A Call For National Repentance
Zech. 1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 2 “The LORD was 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 Be not 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 heed me, says the LORD. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? 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.”
In this moment, the Lord “comes to” Zechariah, likely through a vivid vision rather than a physical appearance. The specific period is identified as “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius,” which corresponds to Cheshvan, a Hebrew month spanning parts of October and November around 519 BC. This time of year marks the planting of winter wheat and barley, and it’s also a season when homes, roofs, and shelters are inspected and repaired in anticipation of heavy rains. During the same year, Haggai delivered four brief messages urging the people to rebuild the temple, although construction had not yet started. In these messages, Haggai assures them that eventually, the gold and silver of the nations will flow into the temple. Zechariah, meanwhile, proclaims that the Lord’s glory will reside there. Yet, before these blessings can be fully realized, there is work to be done and sober acknowledgment of the Lord’s displeasure, emphasizing both divine promise and the need for obedience.
The people of Judea had been in Babylon for 70 years. On returning to their homeland, the people had built their own homes. But in the 19 years they had been back in the land, they had only laid the foundation for the temple. Things were not going well. They had enemies who were plotting against them. Sending ill reports back to the Persian Emperor. In all their troubles, they were discouraged with the general inability to rebuild anything as grand as what Solomon had built. It is to this weakened and impotent nation that the prophet gave encouragement and hope.
FYI: It is only after the Babylonian exile that the scripture writers begin giving dates from the reign of the Persian kings. We can use such a date to get an approximate date on our Gregorian calendar. Before the Exile, the Jews started a new calendar with every new king. Often assigning the same year to both the deceased king and the new king, making Biblical chronology before the captivity very difficult. In a few cases, the king of Israel and the king of Judah are listed concurrently; on one occasion, there were two kings in Israel and one in Judah at the “same” time.
Zechariah begins by telling the people that the LORD was very angry with their fathers. The Hebrew words are stronger than the English word ‘very’ implies. To make the gravity of their actions clear, the verse starts with ‘angry’ and ends with ‘wrathful.’ Most English versions start the next line with ‘therefore.’ However, there is no Hebrew word equivalent to ‘therefore’ in the text. This pronouncement is abrupt, as the LORD simply starts chastising them. The passage could be compared to a parent talking to a child who has returned after curfew: the child knows the parent never starts with a ‘therefore’ but moves immediately to the accusative, ‘Where have you been?’ This is the nature of the question posed by God in this passage: He asks where they have been spiritually. They have not kept His words, and are not where they should be. So it is with God. Just as He did in the garden when He asked Adam, “Where are you?” Gen 3:9. This was not because God didn’t know where Adam was. It was because Adam did not understand he was not where he should have been. The question is a spiritual one. Where are they spiritually? They had not kept His words, and were not where they should be. Just like an upset parent, He calls on them to return to His words, to follow His rules, to return to His teaching and precept, all of which will precipitate His return to them.
Three times in this passage, God calls Himself the LORD of Hosts, or army, in a necessary reminder of His eternal power and their mortality. He points out the folly of not following the ways of God, for their fathers had followed evil ways and committed evil deeds. Rather than endlessly berating His people, He abruptly stops the speech here and simply asks, Where are they now? It’s an example of the saying ‘less is more’. This illustration points out that both the people and the prophets the people would not listen to are gone and buried. In the end, all that can be said is that the LORD did to them as He had promised. The living no longer rule over themselves or their land, and are at the mercy of the empires
The Lord was explaining to the children of Israel about how they were to go about establishing a culture and nation; they were warned not to have anything to do with Molech specifically [Lev. 20:2 -5]. Yet they did. [1 Kings 11:7; Jer. 32:35]
The children of Israel were repeatedly told to have nothing to do with the Ashtaroth of the nations around them. Yet they pursued this worship with great zeal; they even had temple prostitutes in the temple in Jerusalem. “….and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” 1Kings 14:24 [see also: I Kings 15:12, 22:46, 23:7; Hos 4:14; Jer. 7:18-27].
They were also taking on the weeping for Tammuz [Ezek. 8:14-15]
They had been warned from the time they left Egypt that if they did these things, if they followed after the pagans, that they would be turned over to the beasts.
“Then if you walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring more plagues upon you, sevenfold as many as your sins. 22 And I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, so that your ways shall become desolate. Lev. 26:21 -22
At the time Moses wrote this, the people probably thought that this meant a literal beast. But in the book of Daniel, written while they were in Babylon, Daniel had explained that these beasts were empires. Empires that for 2520 years would take away Judah’s sovereign power. The prophecies of Dan 7 & 8 make it clear that Zechariah and the people were not facing real wild animals. But these were symbolic of the bestial natures of the Empires that were to rule over them in judgment. They had lived through the lion beast of Babylon; they were presently living under the bear beast of Medio/Persia, and still had to face the leopard beast that history tells us was Greece and the terrible beast that was Rome. They knew it was not about to get easy. There was more to come.
Like the child who came home late, even though the lecture was over, the restrictions imposed by the parent were still in effect. Yes, they were back in the land, but there would be no glorious freedom. They were a vassal kingdom to the Persians, and a vassal they would remain. No freedom, no self-determination, no returning to being the trading center of the world, as they had been under David and Solomon. There was much more of this sevenfold judgment to be faced.
We are living in times of profound change, when the once-mighty empires have faded into history. Israel is back in the land, fulfilling ancient prophecies, and now all that remains is for the nations that once divided this territory to be shaken and scattered. The stone that is not cut by human hands—destined to grow into a great mountain—draws near [Dan 2:45]. The era of the “Time of the Gentiles” has ended [Luke 21:24], and the political landscape is on the verge of radical transformation. Yet, the meaning of these prophetic signs remains unclear, with some prophecies offering no precise timeline, only a sequence of events. Just as Daniel fervently prays, confesses, and seeks understanding in chapter 9, so too must we humble ourselves, repent, and seek divine insight into the nature of the coming “stone” and the glorious mountain that will be established. In these pivotal days, earnest prayer and sincere seeking are our only guides.
. . . then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Dan. 2:35