I am not the first one to use the analogy of a puzzle in regards to Old Testament prophecy. Interpreters have remarked on how it is like a puzzle with missing pieces (due to the progress of revelation) or how one is putting the pieces together without the benefit of a picture on the box. But I was recently struck by how a puzzle might help to illustrate Zechariah 9. Consider the picture below picturing the first three Star Wars movies. Various scenes from all three movies are arranged into one picture. Just by looking at the picture, one would be hard pressed to know that significant time had passed between the various scenes or their exact order unless one were already familiar with the Star Wars' trilogy. In a similar way, it seems to me that Zechariah 9–14 presents an eschatological picture of Israel's redemption and restoration through the juxtaposition of various events related to the overall picture. Seen this way, one can understand how vignettes of Alexander's conquests, the Maccabean Revolt, and the First and Second Advents, etc. can form a collage of Zechariah's overall eschatological picture.
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