Moving Forward While Looking Back

INTRODUCTION

When I was five years old, I moved with my family from the dusty, scorching heat of Needles, CA to the lush, green hills of northern Virginia. We moved to a city called Manassas, a town roughly 40 miles outside of Washington, DC, where my dad travelled for his job in the Bureau of Land Management.

Being that Manassas was the site of not one but two major battles of the Civil War, I developed a keen interest in that war that I’ve carried with me ever since. And one of the lessons learned from this war and the battles fought in it is that if we’re not careful, history is apt to repeat itself.

On July 3rd, 1863 General Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia initiated what would become one of the most famous attacks in the history of the war. Facing a superior force which held a superior tactical position, Lee sent his already battle-weary troops in an all-out assault on the center of the Federal line.

The assault was massive. Twelve to fifteen thousand men marched in line across nearly a mile of open ground. From the opposite ridgeline, Union artillery rained down solid shot and explosive shells on the exposed troops. When they finally reached the Union lines, they met an enemy that was well concealed behind a wall of stone fence work. From their entrenchment, the Federal troops were able to pour out volleys of musket fire into the oncoming infantry lines, while Union batteries shot canister rounds at virtually point-blank range, cutting great holes in the lines.

For a moment, there was a glimmer of hope that the rebel troops might actually succeed. But then it passed, and what was left of Lee’s shattered troops retreated to the cover of the woods behind the Confederate line.

All told, the assault was a massive failure that left half its participants dead or wounded, and drew the bloodiest battle in the war to a decisive close. The Battle of Gettysburg has been called the “high tide of the Confederacy.” Lee’s defeat halted the South’s momentum and began a long and slow decline which ended two years later at Appomattox.

But here’s the thing: it did not have to be that way. Lee’s infamous assault on the Union lines at Gettysburg stands as one of the great ironies of military history.

Seven months earlier, General Ambrose Burnside, commanding general of the Federal Army of the Potomac, crossed the Rappahannock River outside Fredericksburg, VA and on December 13th, 1862, assaulted the Confederate forces who were well entrenched on the ridges outside of the town.

The assault was doomed to fail. The southern forces had placed artillery in strong positions with overlapping fields of fire covering the entire area. In fact, Lt. Col. Porter Alexander told Longstreet, “General, we cover that ground now so well that we will comb it as with a fine-toothed comb. A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it.”

On top of that, the southern troops had taken up a position along a 600-yard stretch of sunken road which provided a perfect entrenchment from which to defend their position. By the time the assault concluded later the next day, Burnside had lost over 12,000 men.

And it was General Robert E. Lee himself who famously said after the battle, “It is good that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” Lee himself had witnessed the ill-fated Federal assault. He had seen the cost of crossing open ground covered by well-placed artillery to attack a well-entrenched line. And yet, seven months later, when circumstances were reversed, Lee repeated history.

As Lee’s shattered troops retreated back across the battlefield at Gettysburg, the Union soldiers broke into chant, crying, “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!”

Too many mistakes in the present are the result of a failure to remember the past. That’s the case in war. That’s the case in politics and other worldly affairs. But it’s also the case in the church, and this is true on a number of different levels.

Bruce Shelly in his book on Church history says, “Many Christians today suffer from historical amnesia. The time between the apostles and their own day is one giant blank.”

One of the things that happens because of this is that Christians become more vulnerable to seductive heresy. A new theology comes along and it sounds good, and they’re completely ignorant to the fact that this is nothing more than an old teaching which was dealt with long before they were ever born.

Nine times out of ten, the “new” doctrines that circulate around, whether published by academic liberals or popularized by “Christian” cult groups, are nothing more than old heresies put in new clothing. The eternal truths that form the foundation of the Christian faith, which were laid by the apostles, were then fleshed out and clarified for us throughout church history. Whether it was Athanasius and the deity of Christ, Augustine and the sinfulness of man, Luther on justification by faith, we have a long hallway of history for us to walk through, learn and remember so that we don’t fall for lies that have already been exposed and dealt with.

Additionally, there’s also a moral urgency to remembering the past. Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. How many times is it really that we stumble and sin, and it was the first time we’ve ever done that, and it was the first time we’ve ever experienced the circumstances that led to it? I venture to guess that more often than not, we’ve walked those same roads before, but we just never stopped and learned any lessons from it.

