“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”
- Zechariah 4:10
Zechariah writes during the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple after the exile of Judah in Babylon. Since the return of the captives the work to restore the city wall and rebuild the temple has been slow and even though the foundations for the new temple have been laid they look small.
When the people saw what had been laid some rejoiced but others wept – discouraged by the meagreness of the rebuild. Locals who objected to the return of the captives threatened and heckled and obstructed the building. They wrote letters to the king of Persia in order to obtain an edict against the rebuild and for a long period of time the building had to stop.
But the word of the Lord through Zechariah is clear and it is direct, ‘who dares despise the day of small things’. The Lord God is zealous against those who would, but why? A lot of our mindset is governed by bigger is better. Bigger houses, bigger bank accounts, bigger churches – bigger is aspirational. After all, wouldn’t a bigger temple and a faster build be better?
But the Lord says ‘no’ – who dares despise the smallness! And the reason is that his seven eyes that range back and forth on the earth will rejoice with great gladness when they see the top stone go on and the building complete. He will not despise it and neither should they. We are also building and it is very small just now, but our goal is something that is part of a kingdom that God does not despise and therefore he doesn’t despise our small Riverside either.
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