Repentance - Zechariah 1:1 - 6:2, 7 - 13

Repentance can only be accomplished when one admits to the sins that he/she has committed in the past…and in a humble spirit ask Jesus Christ to forgive them. Then one must promise the Lord that they will not knowingly and willingly commit the sin again. True REPENTANCE requires that one have the faith to believe that Jesus will forgive the committed sin and set the sinner free—holding the sin against them no longer. Sin is removed as far as the east is from the west!

Repentance means that one has stopped walking in a sinful way—sought and received forgiveness; and is now walking in the opposite direction by and with the help of The Holy Spirit. One must no longer do that which is wrong in the sight of God and must now OBEY Him.

Only people have the privilege of repentance. Hogs can not repent; they will leave the shower stall and return immediately to their favorite mud wallow. Remove the harness from the finest work horse, or the saddle from Trigger or Secretariat and they will return to their favorite dust bowl and roll over in it. The hog and the horse return to their wallow because they want to and they have no desire to ever change. A repentant soul may return to the sin that so easily besets them, but it can not be because of their desire to continue in sin.

Last Sunday we studied the book by Haggai. Zechariah was a younger contemporary prophet. This book is also dealing with the problems surrounding the rebuilding of the temple. The structure was being completed, but there were other necessities that had to do with order of worship, sacrifices, and rituals that needed to be taught. To this end, God gave Zechariah eight night visions, all dealing with some aspect of restoring life in Jerusalem and the building and use of the new temple. The purpose of these visions was to encourage the people to turn back [REPENT-TURN AROUND] to the Lord and seek His presence once again [WALK IN A NEW DIRECTION.]

This book was written to give hope to God’s people by revealing their future deliverance through the Messiah. Jesus Christ would be that coming Messiah and he would visit this new temple…God would live in it…and that made it special. Zachariah wrote the book to the Jews in Jerusalem who had returned from Babylonian captivity and to the Children of God everywhere. The first eight chapters were written about 520 BC and the rest was written around 480.

The captives had returned from their exile in Babylon intending to rebuild the temple but—as we learned last week—they became more interested in building their own homes and businesses, and the temple work went begging. Both Haggai and Zechariah confronted the back-sliders and encouraged them to repent and finish their commitment. The key verses are 9: 9-10—“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey…H will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

Here is a very important question. How did Zechariah know that some 500 years later, Jesus Christ would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey? Can you tell me who will ride into Heber Springs on a tri-cycle in the year 2507? No. Impossible. And it would have been impossible with Zechariah if God had not revealed it to him. These predictions that came true specifically as prophesied are the keys to my faith. Most scholars think that this book is the most apocalyptic and Messianic of all the other
Minor Prophets.

Jealousy in the heart of sinful man is a dangerous poison that tares people apart. Not so with God. We serve a jealous God—and jealousy in a divine heart is a healing balm of love without envy or denial. God was angry with his people because they were ignoring his prophets and following careless and false leaders who exploited them. DISOBEDIENCE was the root of their problems and the cause of their misery. God was jealous for their devotion for him only.

The people of Zion were discouraged. Even though they had been set free from exile they still had not been able to complete the rebuilding of the temple. Zechariah encouraged them to repent from their selfish ways and dedicate themselves to the commitment they had made. The prophet assured them that God would protect his people as they worked and empower them through his Holy Spirit to finish the job.

This prophet promised his people that the Messiah [Jesus Christ] would come and rescue them and be their new King. He told them that Christ would come and establish his kingdom, conqueror all of His enemies. In that day everything and everyone will be under his control. There was opposition to his plan and he told them that there would be future trouble because of their unbelief. But he told them that God would keep his promises and remember the agreements he had made with them to deliver them from all the world powers that oppress them. If, if, if America will return to God…and live the lives of a Christian nation—be His people—He will do the same for us.

The first six verses are simple and easy to understand. It is night vision number one, and it simply tells the people to repent and return unto God and he will return unto them. Then it explains that prophets of old warned their fore-fathers who did not listen and they had been conquered and paid a heavy price…surely they should be wise enough to take this warning. The sixth verse says that they admitted that they deserved the punishment they had received…And they repented.

Vision two is found in verses 7 through 17. In a nutshell this vision says that an angel told the prophet that God had used powerful nations to conquer his people because of their DISOBEDIENCE. There was peace for awhile among the other nations, but they had gone too far and mistreated his people and were made to pay the price. After the 70 years of exile, the Jews were brought back and would be allowed to rebuild their nation.
[Remember, I have told you that I have no seminary training, and no knowledge
of the original languages and therefore must depend on interpretations made by
the authors that I trust. This makes for some difficulty when we start explaining
all the nations involved, and especially what significance the color of the horses
have in this vision.]
The man among the myrtle trees was the angel of the Lord that was talking to Zechariah. The horses and their colors were symbols of God’s involvement in world powers of that day. I do not know the meaning of each color of the horses…however I do know that the color red is often associated with war… and white in the bible is usually a symbol of peace—so in this case it probably means victory.

In verse eleven the angel saw other nations feeling secure and prospering while Israel was in bondage. He is speaking of those nations like Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, and Medo-Persia that had been at war with Jerusalem, Judah, both the northern and southern kingdoms and who were all heathen idol worshipers [see verse 18]. God had used them to teach his people a lesson regarding their own disobedience, but the time had come when God would put an end to their punishment and allow them to return home. I feel sure of this because he then speaks of the seventy years of bondage that was spoken of in Jeremiah 25: 11 and 29: 10. The seventy year period was over and the angel asked God to keep his promise and allow his people to go free. God has promised us that when we repent and return [turn around] he will heal our land. Now. Today.

The fifteenth verse simply declares that although the pagan nations had afflicted his people beyond his intentions, he was still able to stop them. So God used these heathen people to punish Israel, but he had the power to stop them and he did so when they went beyond his plan and were now trying to destroy his people. In my opinion, the Islamic nations that are trying to destroy Israel today will meet the same resistance…when God has had enough…their doom will come.

In 18 to 21 the horns were the four major world powers of that day that had dealt Israel their downfall…they were Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and Persia. The craftsmen were the nations that God used to overthrow his enemies.

In chapter 2, his next vision saw the man with the measuring line laying out the foundations of the temple and the boundaries of the city to rebuild it to God’s specifications…see Jeremiah 31: 38…]. See verses 6 through 13…If you will remember from our study during the past few months; many of the Israelites chose to remain in Babylon, and other nations where they were captives because they had property there. God is telling them to come! Come! Come to freedom from their captives where he scattered them. Zechariah instructed them to leave immediately and return…because these countries would be destroyed and they would have to forever be under another ruler. As before, many still rejected the call of the prophet and remained in Babylon.

All believers are precious to God Psalm 116: 5 and 103: 13. When we treat believers unkindly it is like mistreating God. Matthew 25: 34…tells us that when we mistreat his people we are mistreating him. This is a warning to us that we must love the brethren. God is remembering his promise to Abraham that all people will be blessed through him Gen. 12-3. Since the coming of Christ [messiah] the promise is being fulfilled as all nations are coming to him. How? They can come only through REPENTANCE.