Lange Commentary - Zechariah 1:1 - 1:6

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Lange Commentary - Zechariah 1:1 - 1:6


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

PART FIRST

UTTERANCES FOR THE PRESENT TIME

Zechariah 1-8

I. THE INTRODUCTION

Zec_1:1-6

A. A Call to Repentance (Zec_1:1-3). B. Enforced by an Appeal to the Experience of their Fathers (Zec_1:4-6).

1     In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

2 Jehovah hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,

Return ye unto me, saith Jehovah of Hosts,

And I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of Hosts.

4 Be not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying,

Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,

Turn, I beseech you, from your evil ways and from your evil doings;

But they hearkened not, and paid no attention to me,

Saith Jehovah.

5 Your fathers, where are they?

And the prophets, can they live forever?

6 Nevertheless, my words and my statutes,

Which I commanded my servants the prophets,—

Did they not overtake your fathers, so that they turned and said,

Like as Jehovah of Hosts purposed to do unto us,

According to our ways and according to our doings,

So hath He dealt with us.



EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The main design of Zechariah’s prophetic activity was to administer consolation and encouragement to the people of God still in a condition of weakness and suffering. This plainly appears from the general tenor of the night-visions, form the promised change of fasts into festivals, and from the glowing pictures of future blessedness and honor which occur in the latter portion of his book. Yet it was necessary to prevent these consolations from being usurped by any to whom they did not belong, and to show that repentance and holy living were indispensable conditions of the attainment of any of these blessings. This thought is again and again expressed in the course of the prophetic revelations (Zec_3:7, Zec_6:15. Zec_7:7-10, Zec_8:16-17, Zec_10:1-2, Zec_11:10, Zec_14:20), but it is made especially prominent in these opening verses, which seem to be a kind of introduction both to the prophet’s labors in general, and also to the present collection of his utterances. In them Zechariah sounds the key note of all spiritual religion, a return to God, and urges its importance by the mention of their fathers’ sins and their fathers’ punishments.

Zec_1:1. In the eighth month, etc. The first note of time does not mean, “In the eighth new moon” (C. B. Michaelis, Köhler), because chôdesh is never used in this sense in chronological notices. The general, introductory nature of this particular address did not require that the precise day of the month should be indicated. On other points in this verse, see the Introduction.

Zec_1:2. Jehovah hath been sore displeased, etc. The mention of God’s wrath is the ground of the summons in the following verse. Because God had been so angry with the fathers, the children should now repent in all sincerity. The severity of this wrath had been painfully shown in the overthrow of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and the bitter exile in Babylon (Psalms 137). The contradiction between this verse and the statement in Zec_1:17, that Jehovah was “but a little displeased,” is only apparent, for the latter refers to the duration of the wrath, while the former expresses its intensity.

Zec_1:3. Return ye … I will return. The exhortation and promise contained in this verse, often repeated elsewhere (Mal_3:7, Jam_4:8), are remarkably strengthened by the trine repetition of “Saith Jehovah of Hosts.” The occasion of the summons is not to be sought in a temporary abandonment of the work of rebuilding the Temple, for which there is no historical ground, but in the spiritual condition of the people. It reminded them that the mere outward work was not enough, but there was need of a thorough conversion, a genuine heartfelt return from their former works and ways to the service and enjoyment of God.

Zec_1:4. Be not as your fathers. Since naturally parents are apt to transmit their own character and course to their children, the prophet here repeats his injunction in a negative form, bidding his countrymen carefully to shun the example of their predecessors, who had utterly scorned the Lord’s remonstrances. The former prophets are those before the exile, and Zechariah intentionally overlooks Daniel, because he officiated at a heathen court and not in the midst of his people, and his prophecies treated not so much of the inward duties of Israel as of its outward fortunes amid the mighty revolutions of the heathen world. For a full summation of the course of the former prophets as here set forth, see 2Ki_17:13-23. The ways and works of the earlier generation are called evil, in the first instance, because they were morally corrupt, but also because they were followed by sore consequences (Köhler).

