CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 4:9.] Additional information. Finish] So he did, in the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6:15).
Zechariah 4:10. Day of small things] “The short period which had elapsed since the Jews had begun to rebuild the temple, and the commencement which had been inconsiderable and inauspicious.” Who?] with its negative answer, contains an admonition to the people and their rulers not to despise the small beginnings [Keil]. Plummet] With the human is strikingly contrasted Jehovah’s estimate of the work. His eyes, which run to and fro, rejoiced when they saw Zerubbabel with the plummet in hand; a sign of work commenced, and superintending care. Zerubbabel is the type of a future Zerubbabel, the Messiah, who will build the temple of God. HOMILETICS
DIVINE GRACE THE SOURCE OF ALL STRENGTH.—Zechariah 4:7-10
The resources of the Jewish leader were few, and dangers formidable, hence the promise of help. The beginning may be small and discouraging, but the co-operation of the Holy Spirit will ensure success. Joshua and Zerubbabel shall finish the work, and bring forth the copestone amid the loud shouts of the people—“Grace, grace unto it.”
I. The work was carried on under the Divine auspices. The leaders do their part, but it is “with those seven” eyes (ch. Zechariah 3:9), “the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” God watched the foundation, and was ever present to superintend. Nothing took him by surprise or happened unknown. In all parts of the earth his people are defended and guided by his providence. “The Divine eye is ever in union with the Divine arm,” says a writer; “the knowledge of God with his power.” Under his inspection the work must prosper. He takes cognizance of all creatures, inspires and directs all efforts. Those that have the plummet in hand can do nothing without him, should seek his presence, and depend upon his help. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
II. The difficulties were overcome by Divine help. Difficulties there were, manifold and great, in the people themselves and outside them.
1. Some despised the work. Circumstances were disheartening, made them sigh and desist. They were few in number, and the work in proportion to their means very great. “Who hath despised the day of small things?”
2. Powerful enemies opposed the work. They were artful, malignant, and often successful. Like great mountains, impassable and immovable, they stood in the way. But the mountains were levelled down, difficulties vanished away, and all became a plain. “Thou shalt thresh the mountains,” when engaged for God (Isaiah 41:15). To despond is faithless and guilty. Nothing can resist God. The victories of his word are sure. “Every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked be made straight, and the rough places plain.”
III. The work was finished amid joyful acclamations of Divine praise. “He shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” The people wished well to the building, and prayed that it might stand for ever. The finishing of the temple was a type of the work of God in all ages. The Jewish builder represented Christ, the Divine architect of the spiritual temple. His work begun by grace should end by grace. Amid opposition it is carried on and will be finished. Soon the plaudits of men and angels shall shout in acclamation and acknowledgment of the multiplied favour of God. Grace, free grace, shall be the theme of their song! “Grace, grace unto it.”
DESPISING THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS—Zechariah 4:10
The Jews are reproved for their heartlessness and unbelief. They should not estimate God’s work by present appearances. Their progress though small is an earnest of great and glorious success. To despair when God has promised help, is to doubt his faithfulness, power, and omniscience. These words declare—
I. A fact in history.
1. “The day of small things.” This, notwithstanding great toil and much time spent in the work of God. In Jewish history and in the present time—in the Sunday School and in the Christian Church—in philanthropic and missionary enterprise, it is the day of small things. Though success may be realized, yet it is small in itself; small in comparison with what might be, and with what will be.
2. Let us learn a lesson. To be humble, because we have done so little and been so idle. To be more prayerful; “O Lord, revive thy work.” To depend more upon God. “Not by might, nor by power.”
II. A tendency in our nature. Contempt for small beginnings in religious matters has been a common feeling. Sanballat despised the work of Nehemiah (ch. Zechariah 4:2). Christianity “was despised and rejected of men,” in the person of its founder and his apostles. Missionaries, religious institutions and societies, have been ridiculed in their feeble beginnings. Why does this happen? “Because,” says Foster, “we do not apprehend the preciousness of what is good, in any, even the smallest thing—we know not what is requisite to be previously done, to bring the small beginning into existence We are apt to set far too high a price on our own efforts, as estimated against their results; and then there is the impiety of not duly recognizing the supremacy of God.”
III. A reproof from God. ‘ “Who hath despised?” How unreasonable and foolish in the present circumstances. “Our duty,” said Spinosa, “is neither to ridicule the affairs of men, nor to deplore, but simply to understand them.” It becomes no one, least of all a believer, to deride a small beginning, and think despondingly of the work of God. This conduct is foolish.