A brand new year lies before us. There’s potential for great growth as we move forward. But if we don’t spend any time dwelling on what’s behind us—what’s happened already, the experiences we’ve had, the failures we’ve made—we may very well find ourselves as Lee did—reliving history.

So with that in mind, turn with me to Zechariah 1, and I want us to look at verses 1-6. For the time we have this morning, I want us to explore this opening message that Zechariah gives to a people who were desperate for a fresh start.

CONTEXT

Zechariah began his prophetic ministry amidst a backdrop of geopolitical turbulence and spiritual disillusionment.

Almost 70 years earlier, Israel had experienced the single greatest crisis in their entire history up to that point. In 586 BC, Babylon came and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, killed thousands of people, and carted off the rest to live in exile in Babylon.

That single event affected Israel in several profound ways. It ended Israel’s national identity—without a land, they weren’t a nation. It also ended Judah’s means of worshipping God—without a temple, they couldn’t offer sacrifices, which was the central feature of how they maintained their covenant relationship with God.

For 70 years, they lived in exile in a foreign land. Meanwhile, kingdoms rose and fell. In 539 BC Cyrus the Persian conquered Babylon, and the next year issued the decree that Judah could return to their land and begin rebuilding the temple.

In 536 BC, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the foundation of the temple had been laid. Things looked up. The restoration seemed promising. Yet it wasn’t long before resistance arose, first from the Samaritans in the land, and later from the Persian appointed governor. Thus, the temple sat, unfinished, for 17 years.

You can only imagine what that did for Judah’s spiritual outlook. All their hopes that came alive when they first returned were dashed by years and years of stagnant waiting. They became complacent—disillusioned. In other words, they began to give up, convinced that God didn’t want them to rebuild the temple—convinced that he really was finished with them.

So when we read Zechariah’s opening line in verse 1: “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius,” he’s not just giving us an historical date. There’s a little bit of sting in those words.

Usually when a prophet timestamps his message, he orients himself in relation to the reign of whoever was reigning on the throne of David at the time. But Zechariah doesn’t do that, and it’s because he can’t. There is no Davidic king reigning over Israel. In other words, Zechariah’s opening words are a biting reminder that Israel is living in a very different age—the time of the Gentiles. It’s the time where Gentile kings and nations will have dominance, and Israel no longer enjoys the primacy they once had.

But nevertheless, despite the circumstances, God is still speaking: “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah.” God still cares. God still remembers his people. He still has a future for them—a glorious future that will culminate in the coming of the long-awaited Messiah, who will bring them peace, righteousness, and an everlasting kingdom.

The whole book builds to one climactic statement chapter 14 verse 9: “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.”

A glorious future awaits God’s people. But before they can get there, something has to change. There’s a path they must take, but Zechariah makes it clear that in order to move forward on that path, they must also look backwards to where they’ve come from.

PROPOSITION: So the thrust of this passage could put this way: As you move forward, keep looking back. Now that’s not something I recommend while driving your car. But when it comes to your spiritual life, it’s a principle you cannot neglect.

Let’s look at this passage, starting in verse 2, with our first point, where Zechariah—interestingly enough—starts by looking at the path ahead.

1. THE PATH AHEAD (1:2-3)

Zechariah 1:2–3 “2 “Yahweh was very wrathful against your fathers. 3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts.”

So Zechariah begins with a reminder. It’s very simple, very subtle, but nonetheless very direct. “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.”

That statement is a perfectly concise way of summarizing the Babylonian exile. In other words, “Your current situation started somewhere—it started with God’s intense anger against your fathers. And it was because of them that you’re here today.”

But with that being said, in verse 3 Zechariah tells them exactly what the path forward looks like: “Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts.”

The path ahead for Judah is a return to God. It’s a call to renew their loyalty, to reignite their love, to resume their responsibilities. That’s what’s packed into that one little word, “return.”

The fact that they need to return implies something—these people had turned away from God. They had turned their back on him. They had forsaken their loyalty. They had, in the context of their covenant relationship with God, committed treason against God.

Oh, all seemed well on the outside. They had returned to the land. They had begun work to rebuild the temple. But there still needed to be a spiritual return.

