Thoughts on Zechariah - Growing in Faith and Understanding

Our couples Bible study decided a while back to study the book of Zechariah. We chose this because we wanted to do a minor prophet of the Old Testament and picked the one which was most quoted in the New Testament.

My thinking was if God chose to quoted it, through the writers of the New Testament, then they must have studied it and been very familiar with it. Those simple people who hung around Jesus and became leaders of the early church. So if they could understand it perhaps we could too.

The book has 14 Chapters, we are studying them in 19 sessions using Dr. S. Lewis Johnson's sermons back from 1967 as our study guide and teacher. It's an easy process just print the sermon, and listen to the MP3.

Here's the link: Zechariah

After two weeks here's my thought: Wow, sounds like he could speaking to us today.

I would urge anyone to begin and pursue this study.

The teaching is amazing, not only being directly relevant to current events in the news, but also opening up the whole pattern of interelationships between scripture passages to our understanding.

It seems that the more you read the Bible and become familiar with it's content the more you are given the opportunity to see how various passages are interconnected. After reading through the Bible twice in the last 2 years, I'm beginning to be able to do this on my own. But Dr. Johnson makes it easy for even the inexperienced Bible student to see how passages relate and interconnect.

In our post-modern, fast paced, too busy with facebook, family, friends or work, sound bite culture, we have little temperance for anything that does meet our immediate need, or fix our problem or help our situation. Patience is not a virtue. From this context it would seem very unproductive to pursue a study like this. One might even go so far as to say it's a waste of time.

But I must say I'm really enjoying it and learning more and more about so many attributes of God. Dr. Johnson literally brings the Bible alive with his insightful teaching, explaining the prophetic images, the purposes of God for His people and the meaning of the Hebrew texts. There is a whole lot of theology and Biblical truth that he incorporates in each session. Ultimately I see the study helping with our understanding of the times, and expanding our reverence of the Bible and hopeful our ability to glorify God. It's providing depth for our love of God.

We have finished 2 lessons (19 in all) and I've read ahead to the whole book as well as listened to another 2 lessons. The content just keeps drawing me deeper and deeper into it. It's almost like it's calling me to understand it.

As a word of caution, although my review embellishes it, no study is perfect, no sermon says everything. One could think maybe Dr. Johnson could have said somethings another way, or left something out or put something else it. But I pray that the Holy Spirit, uses Dr. Johnson and the Word to teach us.

Again if any of our group reads this, I pray you will share my experiences, and if you have any doubts, just continue to persist in the study. If you miss a lesson or session, go online and spend an hour alone catching up. Since we meet every other week that should be possible. Even better, like I've done don't be afraid to go on ahead. It will make for an even better discussion when we do the lessons together.