RETURN TO ME

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:

“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the Lord.  Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever?  But did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?”

“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as He determined to do.’”

Zechariah 1:1-6

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we start our look at the Book of Zechariah, the next to last book in the Old Testament. And as we have in the prior books named after prophets, we will begin with a little background regarding Zechariah.

The first thing we need to do is set the time in Israel’s history. God used Zechariah as His messenger at the end of the Babylonian captivity as the Persians defeated Babylon and assumed power over their empire. This transfer of power led to the release of the Israelites to return to Judah and rebuild their nation, their homes, their lives, and their relationship with God.

If this period sounds familiar, it should. This is because it was the same period which the prophet Haggai was used by God. In fact, the Book of Haggai opens with these words:

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. Haggai 1:1

Compare this with the opening words of the first chapter of Zechariah:

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah.

Thus both prophets were being used by God concurrently and although Haggai started two months before Zechariah, the latter served longer as a prophet.

Another interesting fact about Zechariah was that he was a Levite:

In the days of Joiakim, these were the heads of the priestly families…  of Iddo’s, Zechariah. Nehemiah 12:12a, 16a

Given this, Zechariah was not only a prophet but a priest as well which put him in company with Jeremiah and Ezekiel who also carried that distinction.

The final piece of information about Zechariah that we should consider is that he was born during the Babylonian captivity. He wasn’t even born when the exile began and would grow up in a foreign land, returning with the Israelite remnant to enter Judah for the first time in 538BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the new governor of Judah.

With all this as a background, let’s now look at today’s passage from the opening verses of Zechariah 1 and as we do, we need to remember that the main task at hand for the Israelites was the rebuilding of God’s temple, just as it was in the Book of Haggai. Look again at these words here:

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:

“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the Lord.  Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever?  But did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?”

“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as He determined to do.’”  Zechariah 1:1-6

There was little doubt that it was the actions of the Israelite ancestors that brought God’s wrath and ensuing judgment. They had been the ones who chose to worship false gods and idols in direct disobedience to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:2-3). They had been the ones who had chosen the path of sin over righteousness which led to murder and a number of other social injustices against one another. Despite the Lord’s demands for them to turn from their evil ways and practices, the people refused to listen or pay attention and so the Lord did something to get their attention. He made good on His promise of punishment.

And so the Assyrians and Babylonians entered onto the scene in Israel, leaving destruction and devastation in their wake. Indeed, the Israelite ancestors were not just taken over but overrun by God’s consequences before being hauled away from their homeland, never to return again.

So as the Lord addressed the remnant of Israelites He had restored to Judah from Babylon, He had two messages to send, one implied and the other verbal:

The implied message was “Don’t follow in the footsteps of your ancestors.”

The verbal message was “Return to Me and I will return to you.”

You see, the only way the Israelites were going to start fresh and live in a way that would ensure they lived in God’s favor vice His wrath was if they placed Him first in their life and that would mean they would have to leave their old ways behind and exchange them for the Lord’s ways. Then and only then would they ensure to not go back to the evil practices of their ancestors.

So how did the returning Israelites respond to these words of God spoken through His prophet Zechariah?

The scriptures tell us the answer:

“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as He determined to do.’”

Did you catch that?

The first step in returning to God came in the way of repentance, in the Israelites confessing the wrongs of their ways and the ways of their ancestors while acknowledging that God’s consequences were what they deserved in response for their wicked ways and practices.

You see, that’s the way it works. We get from God what we deserve for the way we live our lives.

Live in sin and you can expect judgment and punishment.

Live in righteousness, in a way that is pleasing in His sight, and you can expect His favor and blessing.

This one of two messages the Lord has for us today in this first devotion from Zechariah.

The other has to do with actions we need to take to get right with God if we have gotten off course and are living in ways that are not acceptable to Him. If that describes you today, then the steps to getting back in the Lord’s good graces are as follows.

Step 1: Turn from sin and return to the Lord.

When we fall away into sin, we separate ourselves from the God who despises iniquity. In other words, we turn away from the Lord when we turn toward sin. If we’re going to reverse course, then we need to turn from sin and return to the Lord.

Step 2: Repent.

A turning away from sin always involves confession of some kind, an admission of wrongs before the Lord and a profession of commitment to turn away from those wrongs, exchanging them for the Lord’s will and way.   

Step 3: Intentionally obligate yourself to the Lord’s purposes.

This means you seek and carry out what the Lord wants you to do willingly and willfully. Your desire is to please Him through your dedicated service to Him and others.

Let’s just call this the three step program to getting right with the Lord, a program that will always produce favorable results. I pray it helps you today if you have allowed yourself to be separated from God by sin.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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