Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 8:6
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.
6. in these days ] Rather, in those days (as in R. V.), viz. in which it comes to pass. “It is in the day of the fulfilment, not of the anticipation, that they would seem marvellous in their eyes, as the Psalmist says, This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Pusey.
should it also be marvellous ] Some would render, it shall also be marvellous, i.e. if in the eyes of those who in those days see the fair, prosperous city that has grown out of these blackened ruins, it is marvellous (as it will be), so shall it be also in My eyes. In other words, I Myself count it a marvellous work that I will achieve. It is better, however, to take this clause as a question, as in A. V. and R. V., and to understand it to mean, “the things that are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If it should be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those – (not these) days, shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also? saith the Lord of hosts Mans anticipations, by reason of his imperfections and the chequered character of earthly things, are always disappointing. Gods doings, by reason of His infinite greatness and goodness, are always beyond our anticipations, past all belief. It is their very greatness which staggers us. It is not then merely that the temporal promises seemed too good to be true (in our words) (Jerome), in the eyes of the people who had come from the captivity, seeing that the city almost desolate, the ruins of the city-walls, the charred houses showed the doings of the Babylonians. It is in the day of the fulfillment, not of the anticipation, that they would seem marvelous in their eyes, as the Psalmist says, This is the Lords doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes .
The temporal blessings which God would give were not so incredible. They were but the ordinary gifts of His Providence: they involved no change in their outward relations. His people were still to remain under their Persian masters, until their time too should come. It was matter of gladness and of Gods Providence, that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt: but not so marvelous, when it came to pass. The mysteries of the Gospel are a marvel even to the blessed angels. That fulfillment being yet future, so the people, in whose eyes that fulfillment should be marvelous, were future also. And this was to be a remnant still. It does not say, this people which is a remnant, nor this remnant of the people, that is, those who remained over out of the people who went into captivity, or this remnant, but the remnant of this people, that is, those who should remain over of it, that is, of the people who were returned. It is the remnant of the larger whole, this people (see at Amo 1:8, vol. i. p. 247, n. 28, and on Hag 1:12, p. 305). It is still the remnant according to the election of grace; that election which obtained what all Israel sought, but, seeking wrongly, were blinded Rom 11:5-7.
Shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also? – It is an indirect question in the way of exclamation . It be marvelous in Mine eyes also, rejecting the thought, as alien from the nature of God, to whom all things are possible, yea, what with men is impossible Mat 19:26. As God says to Jeremiah, Behold, I am, the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? Jer 32:27. For with God nothing shall be impossible Luk 1:37. The things which are impossible with men are possible with God Luk 18:27. For with God all things are possible. Mar 10:27 Cyril: For He is the Lord of all powers, fulfilling by His will what exceedingly surpasseth nature, and efecting at once what seemeth Him good. The mystery of the Incarnation passeth all marvel and discourse, and no less the benefits redounding to us. For how is it not next to incredible, that the Word, Begotten of God, should be united with the flesh and be in the form of a servant, and endure the Cross and the insults and outrages of the Jews? Or how should one not admire above measure the issue of the dispensation, whereby sin was destroyed, death abolished, corruption expelled, and man, once a recreant slave, became resplendent with the grace of an adopted son?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zec 8:6
Should it also be marvellous in Mine eyes?
