Zechariah is preaching to a discouraged and disillusioned people. Ministering alongside Haggai, who encouraged the people to build the temple, Zechariah focused on the spiritual state of the people, reminding them that the Lord had not forsaken them. The Lord used Zechariah's message to prepare the people to inhabit the land and worship in the temple. Zechariah's contemporary message looked beyond the current state of the returned exiles. Their repentance and preparatory work paved the way for the Messiah to come, and for the future establishment of his kingdom and a new creation.
