Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/29

 fallen by thine iniquity " (Hos. xiv. l). " Turn ye, even to Me, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil" (Joel ii. 12, 13). " Seek ye Jehovah, and ye shall live" (Amos v. 46). "Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you,. . . seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger" (Zeph. ii. 2, 3).

But, alas! to all these cries Israel lent but a deaf ear. The result of all the ministry of the former prophets, as far as the nation was concerned, is summed up in the words: " But they did not hear nor hearken unto Me, saith Jehovah"

On the last page of pre-exilic history are written the following solemn words: " Moreover, all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after the abominations of the nations; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy " (2 Chron. xxxvi. 14-16). They then went to Babylon, which inaugurated the period called in the New Testament " The times of the Gentiles," which are still running; and when at the end of the seventy years a remnant was in the grace and faithfulness of God brought back, the tone and substance of the old message did not change. The cry was taken up by Haggai and Zechariah; and with the proclamation, " Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah" (Mai. iii. 7), the voice of Old Testament prophecy finally dies away.