Scripture Daily

Context No. 1015 of 4322 · Zechariah

Context · Reflection

Zechariah 1:1-6: in context

1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, 2“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers. 3Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies. 4Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD. 5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”

Zechariah begins his prophecy to the exiles who have returned to a ruined Jerusalem, and God's first word is an invitation wrapped in a warning. The LORD was very angry with your fathers, he says, so do not be like them, who would not listen to the earlier prophets. Then the heart of it: return to me, and I will return to you. He asks a sobering pair of questions, your fathers, where are they now, and the prophets, do they live forever, and answers that though the messengers died, God's words did not; they overtook the fathers, who finally admitted God had dealt with them exactly as he warned.

The line at the center is a tender call: return to me, and I will return to you. It is mutual, and it is hopeful, God is not far off and unwilling; he is waiting, and the moment his people turn back toward him, he turns back toward them. The whole distance can begin to close from their side. But Zechariah frames it with a hard memory. The previous generation heard the same call and would not listen, and now both the fathers and the prophets are gone, dead and buried, while God's words remained and came true. People pass, the messengers who deliver the warning pass, but the word of God outlasts them all and always comes true. The exiles are being told: do not repeat your fathers' deafness; the call is open again, the same call they ignored, and the God who kept his word in judgment will keep it in mercy if you return.

The call is open again today, return to me and I will return to you. Am I repeating an old deafness to it, or will I take the step back toward the God who promises to meet me?

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