Cyrus of Persia let the Jews go home from Babylon to rebuild the temple. They laid the foundation with shouting and weeping, in Ezra 3:10–13. Then opposition hit and the work stopped, in Ezra 4:4–5 and 24. About fifteen years later, around 520 B.C., the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred them up. See Haggai 1:1 and Ezra 5:1. Haggai’s charge was blunt. You live in paneled houses while the Lord’s house lies in ruins, in Haggai 1:4. Consider your ways. You sow much and harvest little, and your wages go into “a bag with holes,” in 1:5–6. Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest led the people back to work. The temple was finished about four years later, in Ezra 6:15. Centuries later, Herod enlarged it, and Jesus taught there. The Lord gave the early Saints a similar rebuke when they delayed the Kirtland Temple, in Doctrine and Covenants 95:3–8.
Zechariah adds visions and some of the clearest prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament. In chapter 3, Joshua the high priest stands in filthy clothes while Satan accuses him. The Lord has the filthy garments taken off. He clothes him in clean raiment and puts a clean turban, a “fair mitre,” on his head. It’s a picture of what only the Savior can do for us. In chapter 4, the Lord tells Zerubbabel the temple will be finished “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,” in 4:6. He asks who would despise “the day of small things,” in 4:10. Zechariah also foresaw the King riding on a donkey, in 9:9 and Matthew 21:1–11. He saw thirty pieces of silver, in 11:12–13, Matthew 26:14–15 and 27:3–7. He saw the one who was pierced, in 12:10 and John 19:34–37. He saw the smitten Shepherd, in 13:7 and Matthew 26:31. And he saw the wounds in His hands shown at His Second Coming, in 13:6 and Doctrine and Covenants 45:51–52.
Build today around Zechariah 14:20. In that day, even the bells on the horses and the cooking pots will say HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. Latter-day Saint temples carry those words. Zechariah pictures them on the most ordinary things of daily life. For 16- to 18-year-olds, that’s the bridge to the endowment. Many will receive it within a year or two, before a mission or a temple marriage. The Church’s page “About the Temple Endowment” openly explains the covenants. Endowed members covenant to live the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice and the law of the gospel. They also covenant to live the law of chastity and the law of consecration. They receive the temple garment as a reminder. You can talk about those covenants plainly. Don’t go beyond what the Church publishes. Point deeper questions to parents, the bishop and the temple preparation course.
Keep today honest and practical. Teens have real, good things competing for their time. Think school, work, sports, friends and screens. Haggai never tells the people to stop farming or building homes. He tells them to put the Lord’s house first and watch what happens to everything else.
