WHERE ARE THEY?
BIBLE PASSAGE: ZECHARIAH 1: 1-6
Picture taken from Google
Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of
Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
Lesson
ideas taken from: https://fbcspur.org/return-to-me-zechariah-11-6
APRIL 18, 2021
MEMORY VERSE
Therefore
say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto
me, saith the Lord of
hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
ZECHARIAH 1:3
LESSON BACKGROUND:
The name Zechariah means
“The LORD Remembers,” and is a fitting name for a prophet
of 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 indirectly
by telling them about God’s care for
them and by keeping the presence of the Messiah very much in their minds. He
worked with others, notably Haggai, Zerubbabel, and Ezra. He warned them of the
consequences of neglecting God’s work and he emphasized that God wants to do a
work through His people.
We know that Judah was conquered and taken into exile in
Babylon and we know that the exile lasted for 70 years. However, God promised
Israel that after this period of slavery there would be a return (Ezra 1:1-4).
Nebuchadnezzar had leveled it and then burned it, and it had laid there
unattended for over 70 years. Their temple was ruined during slavery. In Ezra chapter
1 we see that there’s a decree to rebuild the temple. In Ezra 3:1-9, You’ll
see that the people entered this land that had been decimated and the first
thing they did was rebuild the altar so they could sacrifice to God. The 7th
month was a big month of feasting for Israel. It was the feast of trumpets, the
“Day of Atonement” and “The Feast of Booths.” And all they managed to build was the altar. (536BC) They were terrified in the land and so
they most certainly wanted God on their side. The next year when they returned
again for these feasts is when work on the temple foundation finally began under
the direction of Zerubbabel. But it wouldn’t
last long.
In Ezra 4:1-5, there we find that the inhabitants of the
land wanted to help, but Zerubbabel wouldn’t let them, primarily because of
their pluralism. This made the inhabitants angry and they began to oppose the
work and the Israelites gave up and went
to their homes and stopped building the temple. (534BC) But 6 years later
the building project would be resumed.
WHY? In Ezra 5:1-2, it was the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah that brought
about the completion of this building program. That means that Zechariah showed
up to address and intimidated people. They had returned to Jerusalem.
And incidentally there weren’t many who did. Most opted to stay in
Babylon where they were comfortable. This doesn’t happen for another 42
years. Most stayed in Babylon/Persia. And so a small remnant returned and they were scared.
· The land was dangerous.
· The land was unprotected.
· The natives were restless.
· The people had seemingly given up on building the temple
do to fear.
That is when Haggai and Zechariah show up. Now let’s look Haggai’s sermons. In Haggai 1:1-15, Haggai
really rebuked the people for being
content to live in their own houses while letting the Lord’s house lie
desolate. To Haggai it was seeking worldly comfort over seeking to please
God. And he ripped the people for it.
In chapter 2 Haggai preached again. This time
on the 21st of the 7th month, which would have been the tail end of the feast
of booths (READ 2:1-9). Haggai there addressed the sentiment of the people:
· Zerubbabel listened to that first sermon of Haggai and
started to build.
· At this point he had been building nearly 2 months but the GRUMBLING of the people was
discouraging.
· Haggai pointed out that some of the people thought
Zerubbabel’s temple paled in comparison to Solomon’s temple.
· You have to love sticking your neck out to serve the Lord
only to have those critics who tell you that you aren’t doing a very good job.
From studies of historians, Zerubbabel
must have taken a lot of flack or criticism. So in this second sermon of Haggai
he encourages Zerubbabel to keep up the hard work. This temple may not be as
glorious as Solomon’s temple was,
but it will house more glory than Solomon’s temple did. This is the temple that
Jesus would enter. AND THAT BRINGS US UP TO SPEED.
You have a small remnant who has returned to
Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and it has not been an easy assignment.
• The work crew was small…
• The new temple was less than impressive…
• The nations surrounding threatened and were hostile…
Into this situation the Lord sends a prophet
named “The Lord Remembers” - Zechariah
• Israel is not forgotten
• Israel is not overlooked
God has not forgotten His people whom He
foreknew.
He disciplined them, but He has not forgotten them.
AND HE WILL NOT FORGET THEM
His first sermon occurs “In the eight month
of the second year of Darius”
• That means Zechariah stood to preach after
Haggai’s second sermon.
• Zerubbabel has been working now for about 3 months on the temple and Haggai
has made sure the people are buying in to the project.
But watching the temple go up opened the door
for a very important message from the Lord to His people.
And the message is this:
Don’t
just rebuild the temple, rebuild the relationship.
Don’t just return to the land, return to Me.
