The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.
Haggai 2:9
Here in this small book of the prophet Haggai we see that the God of judgment is also the God of restoration. Haggai’s prophetic ministry was directed to the Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple of God under the decree of Darius (Haggai 1:1). The book has two main messages. The first message, a call to repentance, came about because the exiles had gotten complacent and discouraged with the task of temple building. They abandoned it in favor of concentrating on building and upgrading their own houses in selfish consumerism. They also were discouraged when the aged among them still wept at the memory of the glory of the original temple comparing it to the now ruined edifice they were called to rebuild (Haggai 2:3).
After they respond in repentance to God’s rebuke and judgment on their complacency, the people then needed a vision of hope to get to the task of rebuilding. That’s the second message of the book. And a vision of hope is exactly what God gave them, assuring that the new temple would outpace the former temple, with the wonderful picture of one day all nations contributing to the worship of God in Jerusalem (Haggai 2:6-7). This is ultimately fulfilled in the future reign of Jesus.
God thus enabled the exiles to do the work of rebuilding. They did not need to fear, His Spirit was among them to equip them to face the task of rebuilding toward that future glory (Haggai 2:5). They only needed to accept God’s call, look to that future hope, and get to work on the temple re-building project. It was hard work... lifting stones, and mixing mortar, but it could be done. They would do this work. God would make His glory known among them as they did so, turning their fear and discouragement into His great peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment