JOY "God's Judgment is Real" April 23, 2015

April 23, 2015

God’s Judgment is Real

I                          Zephaniah……. Singing is Just Around the Corner….

II                         Haggai………Words for the Remnant….

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Text Illustration:
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF DEATH

Philip Crosby, in his book "March Till They Die," gives an account of a forced march that American and European soldiers who had been captured had to endure in Korea.

It was November of 1950, and the North Koreans were being pushed north. As they went, they forced the American and European prisoners to go with them. It was a terrible march. They were driven as far as twenty miles a day at times, though it was cold and they were emaciated, hungry, suffering.

When prisoners who couldn’t keep up would fall back, shots would ring out. They were executed on the spot. Crosby and several other Christians would pass close by to the GI’s who were having a hard time keeping up. They would say slowly in a whisper, so as not to be heard, “God is near us in this dark hour. His love is real. His mercy is real. His forgiveness is real. His reward is waiting for us.”

If it had not been for that hope, many more would have died. They were literally marching through the valley of the shadow of death, but they were trusting in the Great Shepherd to lead them through it……and for the remnant who will go through the great tribulation, the only way that they will get through it, will be to cling to the Lord Jesus and His promise that after the dark and the gloom and the slaughter….there will be beauty and joy and singing….and the song on everybody’s lips will be the song “of the redeemed,” led by the Lord Jesus , Himself in, great and glorious exultation…

I                 Zephaniah……..Singing is Just Around the Corner

It was Zephaniah's lot to speak on the most unpleasant subject in the Bible -- the judgment of God. This is not the only place where this theme occurs, of course, but it is the most concentrated treatment of the judgment of God as the whole book is devoted to this one theme.

There are many people who would like to rule this subject of judgment out of the Bible entirely. There are those who tell us that the God of the New Testament, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the kind of a God who can never move in judgment. His heart is so tender, his love is so gracious, his patience is so infinite that there never will be a time when God will move in vengeance. It is remarkable, though, that in the New Testament the Lord Jesus spoke very frequently about the judgment of God. In the fourth chapter of Luke we are told that the Lord came back to his home town after preaching in Judea for many months. He had done many miracles and the word of his miracles had preceded him, so all the folks in Nazareth were very anxious to see him. He had not behaved like this when he was a boy growing up, and they were keen to see if he was going to do some mighty work when he came home.

Luke tells us that Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he was given the book of the prophecy of Isaiah to read. Opening the scroll he found the place (which happens to be the sixty-first chapter of our version of Isaiah) where it read, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." (Luke 4:10) That passage predicts the ministry of the Messiah. Then he stopped right in the middle of a sentence, right at a comma, and his last word was that he had come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. But Isaiah goes on to say, "and the day of vengeance of our God." (Isaah 61:2) Now the Lord did not read that because it was not the time to proclaim the day of vengeance of God. But the day of vengeance is coming, and it was the Lord himself who described the day of the Lord (recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke), and it is this day particularly that Zephaniah is talking about.

Zephaniah means "hidden of the Lord" and the prophet is speaking as if he were a representative of the remnant of faith -- those relatively few people who will remain true to God and be faithful to his word through the time of trouble that is to come upon the earth. They will be hidden, as it were, by God himself among the nations of the earth and God will watch over them to keep them in faith during this time. And it is about these people that the book of Zephaniah is written, and especially of that coming day, the day of the Lord, which is vividly described by the prophet.