Zec_1:5. Your fathers, where are they? The concluding verses of the section sustain the warning not to imitate the fathers, by pointing out the fate which overtook them in consequence of their disobedience. The general sense is plain, and acknowledged by all interpreters, but the precise force of the questions in Zec_1:5 is variously stated. Both, of course, imply a negative answer, but in what sense is the decease of the prophets mentioned? Some (Jerome, Cyril), referring to Jer_37:10, suppose that false prophets are intended; but the persons spoken of here must be the same as those mentioned in the preceding verse, who are manifestly true servants of God. Others make the second question a rejoinder of the people to the first (Raschi, Burger, etc.), which seems forced. Others say that a contrast is presented between the fleeting, dying prophets, and the ever-living word of Jehovah (Calvin, Grotius, Hitzig, etc.), as if the meaning were, I allow that both your fathers and my prophets are dead; but my words, are they dead? but the. latter part of this contrast is not found in the text, but supplied by the interpreters. Another, class conceive that the point of the second question is to remind Zechariah’s contemporaries that the voice of prophecy would soon cease, and therefore they should heed it while they had the opportunity (Abarb., Ewald), which is a very natural sense of the words if they stood alone; but it is contradicted by Zec_1:6, which shows that the reference is not to the existing, but to the former prophets. The true view is the one given by Köhler and others, that the former of the two verses contains a concession which is limited and corrected by the latter. Thus: Your fathers are long since dead, and it may seem as though they had thus escaped the threatenings pronounced against them; the prophets, too, have gone the way of all flesh, and apparently their words died with them; nevertheless your fathers did not die until the threatenings of the shortlived prophets had overtaken them, nor until they themselves had acknowledged that fact. This view is sustained by the strong disjunctive conjunction at the commencement of Zec_1:6. The phrase, take hold,” in E. V., fails to give the force of the Hebrew verb. The prophet conceives of God’s purposes of wrath as commissioned messengers which followed the Israelites and overtook them (cf. Deu_28:15; Deu_28:45). Mournful acknowledgments of this fact are to be found in Lam_2:17, in Daniel’s penitential prayer (Zec_9:4 ff.), and in Ezra’s humbling confession (Zec_9:6-7). There may be long delay, and consequently a growing hope of escape, but sooner or later every transgressor makes the affecting acknowledgment of the Psalmist (Psa_40:13), “mine iniquities have overtaken me.”

THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL

1. The opening words of Zechariah state a truth of great importance,—and none the less so because in every age a persistent attempt has been made to deny or to evade it—that God has wrath. The blinding influence of their own depravity renders men insensible to the evil of sin, and they easily come to transfer their own views to their Maker—“thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Psa_50:21). Hence they attribute to Him an easy good nature which readily condones moral offenses and is quite too gentle to give effect to the forebodings of a guilty conscience. To set forth his justice, and assert his prerogative as governor of the world, is regarded as an unwarrantable disturbance of men’s peace and an impeachment of the amiableness of the divine character. This device is as old as the Apostles, and Paul exposes it with his usual vehemence, “Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Eph_5:6). God has wrath. Nature bears witness to the fact. The earth does not everywhere smile with verdure and beauty, but all over its surface shows blots and scars which suggest the moral disorder of the race. This fact has been set forth with equal eloquence and truth by Mr. Ruskin. Speaking of the revelations of God made on the face of creation, he says, “Wrath and threatening are invariably mingled with love; and in the utmost solitudes of nature, the existence of hell seems to me as legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances as of heaven. It is well for us to dwell with thankfulness on the unfolding of the flower and the falling of the dew, and the sleep of the green fields in the sunshine; but the blasted trunk, the barren rock, the moaning of the bleak winds, the roar of the black, perilous whirlpools of the mountain streams, the solemn solitudes of moors and seas, the continual fading of all beauty into darkness and of all strength into dust, have these no language for us? We may seek to escape their teachings by reasonings touching the good which is wrought out of all evil; but it is vain sophistry. The good succeeds to the evil as day succeeds the night, but so also the evil to the good. Gerizim and Ebal, birth and death, light and darkness, heaven and hell, divide the existence of man and his futurity.”

