Seeing The Big Picture

Seeing The Big Picture

God sometimes used his prophets as motivational speakers.

FOR THREE and a half weeks Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Jeshua, the high priest, had been directing the Jews who had returned with them from Babylonia as they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. The work was discouraging because the temple had lain in ruins for sixty-six years.

Previously the enemies of the Jews had been so successful in frightening and discouraging them that work had stopped for seventeen years. On October 17, 520 B.C., as the rebuilding project was underway again, God sent a message to encourage and motivate the workers through the prophet Haggai (Haggai 2:1).

Haggai said to Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and all the people, “Is there anyone who can remember this house—the Temple—as it was before? In comparison, how does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! . . . Take courage and work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid” (Haggai 2:3-5).

The original temple built by Solomon was ornate and luxurious. There was no way the workers could replicate its grandeur, and Haggai realized that this discouraged many of the workers. But God desired his people to be encouraged in spite of how insignificant the temple they were rebuilding might look.

So God gave them a glimpse of what the future temple would look like—in connection with the second coming of Christ. Of that time God said through Haggai to the discouraged temple builders, “In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth. I will shake the oceans and the dry land, too. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord Almighty. The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken!” (vv. 6-9).

Previously God had shaken the earth when he had made his covenant with them at Mount Sinai. “Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. . . . And the whole mountain shook with a violent earthquake” (Exodus 19:17-18). God shook the earth again when Christ was crucified. “The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened” (Matthew 27:51-52). But the great shaking is yet to come. In a vision of the second coming of Christ, John saw “a great earthquake. . . . Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth. . . . And the sky was rolled up like a scroll and taken away. And all of the mountains and all of the islands disappeared” (Revelation 6:12-14; cf. Luke 21:25-27).

Through Haggai God helped the disheartened workers see that their building was part of a much bigger scenario—one in which the temple would eventually be rebuilt a final time to a grandeur greater than ever before (cf. Ezekiel 40:1–47:12).

Reflection

God encouraged the discouraged temple builders by telling them of the glorious end of the project they were beginning. We, likewise, can become discouraged at the seeming insignificance of what God calls us to do. Yet it is all part of God’s glorious perfect plan. No matter what our task, “the future glory . . . will be greater than its past” (Haggai 2:9).

The glory of the Lord filled the Temple.

Ezekiel 43:5