saith the Lord of hosts
The limits of the marvellous
Here is a prophetic picture of a time of peace and prosperity. To the man of his time the prophets picture seemed wholly incredible. They were not prepared for such an optimistic view of things. The scene, however desirable, seemed utterly incredible. Then to their despairing mood comes this soul-inspiring message from God: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be marvellous in My eyes? There is no room for marvelling when God is taken into account. Many things that are marvels to men are but the orderly and ordinary carrying out of Gods purposes and plans. The miracles of Jesus were not miracles to Him. They were the spontaneous exercise of His ordinary healing and restorative powers. Finite minds have a tendency to be crushed by consternation in the presence of the marvellous, except they have learned to see God in all events. The only steadying and strengthening principle of human life is God, and faith in His wisdom and power. These disheartened captives were in a despairing mood. Hope had deserted them. They had given up their work in despair. When the prophet assured them that the work would be completed, that Jerusalem would be restored, and that peace and security would yet be enjoyed within its walls, they shook their heads incredibly. They said: It is too good to be true. They failed to take God into account, and hence were crushed and disheartened. God comes to them and says: It may seem incredible to you, but it is not incredible to Me. And God comes to us all in the same way, and tells us that we are not to limit His power or to doubt His love. He is behind all events, making them work out His own gracious purpose. The true solution of the marvellous is found in the recognition of God. Illustrate by two men who are bent on making the world brighter and better. One yields to despair because he has been limited to means and agencies. The other clings to the belief that a remedy may be found for the ills of society, because he sees God overhead, and recognises His power to regenerate society. The same is true of our own personal experience, especially of the higher experiences of the Christian life. The timid heart often shrinks from claiming the perfect peace that God promises to them that love and trust Him. The true answer to our marvelling mood is that God will do it. He will lift the worried, fretting soul up out of its own feebleness. The same principle holds good in those strange and bewildering experiences that so often surprise and perplex the believer. But the hand of God may be recognised in the times of doubt and darkness. No matter what form the trial may take, the way out of it is the same. And in the matter of service there are many things that surprise and perplex us. We are often sadly perplexed at our failures, and sometimes we are greatly surprised at our successes. Such a view of God, as an ever-present factor in all human experiences, cannot fail to enlarge our lives, and to lift us up above the countless petty perplexities and annoyances that tend to fret and worry the life. We thus learn to look at life as a whole, taking in its entire plan and scope, as seen and known by God. We need this view of God also to steady us and strengthen our faith as we look abroad upon the spiritual life of Christendom. We look for fruit, and behold there is barrenness. What marvellously slow progress the Church is making! But God is the same God still, and therefore we are not to yield to despair, and cease to labour and to pray. The Churches may be dead, but God still lives. We may strengthen our faith and encourage our drooping hearts by remembering Gods gracious dealings with ourselves in early life. He came to our desolate hearts, and filled us with His own fulness, and made us sing for joy. God, who wrought such wonders in us, can do the same in His Church. (Samuel Macnaughton, M. A.)
Things marvellous to men not marvellous to God
This is a wonderful age, not merely in the number of strange and unprecedented things happening in it, and in the strange and unprecedented character that belongs to it as a whole, but also in the prominence of wonder as an element in the view which it takes of itself. It is wonderful, because it is an age full of wonder. It does not seem as if there ever could be a time which so stood off, as it were, and looked at itself, in which so many men lived under a continual sense of the strangeness of their own circumstances. You will see how important such an element must be in the character of an age which possesses it, if you remember what it is to an individual. A child who thinks himself singular and different from other children grows up under the power of that thought more than any other which is in his mind about himself. Whatever kind of effect is produced by it, this is an element in the life and growth of every man–this wonder at the age he lives in, at the world, at men, at himself–this wonder that everywhere pervades our wonderful, our wondering age.
I. Wonderfulness of life. What is the reason that this sense of the wonderfulness of life, this sense of the strangeness and mystery everywhere, has such a different effect upon different men that it brings one man peace and another man tumult, that it brings to one man hope and despair to another? No doubt the reason lies deep in the essential differences there are between our natures, and cannot be wholly stated. One cause of the difference, and not the least one, lies here: in the difference of our ideas as to whether there is any Being who knows what we are reminded every hour we do not know; whether there is any Being in whose eyes this age, so strange to us, is not strange and bewildering, but perfectly natural and orderly and clear. We are too ready to think that God is surprised with this endless surprising strangeness that comes into our human life. Our only hope lies in knowing that there is One whom nothing disappoints and nothing amazes. Wonder is so much a part of ourselves, and such a constant experience, that we can hardly leave out wonder from the thought of any high nature. In the strong remonstrance with which Zechariah met the incredulity of the people there is the substance of what I have been saying. It is all strange to you, God by His prophet seems to say; but does that prove it will be strange to Me? You must not limit My knowledge by your wonder. Where we are ignorant, God is wise; where we are standing blindly in the dark, He is in the light; where we wonder, He calmly knows. God knows: this should bring us comfort, in a sense of safety and of enlargement.
