"In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, “The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’” (Zechariah 1:1–6)
Have you done something you feel can never be undone? Maybe it is something that would seem small to someone else but you know it is not to God. You know it is an act of rebellion that angers the Lord. For these Judahites it was failure to build a house of worship. To appreciate the severity of this offense, we should remember that the redemptive-historical significance of the temple is that it was the Old Testament version of the local church. Neglect of the church is an egregious sin which should break our hearts and make us freshly aware of our need for a Savior. If you belong to him, this realization will drive you to repentance and the reorganization of your priorities. But to return to one you have offended you must understand some things about repentance.
Repentance is an urgent matter. When your sin has been brought to your attention, you must repent immediately. After all, it is God with whom you are at odds, the one who holds your life and future in his hands. He is not one to be presumed upon.
It is possible to infer from an emphasis on grace that God is laid back about sin, that he is just happy when you finally get around to dealing with it. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The Bible says God “hates” sin (Dt. 12:31; Pr. 6:16). In fact, because he is “angry with the wicked everyday” (Ps. 7:11), God is at war with those who are in rebellion against him (Ro. 5:10; Co. 1:21). The Reformers used a Latin phrase to describe what had to happen, iram Dei placare, God’s wrath has to be satisfied or propitiated (Rom. 3:21-25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). Anger is not in contrast to love; love intensifies anger. Yes, God is “slow to anger” and allows time to repent (Ex. 34:6), but his anger can eventually be “aroused” (Ps. 106:29).
What especially angers God is sin against his grace. When we persist in our sin and refuse to repent even though we know that he forgives and restores, God is irate. That is the issue in the passage we are studying. Though God had delivered his people time and again, they were quick to falter in their faith when times became difficult. This occasion was no exception. Despite the fact that God had brought settlers back to Jerusalem with money from the King to rebuild the temple, they quit when they faced some opposition. The author of Hebrews calls his parishioners to repent of the same basic sin as their forefathers, a failure to trust God regardless of how he has never failed us before. He reminds us that our forefathers heard the same “gospel” we have (4:2, 6). So if we fail to trust him, or refuse to “enter that rest” he has always provided his people, God gets “angry” (3:7-11; 4:3). In other words, God does not take well to being called a liar. Whenever we fail to trust him by going forward in obedience, we are saying his word cannot be trusted though he has never failed his people. To fail to trust him is to reject his good news (2 Th. 1:7-9; 2:8). Therefore, as soon as you realize you are not trusting him, he warns, you must repent. “Today” is the day to repent and repent you must while there is still time! (He. 3:12-14; 4:7). So you must not wait one more day. Whatever sin you have been made aware, you must repent of it today. To do so proves Christ lives in you. To continue to tolerate it may demonstrate that you never belonged to the Lord and judgment awaits.
Furthermore, it is urgent that you repent because if you are his child, God will discipline you if you do not. You must not make the mistake of thinking that because you have gotten away with disobedience for a while that God does not care or that he even approves it. If you continue to do something God forbids or not do something God requires and there is no discipline yet for it, there are only two possibilities. One is that he is being patient with you for a little while longer and giving you time to repent. The other is that you do not belong to Christ, so God is allowing you to seek your own judgment. The solution to both is the same—repent. Turn to Christ who will restore you.
The corporate worship service is designed to confront us both with the reality of our sin and the grace of God's forgiveness and restoration. God uses it to draw us to repentance so that we can continue to live in relationship with him.