is God—Man—Christ—Response. The second is more of a story: Creation—Fall—Redemption—Glory.
The first presentation centers upon God’s character and how humanity fails to meet God’s holy standard, as such the judgment of God is upon us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ fixes this by fulfilling what is required through his life, death and resurrection. Our only fitting response, then, is to respond to Him in repentance and faith. When this happens, we are united to Christ and his record becomes our record.
The second presentation centers upon the overarching story of the Bible. God lovingly created us to love Him and enjoy Him forever. We were made for rest, rule, and relationship. But we made shipwreck of this, and so rather than having the blessings of obedience we are under the curse of disobedience. Rather than having peace (rest), purpose (ruling), and healthy relationship we often experience the opposite. Ultimately, we are alienated from God. But thankfully God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear our curse and to fulfill what God intended for humanity. As such we now experience the blessings of Jesus’ obedience in our place. He restores the rest, rule, and relationship we were created to enjoy. Someday everything will be ultimately restored and we will live in a new heaven and a new earth.
We could write entire books focusing on these various themes of the gospel. But every gospel story follows this basic skeleton. No matter where you find yourself in the Old Testament (or the New Testament) you can find one of these various threads. Every place in Scripture is either telling you something about God, something about our rebellion, something about His rescue, or something about our future restoration. If you can spot this, then you can fill out the rest of the story.
Zechariah was a post-exilic prophet who likely prophesied around 520-518 BC. That’s a nerdy way of saying that he was one of those guys used by God to tell the Israelites it was time to start rebuilding after they’d returned from being exiled in Babylon. They weren’t sure it was time yet to rebuild and so God used prophets like Zechariah and Haggai to tell them to get up and start building.
The book is structured around several visions of restoration. It’s in a bit of a chiastic format (that means visions in chapter 1 connect with those in chapter 8, 2 with 7, etc. etc.) Usually, the meat is found in the middle. That’s the case here too, as the vision of Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel is towards the center. There’s also a beautiful picture of the crowning of Joshua the High Priest.
What you’re seeing in these visions is the idea that God is rebuilding, but the people need to be ready. And we also get the idea that rescue is going to come through a prophet-priest-king. Some of these concepts begin to merge into perhaps one key figure. The first eight chapters are Zechariah encouraging the people to be obedient, and through this, the Messiah will come.
In chapters 9-14 there are several visions of the Messianic kingdom. Several of these are picked up in the New Testament. Look at all of these themes that intersect with the story of Jesus:
In Zechariah 3:3-5 Joshua the high priest is clothed in filthy garments, but God removes his sin and gives him clean clothes. That is echoed in 2 Corinthians 5:21 and shows the imputed righteousness of Christ given to believers.
In Zechariah 9:9 we read of a humble king that comes into the city mounted on a donkey. Matthew 21:5 and John 12:15 cite this prophecy for Jesus’ triumphal entry.
In Zechariah 11:12-13 the shepherd is rejected, and thirty pieces of silver are mentioned as the wages of betrayal. In Matthew 26:14-16 and 27:3-10, Judas betrays Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and throws the money into the temple before his death.
Zechariah 12:10, “they will look on me, the one they have pierced,” is quoted in John 19:37 when Jesus is on the cross.
In Zechariah 13:1 a cleansing fountain is mentioned, of which 1 John 1:7 might allude. It’s certainly a picture of Jesus being a fulfillment of the day of atonement and sin being dealt with in a single day.
In Zechariah 13:7 it is said “strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.” This is quoted by Jesus before his betrayal.
Jesus is the king, the shepherd, and the pierced one who provides cleansing. But it’s not only these specific themes that relate to the gospel. The whole story of Zechariah is connected with the message of the gospel. Zechariah is also telling a story.
Zechariah is about restoration, specifically about the restoration of the temple. And that is a picture of God’s presence with humanity. In Zech. 2:10-11 God says, “I will dwell in your midst.” The restoration of the temple echoes the Garden of Eden — where God dwelt with the people. And its ultimate fulfillment is found in the gospel.
But we also see the story of the rebellion of humanity and our need for cleansing. All throughout Zechariah’s visions, we see a people unwilling and who are separated from God. They seem stuck in their sin and deception. God will have to take the initiative to clean up even the high priest. That picture of Joshua — with basically dung on him — shows the sad state that humanity finds ourselves in. He is the best representative that we’ve got and that is his appearance? Cleansing will need to come from outside. And that is exactly what Jesus provides.
This humble king riding on a donkey who is also the pierced savior will provide atonement. Jesus is the cleansing fountain of Zechariah. He is the answer to the unanswered questions of Zechariah and the people’s inability to properly prepare for the coming Messiah. It’s not their righteousness that will bring about the kingdom of God, but this coming king.
And the beautiful picture we see in Zechariah 14 of the final victory, universal worship, and a restored creation is where the story of the Bible is taking us. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man (Revelation 21:3). The story of Zechariah is really the story of the gospel. It moves from exile to restoration. It goes from sinful humanity to cleansing. Despair turns into hope. And earthly kingdoms are swallowed up in God’s eternal reign.
Yeah, I think if I had only one book in the Old Testament by which to proclaim the gospel, this might be it. (Or maybe Isaiah).
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.
He is a cross pendant.
He is engraved with a unique Number.
He will mail it out from Jerusalem.
He will be sent to your Side.
Emmanuel
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