II. The sense of danger. Where does so much of the sense of danger and the sense of unsafety in life come from? It is from the half-seen things that hover upon the borders of reality and unreality; from things which evidently are something, but of which we cannot perfectly make out just what they are. It is not clear, sound, well-proved truths which frighten men for the stability of their faith; it is the ghostly speculations, the vaguely outlined, faint suggestions that hover in the misty light of dim hypothesis, that make the dim uneasy sense of danger that besets the minds of so many believers. Behind all my conceptions, and all other mens conceptions, of what things are, and how things came to be, there always must be the first fact about things, about what they are, and how they came to be; and that fact must correspond exactly with the knowledge which is in the supreme intelligence of Him who knows all things accurately and completely. If my conception of that fact, however it was reached, differs today from His knowledge of the fact, danger must be in the persistence of that difference, and safety in its being set right. Ignorance is always dangerous; knowledge is never dangerous. He who believes truth only as the way to God, he who regards opinions as valueless except as they agree with the infallible judgments of God, and so bring him who holds them into sympathy with God and keep him there, he is the man for whom all life is safe, and whose faith faces the changing thoughts and destinies of the world, however astounding they may seem, without a thought of fear.
III. The sense of freedom. Such a man is also free. The safety of life and the enlargement or freedom of life must go together. No man is safe who is not free; no man is free who is not safe. Our effort, our action, our whole life in the thought and will is limited by that which we account possible. The conception of what is possible enlarges and widens as the quality of any beings life becomes higher; and so the loftier being is able freely to attempt things which the lower being is shut out from if he lives only in the contemplation of his own powers and never looks beyond himself. Freedom to attempt belongs to the larger vision. If He who sits at the centre of everything, and sees the visions of the universe with the perfect clearness of its Maker–if God can really speak so that we can hear Him, and say, It is impossible to you, but it is not impossible to Me; it is marvellous in your eyes, but it is not in Mine; if He can say that of any task that is overwhelming men with its immensity, that word of His must snap our fetters, must set free the little strength of all of us to strike our little blows, must enlarge our lives, and send them out to bolder ventures with earnestness and hope.
IV. The essence of faith. It seems to me as if, through all these ages of Christendom, God had been trying to teach the Christian world to enlarge its notions of the possibility of faith by the perpetual revelations of His own. God must be teaching us all that faith is the essential relation of the human soul to His soul faith, the deep rest of the childs life upon the Fathers love faith, the reception by man of the word of God, which comes to him in voices as manifold as the nature of God Himself,–that faith, a thing so deep, essential, and eternal, is not to be conditioned on the permanence of any one of the temporary forms in which it may be clothed. The fearful believer says, I do not see how it can be, it is so strange; but God answers him out of all the richness of Christian history, If it be marvellous in your eyes, should it also be marvellous in Mine? Apply this truth to the personal life; for there, most of all, a man needs the enlargement that comes of always feeling the infinite knowledge that God is about him, encompassing his ignorance with Himself. How easily, with our self-distrust and spiritual laziness, we shut down iron curtains about ourselves, and limit our own higher possibilities! This is truest in religious things. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. If it be marvellous] You may think that this is impossible, considering your present low condition: but suppose it be impossible in your eyes, should it be so in mine! saith the Lord of hosts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If it be marvellous: these things promised may perhaps seem very strange and difficult, if not impossible.
