In a time of discouragement at an unfinished temple and only a partially rebuilt city of Jerusalem, the people of Israel had concluded that God was absent from them. They began to forget about God, and viewed faithful obedience as unimportant. While Haggai urged the people to rebuild the temple, Zechariah encouraged them to repent and renew their covenant with God. Without spiritual renewal, they would not be ready to worship at the temple. Zechariah rebuked them for doing the same things their ancestors had done before the exile. While urging them to repent, he gives them ten consecutive visions regarding the future of God’s people. He reassured them that God would not break his covenant with Israel, and that one day through the Messiah the Lord would establish his rule over all the earth.