The Call to Repentance

Zechariah 1:1-11

1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 "The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Return to Me," says the LORD of hosts, "and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. 4 "Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds."' But they did not hear nor heed Me," says the LORD.

5 "Your fathers, where are they?
And the prophets, do they live forever?

6 Yet surely My words and My statutes,
Which I commanded My servants the prophets,
Did they not overtake your fathers?

"So they returned and said:
Just as the LORD of hosts determined to do to us,
According to our ways and according to our deeds,
So He has dealt with us.'"'"

Vision of the Horses

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet: 8 I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were horses: red, sorrel, and white. 9 Then I said, "My lord, what are these?" So the angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what they are."

10 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, "These are the ones whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth."

11 So they answered the Angel of the LORD, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly."

Zechariah (Ezra 5:1) means “Yahweh Remembers/Has Remembered,” or considered.  This theme fills this book that Israel will be blessed because the LORD remembers the covenant He made with the fathers.  This prophetic message to God’s people began with the bad news of His wrath on their unrepentant sin before any good news could be pronounced upon them.  This is the same approach of the gospel which was fully formed and made manifest clearly in Christ for us.  We simply have no desire or understanding for the good news unless we first comprehend the bad news of being under God’s wrath on our inherited and practiced sin.  Only then is the news of deliverance considered good and necessary beyond mere interest or desire.  He remembered the remnant of Israel and does so for all those He has called from before the foundation of this His world (Ephesians 1:3-6).  The LORD called His people to return to Him, to repent of their sins of idolatry and immortality, and He would return to them for their good (Romans 8:28) and His glory.  He pleaded with them and sternly warned them not to be like those before them who were told to turn from their evil ways and evil deeds, but who refused to   hear and heed Him as His prophets warned them time and time again.  He reminded the hearers (and readers) that those of the past were long dead, both those who refused to hear and those who faithfully kept calling to them to repent and believe His word to them as we still call out through the good news revealed at last in all its fullness (Mark 1:15, John 6:29, Acts 20:21).  The word which they had heard was met with unbelief (Hebrews 4:2-3) and they realized the consequences of that disbelief and disobedience to His word, the deeds of unfaithfulness and rejection.  The wages of sin was earned and paid out as promised (Romans 6:23) because they could not see the mystery hidden there of the Christ to come who would pay that price once and for all (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 10:10) for all whom He had chooses and called.  Then Zechariah wrote of the horsemen riding throughout the earth as angels sent as watchers (Daniel 4:17) who reported the state of the world no mankind to the LORD as a testimony to us (God of course sees and knows all we do) of these things and assurance of His watchcare over those who are called as His own through repentance and faith in His word and working which is Christ the Word (John 1:1) and work of our salvation (John 1:12).  The Lord surely calls to us through His word preached (Romans 10:14-15) as He remembers and regards His people!  This is the gospel pattern to be more fully revealed when Christ came to walk the earth.  Before Christ came to stand between God's just judgment and our sinful hearts of missing the mark of obedience, we had no hope.  But He came as man and God to free us from that bondage and dwells within us now!  We have become His very people because of the One sent by God Himself, His Son. This is what He offers as we think of true hope.  We choose to partake of Him who loved and called us out first while we still were lost and deaf to hear Him.  We deserve the consequences of our ways and deeds but instead are given saving faith for grace through awareness of sin to confession through true repentance!  He has considered us and sealed us through the New Covenant in His sacrificial and all-sufficient blood.  Give Him all the honor and praise of thanksgiving!