A call to return to the Lord
Do not be like your forefathers, 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. 5 Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers?”
“Then they repented and said, ‘The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.”
The consequences of not returning are awful. “Where are your forefathers now?” the Lord questions in verse 5.
Somehow the children must rise above the examples of their fathers. How difficult this is to do! The Lord points out, “Fathers . . . bring [your children] up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6). But what do children do when their fathers do not do what is right? It must be the Lord who somehow comes to the children and says, “Do not be like your forefathers.” It must be the Lord who makes it possible for children to break loose from the stranglehold their fathers’ examples have on them.
This happens. We see it in the lives of those dear people who live godly and faithful lives in spite of the terrible examples they had at home. We wonder, “Why do they do it? Why do they come to church?” The answer must lie in these verses. The Lord has impressed upon them the necessity of being better than their fathers.
Prophets do not live forever. The warning to return is not going to be voiced indefinitely. It was written at the time of Samuel (a thousand years before the Savior was born): “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions” (1 Samuel 3:1). God had taken his Word away from people who didn’t want to hear it.
Implicit in Zechariah’s words is that if the warning is not heeded, there will come a time when the Lord will no longer ask us to turn. Finally Moses did not return to Pharaoh—and the silence was deafening.
What a spellbinding drama it is in verse 6 as the people strayed closer and closer to the edge of disaster, and the Word pursued them persistently. Will the brand be snatched from the fire before it is consumed? Will the smoking wick and the bruised reed be somehow kept from ruination?
God’s law and gospel bound out after straying sinners: “Repent! Return!” We read, “Then they repented and said, ‘The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’”
God is just. Even those who do not believe in him will ultimately have to admit his justice. “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve,” the thief on the cross next to Jesus confessed (Luke 23:41). God is also just in forgiving. His Son has paid the price. To those who claim the Son as a sacrifice for their sins, God will do just as he determined to do; he will forgive them! He will receive them into his kingdom of grace and power. Just as he determines to damn the stubborn sinner, so he also determines to save the sorry saint.