Zechariah 1:1-6
"a call to return to the Lord"
Enter Zechariah. he began his time prophesying during the reign of Darius - i.e. during the exile of the israelites from Judah.
The first message from the Lord that zech delivers is one of remembrance and repentance. He calls for the exiles to remember what their ancestors did to cause God to send them into exile. (that would be Judah's abandonment of God and the law and worship of God for other, false, gods). The Lord said, through zechariah, that if the israelites repented, He would return to them.
God then brings up the words of past prophets to the ancestors of the current generation: turn from your evil practices and ways. did they? no. where are the ancestors now? for that matter, where are the prophets now? they are all dead, but the words pronounced by the prophets, from God, came into effect, some after the lifetime of the prophet or the generation to whom the prophet was speaking, but all came true at their intended time "overlapping" the forefathers of the current israelites. the imagery that comes to mind is a cloudbank rolling down a hill over fleeing people while the cloud catches them and passes them, engulfing them in the process...
Some of the ancestors, let it be known, did repent, acknowledging the justice of the Lord's actions... just, unfortunately, not all...
this serves as a reminder that our God is a god of forgiveness and undeserved grace (well, when is grace ever deserved? that's kinda part of the definition of grace, but whatever) and he is willing to extend that offer to us despite what we or our parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents, or great-great-great-grandparents, or (n)great-grandparents have done... isn't that very good news?
No comments:
Post a Comment