A Lesson From History

Intro: Three years ago, when I was staying at my dad’s, after mom passed away, he got me hooked on a television show. It’s a History Channel show called “The Curse of Oak Island.” The whole premise of the show is that there is, or was, a treasure buried on a small island off of the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Supposedly, three men found a shaft with layers of logs across it and a stone tablet some 90 feet underground. Since then, several different treasure hunters have tried to locate the treasure. Now, there is an ever-growing company of men, and a handful of women, searching all over this small island, and applying all kinds of scientific tests, trying to locate the treasure and/or understanding who buried the treasure. Over the course of the eight seasons, and now into the ninth, they have had several people who have offered theories of who buried the treasure, what the treasure might be, and a few of those have given data to their theories of where the treasure will/would have been located. When the group that is doing the searching has someone who gives them an explanation of where the treasure might be found, they ask them to put an x on the spot, usually just on a map of Oak Island.

Now, for just a moment, suppose that I knew where the treasure on Oak Island was, and what it was, so I set up a meeting with the partnership and told them in vivid detail who, what, when, where and why; then they just walked away without even acknowledging that they had heard what I said. What would we think of them? Not only did they walk away, but for the rest of the time that they are searching on Oak Island never once looked anywhere near where I told them the treasure was located? This goes on for so long that none of them are able to continue with the search so someone else comes in behind them, heeds my information, and within weeks finds an unmeasurable treasure.

That’s similar to what the prophet Zechariah starts his prophetic writings with. The prophet is writing to people who we likely born during the Babylonian Captivity and have now returned to the Promised Land. He’s going to share a message with them, the same message that God share with people through other prophets before the exile. The question is, what will the people do with the message? (READ Zechariah 1:1 – 6) The question for us is what will we do with the message?

Zechariah 1:1–6 NASB95

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying, “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. “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. “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the Lord. “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? “But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us.’ ” ’ ”

I. Refusal to Listen

A. God’s Call

1. Repent

2. I will relent

3. I will return

B. God’s People

1. Refused to pay attention

2. Suffered the consequences

3. A new generation was being given the offer

II. God’s Faithfulness

A. Acted

1. Words overtook their fathers

2. Babylonian exile

3. Return

B. Continued in a covenant relationship

1. Allowed a return to the land

2. Continued to woo His people into relationship

3.

4.

III. Our Lesson

A. Hear

1. Listen

2. Understand

3. Ask good questions

4.

B. Act

1. Relent

2. Return

3. Obey

4. It has been said that we are informed above our obedience!

While we might not be searching for buried treasure, we have something that is of even greater value than any treasure in this world. The question is, what will we do with the information that we have been given? Will we listen and ignore the message? Will we listen, think about what we’ve been told and drop it? Will we listen and change our lives and act upon what we know to be true?