Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/155

 but to the Malakh YehovaK), show that the promise was not exhausted then, but that the work on which Zerubbabel was engaged is regarded as a type and pledge of the sure fulfilment of that which was set forth by the symbolism. The last words of the message sound a special note of en couragement to the dispirited remnant.

Toward so great a consummation the work they were then engaged upon might seem insignificant. Indeed this feeling had been one of the chief causes of the slow progress made in the work of building the House, and disposed them only too readily to yield to the opposition of their enemies, and for a time to desist from their task altogether, till Haggai and Zechariah were raised up " to prophesy to them in the Name of the God of Israel" (Ezra v. i, 2).

When its foundation was laid, in the midst of the great joy which accompanied it,." many of the priests, and Levites, and chief of the fathers, which were ancient men," when they saw the modest dimensions, and remembered the very limited resources at their command, " wept with a loud voice, ... so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people" (Ezra iii. 10-13).

Even in comparison with the glory of the first House which had been destroyed, the one that was then building " was as nothing in their eyes" (Hag. ii. 3); but particularly in relation to the greater glory of their restoration and of the future House predicted by the former prophets, which should become the centre from which the light of Jehovah should stream forth to all the nations, the actual circum stances in which they then found themselves must have seemed indeed " a day of small things." Yet from God's point of view the task of the rebuilding on which they were then engaged was because of its being a necessary step toward the fulfilment of His purpose as set forth in the symbolism of the candlestick the greatest and most im portant thing in the world, and formed the centre and motive of His providential dealings on the earth at that time. Not on the great world-movements, but on the little " stone of