Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi – The Prophets

It was Zechariah’s turn. He was probably a much younger man than Haggai, chosen perhaps to appeal to a younger demographic. Remember, the people had divided along age lines when the work first stopped 15 years earlier. A week or so after Haggai had silenced the ageing grumblers, Zechariah stepped in to encourage the younger generation. He was a priest whose grandfather, Iddo, had travelled back from Babylon 15 years earlier. Zechariah was perhaps in his early 30s. He was also a prophet with a completely different approach to Haggai: Haggai was brief and blunt. Zechariah, on the other hand, would have loved PowerPoint! He presented many of the greatest word-pictures in the Bible, but he started with a very simple message, just like Haggai had. His first words were:

Would the last one to leave please turn out the lights!

Or so it might have seemed to some when Malachi lay down his pen. The period between then and the birth of Jesus Christ is sometimes described as a time of darkness for the ecclesia of God. As promised, they had returned from Babylon after …