Elsewhere, I’ve described studying Zechariah as a bit like climbing a mountain: a great deal of effort, but well and truly worth it for the extraordinary view of God’s creation, through Jesus Christ. But whereas I thought I was just waxing poetical, Tim McMahon (and since then, other helpful friends) have helped me to see that there really is a mountain right there in the structure of Zechariah. It’s in Zechariah 1:7-6:8, and the best way to understand it is to climb over it!
What I mean is this: there are eight visions in these chapters, but being visions, they don’t just unfold like a straight story in a movie. Have a look at the structure as Tim draws attention to it here (and I’m drawing from his forthcoming Matthias Media studies, but other commentators have noticed this):
| (A) Vision 1: | 1:8-17 Four horses |
| (B) Vision 2: | 1:18-21 Four horns and four craftsmen |
| (C) Vision 3: | 2:1-5 A man with a measuring line |
| [Interlude:] | [2:6-13 Command to flee Babylon] |
| (D) Vision 4: | 3:1-13 The High Priest’s impurity dealt with |
| (D) Vision 5: | 4:1-14 The golden lampstand and the two olive trees |
| (C) Vision 6: | 5:1-4 A flying scroll |
| (B) Vision 7: | 5:5-11 Woman in a basket taken to Babylon |
| (A) Vision 8: | 6:1-8 Four chariots |
This works even better when you turn your computer onto its left side, because then you see the ‘mountain’ before your eyes!
But notice the pattern in the eight visions: what you are seeing here, as Tim points out, is a ‘chiasm’. This particular technique is perfectly obvious when you realize it’s being used, and presumably was very well known to Zechariah’s original hearers—and to anyone who has spent a bit of time in the Old Testament. It basically means that in a set of distinct but related descriptions, the first description is similar in content to the last, then the second is similar to the second last, and so on. The simplest ‘chiasm’ has just three elements: A-B-A. For example: ‘A’. I walked to the shop—then ‘B’ I bought a bunch of bananas—then ‘A’ (again) I walked home from the shop.
Walking ‘to’ and ‘from’ the shop are similar (though not identical) ideas. The middle idea—buying a bunch of bananas—is highlighted by its position right at the heart of the story, and indeed reveals the whole point of the exercise: to buy bananas. Furthermore, the parallels and differences between the similar ideas (going and coming from the shop) draw attention to important parts of the story (perhaps the effort involved in walking). A more complicated chiastic structure (though still quite easy to follow when you’re expecting it) will follow a similar pattern. In Zechariah’s case, that pattern as shown above is A-B-C-[Interlude; not part of the structure]-D-D-C-B-A.
Now, keen blog readers may want to chase down some of this detail for themselves and see how A matches A, B matches B, and so on. But for now, notice what is at the very top of this chiastic mountain in Zechariah: visions ‘D’ and ‘D’ in our pattern above. Do you see? There in Zechariah 3:1-13 is Jesus himself! (Note that the name ‘Jesus’ in the New Testament is simply the Greek-via-English version of the Hebrew-via-English name ‘Joshua’). But it is not only the name ‘Jesus’ that appears here, it’s the great high priest who is set in place and purified of all sin, and who spells the end for “the iniquity of this land” (Zech 3:9).
Then in Zechariah 4, as well as the High Priest we meet a king:Zerubbabel. Humanly speaking, Zerubbabel was a very weak king. But in Zechariah’s grand vision, he rules over the temple of God’s presence, rebuilt by the power of God and filled with the light of the glory of God. That’s the vision of greatness that God promises at the peak of this literary ‘mountain’.
When is this great vision ever fulfilled? The New Testament imagines a rebuilt temple in 1 Peter 2, only by this time it is clear that the temple is not made of stones but of people. And who is the cornerstone of that temple? Read on:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
That living stone, in the context of 1 Peter 2, is none other than the Lord Jesus himself.
When you climb Zechariah’s mountain, there is Jesus at the very summit, our great high priest, our king, the cornerstone of our living temple.