In chapter 1, Zephaniah gives us the character of God's vengeance. It is not a pleasant passage. It begins after the prophet identifies himself as a great-great-grandson of one of the kings of Judah (verses 2-6):

"I will utterly sweep away everything
from the face of the earth," says the Lord.
"I will sweep away man and beast;
I will sweep away the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea.
I will overthrow the wicked;
I will cut off mankind
from the face of the earth," says the Lord.
"I will stretch out my hand against Judah,
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal[the false god of the peoples around Israel]
and the name of the idolatrous priests;
those who bow down on the roofs to the host of heavens;[the star worshipers]
those who bow down and swear to the Lord
and yet swear by Milcom;[one of the other gods the surrounding nations]
those who have turned back from following the Lord,
who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him." (Zephaniah 1:2-6 RSV)

And Zephaniah says (verse 7):

Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand... (Zephaniah 1:7 RSV)

There is a great deal of difference between the day of the Lord and the Lord's day. Sunday is the Lord's day, the day of resurrection, but the day of the Lord is something different and we should never confuse these terms. (It is like the difference between a horse chestnut and a chestnut horse.) The Lord's day was the day when our Lord arose from the dead and that is why we celebrate it on Sunday.

But the day of the Lord is the day of the manifestation of God's hand directly in human affairs. Notice the personal pronoun all through that passage: "I will sweep away everything." I will sweep away man and beast." "I will cut off mankind." God is working through events in history, working through nations and armies and calamities of various sorts. His hand is hidden in the glove of history, but all the writers of Scripture agree that a day is coming when God will intervene directly in the affairs of men again.

A reference to this time, in the words of Jesus himself, is found in Matthew, where our Lord speaks of a time of great tribulation.

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." (Matthew 24:9 RSV)

And the Lord goes on to describe this time. But still, this is not the day of the Lord that Zephaniah is talking about, because this is a time when the nations will still be moving against one another in warfare. Then Jesus says (Matthew 24:21, 22):

"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved..." (Matthew 24:21-22a RSV)

This is right in line with Zephaniah's prophecy. God says he will sweep everything off the face of the earth, "...but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." Then Jesus says Matthew. 24:24):

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." (Matthew 24:24 RSV)

And he says plainly (verse 25):

"Lo, I have told you beforehand." (Matthew 24:25 RSV)

In other words, do not get excited about this. Then we come to the description of the day of the Lord (Matthew. 24:29-31):

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory: and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:29-31 RSV)

The Apostle Paul speaks somewhat similarly and he uses the very term "the day of the Lord." In I Thessalonians you will find one of several references that Paul makes to this great event. In chapter 5, verses 1-6, he says:

But as to the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you.[Why not? Well, because they already had it in the Old Testament.] For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 RSV)

There are many other passages that also refer to the day of the Lord and they all agree that in the time when men are proclaiming peace, but preparing for war; in a time when they are holding to a form of godliness but denying the powers thereof; in a time when they are declaring that the problems of life are being solved. but when actually they are in greater danger than they have ever been before, then the day of the Lord will come.

Now let us return to Zephaniah and see what he has to say about this (chapter 1. verses 7-9):

Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice --
"I will punish the officials and the king's sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire ...
every one who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master's house
with violence and fraud." (Zephaniah 1:7-9 RSV)

Now what is this feast and who are these guests that are invited to the day of the Lord? Well, this is the great supper of God that is also described in Revelation 19, verses 17-20, where John says:

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, "Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great." And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast... (Revelation 19:17-20a RSV)

This is the great supper of God. It is the birds and the vultures that are invited, to feast upon the bodies of men. There is another description of this in Ezekiel 39. The guests are the buzzards, the vultures, and the eagles called to feed upon the dead, the millions that are slain in this terrible day when God again moves directly in human affairs.

"Well, now," you say, "How can this be? How can the God of love -- the God of the New Testament -- do a thing like this? How can God, who loves mercy and is slow to anger, ever come to this place?" And there are many who tell us that we should eliminate these passages from the Bible. They say we should read our Bibles in much the same way that we read literature. For instance, we read in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island of a character named Long John Silver. We read that he is a cruel, rapacious, untrustworthy individual. Now if, after reading that, somebody tells us that Long John Silver is really a great guy, that he is kind to his mother, and is a nice fellow once you get to know him, we do not believe this because we know Long John Silver and we know that he is not that kind of a man. Therefore, if anybody tells us that, we will not believe him. Someone with this attitude might go on to say, "I have come to know God as the God of love and the God of grace. Therefore, when I read in the Bible something that says he is a God of vengeance, and that he is going to destroy people, I just don't believe it. I just wipe that out. I say that someone else has insinuated that, because that is not the kind of God I know."

