Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries. It wasn’t long after Haggai began his ministry that Zechariah joined him. Stuart Briscoe 
suggests, “One probably was a Baptist, and the other was a Presbyterian, and they prophesied on opposite sides of the street, but they had more or less the same ministry.” Their call was to encourage the people to continue building the temple. But there was external opposition from the Samaritans that occupied the land, and even worse, there were those who criticized the “smallness” of the new project as they remembered the size of Solomon’s temple.
Zechariah picks up Haggai’s challenge to “get back to the task at hand” be foretelling the success of this project and prophesying the immensity of its significance in the lives of so many people in the future. He speaks of the rightful king, Zerubbabel and says, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice…” I would translate the phrase “small things” as “small beginnings.”
God usually starts with small things. The mustard seed, the tiniest of all, yet it becomes the largest plant of them all. God’s people themselves all started with one man named Abraham. God took it from there! It started with a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem and God took it from there. Remember how the church got started in Acts chapter 2! Peter preached one sermon and God took it from there. Country Bible Church started with a vision given to six people back in the late 1960’s. God took it from there!
Don’t ever let “small beginnings” get you down. Discouragement overcame some of the greatest heroes of the Bible. Elijah, Moses, and Jonah all grew so discouraged they prayed for death. Jeremiah spent his whole life in the throes of depression. John the Baptist asked, “Are you really the Messiah or should we look of someone else?” David said, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?” Even the apostle Paul said that he was once so weary and worried that he couldn’t preach the gospel though a great door had opened to him.
Chuck
“And whosoever shall give even a small drink to one of these little ones… I say unto you, he will never lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42