Breaking the Cycle of Failure
How do we avoid repeating the same mistakes our ancestors made?
The study notes for this passage are still being written. The passage itself is below — read it now, and the notes will be here when you return.
Zechariah 1:1-17
Read the whole passage before anything else. Everything below exists to help you understand what you just read.
1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
2“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers.
3Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies.
4Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD.
5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
8“I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses.
9Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”
11They reported to the LORD’s angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace.”
12Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”
13The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
14So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
16Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
17“Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”