It is this kind of reasoning that suggests we should go through our Bibles and tear out every part that does not agree with our concepts of God. But what we have left, of course, is nothing more than w hat we like, what we think God ought to be like.

You can see how such an argument defeats itself. The very book that tells us that God is a God of love also says he is a God of vengeance. And any one who thinks carefully about himself and about love will understand why a God of love has to be a God of vengeance. For if we love someone, we hate everything that injures that person. We are against whatever threatens or destroys what we love. And the very love that moves the heart of God to pour himself out over the centuries in an unceasing effort to awaken man to his need and to hear the call of grace, is the same love that at last prompts him to eliminate those who refuse all the province of his grace, and identify themselves with that which is opposed to his will and to his work among men. Then he has nothing left to do but to destroy them. And that is why the prophet speaks so plainly about this.

Continuing in Zephaniah now, we read (chapter 1, verses 14-18):

The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter,
the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements. (Zephaniah 1:14-16 RSV)

And God says in stark frankness,

I will bring distress on men,
so that they shall walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord;
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of the Lord. (Zephaniah 1:17-18a RSV)

Now it is not easy for God to speak this way. He himself says that he takes no delight in the death of men. He says that he does not delight in judgment. Judgment, the prophet says, is his strange work. His heart delights in mercy. But eventually, if his will is to be done, if earth at last is to break out into the glorious freedom of the promises of the prophets concerning man, if the dreams that lie hidden away in the hearts of men of a warless world, a time of prosperity. a time when joy floods the earth, when men live together in glorious harmony, when even the animals lose their enmity toward one another and peace shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea -- if that is ever to come, then God must deal with the entrenched evil of men. This is why the coming of the day of vengeance of our God is absolutely certain. The prophets warn of this and the word speaks very clearly. all through the New Testament as well, that when God's grace is turned aside, God's judgment awaits.

In chapter 2 we trace the extent of God's vengeance. Certain nations are named (verses 8, 9):

"I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, 'Moab shall become like Sodom,
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah'"... (Zephaniah 2:8-9 RSV)

The Ethiopians are mentioned in verse 12 and the Assyrians in verse 13. The interesting thing is that although all these nations are long since lost in the dust of history, the promise of this day of the Lord is in the future. How can this be? Why are these nations mentioned here when they have long been buried in antiquity? How can they yet be destroyed in a day to come?

The answer is, of course, that these nations are used symbolically throughout the Scriptures as well as literally. They were literally destroyed in the course of history, but they are used symbolically with reference to the full and final meaning of the day of the Lord. Moab, for instance, is always a picture of the flesh of man -- his dependence upon his own resources. The Ammonites picture the same thing. Ethiopia is a picture of the stubbornness, or the intransigence of man. "Can the Ethiopian change his color?" the Scriptures say. And Assyria is man in his arrogance and his pride. Now God says he is against all these things, and as he moves at last in judgment on the human race, these are to be eliminated. In chapter 3 you will notice how extensive God's wrath is (verses 1, 2):

Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
She listens to no voice,
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord,
she does not draw near to her God. (Zephaniah 3:1-2 RSV)

This could be said of almost all the cities of the earth. As you read on you see that this is a world-wide matter (verse 8):

"Therefore wait for me," says the Lord,
"for the day when I arise as a witness.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
all the heat of my anger;
for in the fire of my jealous wrath
all the earth shall be consumed." (Zephaniah 3:8 RSV)

What for? What is God after? Is he just interested in getting even, wreaking his vengeance at last upon the stubbornness and willfulness of men? Is he visiting the earth with this terrible hurricane of destruction in order to leave it nothing but a smoking ruin, barren and desolate, without inhabitants? No, that is what men would do if there were another world war. We would leave the earth desolate, but God will never leave it that way.

