We are halfway through Zechariah’s vision sequence. Before we move on, I want to review the tradition of visions in the Hebrew scriptures. You may be wondering if Zechariah’s constant dreaming is out of line with the rest of the prophets.
Since the time of the Exodus, God has provided a series of righteous human mediators to communicate his will to the Jewish people. During the forty years of wilderness wanderings, God appointed Moses for the role. God declared Moses to be the humblest man on earth, so to him God spoke “face to face—clearly, not in riddles” (Num. 12:8). After the death of Moses came Joshua and then a series of judges who heard the voice of God even if they did not see his form.
After King Solomon, very few of Judah and Israel’s kings even pretended to seek after God. It was during this time of unrighteous leadership that God supplied a steady stream of prophets for the people. Some wrote their prophecies down and gave us the prophetic books. With this new line of mediators, God often spoke to them in dreams and visions. Read Numbers 12 to see how God, in a dialogue with Aaron and Miriam, predicted a day that dreams and visions would be his preferred method of revelation.
The literary prophets all fell between 900 and 500 BCE. During the four hundred years that prophets ministered in Israel and Judah, not all of them recorded dreams or visions. Haggai, for example, had a very direct message for the postexilic community and no visionary experiences. The books most known for their prophetic visions are Amos, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Amos had visions of swarming locusts, consuming fire, a basket of fruit, and an almond tree (Amos 7-9). His visions were mostly static. Jeremiah also had static visions, one of a blossoming almond tree (Jer. 1:11) and another of a boiling pot tilted toward Judah (Jer. 1:13). Ezekiel was a prolific visionary and his scenes glitter with detail and movement. Among the most famous of his visions are the valley of the dry bones (Ezek. 37), God’s battle chariot flown by winged beings (Ezek. 1), and the divine blueprints of the New Jerusalem (Ezek. 40-48).
