God’s people had returned home from exile, but they remained under the rule of a foreign king (v 1). In addition, the Babylonian names in their calendar (eg Shebat, v 7) were a reminder of their subjugation and of the sins of the past which had brought this about. But the heritage of their forebears’ disobedience does not determine their present. Your past does not automatically dictate your future. It can be hard to throw off influences, mindsets or habits we have inherited – but they are not the final word about us. 

There is an opportunity to return to the Lord with the sure response that ‘I will return to you’ (v 3). But the opportunity is time limited. The people’s ancestors had gone to the grave (v 5), and so will we. They refused to listen to God’s Word and it overtook them (v 6) like a police officer bringing down a thief fleeing the scene. There is no escape from accountability to God. 

What does returning to the Lord involve? It means genuine repentance – an open, full disclosure of what we’ve done, accepting God’s right to hold us to account (v 6). No excuses, no blaming of anyone in our past. Just ‘Have mercy on me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13).

Can you remember having to make a new start, perhaps after failure, or because of a change of circumstances? How did you respond to the challenge?

Zechariah’s ministry began a month before Haggai’s ended, following Haggai’s encouraging word to those who were feeling despondent.¹ Zechariah’s message was both challenging and encouraging. He challenged his hearers to learn a lesson from history. Their ancestors’ continual covenant-breaking and disregard of repeated warnings given by prophets had made God very angry. Anger is as much an attribute of God in the New Testament as it is in the Old.² Unlike human anger, God’s is never arbitrary or disproportionate. In Israel’s case, it implemented the covenant curses which they had accepted and was proportionate to their evil ways and practices (vs 4,6). God’s anger expresses his holiness, which cannot condone evil, and his love, which cannot remain unmoved by the abuse of those he loves or their self-abuse in giving in to evil. 

The destruction of the Temple and the Exile had shown that God keeps his word, the terms of the covenant. This is a basis for encouragement, because the prophet brings a promise from God, ‘“Return to me,” declares the Lord Almighty, “and I will return to you”’ (v 3). It is a reminder that the covenant was not just a code of conduct, but a personal relationship. Here was the offer of a new start, but this required an act of ‘turning’, a complete reorientation of one’s life, an act of repentance. My father, a soldier, compared this to the three parade-ground commands, ‘Halt! About turn! Quick march!’ Jesus began his ministry of the new covenant with a call to repentance, ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’³ He expressed the relationship aspect of the new covenant in a way that echoes Zechariah’s promise, in the picture of the father running to meet the returning prodigal son.⁴

Lord, show me if I have strayed away from you and help me to turn to you, trusting your promise that you will be ready to welcome me back.

¹ Hag 2:1–9  ² Eg John 3:36; Rom 1:18; Eph 5:6; 1 Thess 1:10  ³ Mark 1:15  ⁴ Luke 15:20