Sermon Tone Analysis

Zechariah 1v1-6

 

Call to Repentance

 

Introduction

 

The 50,000 Jews who returned, under the governorship of Zerubbabel and the High Priesthood of Joshua, immediately began to build the new temple, although they soon became discouraged and stopped.

Then, in 520 bc, God sent two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah.

Haggai’s task was to rouse the people to continue the task they had started sixteen years earlier.

Zechariah’s task was to convince the people to accompany that work with a complete spiritual change, the fruit of which could be seen, at least in part, in the rebuilding of the temple.[1]

! 1.      Zechariah v1

 

Thirty-one men in the Bible have the name Zechariah, which means “the Lord remembers.”

(See Zech.

10:9 and Luke 1:72.)

The Prophet Zechariah was a young man when he wrote this book (Zech.

2:4), so he must have been born in Babylon and come to Judah with Zerubbabel in 537.

His father, Berechiah, probably died young, and his grand-father Iddo adopted him and raised him (Zech.

1:1; Ezra 6:14).

Iddo was a priest (Neh.

12:1–4, 16), so Zechariah was both a prophet and a priest, like Ezekiel and John the Baptist.’

He began to preach about two months after Haggai began his ministry (Hag.

1:1) and a little over a month after the Jews resumed the work of rebuilding their temple (Hag.

1:15; Ezra 5:2).

! 2.      History v2

 

*The Historical Background of Zechariah.*

The fall of Jerusalem to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 bc marked the finale of the kingdom of Judah, much as the earlier defeat at the hands of the Assyrians in 722 bc brought to an end the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Most of Jerusalem’s inhabitants were deported to Babylon for a period of about 70 years, as prophesied by the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer.

25:11; 29:10).

During this Exile the Prophet Daniel received the revelation that Gentile kingdoms would be dominant over Judah and Israel until God would set up His kingdom on the earth under the rule of the Messiah (Dan.

2; 7).

This period was referred to by Jesus Christ as ”the times of the Gentiles“ (Luke 21:24).

When the Babylonian Empire fell to the Persian Empire (539 b.c.), Cyrus the Great decreed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple (Ezra 1:2-4; cf.

Isa.

44:28).

However, only a small minority of about 50,000 Jews (including Haggai and Zechariah) returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest (Ezra 2).

Levitical sacrifices were soon reinstituted on a rebuilt altar of burnt offering (Ezra 3:1-6), and in the second year of their return the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:8-13; 5:16).

However, external oppression and internal depression halted the rebuilding of the temple for about 16 more years of spiritual apathy till the rule of the Persian King Darius Hystaspis (522-486 b.c.).

In the second regnal year of Darius (520 b.c.) God raised up Haggai the prophet to encourage the Jews in rebuilding (Ezra 5:1-2; Hag.

1:1).

Haggai preached four sermons in four months and then disappeared from the scene.

Two months after Haggai delivered his first sermon, Zechariah began his prophetic ministry (cf.

Hag.

1:1; Zech.

1:1), encouraging the people to spiritual renewal and motivating them to rebuild the temple by revealing to them God’s plans for Israel’s future.

With this prophetic encouragement the people completed the temple reconstruction in 515 b.c.

(Ezra 6:15).

The dated portions of Zechariah’s prophecy fall within the period of the rebuilding of the temple.

The undated prophecies of Zechariah 9-14 were probably written much later in his ministry.

The following summary compares significant dates in the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah (cf. the chart ”Chronology of the Postexilic Period,“ near Ezra 1:1):

 

Zechariah begins with the most emphatic statement one could make: /“The Lord has been very angry with your fathers”/ (v.

2).

The verb “has been angry” is emphasized by a noun made up of the same consonants as the verb.

It is high time Israel recognized this fact.[2]

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God is, of course, a God of love; this we must stress.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that His infinitely holy character demands that He be angry with sin.

In fact, it is a mark of a sick society when we are willing to listen only to pronouncements of God’s love and not to messages that also declare God’s wrath with sin.

The Lord is “slow to anger” (Nah.

1:3), but persons must not view His patience as a weakness or hesitance to deal with sin; God will deal with sin (2 Pet.

3:9).

Both testaments affirm God’s wrath as well as His Love (Ex.

34:6–7; Deut.

7:7–11; John 3:16, 36).[3]

Nahum 1:3

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power;

the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,

and clouds are the dust of his feet.

 

2 Peter 3:9

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Exodus 34:6-7

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Deuteronomy 7:7-11

7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

John 3:16

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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John 3:36

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

! 3.      Repent v3

 

This text, which G. L. Robinson has called “one of the strongest and most intensely spiritual calls to repentance to be found in the Old Testament,”7 issues four summons to repentance for all peoples in all ages.

It was delivered three months before the eight night visions that follow in 1:7 to 6:8.

It has now been eighteen years since Cyrus issued his famous decree (538 bc) allowing the Jews to return to their land.[4]

The simple, but profound, solution to Israel’s current state of sin was to /“return”/ (v. 3) to the Lord.

No other single word epitomized the prophets more accurately than this single word to “turn,” or “return.”

In all of Scripture that is the one prerequisite to receiving any of God’s blessings.

The summons to “return” is God’s call to us to reverse our directions; when we are following our own goals and aims God asks us to do a 180 degree turn and make Him the goal and aim of our lives.[5]

Isaiah 55:6-7

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way

and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Zechariah 2:12-13

12 The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.

13 Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

Malachi 3:7

7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them.

Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

 

Matthew 3:2

2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Matthew 4:17

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”