‘Let your hands be strong.’ The hands will be strong if the heart is strong, and the heart is strengthened by the word of the Lord.
Just as these blessings would be enjoyed literally, so they would be pictures of even greater blessings on the church, for New Testament believers are still looking forward to the coming of Christ. Who will be the beneficiaries? Viewed from one angle, those who God brings; from another, those who believe. It is a new order of closeness. Whatever our natural disposition, as the people of God we are entitled to be optimists; indeed we are commanded to be optimists. It is not we who makes the future but the Lord who brings into our lives what pleases him.