Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 8:6

"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith Jehovah of hosts." — Zechariah 8:6 (ASV)

If it should be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those - (not these) days, shall it be marvelous in My eyes also? says the Lord of hosts. Man’s anticipations, by reason of his imperfections and the checkered character of earthly things, are always disappointing. God’s actions, by reason of His infinite greatness and goodness, are always beyond our anticipations, past all belief. It is their very greatness that staggers us.

It is not then merely that the temporal promises seemed “too good to be true” (in our words) (Jerome), “in the eyes of the people who had come from the captivity, seeing that the city was almost desolate, the ruins of the city walls, the charred houses showed the actions of the Babylonians.” It is in the day of the fulfillment, not of the anticipation, that they would seem marvelous in their eyes, as the Psalmist says, “This is the Lord’s doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

The temporal blessings which God would give were not so incredible. They were but the ordinary gifts of His Providence: they involved no change in their outward relations. His people were still to remain under their Persian masters, until their time too should come. It was a matter of gladness and of God’s Providence, that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt: but not so marvelous, when it came to pass. The mysteries of the Gospel are a marvel even to the blessed angels.

Since that fulfillment was still future, so the people in whose eyes that fulfillment would be marvelous were future also. And this was to be a remnant still. It does not say, “this people which is a remnant,” nor “this remnant of the people” (that is, those who remained from the people who went into captivity), or “this remnant,” but “the remnant of this people” (that is, those who would remain from it, namely, from the people who had returned). It is the remnant of the larger whole, this people (see at Amos 1:8, vol. i. p. 247, n. 28, and on Haggai 1:12, p. 305). It is still “the remnant according to the election of grace;” that election which obtained what all Israel sought, but, seeking wrongly, were blinded (Romans 11:5–7).

Shall it be marvelous in My eyes also? — It is an indirect question in the way of exclamation. “It be marvelous in My eyes also,” rejecting the thought as alien from the nature of God, to whom “all things are possible, yea, what with men is impossible” (Matthew 19:26).

As God says to Jeremiah, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). “For with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

Cyril says: “For He is the Lord of all powers, fulfilling by His will what exceedingly surpasses nature, and effecting at once what seems good to Him.

The mystery of the Incarnation surpasses all marvel and discourse, and no less the benefits resulting for us. For how is it not next to incredible that the Word, Begotten of God, should be united with the flesh and be in the form of a servant, and endure the Cross and the insults and outrages of the Jews? Or how should one not admire beyond measure the outcome of the dispensation, by which sin was destroyed, death abolished, corruption expelled, and man, once an unfaithful slave, became resplendent with the grace of an adopted son?”