• Read Zechariah 1

🌅 MORNING – Return to Me

• Focal Passage: Zechariah 1:3

“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.’”

There is an old Donovan song called There Is a Mountain. The lyric says:

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

The line sounds strange until you hear the explanation. Imagine riding a bicycle along a winding path through hills. In the distance you see what appears to be a towering mountain. Then you dip into a valley and it disappears from sight. A little later you crest another rise and there it is again—clear and unavoidable.

Perspective changes what you see.

Something similar happens when readers approach the book of Zechariah. At first it can seem unusual and difficult. But once the historical setting becomes clear, the message comes sharply into focus.

Zechariah prophesied in 520 B.C. during the reign of the Persian king Darius. He was both a priest and a prophet, the grandson of Iddo (Zech. 1:1; Neh. 12:4), and he belonged to the generation that returned from exile in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem.

He ministered alongside the prophet Haggai. The two prophets served the same generation but with complementary messages. Haggai stirred the people’s hands to rebuild the temple; Zechariah called the people’s hearts back to the Lord.

16 long years had passed since the people had worked on the temple (see Haggai). The foundation had been laid when the first returnees arrived under Cyrus, but opposition and discouragement halted the project. What began with celebration slowly settled into neglect.

Into that moment God spoke through Zechariah.

And the Lord’s opening words were not primarily about construction or schedules. The Lord addressed something deeper:

“Return to Me… that I may return to you.”

The voice behind the call is emphasized three times: “declares the LORD of hosts.” The God who commands heaven’s armies is personally summoning His people back into fellowship with Himself.

Before the temple could truly be rebuilt, their hearts had to be restored.

God warns them not to repeat the tragic pattern of the previous generation:

“Do not be like your fathers…” (Zech. 1:4)

Their ancestors had heard the same appeals from earlier prophets. They were urged to turn from their “evil ways” and their “evil deeds”—their direction in life and the practices that flowed from it. But they refused to listen. Eventually God’s warnings “overtook” them (Zech. 1:6), like something pursuing its target until it finally catches it.

History had spoken loudly.

Yet the mercy of God is that history does not have to repeat itself.

Peter later describes salvation as deliverance from “the futile way of life inherited from your forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18). Many of the patterns that shape us—how we handle anger, conflict, fear, or pride—are learned long before we recognize them.

But when the Lord says “Return to Me,” He is offering something extraordinary: a new beginning.

The past does not have to control the future.

• Reflection: Consider one pattern or reaction in your life that may have been shaped more by family history than by the character of Christ. What would it look like today to turn toward the Lord in that area and walk a different path?

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🌆 EVENING – Gracious, Comforting Words 🌳

Focal Passage: Zechariah 1:12-13

“Then the angel of the LORD said, ‘O LORD of hosts, how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years?’ The LORD answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words.”

After Zechariah’s call to return to the Lord, God gives him a series of night visions. The first contains an image that is both surprising and deeply comforting.

“I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle trees 🌳 which were in the ravine…” (Zechariah 1:8).

Myrtle trees are common throughout Israel, but they are not majestic cedars. They are smaller trees that often grow in low places—valleys and ravines. The setting reflects the condition of God’s people. Jerusalem was still scarred from judgment. The temple remained unfinished. Though they had returned from exile, they were far from the glory days of David and Solomon.

They were living in a ravine.

Yet that is precisely where the Lord appears.

The vision reveals heavenly riders returning from their patrol of the earth. Their report is striking: “all the earth is peaceful and quiet” (1:11). The nations seemed secure. The great empires appeared stable. Meanwhile God’s people continued to struggle among the ruins.

Then the Angel of the LORD speaks:

“O LORD of hosts, how long?”

Many understand this Angel of the LORD to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Standing among the myrtle trees, He intercedes for God’s people. Before any promise is given, we are shown a Savior who cares enough to ask the question that is on the hearts of His people.

How long?

The answer comes in one of the most tender statements in the book:

“The LORD answered… with gracious words, comforting words.”

Notice that before God explains His plans, He reveals His heart. He assures His people that He has not forgotten them. He is zealous for Jerusalem. He sees their condition. He knows their sorrow. His purposes are still moving forward, even when they cannot see them.

Randy Alcorn tells a moving story in his book If God Is Good about a pastor named Randy Butler, whose eighteen-year-old son Kevin died unexpectedly. In the months that followed, Butler cried out to God each morning, asking, “What were You thinking?” He later wrote:

“God answered, ‘I was thinking of what I experienced with My Son.’ Every time God spoke to me He took me back to the cross. I didn’t want to go to the cross. I wanted my son back. There is a silence and a darkness of the soul. There is likewise a silence beyond the silence, and darkness beyond the darkness of the soul. This is where my journey took me. All roads lead to the cross. While I was gaining peace, I still did not see what God was doing in me. We rarely do.”
(If God Is Good, p. 212)

That testimony captures something many believers experience. There are seasons when God’s purposes seem hidden and His timing difficult to understand. The questions remain. The pain remains. Yet God still meets His people with gracious words and comforting words. He may not explain everything immediately, but He reminds us that His heart toward His children has not changed.

For believers today, this vision points us to Christ. The One who stood among the myrtle trees now sits at the Father’s right hand, where He “always lives to make intercession” for His people (Hebrews 7:25). The Savior who once asked, “How long?” on behalf of His people continues to represent them before the throne.

• Reflection:  As the day ends, identify the place in your life that feels most like a ravine—where discouragement or uncertainty lingers. Read Zechariah 1:13 again and consider what it means that the Lord still speaks “gracious words, comforting words” over His people.
• Closing Prayer:  Lord of hosts, thank You for calling us back when we drift and for meeting us in the low places of life. Thank You that Your words to Your people are gracious and comforting. As we rest tonight, remind us that Christ intercedes for us and that Your compassion has not failed. Strengthen our hearts to trust Your promises and to walk with You tomorrow. Amen.