Zechariah 8:9

"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets that were in the day that the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts was laid, even the temple, that it might be built."

"The temple that it might be built ..." There are two temples in view in the return of a remnant to Jerusalem and in the laying of an actual foundation for the second literal temple. Of course, the visible, physical temple is easily recognized; but there is another temple, the spiritual body of Christ, the Church, the only true temple God ever had. The foundation of it also appears in the events of Zechariah's day. The little remnant of returnees would deliver the Christ child in a manger at Bethlehem, and the light of the Son of God would begin to shine for all people. We may well suppose that Zechariah might have imagined that only the physical temple was included in those events; but the ages have also revealed the other.

"Let your hands be strong ..." Diligence and hard work are the twin virtues that have marked the behavior of every God-fearing generation that ever lived.

"The prophets that were in the day ..." Zechariah here makes an objective reference to himself in the third person. "Those prophets were: Ezekiel, Haggai, and Zechariah."[10]