In his first vision, Zechariah sees the Angel of Yahweh among the myrtles. James Jordan suggests that the small but beautiful and aromatic myrtle is the new tree for the returned exiles. As the terebinth was the tree of the Abrahamic period, and the cedar the tree of monarchy, so the hadas is the tree of restoration.
Twice the angel is said to stand “among” (Heb. byn ) the myrtles (1:8, 11). An angel in a bush reminds one of Yahweh’s appearance to Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 3:2; Act 7:30). Zechariah’s encounter with the burning angel in the myrtle bush interpellates the prophet as a new Moses and his visions as the making of a new covenant.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
