A Pep Talk And A Promise

A Pep Talk And A Promise

How do you get back up once you are down?

BECAUSE OF the heinous sins and idolatry of the Jewish people, God had sent Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army three times to attack Judah and to take the Jews away captive. The final time in 586 B.C. the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. The prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that at the end of the Babylonian captivity God would return his people to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 29:10). This began in 538 B.C. when Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of Babylon, issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple (Ezra 1:2-4). Under the leadership of Zerubbabel about fifty thousand Jews returned and began to rebuild the temple. The Samaritans and other neighbors so vigorously opposed the rebuilding project that fear gripped the Jews and work on the temple stopped (4:4-24).

Then God sent his prophet Haggai with a message for the people of Jerusalem. In Hebrew the message is just four words long. In English it is seven words, “I am with you, says the Lord!” (Haggai 1:13)

Often in the Bible when God declares, “I am with you,” he precedes it by saying, “Do not be afraid” (Genesis 26:24). Although those words are omitted here, the message is the same. The answer to the Jews’ fear was the knowledge that God was with them.

Often when God calls people to a particular task, part of the call is the promise of God’s presence with them. God had promised his presence in his call of Moses (Exodus 3:12), Gideon (Judges 6:16), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:8). Here the promise is directed to all of God’s people in Jerusalem (Haggai 1:13).

God not only calmed their fears by the promise of his presence but also “sparked the enthusiasm” (v. 14). The Hebrew word translated “sparked” is used throughout the Old Testament for how God stirs the hearts of heads of state to accomplish his purposes (Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 51:11; etc.). Here he sparks the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel, the Jewish governor of Judah, and Jeshua, the high priest, as well as the whole remnant of God’s people in Jerusalem. He had stirred their hearts to return from Babylon and now was doing so again to rebuild his temple (Ezra 5:2).

From God’s perspective, it required the enthusiastic support of both the governmental leader Zerubbabel and the religious leader Jeshua, the high priest, for the temple to be rebuilt. Zerubbabel was the grandson of King Jehoiachin of Judah and an ancestor of Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:12-17). Little did Zerubbabel know that the temple he was rebuilding would, after Herod’s remodeling, be visited by the Messiah, whose right to the throne of David would come through Zerubbabel’s own genealogy.

It is significant that God energized not only the leadership of the Jews but also the whole remnant of God’s people. The result was that on September 21, 520 B.C., the people “came and began their work on the house of the Lord” (Haggai 1:14).

The New Testament tells believers, “God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). That is how God works. First he gave his people the desire by sparking their enthusiasm. Then he gave them the power to begin to rebuild the temple.

Reflection

Has fear stifled your ministry for God? It could be fear of people, fear of rejection, fear of failure, even fear of success. It is significant that in the last chapter of Matthew’s Gospel believers are twice told, “Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 28:5, 10). Then the Gospel ends with “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (v. 20).

I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.

Hebrews 13:5