After you read the description of all the darkness, gloom, and slaughter -- after the desolation and the destruction, what is the next word? Verse 14:

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem! (Zephaniah 3:14 RSV)

Why? You see, this is the new order that is to follow. This is why God is dealing with men, so that he might bring out songs instead of sorrow, service instead of selfishness, security instead of slavery. This will be the consequence of God's judgment. And we are told that the Lord God is in the midst of the people, not for judgment, as he is in chapter 3, verse 5:

The Lord within her is righteous, he does no wrong... (Zephaniah 3:5a RSV)

But here in verse 17:

The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival. (Zephaniah 3:17-18a RSV)

Furthermore, the Lord says (verses 18-20):

"I will remove disaster from you... (Zephaniah 3:18b RSV)
deal with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast, ... (Zephaniah 3:19b RSV)
... change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth. (Zephaniah 3:19c RSV)
At that time I will bring you home, (Zephaniah 3:20a RSV)

What a picture this is! Specifically, of course, it has to do with the remnant of Israel, but it is a picture of God's loving care during any time of despair or darkness. It is my personal belief that this is something that the church does not see. The church is caught away before these events occur but, in the time that follows, God calls back the remnant of Israel to himself and they will at last break out into the song of the redeemed. Now the singing here is led by the Lord himself in a marvelous, glorious melody of joy. It reminds me of that beautiful passage in the Song of Songs:

For lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come. (Song 2:11-12a RSV)

That is what follows the time of judgment. But no one but the redeemed can join in that song. Elizabeth Browning, in her poem, the Seraphim, describes the angels watching the work of the Son of God on earth and at last, seeing with stupefied amazement the incarnation and ultimately the cross, one angel looks at this host of ransomed souls and he says to the other, "Hereafter shall the blood bought captives raise their passion song of blood." And the other one replies, "And we extend our holy vacant hands toward the throne and cry, 'We have no music.'" You see, only the redeemed can sing like this. After the darkness, after the slaughter, after the terrible destruction comes the time of the singing. That is what God is after in your life. That is possible on the level of the Spirit right now when God deals death's stroke against the flesh within us and brings us through that painful experience of saying no to the ego and the self-life. There follows the time of the singing, the time that he is after, the reason he takes us through the pain and the darkness. What you see to be true of the individual life will also be true on the whole wide canvas of history as God brings human history to an end.

That is what Zephaniah tells us about. Although it is a painful scene, one that begins in darkness and gloom, it ends in joy and gladness and singing.

II                  Haggai….Words for the Remnant….kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkm[≤˚[‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’‘

               ‘oi.kl;/p[-

Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
We must consent and submit ourselves to God’s training and obey Him….. His way, whatever it is; however it plays out, whether we like it or not, is always the right way….if we will just obey Him enough, eventually we will see, is always good and perfect....

The remnant of Israel, who returned to Jerusalem, after 70 years in Babylonian exile, had to learn this truth the hard way…..

When we read this prophetic little book  of Haggai, we notice, that the theme of it is to "get busy and build the Lord's house." Those people, literally, had to physically rebuild the temple, but the take away from this, for us, is that the church building is immaterial, as beautiful and necessary as we think it is, the church, is actually God’s people….  Now, we may be crowded in our churches, and we may need more space, but the church building is not the house of God. In Haggai's day, it was a picture or shadows of the true house of God, that . These shadows pointed toward the true house of God, which is the believer, and collectively, it is all believers –---who form the great house of God, which is the church, the place where God dwells. That is the church that God is interested in building.