In the eyes; in the judgment and opinion, or rather, to the unbelief of this people.
The remnant of this people: few in number, exceedingly poor, and perpetually surrounded with dangers.
In these days; which are days of small things.
Should it also be marvellous, impossible, or so much as difficult, to me?
Saith the Lord of hosts: the Almighty God will do this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. However impossible thesethings just promised by Me seem to you, they are not so with God. The”remnant” that had returned from the captivity, beholdingthe city desolate and the walls and houses in ruins, could hardlybelieve what God promised. The expression “remnant” glancesat their ingratitude in rating so low God’s power, though they hadexperienced it so “marvellously” displayed in theirrestoration. A great source of unbelief is, men “limit”God’s power by their own (Psa 78:19;Psa 78:20; Psa 78:41).
these days“ofsmall things” (Zec 4:10),when such great things promised seemed incredible. MAURER,after JEROME, translates,”in those days”; that is, if the thing which Ipromised to do in those days, seems “marvellous,”&c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord of hosts,…. This is repeated for the same end as before; [See comments on Zec 8:4]:
If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days; either in the then present days and time; and the sense is, if it should seem wonderful, incredible, and scarcely possible to the small number of the Jews in Judea, that all the great and good things before promised should be fulfilled; or in the times of the Gospel, when the remnant, according to the election of grace, would wonder at the marvellous loving kindness of the Lord, in doing each great things for his church and people:
should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts; no, not as if it was impossible to be done; it shall be done, as marvellous as it may seem to be. Aben Ezra understands these words, not as spoken by way of interrogation and admiration, but as an affirmation; that God would do that which was marvellous, and such as he had never done the like, even as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this nation in those days, will it also be marvellous in my eyes? is the saying of Jehovah of hosts.” The second clause of this verse is to be taken as a question with a negative answer, for , as in 1Sa 22:7, and the meaning is the following: If this (what is promised in Zec 8:3-5) should appear marvellous, i.e., incredible, to the people in those days when it shall arrive, it will not on that account appear marvellous to Jehovah Himself, i.e., Jehovah will for all that cause what has been promised actually to occur. This contains an assurance not only of the greatness of the salvation set before them, but also of the certainty of its realization. “The remnant of the nation,” as in Hag 1:12-14.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He sharply reproves here the lack of faith in the people; for as men are wont to measure whatever is promised by their own understanding, the door of entrance for these prophecies was nearly closed up when they saw that the fury of their enemies could by no means be pacified. They had indeed tried in various ways to check them, or at least to conciliate them; and we know that many edicts had been proclaimed in favor of the Jews by the kings of Persia; but such was the common hatred to them, that new enemies arose continually. On this account it is that the Prophet now blames their want of faith; and he points out, as by the finger, the source of their unbelief when he says, that they had no faith in God who spoke to them, because he promised more then what they could conceive to be possible. And this deserves notice, for if we wish to pull up unbelief by the roots from our hearts, we must begin at this point — to raise up our thoughts above the world; yea, to bid adieu to our own judgment, and simply to embrace what God promises; for his power ought to carry us up to such a height that we may entertain no doubt but that what seems to us impossible will surely be accomplished. What the Prophet calls “wonderful” is the same as impossible; for men often wonder at God’s worlds without believing them, and even under the false pretense of wonder deny his power. Hence when God promises anything, doubts immediately creep in — “Can this be done?” If a reason does not appear, as the thing surpasses our comprehension, we instantly conclude that it cannot be. We thus see how men pretending to wonder at God’s power entirely obliterate it.