INTRODUCTION:
Then let’s go to our passage; in
Zechariah chapter 1 verses 2-3, there’s a call to return. We need to picture
the scene. We have refugees
returning from Babylon and they have begun to sift through the rubble of what
was once the temple of God. Nebuchadnezzar
had leveled it and then burned it, and it had laid there unattended for over 70
years. Jeremiah gave us the detailed description of the fall of Jerusalem in
Lamentations 2:1-9. You can
literally hear there the lament of Jeremiah as he looks at the smoldering ashes
of what used to be the temple. Now, some 70 years later, these refugees are
rummaging through those same ruins. And Zechariah begins his sermon by saying: “The Lord hath
been sore displeased with your fathers.” In verse 5
he asks, WHERE ARE THEY? and the prophets, do they live for ever? Let’s leave for a
moment the question and let’s also reminisce and we might also use this
question later.
If we would try to dig in your memory the past
members of Christian Baptist Tabernacle that weren’t here anymore, could you
recall some? If you remember we updated our membership in the year 2007 because
the files had been destroyed by flood therefore we have no files of the past
members. We have now the active members and if our secretary would try to scan some files she could see the active and inactive for the
year 2021. Maybe we could remember the favorite spot of our old members used to
sit on and now it’s empty or occupied by new members. Maybe some of us here
could recall more members who haven’t seen for a long time. The question I
would like to say is, “WHERE ARE THEY NOW”? The same question the prophet
Zechariah was telling to the people of Judah. In verse 5 says, “Your fathers, where
are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
We don’t know for sure what happened of
the past members but it might be that they are continuing in the ministry up to
now but we can’t avoid the fact that we want to know where are they now. Sad to
say, some have already stopped or backslid and others already died. We don’t
their reasons of walking away from their home church or from the Lord but
whatever reasons, stop prioritizing spiritual matters is the wrong move. Whatever
the choices they had chosen, our first point should remind us.
LESSON
OUTLINE:
1.
DON’T REPEAT THE MISTAKE OF THE PAST
(1:4)
Be ye not as your fathers,
unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of
hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did
not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord.
In verse 4 it says, “BE NOT AS YOUR FATHERS”. Why God said
this? In verse 2 says, “The Lord hath been sore displeased
with your fathers.”
The problem of those who lived in
Israel at the time of its destruction
Was that they had abandoned God.
· No, they didn’t quit going to church…
· No, they didn’t quit offering the sacrifices…
· THEY ABANDONED HIM IN THEIR HEARTS
It was a picture of people who
went through all the motions, but who in their hearts had pulled away from God.
And we hear that reality all throughout the preaching of the prophets.
Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore
the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people
draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have
removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the
precept of men:,”
All they did was go through the
motions, but they had no heart for God. In fact, they willfully lived in sin without
any concern for what God thought about it.
They assumed that so long as they
maintained their religious ordinances God would be pleased with them regardless
of their sinful lives. God emphatically told them over and over again that this
was not so.
Who could forget that powerful sermon that Jeremiah
preached right in the doorway of the temple? Jeremiah 7:9-12 “Will ye steal,
murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and
walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and
stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are
delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house,
which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even
I have seen it, saith the Lord.
But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where
I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my
people Israel.”
70 + years ago Jeremiah had stood
in the door way of this temple and reminded the people how God had destroyed
their former place of worship because their worship was unacceptable. And
Jeremiah assured them that if their worship didn’t change that God would
destroy this place as well. 70 years later Zechariah is standing in the rubble
of that former temple. Reminding the children of Israel that How we worship God is more than just
ceremony.
The Lord wanted the prophet to remind these people of something they most probably had forgotten. They must have forgotten that the Lord had been extremely angry with their ancestors. And they had also forgotten something else as well. They had forgotten why the Lord was very angry with their ancestors to send them into exile. These people— these returned exiles had most probably forgotten all this in the security and comfort of their newly established lives in the land of their return.
What did God want of them? Actually several things. He’s reminding
them of why he had been angry with their forefathers, for they had strayed from
him. How had they strayed from God? Actually in many ways. Their ancestors,
before the exile had become as godless as the peoples and nations around them,
if not even more so. They had favored the worship of other gods, and rebelled
against the Lord God desecrating his Laws, and abusing his prophets. They were
stubborn and faithless, and each one did as they saw fit, while still claiming that
they were Jews and the special children of God. They had abandoned God, and so
God had abandoned them as he had promised he would do. In the end, the word of
the Lord came true and they were carried off in misery into exile, swept away
by a ruthless nation. It was then that they began to come to their senses and
consider returning to God. Return to me, were God’s words to a people who had
completely abandoned the God and his ways as set in the Bible. And these same
words were being spoken now to the returned exiles for a very good reason. They
had forgotten the sins of their forefathers, what their forefathers had become
before the day of disaster came and they were carried off into exile. Not these
words are being spoken to them because they seem to have inherited the sin of
their ancestors.
The command of the Lord “Be not as your fathers” is a great
reminder for every one of us that we should learn from their mistakes. That
would be enough reason for us to keep on serving, be serious in the ministry
and don’t ever try to stop.