But the question has to be asked…Is it a big deal if someone calls a church building, "God’s House?" No, it’s not a big deal. We’ve all done it….But all inaccuracies have consequences. The difference does determine much of what is done in a church building. By calling a church building "God’s House," we are setting the tone that the building is a shrine, and we wind up treating it with false carefulness which makes us assign restrictions to it that don’t exist…and By calling it "a house for God’s people," we are accurately reflecting that the building exists to benefit us, not God, even though, we may use it for God’s glory and for His purposes. We are blessed by the comfort of our church buildings and the beauty of them and we need to be grateful for them,,, but the bottom line of what we take away from Haggai should be that God is building His church , not out of bricks and mortar, but out of the hearts and lives of anyone who will call the Lord Jesus, their Savior…

In Haggai’s , day , the lord’s house was the temple

they had some difficulty building the temple after they returned from the Babylonian captivity…...(

The Haggai prophecy should be read in connection with the historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah…… As many of the prophets had prophesied, the Babylonian nation was raised up and had come sweeping down across the land of Israel. They captured Jerusalem, the king was taken captive, his eyes were put out, and he was also carried as a captive to Babylon and there, just as the prophecy of Jeremiah had foretold, the people stayed in bondage exactly 70 years. This, by the way, is one of those remarkable prophecies which have already been fulfilled, so you can see how God speaks through the prophets what no man could speak on his own.

After the 70 years were fulfilled, Daniel, who prophesied in Babylon, tells us that God began to move to bring the people back to the land. They came first under Zerubbabel, who is mentioned in the opening verse of this prophecy of Haggai. Zerubbabel, who was descended from kings, was the captain of the remnant that came back from Babylon. When they came to Jerusalem, they found the city in ruins. The walls were broken down and the temple was utterly destroyed.

They began work first of all on the temple. Although they were still under the domain and rule of the Babylonians, they had permission from the king of Babylon to begin work on this temple. They started working, and they managed to lay the foundations and the beginning of the stone walls…. -- a much smaller temple than the original one that Solomon had built. Then the work began to lag, and after a while it ceased altogether and for 15 years nothing was done on the temple. And it was at that point that Haggai the prophet, rose up to speak.

Haggai delivered four messages to the people -- all within the space of about a year and a half, all concerning the building of the temple. But their deeper message, as I have already suggested, applies to us….. the great house of God that he has been building for 20 centuries now. So we have read this prophecy not only as a message of  warning from the prophet, to the people of his day, about building the temple, but also as a message to the people of God everywhere, and in every time, concerning their responsibility in building the the great house of God, th that the Holy Spirit has been building out of human hearts

 house of God, by sharing the truth of the Gospel with anyone who will listen…...

In the prophecy, the four messages are dated by the calendar. Each one reveals an excuse given by the people, and the real reason behind their excuse…. for not working on the temple -- . The first message includes all of chapter 1. We read (verses 1 and 2):

The prophecy was addressed to the civil governor Zerubbabel and to the religious leader, Joshua, and in this verse, the prophet repeats the excuse that the people gave for leaving the temple abandoned for 15 years. They were saying "Why, the time has not yet come. There has been a mistake in figuring the 70 years that Jeremiah prophesied. There's no use doing anything now because God is not ready yet." But God calls pulls the plug on their excuse and says that the real problem was that they were all wrapped up in their own affairs. They were putting God's work second and their own needs first.

The people had forgotten something. The fact that they were there in the land at all proved that God's time had come. They wouldn’t have been back in Jerusalem, a all, if there if those 70 years had not been completely fulfilled. The real reason, therefore, was that they were not willing to put God first. Their own comforts, and their own convenience and their own desires, were what came first., to them.

God let Haggai tell them what the result of their disobedience was…which was to  short-circuit all their efforts to achieve prosperity? Not because he was trying to punish them? God never punishes in that sense. He was trying to wake them up. He was trying to show them that there was an infallible rule that runs all through scripture and all through life, that men are constantly trying to reverse, that says, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well." (Matthew. 6:33) The way to have what we need in terms of physical food and material shelter and the necessities of life is to give our major concern and interests to advancing God's work. That is what we are here for….. we have a Father in heaven, who knows our needs along, and He is perfectly able to supply them, and He will, as long we put His work first.