When therefore the Prophet now says, If this be wonderful in your eyes, shall it be so in mine? it is the same as though he had said, “If you reject what I promise to you, because it is not in accordance with your judgment, is it right that my power should be confined to what you can comprehend?” We hence see that nothing is more preposterous than to seek to measure God’s power by our own understanding. But he seems to say at the same time, that it is useful for us to raise upwards our minds, and to be so filled with wonder, while contemplating God’s infinite power, that nothing afterwards may appear wonderful to us. We now perceive how it behaves us to wonder at God’s works, and yet not to regard anything wonderful in them. There is no work of God so minute, but that it contains something wonderful, when it is considered as it ought to be; but yet when raised up by faith we apprehend the infinite power of God, which seems incredible to the understanding of the flesh, we look down as it were on the things below; for our faith ascends far above this world.
We now see the true source of unbelief and also of faith. The source of unbelief is this — when men confine God’s power to their own understanding; and the source of faith is — when they ascribe to God the praise due to his infinite power, when they regard not what is easy, but being satisfied with his word alone they are fully persuaded that God is true, and that what he promises is certain, because he is able to fulfill it. So Paul teaches us, who says, that Abraham’s faith was founded on this assurance — that he doubted not but that he who had spoken was able really to accomplish his word. (Rom 4:20.) Hence, that the promises of God may penetrate into our hearts and there strike deep roots, we must bid adieu to our own judgment; for while we are wise in ourselves and rely on earthly means, the power of God vanishes as it were from our sight, and his truth also at the same time disappears. In a word, we must regard, not what is probable, not what nature brings, not what is usual, but what God can do, what his infinite power can effect. We ought then to emerge from the confined compass of our flesh, and by faith, as we have said, ascend above the world.
And he says, In the eyes of the remnant of this people, etc. By this sentence he seems to touch the Jews to the quick, who had already in a measure experienced the power of God in their restoration; for thirty years before their freedom had been given them by Cyrus and Darius, they regarded as a fable what God had promised them; they said that they were in a grave from which no exit could have been expected: they had experienced how great and incredible was God’s power; and yet as people astonished, they despaired of their future safety. This ingratitude then is what Zechariah now indirectly reproves by calling them the remnant of his people. They were a small number, they had not raised their banner to go forth against the will of their enemies; but a way had been suddenly opened to them beyond all expectation. Since then they had been taught by experience to know that God was able to do more than they could have imagined, the Prophet here justly condemns them for having formed so unworthy an idea of that power of God which had been found by experience to have been more than sufficient. He afterwards adds —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days.Better, though it was marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, was it, therefore [or will it, therefore, be] marvellous in mine eyes? (Comp. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possibleMat. 19:26.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Zec 8:6. If it be marvellous Difficult. Houbigant. It might seem difficult and marvellous to the Jews of those times, that Jerusalem should be called a city of truth, and that it should be full of old men and children, as if some great and extraordinary period was about to begin; therefore, lest the Jews should interpret this as spoken of their own times, it is immediately subjoined, Zec 8:7. I will save my people from the east and from the west, to give them to understand that other times and a different state of their nation were predicted. The Jews, upon the completion of the Babylonish captivity, returned from the north, or from the east, but not from the west: nor can any other time here be pointed out, than the last return of the Jews; when they shall flow from all parts of the world to the new Jerusalem, and there constitute a new empire; the fame of whose sanctity shall allure and draw to it many nations, as is foretold at the end of this chapter. We cannot understand this either of the Jews, or of the Gentiles, who embraced the faith upon the preaching of the apostles: not of the Jews, because the Lord did not save at that time the Jewish nation, which he was about to disperse in a very short period;not of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles were not, according to the common scriptural phrase, the people of God(my people, as the Jews in a national sense were,) before he had called them from the east and from the west.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Zec 8:6 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 6. If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people ] Here the Lord graciously answereth the secret objection of these Jews’ unbelieving and misgiving hearts. It is impossible, thought they, that these promises should ever have their performance; they are sure too good to be true. This is the voice of carnal reason; it usually tells a story of impossibilities, and judgeth according to sense, looketh upon God’s Jordan (as Naaman did) with Syrian eyes. But faith can mount higher and see further; as a lark, with a little eye, getting aloft, can see that which an ox, with a bigger eye, but being below on the ground, cannot. It is the nature of faith to look upon all things seizable. I can do all things, saith she, through Christ that strengtheneth me. Is there anything too hard for the Almighty? was not that an absurd question of these men’s ancestors, “Can he prepare a table for us in the wilderness?” God can do much more than he will do; but whatsoever he willeth that he doth both in heaven and earth. And if faith have but a promise to fasten upon, she can believe God upon his bare word, without a pawn; and that both against sense in things invisible, and against reason in things incredible.
