Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.39 – October 2004

 

Return To Me

 

Sermon by Rev J Zuidema on Zechariah 1:1-6

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 137

Suggested Hymns:  BoW 27:1-4; 137; 218; 145; 533

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…

One of the reasons why some Christians seem uncommitted and are Christians in name only is that they have never taken God or His word seriously. At one time or other they may have done so, but the thorns and thistles of this world are squeezing God and his Word from their lives.

I am sure you know the type of people I am speaking about. They hardly have time for worship, very irregular at best. Many have become so busy with their own businesses and empires that God, His Word and kingdom work are either completely forgotten or is reluctantly done.

Instead of remembering the warnings in God’s Word about being lukewarm and what God has done for them in Christ, they have become totally self centred and anything to do with church and kingdom work has become burdensome and too time consuming.

So I want to challenge you, and at the same time encourage you, to be serious about God and His Word and not to forget what God has done for you in Christ, for ultimately that is the motivating factor of our lives. For as soon as we forget what Christ has done for us, we will lose our desire to love and serve Him.

Our text deals with the period of Israel’s history when the seventy-year exile is over. Zechariah prophesied to God’s post-exilic people in 520BC, about sixteen years after the return of the first exiles. Zechariah’s father’s and grandfather’s names are given in verse 1 and it identifies him in that time period.

Zechariah’s name means, “Yahweh remembers”. But the question must be asked, have God’s people remembered Yahweh? And it is obvious they had not! Politically, the whole world was at rest and in peace, as Chapter 1 verse 11 reminds us. King Darius, the Persian King, is firmly fixed on the throne of a vast empire, all the way from modern day Iraq / Iran to the west including Israel, Philistines, Phoenicia and Egypt down the south.

Darius had quelled all rebellion in his empire. Even the once powerful Babylonian empire had breathed its last and was no more. And it is in this situation that the Lord calls Zechariah to begin his ministry to the returned exiles, about 45,000 of them.

The Book of Ezra (Ch 1:1 ff) records for us that a previous king of Persia, Cyrus, in 538 BC was used by the Lord to proclaim in writing that the Jews should return to their homeland and rebuild the temple! On their return, the Jews begin building the temple. In 536 the foundations were laid and those who saw it were so glad that some wept and others shouted for joy (Ezra 3:12)! And yet, despite the good start, the work stops for 16 years!

By 520 BC, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (Zechariah two months later than Haggai) bring God’s Word to a people who were no longer taking God seriously. Jerusalem still lay in ruins, and the temple whose foundations were laid, was nowhere near finished.

It seems that the returning exiles had become discouraged and disheartened about the things of God. Not only by the opposition from raiders, but it seems that they were more concerned about their own little kingdoms. Haggai 1:4 accused them that they were living in their panelled houses, while God’s house remained a ruin!

It seemed to the returning exiles that God was not important anymore. In fact they even wondered whether He really cared for them. The nations around were far more powerful. They were still a vassal of Persia. Their cities and towns lay in ruins. Where was their new king who would rule over them and protect them? From the returned exiles’ perspective, it seemed unlikely that God was going to restore them to their former glory days.

And because of this, the people were calling into question the integrity of Yahweh’s Word as the prophets had represented it. And so the Word of the Lord came to Zechariah during this time of spiritual uncertainty and general reluctance, to encourage them to take God seriously and to repent of their lack of trust and faith in the God who had brought them out of exile!

And notice how this Word of encouragement from the Lord begins. “God was angry with your forefathers.” Can you believe that? Zechariah begins his ministry by recalling the Lord’s anger with the disobedient ancestors of the nation’s past. Did they really need reminding? They have just spent seventy years in exile!

Now we wonder why Zechariah starts on such a dismal note. Why didn’t he remind his discouraged listeners of God’s grace instead of His intense anger? Their history contained numerous instances of God’s gracious intervention on their behalf. He chose them from all other nations. He saved them from slavery. He led them through the Red Sea on dry ground while Pharaoh and his army drowned. He led them through the wilderness. He brought them into the Promised Land – twice! He fought their battles for them. He gave them kings to rule over them. Yes, God had been gracious so often, so why start with reminding them of God’s anger? Positive strokes are required, not negative!

Well perhaps the prophets, more than most, had a good understanding of God and that He was capable of intense anger as well as of tenderness and mercy. Often we fail to hold these two facets of God’s character in close proximity. Is it not true that we hear far more about God’s love and grace then about the need to be obedient? Is it not true that we hear more about heaven than hell? Is it not true that we often hear about God’s willingness to forgive, but not about the need to repent?

We always need to be watchful that we don’t make God after our own image and not of the image that the Bible presents. That is where so many people go wrong. For when their image of God fails them, they think God is no longer of any consequence. For instance, if you think God is only a God of love and who never disciplines his children, then as soon as God does discipline, you will forget about God.

Perhaps if the earlier generations of the Israelites had acknowledge that their God was indeed capable of burning anger, they may have thought twice, perhaps three times before they broke the covenant He had made with them. And if the returning exiles thought about God’s anger a little more, there wouldn’t be the need to call them to repent of their slackness and selfishness.

But even with this reminder of God’s anger, in light of what follows, it makes the gracious invitation of verse 3 burn all the brighter. This invitation highlights the fact that the current people can escape the painful reality of judgment by turning to their God, who in condescending grace would turn to them as well.

