WEEKEND Edition, 9/10 January, 2021 “Haggai”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends, and welcome to the weekend! I wonder, with all the global chaos this week, do you feel like Christmas was 6 months ago?

If you’ve been on this “Walking with Jesus” journey with me for a while, perhaps you recognize that I’m leading you through the Biblical history of the nation of Israel, chronologically, with special focus on the leadership as reported to us in the Kings, the Chronicles, and the prophets God sent to advise and challenge the leaders. Do you see we’ve been doing this during the months of October, November, December and now January… as the world has been almost singularly focused on the leadership challenges and integrity of leadership all around the world.

We’ve watched the UK Brexit and new Covid variant lockdowns in England. We’ve watched migration and terrorism challenges in Europe and Chinese leadership facing challenges in Hong Kong, Taiwan. We’ve watched the American election catastrophe / and of course the global COVID pandemic and race to vaccines, and now new variant strains of the virus. I believe God has been teaching us many things from His Word and the history of Israel that pertain to the times in which you and I live, my friends, as we begin 2021.

We’re now in Ezra chapter 4:24. It’s only one statement, but oh it’s powerful: “So the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius the king of the Persian kingdom.” My friends, these 50,000 Jewish exiles who only a few years before had been freed by king Cyrus from their captivity in Babylon, had returned to the region of Jerusalem and begun rebuilding their lives, their city and their Temple. You’ll recall it had all been demolished about 55 years before in 586bc by king Nebuchadnezzar. So what happened that their work was stopped?

Ezra 4:4,5 tell us the ‘squatters’ who had moved in and settled in the region of broken down Jerusalem opposed Zerubbabel and the Jewish exiles as they began work on the Temple! Their opposition even reached the point of a legal challenge, something we’ve sure seen a great deal of in America and other countries around the world as opposition to Christianity has reached public courtrooms or demonstrations in the streets. Court cases opposing the reading of Bibles in schools or even praying in schools. Street demonstrations demanding the right to abort live, healthy babies in the womb. Demands to remove Nativity scenes or the 10 Commandments or other God honoring things from public property. This isn’t a new problem friends. Here in Ezra 4 we see government officials agreed with the opposition and officials shut down the Temple reconstruction project. Now look around your part of the world my friends. Do you see anything like this happening?

So what did God do? First God just watched to see what His people would do? They had hundreds of years of miraculous history which proved God was watching over, providing for and protecting His people. Would the people remember those events? Would they pray, crying out for God’s help and keep working or would they accept the bullying of government leaders and let the Temple project stop? God watched… for years. More than 10 years as weeds grew up around the foundation of the Temple and all those 50,000 Jews focused on building their lives, their homes, their businesses, their farms, their society… without a Temple, without worship. Children were born, old folks died and God was ignored, pushed out of society.

Finally God acted, and God sent two courageous men. Men like Daniel, like Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, like Isaiah. Men who would courageously, forthrightly, boldly speak God’s truth and challenge the people to realize what was happening and change. These men were Mr. Haggai and Mr. Zechariah. You see them mentioned in Ezra 5:1: “Now Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the prophet, spoked to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel. Then Zerubbabel and Joshua set to work, continuing to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And these prophets of God were with them supporting them in their work.” WOW! What changed? Let’s take a look and let’s consider if God is speaking to us, in 2021 in the same way, through the words of Haggai and Zechariah. You’ll find both their messages in the Bible near the end of the Old Testament. For my friends, we Christians today are facing very much the same type of opposition which they faced, in their day!

Listen to the record of Mr. Haggai: “In the second year of king Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah…This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s Temple.’…But, is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while the Temple remains a ruin?’

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways…”. (Haggai 1:1-5)

Oh my what a challenge! The date of Haggai’s message was August 29, 520bc. The 50,000 Jewish exiles had begun their return to Jerusalem in 538bc and they had begun the work on the foundation of the Temple in May of 536bc. That means for almost 16 years no sound of work had been heard on the Temple mount! The discouraged people had focused on building their fine paneled houses, while the Temple mount grew weeds. And God watched it all. Finally God’s powerful warning statement: “Give careful thought to your ways!”

I have a strong sense we should do that. . .stop right here and ponder the similarity between life in your city, your society, your nation, and what was happening in and around Jerusalem in 520bc. And then ponder deeply those six words from God: “Give careful thought to your ways.”

How have you and I responded to the fear spreading media as they’ve bred panic around our world in 2020? How have we responded to leaders in panic as they have forced the shutdown of schools and businesses and churches? How have we nurtured our spiritual and emotional lives when forced to live isolated from each other? What do we see when we try to look at our situation and our lives through God’s eyes? What does He see, especially when God looks deeply into our hearts, our attitudes, our priorities and values? Do you hear God saying to you: “Give careful thought to your ways!”

This weekend I urge us all to do exactly that… and I wonder what God will tell you about how He wants to lead you and me forward, beginning this weekend, into the rest of 2021, as a people of God? To gain proper perspective it helps to remember doesn’t it, and so I leave you with this powerful song and I invite you to REMEMBER how God has worked in our world, our lives, in our past. . .

Today’s Scripture is Haggai 1.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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