Now, this isn’t just a call to cold, automated obedience. That’s the path that too often we take when we sin. We repent, but it’s a return to religion—a list of rules and obligations we perform out of guilt, hoping that by working harder at it, we’ve somehow arrived at the point of it all.

That’s not the point at all. Obedience isn’t the point—God is the point. Which is why Zechariah calls them not just to “return,” but to return to me. It’s a relationship they’re returning to. He is the point.

That’s the entire thrust John Piper makes in his book, God is the Gospel. The point of the gospel is that we get God. And that’s what Zechariah is telling them, too.

In some ways, the Christian walk is like balancing on a tight rope—it’s balancing out relationship and responsibility. If you’re not careful, you end up falling off on the relationship side into licentiousness. Hey, man, relax! It’s not a big deal how I live, cause it’s not about religion, it’s about relationship.

On the flip side, you can also lean too far towards the obedience side and fall head first into legalism. In legalism, it’s not about a relationship, it’s about performance. The goal of life is to be good enough, and as long as you’re flying at that altitude, you’re high enough to look down upon everyone else who hasn’t gotten as high as you have. Meanwhile, you’re so busy looking down at everyone else, you forget to look up and how high much higher God is that you and how much more beautiful and fulfilling he is than the things you’re doing in order to find fulfillment.

It’s a tight rope. Just consider the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength” (Deut 6:5). What’s the first word of the command? LOVE!!i That’s relationship!

But it’s still given as a command—that’s responsibility. And how does the Bible tell us to demonstrate our love to him?

· If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15)

· Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me (John 14:21)

· And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments (2 John 6)

In the Christian life, it’s not one or the other. Relationship and obedience are not diametrically opposed. They are beautiful dance partners. They fuel each other.

And what’s amazing is that Zechariah promises in verse 3 that their return to him will elicit God’s return to them. “Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.”

That’s God’s way of saying, whatever my relationship with your fathers was—how intensely angry I was with them—that doesn’t have to mark our relationship going forward. Your return to me in repentance and obedience will be matched by my intense loyalty and care for you.

Now, this isn’t talking about earning back God’s forgiveness. You can’t do that, and the OT wholeheartedly affirms that. What’s he’s saying is that disobedience and infidelity break relationship. It’s like the promise to a child that their return to obedience and love will end a period of discipline.

Judah has been living under discipline for 70 years. God is saying it’s time to bring this to an end. It’s time to restore this relationship.

It’s like the father in Luke 15—the parable of prodigal son—looking off at the distant horizon, hoping and waiting for his son to come home, to return. And when he sees him a long way off, returning home in repentant humiliation, he runs out to meet him. Relationship restored. “Return to me, and I will return to you.”

That’s the path forward for Judah. That should be the path forward for us this New Year. A path of renewed and strengthened relationship with the Lord through our love and loyalty to him.

Transition: But while we’re moving forward, we have to keep looking back. And that brings us to our second point, looking at the path behind.

2. THE PATH BEHIND (1:4-6)

Zechariah 1:4–6 “4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares Yahweh. 5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 “But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My slaves the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they returned and said, ‘As Yahweh of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has done with us.’””

In order to move forward to a renewed relationship with God, Judah has to deal with the past. That’s not to say that they’re responsible for what they parents and grandparents did. He had said already that God had been “very angry with your fathers.”Not with them, but with their fathers.

But the plain fact is that the people find themselves where they are because of what their ancestors did. And the key to moving on—the moving forward on the path ahead—is not to ignore or forget the past. The key is to remember the past and learn from it.

So Zechariah says in verse 4, “Do not be like your fathers.” If you want to avoid their fate; if you want to move forward; if you want renewed love for God, you can’t do what they did.

So what did they do?

Well, for one…

a. They were disobedient (1:4b)

Zechariah 1:4 “4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares Yahweh.”

Issues in your relationship with God start because of sin. They start when we “turn away” from God. You can’t have a relationship with God and with this world. Listen to James 4:

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:1-4).

You cannot have the world and have God. The two are opposed to one another. So sin becomes making a choice and loyalty toward the world and disloyalty to God. And that reality is captured by James in verse 4: “You adulterous people!”

There’s no better metaphor for turning away from God toward sin than adultery, because it captures the relationship trauma involved. To embrace sin is to commit adultery on God with the world.

That was the first thing they needed to know. Your fathers were disobedient. They had turned their back on God and had embraced the world.

