Let’s recap. The Israelites came back from 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
- They rebuilt the altar and started work on the Temple but their enemies opposed them (Ezra 3).
- They were so discouraged they stopped work for some 16 years. Nothing was done to God’s house while they busy themselves with their own houses.
God sent Haggai (Zechariah) to get the people back to the work. Haggai delivers God’s Word in 4 messages over a span of 4 months.
- Through him, God stirred the hearts of the people and got them to resume the work on the Temple of God.
- The first message was a rebuke and a wake-up call. The people neglected God’s house and were suffering the consequences of not having God in their lives.
- Without the Temple, it would mean no proper worship. With no worship, it would mean God would be out of their minds and hearts.
- The context of the first message tells it all. We need God for the harvests. Ultimately God is the One who provides and blesses, even the labor of our hands.
Haggai 1:11 “I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.” A correlation between our priorities and God’s blessing
1:5 & 7“Give careful thought to your ways”. Think. Think carefully and consider. They were not coerced into it. And it took them 23 days to think it over.
Haggai 2:1-5 They started work on the 24th day of the 6th month, and now we have a 2nd message from God on the 21st day of the 7th month, barely a month since the work started. And hearing what God said – “Be strong, Zerubbabel”, “Be strong, Joshua” and “Be strong, all you people of the land and work… Do not fear.”
We can understand they were discouraged and fearful. The Lord was responding to what they were thinking and feeling.
- It shows us God knew and understood. God knows what we are going through.
- It was precisely because God knew that He spoke. The Word came to address their concerns. The Word came to address a need in His people.
Clearly, the new Temple was nowhere near as splendid as Solomon’s Temple was. God knew it, the people knew it, and the leaders knew it.
Ezra records that when the new Temple was dedicated, the foundation was laid, shouts of joy were mixed with sounds of weeping: Ezra 3:10-13 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
- The older returnees from exile remembered the original glory of Solomon’s Temple. It was a stark contrast. The previous Temple was obviously bigger and grander and glittering with gold, literally.
Solomon builds the Temple in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chron 3.
- On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, Solomon carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the Temple with gold. Not a stone could be seen.
- The interior of the temple was made with imported cedars from Lebanon, decked out with precious stones, and the whole place was overlaid in gold.
***But this was not the point. The size and beauty of the Temple wasn’t the important part. God wasn’t concerned about the facade.
The Lord says: Haggai 2:8 “The silver is mine and the gold is mine.” He could have provided the gold if He wanted to.
- In fact, at the start and now as they resume the rebuilding, resources have been provided for by King Cyrus and King Darius. God would move the Persians to give if that was what is truly required.
But pessimism set in when the people began to compare the past/present.
Nothing they see now is like before. It’s quite hopeless! “We’re just wasting our time.” 2nd rate Temple
Does that sound familiar? I think anyone of us who has served in a ministry, for any length of time, has felt the same kind of discouragement: the sense that you work and work and what is produced seems so minimal.
- You pour yourself into ministry week after week and month after month and there seems to be little fruit for your labor.
- And we get discouraged and are tempted to quit and put away our aspirations and drop our dreams and put our feet up in front of the television and coast.
They were discouraged because they gave too much thought to the past.
“Be strong and work!” He gives TWO reasons for this – (1) He is with them, and (2) He will provide for them.
We see again one truth – the past is immaterial to God! He can do a new thing.
- Don’t get locked-in in the past! Learn from the past, but don’t get anchored in it! • God is with us today and there’s work for us to do. God is with/Provides.
Haggai 2:4 “Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, `and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
How could I/you/we ever belittle a work when God says He is with us in it?
When God is working at our side, nothing is trivial.”
**Haggai 2:6-9 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” Notice the many “I will…”
“Be strong and work” You do your part and I WILL do my part.
Just before David passed away, he encouraged his son with similar words, regarding the building of the Temple.
1 Chronicles 28:20 David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.
God spoke these same words to Moses just before they crossed the Jordan river: Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
To Joshua before they entered the Promised Land: Josh 1:5-6 “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”
- Each time these words were used, there is also the promise of God’s presence. It is the presence of God that makes God’s people strong.
- It is His presence that enables us to continue on when we’re beaten down and discouraged by what is happening in our life. So the more discouraged we are, the more we need to get back to God and experience His presence, in worship, and in prayer.
All these are just ordinary men and women, don’t forget that.
- They are men and women like you and me, and the only thing that made them great was that they knew their God, and they knew that God was with them.
- Many have done their part in the past, in their generation. We are called to do our part, now in our generation.
Solomon has done his part, for his generation. In our text, the Israelites have to do it for their own generation.
- God says the future Temple will be more glorious! God was looking into the future and telling His people the great plan He has for this place.
Recap 6-9 (1) This will take place in the future. (2) This place will be filled with glory. (3) The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house. (4) In this place God will grant peace.
Herod renovated the temple in 20—19 BC, The temple was completed in one-and-a-half years, and the outer courtyard in eight years. Herod’s temple, then, was a restoration and expansion of Zerubbabel’s second temple.
500 years Jesus in the Temple- Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Veil was torn in two
- What the remnant was doing is a precursor to the greater things to come.
How we see things is not as important as how God sees it.
- None of them would live to see this ‘glorious’ day the Lord plans for! They were called to obey God and do His will – to build this house of God.
- The ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan would come in the distant future.
- Notice, success in Kingdom work cannot always be measured in their lifetime.
Rev 14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
- God will use what they do to bring about His greater glory. Sometimes, we can only see the fruit of our labors, not at the end of a service, but at the end of age.
The question is, can we Be Strong, Stay Strong, and do the work of God?
- 1 Cor 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
- How can we stay strong and remain faithful? We trust His PRESENCE, His PROMISES and His POWER for us through the Holy Spirit.
This should be our preoccupation today:
Building up the body of Christ, the community of God’s people, encouraging one another to grow up as mature disciples who can then disciple others.
If we are discouraged or tired, then remember God’s Word here through Haggai.
BE STRONG AND WORK-THE BEST IS YET TO COME
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