Zechariah, meaning, “Yahweh remembers,” is an appropriate title for this book because the reader of the book is told the good news, Yahweh remembers His chosen people and His promises and will be faithful
to them. It is a book of comfort and hope, beginning with a call to repentance and ending with prophecies
concerning the return and reign of Christ. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah was both a priest and
prophet. He began his ministry in Judah two months after Haggai began his ministry. Both prophets
compared the present with the past and the future. Haggai stressing the rebuilding of the temple as a sign
and source of the Lord’s blessing and Zechariah emphasizing the need to repent and spiritual renewing.
Haggai and Zechariah’s ministries followed the ministries of Ezekiel and Daniel who ministered to the
captives in Babylon.
The purpose of Zechariah’s ministry was to motivate the captives that had returned to Judah and
Jerusalem to finish restoring the temple and to rededicate themselves to the Lord of hosts. The central
theme of the book is encouragement and hope. The key to this hope is the coming of Messiah and His
overthrow of ungodly forces and establishment of His kingdom on earth. The bases of his ministry is divine authority, “the word of the Lord” (Zechariah 1:1). He received a divine commission to be the Lord’s spokesman, with instructions what to say to the returned captives and he delivered to the people what he received.
In the eighth month of the second year of Darius’ reign,” two months after Haggai began his ministry the
word of the Lord came to Zechariah the saying, “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.” Two reasons are given in 2nd Chronicles 36:14-36 why the Lord was angry with the fathers of the returning captive; continued idolatry and a failure to give the land seventy sabbatical years of rest(Leviticus25:2-7). It was for this reason the wrath and anger of the Lord “were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 44:6). The Lord through Ezekiel told the Israelites He would deal with them “in wrath” and His eye “will have no pity nor shall” He spare them even though they cry out for mercy. He will not listen to them (Ezekiel 8:18).
The captives who have returned to Judah and Jerusalem have no excuse for doing what they were doing just as their fathers had no excuse for doing what they did. The fathers were warned and didn’t listen to or heed the warning. The children of the fathers of the captives have no excuse for doing what they are doing because their fathers told them why they were born in captivity and the wrath and anger of the Lord was poured out on the cities of Judah, Jerusalem, and the people. They were told why the temple was destroyed. They have come to Judah and Jerusalem and have seen the results of the disobedience of their fathers.
This should be a warning to Christians. There is a time when the Lord can no longer permit the
disobedience of His children and though we find it hard to believe the Lord will deal harshly with the
disobedient. He will do as He did with the ancient Israelites. We have been warned disobedience has its
consequences. The prophets have warned us. The apostles have warned us. Above all others Jesus has
warned us. Today, the Holy Spirit warns us. Are we listening and heeding the warnings? Before you answer look at the conditions in the world just as the returned captives looked at the destruction of the
their cities, Jerusalem, and the temple. The judgments of those who have gone before us should be a warning not to follow in their footsteps if they lead us to the same situation the captives found themselves in.
The word of the Lord told Zechariah , tell the returned captives: “Return to Me...that I may return to
you.” They are to turn to the Lord in faith and repentance and make their peace with Him. If they will do this the Lord will extend His mercy to them. They will find peace and be reconciled to Him. Malachi told
the builders of the wall around Jerusalem he was told to tell them “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statues and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you.” (Malachai 3:7).
These backslidden people were told, “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘thus says the Lord of hosts, Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ “But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the Lord.”
In Psalm 78 Asaph speaks to the people about the early history of the nation in order to warn future
generations they are not to be like their fathers who he said, were a stubborn and rebellious generation
“that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God” (v. 8).
Although the fathers had forsaken the Lord He sent “prophets to them to bring them to the Lord” but the fathers would not listen to them (2nd Chronicles 24:19). “They continually mocked the prophets until the
wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy” (2nd Chronicles 36:16).
If the children of the captives expect to escape the penalty for their acts of disobedience they must turn
from their evil ways and their evil deeds. They must not harden their hearts as their fathers did. The
results of the hardening of the heart by their fathers should be enough proof that would cause the children
from their evil ways and evil deeds. To this point and time in the lives of the children the price their
fathers had to pay for their disobedience had no effect.
Parents need to understand the examples of life they set before their children can and does have a lasting
impression on the life of their children. Why should the children listen to and heed the words of
Zechariah? While it is true the fathers who didn’t listen to or heed the former prophets and went into
captivity they were able to live a comfortable life. They were able to build homes and business, marry,
have children, even have an informal form of worship.
Zechariah, asks the returned captives: “Your fathers where are they? And the prophets, do they live
forever?”
Where are the fathers? They are dead, buried in Babylon. The wrong place for an Israelite to be buried
because he wanted to be buried on his own land. Even Jacob, before he died made Joseph promise him he
would not bury him in Egypt. Where are the fathers? They are no longer seen walking the streets of the
cities and towns. They are no longer seen in the shops and stores. They are no longer seen in the worship
service. Their voices have been silenced. But where are they? They are somewhere. They left the physical
world and entered the spiritual world, the world of the spirits, an unchanging world, an unchangeable
world. They are either in torment or in paradise.
We are headed to the same place our fathers are. Where we will be when we enter the spiritual world will be determined by what we do in this world.
The third question Zechariah asks the returned captive concerns the words of the Lord. “But did not My words and My statues, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers?”
Both the fathers and prophets are dead, but the word of the Lord didn’t die. Not one iota or tittle fell to
the ground. The judgments the Lord threatened were executed upon the fathers. The fathers experienced
what they would not believe or fear. The words of the prophet could not bring conviction upon the
captives but the calamities threatened overtook them and they could not escape them or get out of their
way. “Then they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our
ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us’” (v.6).
Now they see plainly the Lord is righteous.
Zechariah’s point is, pay attention to the Word of God because, thought the prophets die, the Word of God endures and the proof that it endures is that its warnings come true
