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  COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH 1-5
  by Chuck Smith
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Shall we tonight now get into our study in the book of Zechariah
beginning with chapter 1.

Now if you remember when we studied the book of Haggai last week, Haggai
was dating his prophesies in the second year of Darius the king. His
first prophecy was in, I think, the sixth month of the second year. He
had another prophecy in the seventh month, and his last prophecy was in
the ninth month.

Now Zechariah also dates his prophesies in the reign of Darius, the
Medo-Persian king. So between... and at the same time that Haggai was
prophesying, you remember he prophesied in the seventh month, in the
ninth month.

In the eighth month, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, the eighth
month, and the second year of Darius (Zec 1:1).

So Zechariah and Haggai were contemporaries. They were both prophets of
the post-exilic period. The children of Israel had returned, that is a
portion of them, 50,000 of them from their exile in Babylon. Seventy
years of Babylonian captivity had more or less weaned them from their
idolatry. For it was because of their idolatry that they went into
captivity. But the Jews learned something in Babylon of commercialism.
It seems that the Jewish people are very adaptable, and whatever they
do, they learn to do it well. Babylon was the commercial center of the
world. When the Jews were taken captive to Babylon, they began to go
from the agrarian culture to a more commercial, and they began to excel
in the commercial field. So much so, that by the time the seventy years
of captivity was over, many of them had no desire to return to the land
at all. They were now wealthy merchants. They controlled the commerce of
Babylon. They had learned well the lessons of commerce, and they have
not forgotten them and still are very successful many times in the
commercial field.

It is interesting that when the nation Israel was reborn and the people
went back to the land, that these people who had excelled so much in the
commercial field, wherever they went in the world, they were always
involved in commerce. But when they returned back to the land, many of
them returned to the soil, and some of the most advanced agricultural
techniques in the world are now being practiced in Israel, and they
teach the world the art of agriculture.

Now here were a bunch of bankers, and businessmen, and store owners, and
all, they go back to Israel, and they go back to the farm, and it isn\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/chuck-smith/commentary-on-zechariah-1-5/
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