Zechariah  1: 1-6  Return to Me

The name Zechariah means “The LORD Remembers,” and is a fitting name for a prophet of the restoration. This prophet was called to encourage and mobilize God’s people to accomplish a task that they had begun yet lost the momentum for completion.

He encouraged them by telling them about God’s care for them and by keeping the presence of the Messiah very much in their minds. He warned them of the consequences of neglecting God’s work and he emphasized that God wants to do a work through His people.

Zechariah began his prophecy with a call to repentance, and a call that remembered the poor spiritual heritage of Israel and Judah. The sin of their fathers doomed the nation to exile, and Zechariah warned the people to remember that the same could happen to them.

Adverse circumstances discouraged God’s people, and they wondered why God seemed so far away. Zechariah God assured them that He was not distant. They would return to Him, and He would return to them.

The land was still desolate after 70 years of neglect. The work was hard to rebuild and restore. They didn’t have a lot of money or manpower. They suffered crop failures and drought  Hostile enemies resisted the work.

Sometimes we wish God would make us return to Him, instead of wooing us to return out of our own choice. God wants our freely given love, so He prompts us to choose Him and return to Him. We must be reminded that it’s we who are far from God, He hasn’t distanced Himself from us, we have distanced ourselves from Him.