1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2-3 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, Thus declares 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 cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.

5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? 6 So they repented and said, As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.” Zechariah 1:1-6 English Standard Version

Having finished the series on Habakkuk, a prophet who preached before the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army, I thought it good to look at what God was saying to those who came back to Jerusalem after some 70 years of exile. One of the prophets who God used for that was a man named Zechariah, and he tells us it was in the second year of Darius that the Lord gave him a message for Israel. So that would've been around the year 520BC. What was at the heart of God's message to them? (vs 2-3)

It was a call to come back to God. The people had been steadily returning to their homeland after years of exile, but God calls them to also return to Him. He reminds them why the nation had gone into exile. Their fathers (most of whom probably died in exile) had stubbornly refused to listen to prophets like Jeremiah who had warned them to turn from the evil ways they had chosen. What is the important lesson God drives home in vs 5?

Neither the stubborn people (nor the faithful prophets) would remain forever in the land while sin was not repented of. But all that God had warned through His faithful prophets - came true. People in Jeremiah's day had ridiculed his prophecies and tried to silence him. But the words he and other faithful prophets had spoken had all taken place. Thankfully, vs 6 suggests that the people realized that what God was saying through Zechariah was true. They agreed that they had received what their sins deserved. That is a big part of what repentance means.

Repentance involves agreeing with what God says about sin, turning from the wrong things we are doing, and seeking to live in the way He calls us to. Over 500 years later another man sent by God to call people to repentance was asked: “What should we do then?” He answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” And tax collectors who came to be baptized asked: “Teacher, what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Some soldiers asked “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely - be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:10-14)

Those may not look like massive changes – but they were actions that expressed a turning away from putting self first, and following Jesus' command to love our neighbours as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39) Repentance is when we start paying attention to the Lord's words, and seek to live as He wants us to live. What was God's wonderful promise to the people through Zechariah if they returned to Him? (vs 2-3)

If they came back to God, He would come back to them. They would once again enjoy His blessing in their land and on their lives. Their years of exile would be in the past and a new life would begin. That was a message for Israel then, but the same is true for individuals now. When Jesus preached He also called men and women to repentance. And He also gave gracious promises to those willing to turn from sin and come to Him. He says we will find ‘rest for our souls’, and that ‘our thirst will be quenched’. May we not be like those people of old to whom God's word went out, who did not hear or pay attention.