That is right up to date, is it not? That is calling us back to this great principle that the New Testament is reminding us of that we are not our own, but we were bought with a price; we belong to him. (I Corinthians. 6:19,20) We are here to advance his cause, his interests. We are here to build the house of God. That is why God has left us here in this world, so that we might be his instruments in this work of erecting a great church of human beings, which is, and will be, the dwelling place of God.

Advancing God’s kingdom is what we should be living for, not new TVs or fancier cars or bigger and more beautiful homes or better drapes and softer rugs. Not that all those things are denied to Christians. Let us understand that. God, in his grace and goodness sometimes gives good things  to Christians, and they are to use it, as Paul reminds us in his letter to Timothy. in being generous, giving richly and freely.

But God has called us primarily to put the building of the house of God first -- not the brick and mortar building, but the church of God. There are people all around us that the Holy Spirit intends to add to the house of God if we are his instruments and channels of his working. And the great question that Haggai confronts us with is: how can we find time to advance our interests so eagerly, so carefully, so thoughtfully -- spending so much time thinking about advancing our own material gain and then excuse ourselves from the work of building the house of God by saying, "It isn't time yet"?

“The ‘story is told of of William Carry, the father of modern missions, who in 18th century England got concerned about India, and prayed that God would somehow reach those poor, heathen people, who had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He tried to stir up interest in the churches of England, but he was  met everywhere with adamant resistance to his idea. In one meeting, Carry made an impassioned plea to be sent out as a missionary. Even though he was a simple cobbler and uneducated, he was willing to go. One of the elders of the meeting pointed his finger at Carry and said, "Young man, sit down. When God wants to evangelize the heathen, he'll do it without your help."

That was the kind of stubborn resistance that Carry met with, but he was a man who could not be defeated. He was used by God to begin the great modern missionary movement that has not stopped yet, because he was someone who was concerned about God's work. There is an excitement that comes into our lives when we really, genuinely put the affairs of God first, and do not even bother to think about the provision of our own needs, when we put being about our Father’s business our top priority…

They went back to work for 3 weeks, then their interest ground to a halt again….

 They had just gotten started and the temple had begun to go up. There was a bustle of excitement until an old man came down to watch the work. He had been a child when they were carried captive into Babylon and had seen the temple of Solomon in all its great glory, and as old men sometimes do, he was living in the past. And he said, "Do you call this a temple? This heap of ruins here? I saw Solomon's temple, and what you are building here is nothing compared to that. All the gold and silver that was in that temple -- it was amazing! And you don't even have any gold or silver. How are you going to decorate this temple?" The people got discouraged and they said, "You know, he's right. We don't have any gold or silver. We don't have anything to make this temple beautiful. What's the use? Why work?" So they quit.

But told Haggai to tell them….."Work, for I am with you," (Haggai 2:4c RSV)

That is always God's answer. "Work, for I am with you.” We aren’t supposed to worry about the fact that things don't look like we think they ought to…we’re just supposed to obey God’s leading." Verses 5 and 6:

God is like that. He says, "Look, you are discouraged because you think what you are doing won't amount to anything. But don't stop the work because of that. I have a different plan in mind. This house, little as it is, unpretentious as it is, without gold or silver, is actually going to have greater glory in it than the glory of the previous temple. Now those words were fulfilled. Do you know how? Into that house one day came one who found it filled with money changers, and overthrowing the tables, he drove them out and said, "You make [my Father's house] a den of robbers." (Matthew. 21:13) And he cleansed it and made it a place of prayer. And he filled it with the glory of his teaching, standing in the midst of it and saying things such as people had never heard before. And he utterly changed the whole life of that nation and every nation in the world by what he said. And from out of that house, changed and altered a little by Herod, but the same house, there went forth a glory that has never ceased, a different kind of glory.

