In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo: ‘The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore tell the people: this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Return to me,” declares the Lord Almighty, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.” But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? ‘Then they repented and said, “The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.” ’
Zechariah 1:1-6 NIVUK
There is a stark reality about repentance that often strikes both fear and suspicion into the hearts of secular thinkers. The reality is that people sometimes only repent when times are hard. Often the stimulus for repentance is not intellectual, theological conviction, but instead the stark reality that without repentance, your life is over.
That was the reality of these verses. The Jews had their backs to the wall. They were in intense difficulties. And because of this, they sought the Lord and repented, as they had done many times before in their history.
Now, the issue many secular thinkers have with this is that they question the validity of the repentance, the conversion, as they believe the decision was taken under duress.
That may be. There are many who call out to God and make bargains with Him, but once they are safe, renegeon them at the first opportunity. In no way can this be said to be a genuine conversion. In no way is this genuine repentance. The Lord clearly wants more than this.
But there it is still possible for someone to make a decision to repent while in a difficult situation and to genuinely convert.
Let’s examine this passage in its proper historical context and understand what it teaches us about such conversions and repentance.
Firstly, we need to consider their condition, which, without a doubt, was pretty wretched. Years previously, Nehemiah recorded these words of his brother and his companions:
They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.’
Nehemiah 1:3 NIVUK
The Exile had taken place around seventy years earlier. Anything anyone in Jerusalem could possibly take pride in had been either destroyed or taken into captivity. They had lost their walled defences, their intellectual class and their Temple, with every bit of its treasure. All that remained was a one-proud city reduced to rubble, a pagan occupying army and a few poor people, making a living in the ruins, while encircled by ancient enemies.
To say they were in a bad way is an understatement.
And then, to make things worse, as soon as they started to get back on their feet, their enemies conspired together and stop them from rebuilding the centre of their religious worship: the Temple (Ezra 4).
So there they were, in abject misery and poverty, kept down by ‘the man’, seemingly with no way to recover.
Does that situation seem in the remotest bit familiar? Is it not one that many people find themselves in?
This was their condition, but what was the cause of it?
The message through Zechariah is clear, but it is not at all comfortable:
Their situation was caused by sin: more specifically, the sins of their ancestors that they were repeating.
The blame for the Exile, with its merciless brutality, was clear:
The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling-place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.
2 Chronicles 36:15-16 NIVUK
The story of all the prophets around the time of the Exile was one of good and godly men pleading with their people to stop sinning, and their people despising both them and their words. The people of Israel of those days had sown the wind, and more than seventy years later in Zechariah’s day they were reaping the whirlwind.
However, the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, written in the same period as Zechariah, show a people still wrestling with the sins that got them into trouble in the first place: intermarriage with the peoples around them , corruption, lack of care for the poor. It was all there.
So here’s the thing. While Zechariah’s generation could easily, and with some justification, blame their ancestors for their awful predicament, they were still committing the same sins that had cost their people dearly in the first place.
And that is why Zechariah tells his people that they, in their generation, need to repent.
Because if their condition is bad, and the cause is sin, then the cure is repentance. It is admitting they had got it very badly wrong and turning away from the sins that had got them into trouble in the first place.
And that is what they did.
In fact, one of Zechariah’s contemporaries, the prophet Haggai, also highlighted another area where the people of God needed to repent.
Since they had lost their permission to build the Temple, it seemed like they had sunk into a pit of self-absorption. Their idea of nation-building had gone. Now each man and woman was solely focused on their own house, building a life for themselves, and leaving God out of it.
It’s then that Haggai says some of the most challenging words in the Bible:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘These people say, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.” ’ Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’
Haggai 1:2-4 NIVUK
So as a necessary part of their repentance, they should reprioritise their life. They should seek to build God’s kingdom first and their own second, which is what Jesus taught in the New Testament (Matthew 6:33).
Zechariah is perfectly plain: they have sinned, their sins have caused their situation, they need to repent to fix the problem.
But what if our sin is not the direct cause of our problem?
Allow me to illustrate.
A few years ago, I was ‘between jobs’. I had been made redundant from a job where I had worked for eleven years and seen everything I'd built be handed over to a group of guys in India. That was really tough.
I’d had two jobs after that: a job in an HR department I was really not good at and left before they fired me, and a day-rate contractor job I honestly felt under-experienced and under-qualified for.
That contract had ended. I wanted a full time job once more. I’d been to eight interviews and been rejected eight times. I’d been without a full time job for three months. I was coming back from the supermarket with a backpack and two shopping bags full of food. It was raining. I was a sad, angry, frustrated mess.
Around ten minutes from home, something strange happened. It was as if God had cut through all my anger and frustration deep into my heart. He showed me that, in many ways, I had been hurt and been wronged. But also, there were times when I had been wrong: when I hadn’t had the right attitude or reacted to situations badly.
My situation was not entirely my fault. But there were a lot of areas where it could have been better and I had blown it.
On that rainy walk home, heavy laden with shopping, I confessed my sins to God.
I had an interview a few days later. I didn’t get the job. I had another interview after that. I thought I’d blown it. I was so used to disappointment that I shuffled dejectedly to the train station, wondering what I would do now.
That evening I got a phone call. And a job.
Because I had repented of all the wrong I had done and put myself right with God.
Even if my situation had not entirely been my fault.
And that leads us through condition, cause, cure to a rather surprising, but absolutely necessary, conviction.
Look at the second half of verse 6:
‘Then they repented and said, “The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.” ’
Zechariah 1:6 NIVUK
A necessary part of their repentance was the confession that the Lord Almighty was absolutely just to bring upon them the horrors of the Exile (as outlined vividly and graphically in Lamentations) from seventy years previously and the privations of poverty and vulnerability they were experiencing then.
In other words, it was to fully believe and trust in God, even when their life was extraordinarily difficult.
And that takes faith.
None of us are liable to suffer even half as much as those Israelites did. Not even remotely close. But they could not follow God without trusting Him, and part of that trust was to recognise that He had treated them justly.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am completely aware that not every situation we pass through is our fault. It’s clear that Job’s suffering was not his fault. It’s clear that the sufferings of the Early Church were not their fault. Even Jesus clearly separates suffering from sin (John 9:1-3).
In this life, not all suffering is directly caused by sin. We must understand that.
But sometimes it is. Sometimes God uses our suffering to bring us to repentance; to convert us to be the people we should be.
And when He does that, God is not coercing us. Instead, He is letting us see where our sin could eventually lead and giving us an opportunity to repent.
Like He did with these Israelites.
And that is an opportunity we should take with both hands.
Because we could find ourselves receiving the same blessing as these Israelites:
“From this day on I will bless you.” ’
Haggai 2:19 NIVUK
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray that You would open my eyes to see what You are trying to tell me from my circumstances. Help me to be open to hear Your call to repent. Help me to follow You. Amen.
Questions
1. The Israelites' situation was pretty unique, but can you relate to any part of it? What could God be telling you through your circumstances?
2. Why was it so important that the Israelites repented?
3. Although sin might not be the root cause of your situation, is there any part of it that you feel you should repent for?
Comments