living in difficult and dangerous times. We learn from Ezra that the surrounding pagan nations were the implacable enemies of the Jews and were determined by every means to prevent Zerubbabel from completing the work of building God’s temple (Ezra 4:1–5). The governor was in need of encouragement, therefore, and God—in the message of the shaking of the nations—gives him the assurance that he will keep him safe amid all the political upheavals of his own day, until his work is done. Zechariah, who