“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.” (Zec 8:6 AV)
There are two points to be made here. One runs into the other. But first, a little context. Zechariah is speaking to the remnant still in captivity. Their time of captivity has come to an end. The seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet has been fulfilled. Soon, by the leadership of Nehemiah, they will return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city. Most would have been born in captivity, never having seen Jerusalem. Now, the prophet is telling them their situation will radically change. They will regain their freedom and return to their native land. Having never lived that way before, it would be hard to believe. It would seem almost impossible. That is the meaning of the phrase, “marvellous in the eye”. The people would have seen freedom as impossible. The question posed above is a simple one. Just because the people may think it impossible, does that mean God must also think it impossible? There are two truths I glean from this by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is no demand that the people exercise faith here. They are free to believe freedom is impossible. Not that God wants the people to believe it is possible, but given their circumstances, they are not rebuked into doing so. They have no reference point. They have never seen it. Second, just because we may think something is impossible does not limit what God can do. God can do anything. It doesn’t mean that He will, mind you. It just means that He can.
There is this puzzle I have challenged others to. It seems impossible. You are given a block of wood and seven nails. The nails have heads on them. You are challenged to balance all the nails atop one of them. In retrospect, the block of wood is a clue, but not absolutely necessary. As the poor subject is frustrated, you affirm it indeed can be done. If you are one to wager, you place a large prize in front of them to motivate them. Perhaps you offer them $50 if they can balance six nails on the head of the seventh. Try as they may, they cannot do it. So, the $50 remains on the table. The challenge goes out again. Still, no one seems to be able to balance six nails on the head of the seventh. The one who knows the solution will not relent. He knows it can be done. He has seen it done. He has done it himself. Everyone in the room thinks it cannot be done. They try to convince the one who knows it can be done that it cannot be done. They even become agitated. They insist the challenger is only having fun at their expense and the prize is not genuine because it cannot be done. Then the challenger uses a hammer and strikes one nail into the block about a half-inch deep. He lays one nail down. Placing four nails with the head resting on the laid down nail with their heads at the shaft of the resting nail, two at the top and two at the bottom, he places the sixth nail in the opposite direction as the bottom nail so it looks like the letter “H”. The heads of the nails exert equal force on one another and you place it on the nail in the block. Viola! What everyone else thought impossible, the one with the knowledge of the solution know all along it was possible.
This is what we do with God. God can do anything He desires to do. Nothing is impossible with God. Again, just because He can do it doesn’t mean that He will. Unfortunately, I have seen many saints become distraught because they ask God to do something miraculous and it is not in His perfect plan to do such a thing, even though He could physically do it. However, I have seen an equal amount of people give up on God because they see something as impossible. The point is simple. God may want us to believe with all our hearts that something is possible, but even if we do not believe it to be possible, we shouldn’t expect God to feel the same way, too. Who knows what God will do? What we cannot do is limit God because we cannot see the end from the beginning. This is what Judah did when told to return to Israel. They couldn’t see it. But praise be to a gracious God who did marvelous things even when the people doubted. That is who our gracious and merciful God is!
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