Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
look down as it were on the things below; for our faith ascends far above this world.
We now see the true source of unbelief and also of faith. The source of unbelief is this --- when men confine God's power to their own understanding; and the source of faith is --- when they ascribe to God the praise due to his infinite power, when they regard not what is easy, but being satisfied with his word alone they are fully persuaded that God is true, and that what he promises is certain, because he is able to fulfill it. So Paul teaches us, who says, that Abraham's faith was founded on this assurance --- that he doubted not but that he who had spoken was able really to accomplish his word. (Romans 4:20.) Hence, that the promises of God may penetrate into our hearts and there strike deep roots, we must bid adieu to our own judgment; for while we are wise in ourselves and rely on earthly means, the power of God vanishes as it were from our sight, and his truth also at the same time disappears. In a word, we must regard, not what is probable, not what nature brings, not what is usual, but what God can do, what his infinite power can effect. We ought then to emerge from the confined compass of our flesh, and by faith, as we have said, ascend above the world.
And he says, In the eyes of the remnant of this people, etc. By this sentence he seems to touch the Jews to the quick, who had already in a measure experienced the power of God in their restoration; for thirty years before their freedom had been given them by Cyrus and Darius, they regarded as a fable what God had promised them; they said that they were in a grave from which no exit could have been expected: they had experienced how great and incredible was God's power; and yet as people astonished, they despaired of their future safety. This ingratitude then is what Zechariah now indirectly reproves by calling them the remnant of his people.
They were a small number, they had not raised their banner to go forth against the will of their enemies; but a way had been suddenly opened to them beyond all expectation. Since then they had been taught by experience to know that God was able to do more than they could have imagined, the Prophet here justly condemns them for having formed so unworthy an idea of that power of God which had been found by experience to have been more than sufficient. He afterwards adds ---
Zechariah 8:7, 8
7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
7. Sic dicit Iehova exercituum, Ecce ergo servans populum meum e terra orientis et e terra occasus solis;
8. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
8. Et reducam eos, et habitabunt in medio Ierosolymae; et erunt mihi in populum, et ego ero illis in Deum, in veritate et justitia.
He pursues the same subject, and introduces a preface, very necessary in so confused a state of things; for it was very difficult to raise up desponding minds and to inspire them with confidence, when pressed down with fear and trembling. This is the reason why Zechariah repeats so often, that he declared nothing but God's commands only.