Should it also be marvellous in mine eyes
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the remnant. The exiles who had then returned. Compare Hag 1:12, Hag 1:14.
should it also be marvellous, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Gen 18:14, where the verb is the same). App-92.
Mine eyes. Add by Figure of speech Ellipsis (App-6), from preceding clause: “[in those future days]” of which He was speaking.
saith the LORD of hosts = [is] the oracle of Jehovah of hosts.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
these days
The “remnant” in Zec 8:6; Zec 8:11; Zec 8:12 refers to the remnant of Judah which returned from Babylon, and among whom Zechariah was prophesying. (See Scofield “Rom 11:5”).
remnant (See Scofield “Jer 15:21”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
marvellous: or, hard, or difficult
should: Gen 18:14, Num 11:22, Num 11:23, 2Ki 7:2, Jer 32:17, Jer 32:27, Luk 1:20, Luk 1:37, Luk 18:27, Rom 4:20, Rom 4:21, Rom 6:19-21
Reciprocal: Ezr 9:8 – a remnant Ecc 5:8 – marvel Zec 8:12 – the remnant Mat 19:26 – but Mar 10:27 – With men Luk 9:43 – amazed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zec 8:6. If it be marvelous or difficult means that, although it seems “too good to be true” in the eyes of the people, it will not be so with the Lord who is powerful.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zec 8:6-7. If it be marvellous If these things promised appear difficult, and in a manner impossible; in the eyes of the remnant of this people In the judgment and opinion, or rather to the unbelief, of this people, who are few in number, exceedingly poor, and perpetually surrounded with dangers; in these days Which are days of small things; should it also be marvellous in mine eyes Impossible, or so much as difficult to me, who am the Almighty God. Thus saith the Lord of hosts Here God engages his almighty power to make good his promise. Behold, I will save my people Or, bring them safe; from the east country From Persia and Media, which lay east from Jerusalem, and were now masters of Babylon; and from the west country From the countries of Europe, in which many of the Jews were, or would afterward be dispersed. The original words may be literally rendered, From the rising to the going down of the sun, including all parts of the world. This implies the general restoration of the Jewish nation from all their dispersions: an event foretold by most of the prophets of the Old Testament: see note on Isa 11:11. The west country here mentioned, has a particular relation to their present dispersion, great numbers of them being, in these latter ages, settled in the western parts of the world. The Jews, upon the completion of the Babylonish captivity, returned from the north, or from the east, but not from the west: nor can any other time here be pointed out, than the last return of the Jews; when they shall flow from all parts of the world to the New Jerusalem, and there constitute a new republic, the fame of whose sanctity shall allure and draw to it many nations, as is foretold at the end of this chapter. We cannot understand this either of the Jews or of the Gentiles, who embraced the faith upon the preaching of the apostles. Not of the Jews, because the Lord did not save at that time the Jewish nation, which he was about to disperse in a very short period; not of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles were not the people of God, (my people,) before he had called them from the east and from the west. Dodd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:6 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it is {d} marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in my eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.
(d) He shows in what our faith consists, that is, to believe that God can perform that which he has promised, though it seem ever so impossible to man; Gen 13:14, Rom 4:20 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Even though these blessings seemed impossible to the people of Zechariah’s day, they were not to assume that they would be impossible for the Lord. His promises of blessing were as hard for the returned exiles to believe as His threats of judgment had been for their ancestors previously.