For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel [with] those seven; they [are] the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Ver. 10. For who hath despised the day of small things?] Nay, who had not? The generality of the Jews were clearly guilty, Ezra 8:13, and are therefore here justly, reproved. As Naaman once looked on God's Jordan with Syrian eyes, and so slighted the notion of washing therein; so these distrustful Jews despised the small beginnings of this great work, and the little likelihood of ever bringing it to any good upshot. "Is it not in your eyes as nothing?" saith Haggai, Haggai 2:3. They seemed only to grieve at it; but God construeth it for a downright contempt; for he judgeth otherwise of our carnal affections than we ourselves, and will have us to know that his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways, Isaiah 55:8. Out of meanest principles he many times raiseth matters of greatest moment; that his own immediate hand may the more appear. The kingdom of heaven was at first but as "a grain of mustard seed," Matthew 13:32. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, as if it had dropped out, or been blown down thence, became a mountain, and filled the whole earth, Daniel 2:34,35. The cloud that rose as little as a man's hand, soon after muffled the whole heaven. God put little thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus concerning Mordecai, but for great purposes. Who would ever have thought, that out of Abraham, now as good as dead, should have come the Messiah? or that out of the dry root of Jesse should come the Branch spoken of in the former chapter? Who would have imagined that going forth only with his bow, Revelation 6:2, and arrows, Psalms 45:5, the foolishness of preaching, he could conquer in three hundred years the whole Roman empire? that by Huss, a goose, and Luther, a swan, such strange things should have been done in Bohemia and Germany? that by a scruple cast into Henry VIII's mind about his marriage with Catharine of Spain by the French ambassador (who came to consult with him of a marriage between the Lady Mary and the Duke of Orleans, second son to the King of France), whether Mary were legitimate, &c., the Pope should be cast off here, and reformation wought by so weak and simple means, yea, by casual and cross means? this, saith one, is that miracle which we are in these times to look for.
For they shall rejoice] Or, but they shall rejoice, or, nay, they shall reioice, nay, they shall see, viz. that which they despaired of ever seeing, and were therefore much cast down about the perfection of the work, and its glorious accomplishment. And this shall be surely effected by God's powerful and watchful providence, called here those
seven eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth] Called elsewhere the seven Spirits of God, Revelation 5:6; Revelation 1:4, and God's Spirit here, Zechariah 4:6, so guiding and managing all affairs and occurrences that all the rays and beams of providence issuing from those eyes might be seen to meet in the accomplishment of this, as their ultimate aim and scope. See Trapp on " Zec 3:9 "