2. The words in Zec_1:2 do not belong to the message to the people, but were delivered only to the Prophet; and they disclose to us the internal pressure under which he entered upon his office (Pressel). A due sense of the power of God’s wrath lies at the basis of all true earnestness on the part of his Prophets. It is the “burning fire shut up in the bones” (Jer_20:9) which imparts its own vehemence to the message, and produces corresponding conviction in them that hear. We observe it in the Prophet of all Prophets, the Saviour Himself. His groaning in spirit at the grave of Lazarus, his tears at the sight of Jerusalem, show how deeply he felt the terribleness of God’s anger. Bunyan’s Grace Abounding affords a remarkable testimony from his own experience. “Now this part of my work I fulfilled with great earnestness, for the terrors of the law and guilt for my transgressions lay heavy on my conscience; I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did feel, even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed, I have been as one sent to them from the dead; I went myself in chains, to preach to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that! persuaded them to be aware of.”

3. The Lord’s first message to the people by the mouth of Zechariah contains the fundamental principle of all his communications to fallen men, alike in the Old Testament and in the New. There is a command and a promise, each comprehending in itself all others of the same class. Men are summoned to turn back to God, and then He engages to return to them. Alienation from God is the primary sin. Men turn away from their Maker, hide from Him like Adam, or wander off like the prodigal, and of course are dissatisfied and wretched. Having left the fountain of living waters, they find the cisterns they hew out for themselves to be broken cisterns which can hold no water. No matter how often the experiment is repeated, it always fails. The only escape, the first duty, is to turn to the Lord. This duty would be difficult, nay, it would be impossible, but for the gracious promise which accompanies it. God is found of those who seek Him. This is a truth of the older dispensation as well as of the later. The father in our Saviour’s parable who, while yet the wayward son was a great way off, discerned, and welcomed, and ran to meet his returning steps, is only a vivid picture of him who waited to be gracious all through the history of his ancient people. Even in the early days of Job, Eliphaz announced (Job_22:21) the cheering assurance, “Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.”

4. God’s providence not only insures the fulfillment of his threatenings, but compels the acknowledgment of that fulfillment from those who suffer it. In the case of the Jews this recognition was frequently uttered, as mentioned before. (See Exeget. and Crit., ad finem.)

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

T. V. Moore: It is a sign of a sickly piety when men are willing to hear nothing of the wrath of God against sin. If men expect God to return to them in prosperity, they must return to Him in penitence. The flower averted from the sun must turn toward it, to catch its genial smile.

Pressel: No mercy without return, and no return without mercy. He who will not hear, shall feel. Haste (eile) that you may not be overtaken (ereilt). 1. Haste, for your day of grace is short, and even the messengers of grace are passing away. 2. If once you are overtaken, your eyes will open too late, and only with trembling lips can you give honor to the Lord.

Wordsworth: Zechariah comes forth like John the Baptist, and begins his preaching with a call to repentance, and warns the people by the history of their fathers, that no spiritual privileges will profit them without holiness, but rather will aggravate their guilt and increase their condemnation if they disobey God.

Calvin: We learn here that the examples set up as a shield for wrong-doing are so far from being of any weight before God that they enhance our guilt. Yet this folly infatuates many, for the Papists claim their religion to be holy and irreprehensible, because it has been handed down by their fathers.

Footnotes:

Zec_1:2.—The collection of the verb and its cognate noun renders this verse very emphatic. Literally, Angry was Jehovah at your fathers with anger.

Zec_1:3.—The vav conv. with the Perfect, indicating a necessary consequence from what precedes, is rendered in the imperative.— àֲìֵãֶí does not refer to the nearest antecedent “fathers,” but to the prophet's contemporaries, implied in the pronoun “your.”

Zec_1:4.—The Kethib îֵòֲìִéìֵéëֶí is to be retained both because the preposition is wanting in the Keri, and also because the latter seems to have originated in the offense taken at the masculine ending in the plural of a noun feminine in the singular, although similar cases are not rare (Green, Heb. Gram., § 200 b).

Zec_1:6.— àַêְ . This word is very inadequately rendered in the E. V., by the simple adversative but

Zec_1:6.— äֻ÷ַּé . For a precisely similar use of this word, see Zephaniah 2 :and Job_23:14.

Zec_1:6.— äִùִּׂéâåּ . The marginal rendering of E. V., overtake, is to be preferred to the text, take hold.