Zechariah 1:5,6 - So they repented

1:5

Zechariah is trying to get them to realise what matters most, what is truly eternal. “Where are your ancestors?” They were clearly no more, the ways they followed did not do them any good. “And the prophets?” Now there were both false prophets and true prophets. The false prophets tended to prophecy “nice” things, saying that Jerusalem would not be destroyed. The good prophets were faithful to God and His word, but they too, of course were no more. Now how can we relate this to the word of God? Well the good prophets preached in line with the Law, in line with what God had said and done in the past. So if we relate this to LGBTQ issues and approaches fo churches we can draw a parallel. (I know I mention LGBT stuff quite a lot, this is only because it is a current issue and illustrates the same distinction between what is truly of God and what is not.) The sin affirming churches and preachers are like the false prophets of OT times, saying in effect that God will not punish sin. That is an extremely foolish and dangerous thing to say. The consistent record of Scripture is that God will punish sin. The faithful preachers and churches are those that hold true to God’s word. But even with good prophets or preachers, we must not put faith in them, for they will still die, but the word of the Lord lasts forever.

1:6

The false prophets preached nice words, but the actual word of God overtook them, ie judgement and disaster did come. This is one the key reasons why the second part of Isaiah is so important. For God says he is foretelling things well ahead of time so that when the events did take place they would look back and see that it is the word of the Lord that we must pay attention to.

“Then they repented”. This word was given between Haggai 2:1-9 and 2:10. So the people responded by getting back to working on the temple. A key element to repentance is recognising that the Lord is right. Men spend an awful lot of time trying to argue that God is wrong and should be ignored. Repentance happens when we “acknowledge that actually the Lord is right in what He says and in His judgements upon us.