“But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? “Then they repented and said, “‘The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.”
~ Zechariah 1:6
Hi James and Ellen,
The first recorded visit that God had with Zechariah – who was one of His prophet spokesmen, was sometime near the end of October or around the first of November in 520 B.C. Because of the rebellious, disobedient ways of their dads and mas – which pushed God’s hot button as He totally expected His specially chosen guys and gals to give Him their faithful attention and absolute reverence, God saw to it that many of His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, ended up being exiled in 586 B.C. to the country of Babylonia. The country of Babylonia is today the country of Iraq. The country of Persia’s army in October of 539 B.C. overran the country of Babylonia. The country of Persia today is the country of Iran. The king who was reigning in 520 B.C. over the guys and gals who were living in the country of Persia was Darius I or Darius the Great. God told Zechariah in the first visit that He made with him – per what Zechariah recorded in Zechariah 1 in his Zechariah Book, that He wanted Zechariah to tell His specially chosen guys and gals why He unequivocally had no choice to do what He did with their dads and mas. When God gave the Israelite people group guys and gals the land area of Canaan – which is where the three Israelite people group patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had lived, to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . God’s ‘if’ was that ‘if’ His specially chosen guys and gals intentionally pursued wicked lifestyles, that He would ultimately have to punish them by having a good many of them forcefully taken away by an enemy nation’s army – i.e. the army from the country of Babylonia, out of the land area of Canaan to become their capturers’ slaves. What do you think that life was like over 2500 years ago for an Israelite people group guy, gal or kid who began to live as exiles to the country of Persia after the country of Persia’s Medes and Persian army overran the country of Babylonia? When your grandmaa and grandpaa were administrating the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center in Concepción, Nuflo de Chávez – in Bolivia, a guy or gal would at times come to the Dutch doors that opened up into the street from the living quarters of the church manse where your grandmaa and grandmaa lived for three years. The church manse were the back rooms of the Concepción evangelical church. Your grandmaa usually kept the top Dutch door open. Sometimes when a guy or gal came to the manse’s Dutch door, the guy or gal was hoping that your grandmaa and/or grandpaa would buy what he or she was selling. An older, poorly dressed lady one day showed up at the manse’s Dutch door with a chicken that she was wanting to sell. The lady was hoping that your grandmaa would buy the chicken. What the lady was hoping to sell her chicken for was a lot cheaper than what chickens were being sold for in Concepción. When your grandmaa asked the lady where she was living, the lady told your grandmaa the name of the small aldea or community where she was living. When your grandmaa asked the lady about the small aldea where she lived, the lady told your grandmaa that the small aldea where she lived and worked – along with other guys and gals, was owned by the Concepción Catholic Church. Your grandmaa found out from the lady that it had been several years since she had last left her aldea to make the rather long walk to Concepción. The guys, gals and kids who were living in the aldea where this lady lived were more or less being enslaved by the Catholic Church. The lady was hoping to sell her chicken for the same price that she had sold a chicken for years earlier when she had last gone into Concepción. When your grandmaa and grandpaa first lived in Concepción in 1982, they were told that of the 1800 guys and gals who lived in Concepción, that a third of these guys and gals were directly dependent on the Concepción Catholic Church for their livelihood and that another third of these guys and gals were indirectly reliant on the Concepción Catholic Church for the church’s help.
After Zechariah told God’s specially chosen guys and gals why they were now slaves to the country of Persia, Verse 6 states how God’s specially chosen guys and gals responded to what Zechariah said – “But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? “Then they repented and said, “‘The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’”” Zechariah – on February 15, 519 B.C., had eight separate visions. February 15, 519 B.C. was one year shy of the seventy years of enslavement that God had told His specially chosen guys and gals – shortly before the Babylonian people group’s army overran in 586 B.C. the land area of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, through another one of His prophet spokesmen – Jeremiah, would happen to them because of their deliberate defiance of His moral and religious laws that He had specifically mandated through Moses that they faithfully observe. Zechariah in his first vision saw in a ravine among some myrtle trees a guy riding a red horse with red, brown and white horses behind him and an angel of the Lord nearby. The horses – possibly with guys on them, had just checked out all the different countries. The guy was reporting to the angel of the Lord that the countries were at peace which . . .
Zechariah in his second vision saw four horns. These horns were probably the countries of Assyria, Egypt and Babylonia and the Medo-Persia land area. These ‘nations’ had been used by God to scatter His specially chosen guys and gals because . . . God – through Zechariah, has promised to do a number on these ‘nations’ because of their abuse of His specially chosen guys and gals. God never forgets His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids.
Zechariah 1 (843)