How can we find the boldness to persevere, especially when we face disappointments? This is an important question when there is a temptation to look back nostalgically as believers to supposed golden eras or glory days from the past whether that’s a period of revival and renewal or specific preachers, pastors or events.
Read Haggai 2:1-9
It’s just under two months since the first message was given. Through Haggai. The date in the seventh month also places the prophecy at the end of the feast of tabernacles. This was a festival commemorating the Exodus when people lived in tents. The significance should not be lost on us. The people had completed their second exodus in th.at they were living in permanent homes but Yahweh’s house was not ready, as though they had been happy for his glory to remain in exile a little longer (v1).[1]
Work was underway but there were still challenges that could delay things including discouragement. Haggai picks up on one here. Some of the older members of the community would be able to remember the original temple and the new one was small and lacking its former grandeur. They might think “Why bother” (v2-3).
However, God urges the leaders and the people to be strong, to act boldly and keep going to complete the job. They can do this because God has promised to be with them. This is his covenant promise going all the way back to the first exodus. Notice that a message is delivered to a second/new Joshua that echoes God’s command and promise to the first Joshua.[2] If they ere discouraged and contemplating giving up, then the solution was not to judge things by appearances but to remember God’s covenant, his promises and the way that he has acted in the past to deliver them, provide for them, protect them and bless them ((v4-5))
As well as encouraging them to look back, God invites them to look forward too. In a short time, God will act. Note, it’s “once again”, this is in line with what God has done in the past. [3]This is described in cosmic terms, the heavens and earth will be shaken, the world turned upside down if you like. There are more past memories echoed here. Such a shaking and disturbance may cause us to think of Noah’s Flood and of the signs and wonders in Moses day through the plagues leading up to the splitting of the Red Sea (v6). The nations will be shaken too, so that their treasures will be shaken out of their grip and brought in to glorify the temple. Again, we might recall how the people of Egypt provided for the Israelites, even given up their treasures when the Hebrew slaves set out under Moses or the way in which other nations contributed through David and Solomon to the first temple. Yahweh is able to do this because all of those treasures belong to him[4]. We might think both immediately here that Babylon had carried away the treasures from the Temple but also the wider and general sense that all things are from God. Initial fulfilment saw Darius providing for the temple (v8). [5]
The end result will be that the new Temple will not only restore the glory of the first temple but that It will be greater still (v9).
Digging a little deeper
We might see an element of fulfilment of this promise in that when the Romans came, an earth shaking event, Herod the Great poured wealth into the temple, extending and beautifying it. However, even this seems to fall short of the prophetic words here and in any case was short lived.
This is why true fulfilment is seen in Jesus. It was his incarnation, death and resurrection that truly shook the word, turning it upside down. The glory of the risen Jesus far outshines the glory of the physical temple. He is the true and better temple.
A look at ourselves
The secret to perseverance as believers is not to be distracted by looking back to what we perceive as glory days. Rather, we do look back but further to what Christ has accomplished for us. At the same time, we look forward, trusting his promise that he will return and make all things new.
[1] See Petterson, 67 and Hill, 75-76.
[2] Joshua 1:9.
[3] Petterson, 69.
[4] Hill, 81. Petterson, 70.
[5] Ezra 6:8.
Faithroots 