IN THE first article of this series we studied the life and times of Zechariah, which furnished the proper background for the understanding of his messages. In the present installment we shall examine the first paragraph of chapter one of this book, which consists of only six verses; but each has a most important message. We shall note the various items that stand out in this passage but shall give the major portion of the study to that which dominates the entire paragraph.

According to verse 2, God stated that he had been sore displeased with the fathers of that generation-namely, the Jews who lived before the captivity. As was pointed out in the preceding installment, He sent one prophet after another, calling the people to repentance; but they despised His word and rejected His messengers until there was no remedy. Sin is an abomination in the sight of the Almighty, especially as it appears in the lives of those who know Him, and who should on account of their light and privileges live on a higher plane than that of the world.

The special message of Zechariah to his contemporaries was: "Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, And I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts." This is a clarion call to repentance and is the dominant note in the preaching of all the messengers whom God has sent, as is clearly in evidence throughout the Old Testament. A survey of the prophets and of the apostles will show that any preaching which lacks this note is certainly not biblical.

For instance, in Isaiah 1 we have the great arraignment of the Jewish people by that statesman prophet. He condemned their formalism and also their immorality, and he called upon them to forsake their wicked ways and to return to God. Let the reader study the entire chapter, for it will well repay him. Although Isaiah was the great evangelical prophet who held out before his hearers the marvelous future when the glory of God shall encircle the earth as the waters cover the sea, he sounded the note of repentance with no uncertainty in Isaiah 55:6,7: "Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, likewise called the people of his day to repentance. Hear him. "Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah, I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 3:12,13).

Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah who was taken into Babylonian captivity in the first deputation, likewise called upon Israel to repent. Hear his clarion call. "Return ye, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 18:30b,31).

The minor prophets were just as bold in their call to repentance as were these outstanding messengers of God. Hear Hosea. "O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render as bullocks the offering of our lips" (Hosea 14:1,2). Joel likewise sounded the same note in 2:12,13: "Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repenteth him of the evil."

Also hear Amos. "For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live; but seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught. Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Bethel" (Amos 5:4,5,6). Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, joined the ranks of the preachers of repentance, for he declared: "From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?" (Malachi 3:7).

Now notice the preaching of the New Testament ministers of the Word. John the Baptist shouted in the wilderness for the people to repent: "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:3).

Our Lord proclaimed that men should repent: "14 Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14,15). When Jesus sent the twelve on their third tour through Galilee, "they went out and preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12). In the great commission as recorded by Luke 24:45-47, Jesus commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all of the nations. On the day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter commanded the people to repent individually. In Acts 3:19 the same apostle called upon all Israel to repent and to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Saviour. In his speech at Mars Hill the Apostle Paul declared to the Athenians that "the times of ignorance therefore God over looked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained ..." (Acts 17:30,31). In Paul's last message to the elders of the church of God at Ephesus, he declared that it was his practice to testify "both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). From these and many other Scriptures, we see that the note of repentance is a dominant one in biblical preaching. Men must repent toward God and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer in order to be saved.

Zechariah warned his contemporaries to take a different attitude from that which their fathers had assumed toward God and His Word. Through the former prophets, He had sent His message to them, calling upon them to return from their evil ways and to hearken unto His words; but they would not accept the message. Zechariah therefore called upon his contemporaries to profit by the experience of their disobedient fathers.

In order to enforce his statement, Zechariah asked his audience this question: "Your fathers, where are they?" The people in defiance, as has been suggested by some excellent commentators, replied, "And the prophets, do they live forever?" The prophet was trying to call the people's attention to the sure retribution for disobedience. In doing this he asked them where were their disobedient fathers. Instead of answering, they impudently retorted, "And the prophets, do they live forever?" In other words, the audience snapped back at Zechariah by asserting that no calamity overtook their disobedient fathers. According to this view, they simply died a natural death just as the prophets, the obedient servants of God, had done. Of course, this was untrue. God did bring his punishment upon their disobedient fathers and sent, as they well knew, many of them into death and others into captivity. Finally, the message of Zechariah became intelligible to his audience, and they confessed, "Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us."

May every true teacher of the Word of God sound a warning against sin and wickedness and utter a clarion call to sinners to accept Jesus Christ as Lord, Saviour, and Master of their lives. May we who have accepted Him yield loving obedience, working for Him while it is day, for the night is coming in which no man can work.