God’s Commitment to His People Sometimes, from the perspective of God’s people, it seems that God is being slow to fulfill his promises. Abraham and Sarah had to wait twenty-five years from the time God first promised to make of them a great nation until their son Isaac was born. After God promised the kingship to David, David had to endure many trials under the reign of Saul before God finally established him as king. And though God had promised to bring a remnant back to the Promised Land after the Exile, the Jewish captives had to wait seventy years to return. Yet in each case, God indeed brought about the fulfillment of his promises. Zechariah prophesied around the time that the Temple was being rebuilt after the Exile. At one point during the reconstruction, God told Zechariah not to “despise these small beginnings” (Zech 4:10). God had acted in the past for the ultimate good of his people, even in the exile to Babylon (see 7:12-14). God would accomplish his purposes for Israel’s well-being in his own time and his own way. The people of Israel could take courage in the present and have hope for the future because God keeps his word and fulfills his promises (4:9). God...