Verse 2 is not a mere reference to the Lord’s anger, it is a reminder of it. It pictures God’s anger as distant thunder rumbling in the past. There is still hope for the future, for the storm may be averted. And so Zechariah calls on the people to return to God. Just think, within twenty years, these people were not all that different than their forefathers whom God had sent into exile.

We read Psalm 137. Well may they sing that the skill of their right hand be forgotten if they forget Jerusalem, and well may they sing that their tongue stick to the roof of their mouth if they did not consider Jerusalem their highest joy. But that was exactly what was happening! Within twenty years they had forgotten God.

But God had not forgotten them. He lovingly disciplines them so that they will return to Him. He already struck their crops with blight and hail (Hag 2:17). They never had enough money or drink or food to eat (Hag 1:5-6). But they failed to return to him. The temple foundation, standing unfinished for sixteen years, symbolised the people’s lack of zeal to serve the Lord. And if the community was to survive, then it had better return to doing things the Lord’s way.

God wanted their hearts to return to Him in true repentance. “Remember me – and I will remember you!” What a marvellous invitation and a promise. Zechariah’s plea to return to the Lord rings with divine authority. “Return to me” – not a weak tribal god, but to me, the Lord Almighty!

Their God commanded the armies of heaven. They only had to return to experience His help on their behalf! “Turn to me” is God’s gracious call to His people. The covenant God, the one who brought them out of exile back to their own land is to be the object of their spiritual renewal. He is the one who loves them. Return and find blessing. In repentance they would find respite from their miserable condition!

One thing stands between them and destruction: a willingness to turn from the ways that had brought their fathers into exile and turn to a gracious God! That’s always been the call and it is still the call today.

That is the call that Zechariah makes to the people coming out of exile – don’t be like your forefathers and continue in disobedience, but repent and obey. Their forefathers had stubbornly refused to heed the call made by God’s prophets.

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 records for us the people’s stubbornness:

“The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.”

And because these people continued to rebel and not heed the words of the prophets, they lost their inheritance! Do you want proof? Where are your forefathers today? Where are the prophets that ministered to them? They are no longer accessible; their voices are silent. Yet God’s word remains and was fulfilled.

So in other words – be careful you returning exiles – listen to what God is saying through His prophets, for God’s Word will surely be fulfilled. Their forefathers were warned and failed to listen and into exile they went.

So Zechariah gives this warning and encouragement to the returning exiles. Don’t let it happen again! Return to Yahweh who remembers you! Repent and obey Him. And building the temple was one way they could show that God was again at the centre of their lives!

Should they disregard God’s call, then the anger of God, which was now a distant past, would become a present reality! God’s Word would be fulfilled as the seventy years of exile had proven beyond doubt.

And so this opening oracle of this book is a gracious call by God to His people to repent and live. God desires to bless you and not to punish. “Return to me and I will return to you!” God would come and help them and bless them. He had done so in the past and would do so again! All they needed to do was to put Him first in their lives. And we read that the people repented and vindicated God’s actions towards them.

Brothers and Sisters, are you taking God and His Word seriously? Have you remembered what God has done for you? Does it show in your obedience? Yes, I know the Lord’s return is taking a long time in our eyes, but He is coming, for God’s Word says so and God’s Word is truth! Do I need to remind you that He is coming again in judgment? Is that how I need to encourage you today to put Christ first because of the judgment day that is coming? Oh, I am not a Zechariah. The day of judgment, although coming, is not yet here. So allow me to remind you of God’s grace.

Yes, I know the world scorns us for our faith and love of Christ. Many say that Christians are deluded and living in fairyland. But God’s Word says that all who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life, and God’s Word is truth! That’s grace!

God remembered His exiled people and He remembers us. He saved a remnant and brought about the birth of our Saviour who was nailed to a cross for our sin. His word is fulfilled, for that is what He promised to do, despite the great cost to him! That’s grace!

God’s word says that all who believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord have eternal life! That’s grace!

So please remember God and take Him seriously! Turn to Him and have life. Remember, because of Christ we now have peace with God. Remember, He will never leave us or forsake us. He dwells within us by his Holy Spirit. Remember that whatever happens, believers cannot fall from His eternal hands. That’s all by grace!

What tremendous motivation we have to take God seriously. And that shows by being obedient and thankful and trusting Him! So tell me please, why is it that in many churches it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet budgets despite God’s abundant blessings of wealth? Does that not show we lack trust and thankfulness!

Why are some churches having difficulty finding office bearers who are willing to serve, despite the fact that we have very little worldly opposition? Does that reluctance not show there is something wrong? Why are so many discouraged about kingdom work?

Why do so many people when approached to serve have answers ready and say, “I am too busy”, or, “I have just started a new business”, or, “I don’t have that gift”.

Have they not heard? We do not worship a useless God, or a an idol fashioned by man, but the living God, ALMIGHTY, POWERFUL, EVERLASTING, and an enabling God, equipping us – the God to whom we must all give account.

Brothers and Sisters, if we need to, let us repent of our forgetfulness about God’s goodness to us. If we need to humble ourselves, may we have the grace to do so. May we turn to Him in true repentance and obedience and He will surely turn to us, for that is what He has promised and His word is truth!

Amen!