1. Because there are no little things really. Appearances deceive. We see not the connection, the beginning and the end of things. “All are links of one vast chain.”
2. Because great things spring from what appear little things. In nature, we have mighty forests from smallest seeds, and broad rivers from tiny streamlets. It is “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” In history, we have great results from small beginnings. The Bible and missionary societies are illustrations. The law of providence and the gospel of Christ teach the same truth. A little leaven hid in the meal affects the mass; the grain of mustard becomes a mighty tree; and the handful of corn on the bleak mountain-top yields a waving harvest like the fruitful Lebanon. Despise not, despair not. The work will and must be finished. What, then, will be the end of those who help not, but deride and hinder its accomplishment? “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zechariah 4:7. Great mountain. Mighty enemies despised, subdued, and rendered subservient to the cause of God. “A mountain is spoken of in Scripture emblematically, to denote the greatest difficulties and oppositions of men to cross any design; and the overturning or levelling of these mountains expresseth the highest actings of the power of God, in subduing all difficulties and oppositions for the good of his people” [Caryl].
Zechariah 4:8; Zechariah 9:1. The promises of the Word are faithful and worthy of confidence—their repetition indicates our distrust, but God’s readiness to perform.
2. It is a special favour to a people when God grants them reformation, power to build a habitation for his name, and to finish their work.
3. When this work is finished, it is a proof of Christ’s unchangeable love and care, and should be rightly studied as revealing the character of God. Thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me [cf. Hutcheson.]
The whole drift of this chapter might be summed up in the words of Jesus to his disciples, “Have faith in God!” and the encouragement that was held out to the Jewish builders, is held out to us. We have, first of all, what should ever be enough to inspire confidence, though it stood alone—independent of all information as to the way in which the work was to be effected by him—we have the express and explicit promise of Jehovah, that the building shall be finished; and that before the obedient and prayerful efforts of his people the greatest—the most apparently insurmountable—obstacles give way. We have more than the bare word of promise: the assurance of the incessantly attentive superintendence and watchful care of his ever-present providence. The “seven eyes of the Lord run to and fro” to help. Still further, we have the promise of the constant and copious effusion of the Holy Spirit. The might and power of man are pronounced altogether incompetent, and this Divine influence is promised. This was true in the existing case. Faith, fortitude, energy, and perseverance were needful, and supplied by the Spirit in leaders and people. It is true in a peculiar sense of the spiritual temple. The stones must be prepared, and no energy but God’s can make them living stones. Even all legitimate and zealous effort must prove fruitless, unless God give his influence with them. But having the promise, we need never despond. As the ancient Church was animated to look with confidence for the accomplishment of the glorious things awaiting her; so let us look forward to the great results promised to us [Wardlaw].
Zechariah 4:10. When good men despise the day of small things, the grand essential of religion, faith, is wanting. They lack faith in the unerring wisdom of the Divine scheme and determinations; faith in the goodness of God, the absolute certainty that infinite wisdom and power cannot be otherwise than good; faith in The promises of God, that his servants shall, in the succession of their generations, see his cause advance from the small to the great, though this be not granted to any one separately; that their labours shall, each in their turn, be approved and recorded; and that they shall at last exult in the glorious consummation [John Foster]. We ought not to despise the day of small things, because—
1. such conduct tends to prevent its becoming a day of great things;
2. angels do not despise it, but rejoice over every one repenting sinner;
3. our Saviour does not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax;
4. God does not despise it, but noticed even some good thing found in the son of Jeroboam;
5. the day of small things is the commencement of great things [Payson].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Zechariah 4:6-7. Power. Dependence gives God his proper glory. It is the peculiar honour and prerogative of Deity to have a world of creatures hanging upon it—staying themselves upon it; to be the fulcrum, the centre of a lapsing creation [Howe].
Zechariah 4:10. Despised. To a decidedly irreligious contemner, we might say, “Beware what you do;” for “if the thing be of God,” you are daring him by your contempt. If there be something of his spirit and power contained and acting in things, it is not safe to make free with them in the way of scorn, however inconsiderable in magnitude they may seem. It may one day (not “a day of small things” that) be a question, not of rebuke, but of judgment. On that day will not be forgotten a contempt of the introductory littleness (say, rather, undisclosed dignity) of what God had determined to advance to greatness and glory [John Foster].