Transition: But what made it all worse was that…

b. They were obstinate (1:4c)

Zechariah 1:4 “4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares Yahweh.”

What compounded the evil was that, when confronted, Judah wouldn’t listen. The prophets called out to them repeatedly to turn back. Their history is filled with pleadings to abandon their sin and return, but they wouldn’t do it. They loved their sin too much.

Jeremiah testified to this fact when he wrote,

3 For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. 4 You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, 5, saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeps, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from old and forever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do no harm.” Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

This is the history of Israel. Prophet after prophet after prophet met with rejection after rejection after rejection.

So the call to Judah is to remember—your fathers were disobedient. But they were also obstinate. They turned their back on God, and then refused to listen when the prophets called them back.

Don’t let that be you! Keep your loyalty. Maintain your love. But if you stumble. Take correction with humility. Be open when people lovingly confront you about sin. That’s learning from the past. That’s looking backwards while you move forwards.

Transition: But why wouldn’t they listen? They were warned that bad things would happen? Why wouldn’t they listen? Well, it’s because…

c. They were skeptical (1:5-6)

Zechariah 1:5–6 “5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 “But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My slaves the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they returned and said, ‘As Yahweh of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has done with us.’””

He starts out with a couple of rhetorical questions: “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?” That’s a way of underscoring the fact that both your fathers and the prophets who preached to them have long since passed away. They’re gone.

But there’s something that hasn’t gone away—God’s Word. God warned them of the consequences of sin. He told them again and again about what was coming. And it overtook them just like God said it would. Because God keeps his word. He is faithful in all his promises—including the ones that promise discipline and judgment.

But they didn’t believe it. They didn’t think it would come. You see, they had been swindled by a pervasive doctrine that the corrupt priests of their day had peddled. It was a false and pernicious doctrine that was as enticing to Judah as the prosperity gospel is to folks today.

They had become convinced that as long as the Lord’s temple remained in the city, nothing could happen to Jerusalem. It was like the Old Testament of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

Jeremiah alludes to this belief when he says,

3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.

So when you take Judah’s spiritual adultery, add hard-hearted obstinance towards any kind of calls for correction, and then add to that the belief that nothing could harm them because they had the temple, you have the perfect recipe for disaster.

Now, we may think, “That’s ridiculous. Why in the world would they fall for that kind of belief?” But it’s really no different than us thinking our salvation is some kind of insurance policy allowing us to live how we want with zero consequences.

CONCLUSION

The path forward for Judah was filled with hope and excitement. God promised them a renewed relationship with him. But they were bound to relive history if they only moved forward but never stopped to look back and learn from the past.

Their fathers and mothers had gone into exile because of their sin, because of their refusal to listen to the warning cries from God, and because they were convinced the warnings themselves were empty and God wouldn’t actually follow through with them.

“Don’t be like your fathers,” he says. Learn from them so you can have a future different from theirs. Their path doesn’t have to be your path.

As we close, turn to 1 Corinthians 10. Listen to Paul’s words to the believers in Corinth, and pay special attention why he’s saying all of this:

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)

So Paul has drawn to his reader’s attention back to Israelite history—back to the exodus and their time in the wilderness. And he points out the fact that, although they all had some very spiritually powerful experiences, that didn’t stop them from falling into sin and suffering the consequences.

So Paul goes on and writes this:

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

What’s Paul’s point in all this? Learn from these people. Even though they experienced great spiritual privilege, they fell—fell into idolatry, into sexual immorality, into grumbling. And each time they suffered the consequences of their sin.

So what’s the principle Paul wants them to know? What do we learn? He says it in verse 12:

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Spiritual pride and security are dangerous to the Christian life because it causes us to relax, presume upon the grace of God, and doubt that God will discipline us for it.

Isn’t it interesting that the same issues which plagued the fathers of Zechariah’s audience—disobedience, obstinance, and skepticism—those are the same kinds of things that Paul warns the Christians in Corinth about.

These things took place as examples for us. What path lies before you this New Year? Where do you hope to be? What do you hope to do in your relationship with Christ? By all means, go for it. Press ahead. But don’t forget to look back. Don’t forget those who have come before you, who’ve lived through mistakes and suffered through the consequences.

Let’s not be Christians with historical amnesia. Instead, let’s have the wisdom to learn from the past.