2. REMEMBER
THE OPPORTUNITY IS NOT FOREVER (1:5)
Your fathers, where are
they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
Look at verse 1. “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the
Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo. John
Wesley’s notes mention this Zechariah as the one Jesus was referring to when in
rebuking the Pharisees, he charged them with the guilt of all the spilt blood
of the righteous prophets who were murdered for speaking the truth of God’s
word, among whom was our Zechariah. He must have been an incredibly righteous
prophet to be slain by the very people he spoke the word of God to. Jesus said
that they murdered him between the
temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35), perhaps during a worship service.
Let’s read, “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of
Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” We can see through this verse that Zachariah had been slew. We can say
that he was killed during performing the ministry and this is what the verse
says, “… and the prophets, do they live
for ever? Like the everyone else, prophets or pastors die also. Therefore, while there’s opportunity, do it.
What had all the Israelites’ stubborn rebellion brought them
but disaster! They thought they knew better than God and his outdated prophets.
But did that benefit them at all? What were they thinking when they
deliberately closed their ears and their hearts to the old prophets’ sermons?
Did they think that they were too smart to listen to such outdated words and
Bible studies? Did they really think they had all the time in the world to sin
today and perhaps to repent tomorrow? Were they really going to live forever?
Didn’t they know that when the opportunity’s gone, It’s gone forever. Opportunity
to what? The opportunity to return to
the Lord and stay put! The opportunity to listen to his word! When that
opportunity is gone, it’s gone! People waste their lives letting such
opportunities slip by when they run after worthless opportunities that
eventually perish! You will lose everything with roots and foundation in this
world— because they will soon perish. One thing alone is meant to last forever. The Lord and His Words.
Nowadays, we can visibly see the increasing of deaths every
day and our breath that we take is truly a blessing to the Lord. There are many
at this moment who have difficulty in breathing. Just like James 4:14
mentioned, our life is like a vapor, it soon fades away. Don’t say you accepted
Christ and you’re a Christian and you will be given a long life. We don’t know
when our life ends therefore our remaining days, months, years on this earth
are worth spent to the Lord or to the world? It’s our choice.
3. TURN
TO GOD AND HE’LL TURN TO YOU (1:3)
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith
the Lord of
hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will
turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
It was the plea of a father to his wayward children who have gone astray
and who often do things in their own way, thinking that as long as they
maintain a religious appearance they would be in God’s good favor. But the very
fact that God said “return to me” is the sign that they had
abandoned God. They had been just like their ancestors. No sooner did they
return from their exile than the waywardness set in and they began to go astray
almost as soon as they arrived. How so? We saw in the Book of Haggai that most
of them became devoted to their own private affairs, building their own paneled
houses, while the house of the Lord was abandoned and left in ruins. History
such as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah the prophets attest that many of them
went ahead and married foreign women contrary to the Law of God, which forbade
them to marry unbelieving women or women of a different religious background.
They had given in to the corruption of the flesh. Who knows, maybe just like
the people of today, they thought that loving someone is more important than
keeping the holiness and sanctity of God’s command! Maybe like some Christians,
they revered their lustful desires above the love of God. Who knows, perhaps in
their twisted faith it was easy for them to convince each other that God
understands why they wished to marry exotic foreign women even against God’s
wishes. They had surely gone far away from him in the span of a short time.
Although God had extended his arm of grace to bring them back home, their
hearts and minds already wondered. “Return to me”, “And I will return to you”. And
so, each of them had so much soul searching to do to find out how they might
return to the Lord.
He sees these people rebuilding the temple
and is in effect saying, DON’T JUST RETURN
TO THE TEMPLE, RETURN TO ME. That is to say that: You must turn from your
sin, you must turn from your pride, you must turn from your idolatry, AND You
must enter this place not out of a sense of tradition, but out of a sense of
love for GOD. So God gives His conditions. “Return to Me…that I may return to you.” GET YOUR HEART RIGHT.
James 4:6-10 “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith,
God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to
you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be
afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and
your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up.”
It’s not about the
tradition of your worship,
It’s about the posture of your heart.
CONLUSION
The
Making of a Brave
One American
Indian tribe had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of
his 13th birthday, a boy was blindfolded and taken into the middle of a dense
forest. He was left all alone, the first time he'd been away from the security
of his family and tribe. When he took off the blindfold, he was there in the
dark forest. All alone. All night.
If a twig snapped, he
wondered if a wild animal was ready to pounce. If an animal howled, he imagined
a wolf coming for him. The wind in the leaves brought to his mind all kinds of
sinister images.
Finally, if the boy
persevered, the first rays of morning began to lighten the forest. He saw the
trees, the flowers, the outline of the path. Then, to his astonishment, he saw
a man standing a few feet away: his father! Standing there with bow and arrow,
watching over him—where he'd been all night.
When you're going through a
dark time, remember that, when the darkness clears, you'll see your Father
there with you. His love is watching over you.
Reference: SoulSalsa, Leonard Sweet,
pp. 23-24.
