https://biblehub.com/zechariah/1.htm

Zechariah was one of what is called the “minor” prophets. I like Zechariah because, even though he has 14 chapters in his book, they are all brief and to the point. A man of few words. Just my kind of man.

And what I’m going to say about Zechariah, has nothing to do with Zechariah. But now is as good a time as ever.

John Chapter 14 changed my life; when Jesus tells Phillip that anyone who has seen Him, has seen the Father. Because of that verse, I know that God has the same character as that of Jesus.

So when Zechariah says that “God was angry with the fathers”, I believe God’s character has been misinterpreted.

I’ve always took the stance that God doesn’t get angry. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that He does. If God gets angry, it is for but a moment, and He never shows it. God is perfect. God talks too much about how anger is sinful to be angry Himself. And since God IS love, I’m not sure that anger is something he is capable of.

Then why does the Old Testament talk about an angry God?

First of all, I believe Satan has his fingerprints all over the Bible. Books have been removed, verses have been removed, there is too much in the Bible that has been altered. So when I study the Bible, I first ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit, and I have to read the Bible with a healthy dose of common sense.

The best example I can give is Moses.

Moses was charged not only with the negotiation of the release of the Hebrew slaves, back in a country where he was wanted for murder, but then he was given the responsibility for leading the freed slaves to the promised land. About 2 million or more Hebrews.

Moses was basically the mayor of a metropolitan city without helpers or assistants. And his father-in-law Jethro, when he came to visit, watched Moses judge the people and could obviously see that Moses was under a ton of stress, as he told Moses that he needed to delegate some of his responsibilities.

As a former department supervisor in charge of managing personnel, I know the stress Moses was under. You work hard tto provide, advocate for them at every turn, praise them, care for them, only to have them turn around and gripe and complain about every working condition.

It is stressful. It affects your own morale. It can lead to job burnout. It can affect your objectivity when looking at job issues.

Moses was stressed, no doubt. The people who should have been happy that they were freed from slavery complained about everything. They turned against him. Even his own brother and sister turned again him. Then one day in a fit of rage because the people were once again complaining, Moses did not follow God’s instructions and took matters into his own hands. And it cost him his spot in the promised land.

How could Moses possibly be objective in his writings?

Now I’m not suggesting the Bible’s authors intentionally misrepresented the character of God. Nor am I suggesting anything malicious. I’m simply saying that the authors of the Bible were men and women, just like you and I, with human emotions and human perceptions. And yes, we all make mistakes. How many of us in anger or frustration fired off an email that, when our jets cooled, we wish we hadn’t sent?

I can feel Moses’ emotions. Zechariah however, I don’t know enough about him to know what he was like.

But when he says God was angry, and I don’t see that as in the character of Jesus, I simply take pause, and think of what went wrong in the communication process.

A final note…were you aware that one of the first Bibles printed in English had to be destroyed because of one simple error, and that is financially ruined the life of the man who printed it.

In the printed version, of all things, it read, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Yes, because the word “not” was accidentally omitted, every Bible printed had to be destroyed.

Now ask yourself, what is the possibility of other errors, unnoticed errors, that might have been made thousands of years ago?

All we can do is pray, and seek the guidance of God wonderful Holy Spirit.

Amen.