Do not stop the work because it does not compare with something that was there in the past. This is one of the problems of God's people. We are always looking back to the past. And we are wistful and long to have it just that way it used to be, or the way its always been…. But the great lesson that God wants to impress upon us is that God always does a new and different work. The thing that is coming in the future is always better for our present situation than the past. We do not need to hang on to these things of tradition. God is saying, "Keep on working, I am with you. And when I am in your midst you don't need to worry about how it is going to turn out. It may be different but it will always be better."

That encouraged them  for awhile, and then, they quit again…they were having a hard time…. They were the same kind of people we are. They wanted instant results: If you read between the lines we can see that they were saying,…… "Look, we've been working on the temple for two months. You said that the reason we were having such a hard time materially and physically was that we weren't working on the temple. We have been working on the temple now for two months, 21 days, and we are still having a hard time. What is the matter? Why do we keep working….when will it get better?

“One time when a couple went to see their preacher for marital counseling, the man said, "We just can't live together. She is always blowing up and exploding and bawling me out about everything." The preacher examined the situation and found out that the major problem was that here was a man who paid no attention to his wife; he utterly neglected her and she would take it just so long and then she would blow up. So the preacher told him this and he said, "I think you are right." So he went home to do something about it. The next morning he called the preacher up and said, "Well, I took her out to dinner last night and we had a great time. She enjoyed it so much I was sure you were right. But this morning she blew up again. The thing doesn't work."

The preacher had to say to the man what Haggai said to these people. “Do you think the deep pollution of sin that has been going on for years is going to be cured overnight when you start doing the right thing? Do you think that all these habits of wrong thinking that have been deeply ingrained in your mind are suddenly going to be eliminated simply because you begin to operate on the right basis? No, we need time and patience. "Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart…..Galatians. 6:9)

And Haggai gave them a word of encouragement…he said:

“Do not worry. Keep on. Do not stop work just because you do not see instant results. If you are doing the right thing, keep on doing it and the results will come.

But then, on the very same day, they needed more encouragement and so another message came, the last one …. 

And it was a special word of encouragement to the leader while the people were still under the authority of Babylon, although they were back in the land and building the temple again, they were still beset by many problems. Everywhere they looked there was the sign of the authority of the foreign power. They saw chariots everywhere and soldiers marching through the streets and all the signs of bondage, and their hearts grew fearful and they said, "When will it ever be? Are we ever going to be free?"

God says, "Don't worry. I have a program going that will reverse the whole order of things. I will destroy the power of this kingdom. I will bring their chariots to naught. I will break you loose from the bondage of this people and I am going to take Zerubbabel, the man who stands as the leader of the people and make him a signet ring." Now Zerubbabel was of the royal line, the line of David, and though these words were not literally fulfilled in Zerubbabel, they were fulfilled in his greatest descendent the Lord Jesus Christ… He made him a signet ring by which all the nations shall ultimately be ruled……

The words of Haggai are still words of encouragement  for us….in a day of darkness, a word of rising up and acting now. Build now. Do not wait. The work of God needs to be done now. Not next year. Not ten years from now. Now. Are your homes open? Are your lives ready? A great harvest field is before us here and around the world. Opportunities abound as they never have before. Is helping to build the house of Gpd, the church, first in our prayers? Is it first in our interests that this great harvest may be reaped? Are our homes open to the students that throng our campuses that they might come to Christ? And to our neighbors so that they can come in and find a friendly heart and a ready smile and a ready ear to listen?

How much are we ready to build the house of the Lord? That is always the key, is it not? This is the work of the Spirit. When all that man has done around us crumbles into nothing and all the vast civilizations and great secrets of nature are forgotten, the one thing that will last, is the work of the Lord, the house of God that he is building now. Are we investing in eternal things? If we aren’t it is never too late…lets start doing our part today…..

Prayer:

Our Father, we pray that we may listen with keen ears to these words and hear them anew in our own lives, making application to our own hearts as the Spirit of God prompts us in this moment. We ask in Christ's name, Amen.