In this chapter, both Sarai (Sarah) and Abram (Abraham) are impatient and cannot wait for the Lord to fulfill His promise of a son. Sarah offers her handmaid Hagar to Abraham as a means to a son and Abraham quickly accepts the offer. Their refusal to wait on the Lord results in additional trials and sorrows. It has always been and will ever be so.

In this chapter, Zechariah looks to the day when the enemies of Jerusalem will be destroyed and the city and nation will be restored. The phrase, in that day, is used six times in the chapter. However, when that day comes, the Jews will mourn for their sins which they have committed, especially when they look on the one they have pierced.

The day of God’s wrath has come and the Lord is coming in vengeance. However, the prophet reminds the Lord of past mercies on His people while he repents of their past sins. He asks the Lord to look down from His holy habitation and reclaim the Israelites as His own.

Answer a fool according to his folly, and answer not a fool according to his folly. Is this a contradiction in the Bible?

Wisdom cries out to the simple. She speaks righteousness and she is better than rubies. Sinning against her is sinning against your own soul.

Solomon had the opportunity that many would love to have. He could ask anything that he wanted of God. Solomon's request tells us much of him.

Adonijah desires to usurp the throne of David, but the throne was to be Solomon's. Adonijah received news that Solomon had been anointed and he ran for his life.

Authority for truth is the right to determine what the truth is.

Bible commentators recognize this chapter as a difficult one to interpret. It is good to approach this chapter as having three major sections: 1) the coming destruction of the land which will come because of 2) their rejection of the good shepherd and 3) their acceptance of the evil shepherd. This chapter points to the rejection of Jesus Christ as Messiah and to the acceptance of the antichrist and the destruction of the land of Israel during the Tribulation.

This chapter describes the glory that will one day come to God’s chosen city of Jerusalem. In much of the chapter, God is speaking directly to the city. Notice also how the earthly city is a picture and type of the heavenly Jerusalem that comes down in the book of Revelation (chapters 21 & 22).