Zechariah 1:1-8 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 if Iddo: The LORD was very angry with your forefathers.
Why was the LORD so angry with the forefathers? We find out in the next verse which tells us: 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.
They had left the LORD! What does it mean to leave the LORD? Again, the Word answers this question saying:
Do not be like your forefathers, 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.
Inexplicably, the people are practicing evil and have evil ways, they are not walking in the ways of the LORD. They had taken on the ways of the world. These are words that must be addressed in our times as well. Is the church today a shining beacon on a hill, or has it been diluted and become nearly irrelevant because the ways of the world have infiltrated and weakened it? The Lord now gives the hearers of these words a cold shower, saying:
Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
A stark reminder that we do not live forever, and what we do with our lives really does matter.
And the LORD continues: “But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers?” Then they repented and said, “The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.”
Just as these listeners learned, consequences will come in our time too, despite the lawless days in which we live.
Deuteronomy 4:30 When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.
He is still calling us to return in these latter days. Are we listening? Are we returning? If we are, He promises to return to us!
