Zechariah 8:10

"For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in, because of the adversary: for I set all men every one against his neighbor. But now, I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith Jehovah of hosts."

There is a definite and practical promise in this that has direct and immediate application to "the remnant of this people." It means that God will bless them, a very necessary thing in the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose, due to their being, in a very genuine sense, the foundation of the spiritual temple in that through them the Messiah would be born.

"But now, I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days ..." It is customary for commentators to make this passage say, merely, that God has finished punishing his people, and that he will no longer "set every man against his neighbor," as formerly. We believe there is far more here than that. It means that God will no longer be Israel's husband, in the old sense of the sacred covenant. These words certainly have that meaning! Subsequent events proved that this was what God meant. No succession of prophets appeared in the inter-testamental period. Israel's status for some half a millenium was markedly different from what it had once been. Homer Hailey, and other commentators restrict "in the former days" as applicable merely to the period of adversity and conflict that marked earlier efforts to build the second temple.[11] That a blessing is indeed promised seems sure; but the peculiar language here appears to us to be applicable in a much greater dimension.