"When 'Get To Work!' Sounds Good"

Scripture Passage

Haggai 2:1-9; Zechariah 1:1-6; Haggai 2:10-19; Ezra 5:2; Haggai 2:20-23; Zechariah 1:7-5:11

Scripture Focus

"Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! But now the LORD says: Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies." (Haggai 2:3-4 NLT)

Observation

Just a day or two ago I wrote regarding the mixed emotions experienced by the people of God as the foundation for the Temple was re-laid in Jerusalem. There was “delightful joy over a new beginning mixed with the sorrowful sense of loss over what was missed and can never be recovered.”

Amazing to me that today God addresses those very emotions. He acknowledges the sense of loss His people experienced, but addresses that loss with a great promise made to Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and all the people still left in the land.

“Get to work, for I am with you.” (Haggai 2:4 NLT)

And then, through His prophet Haggai, God expands on His promise in wonderful, gracious-beyond-measure ways.

“For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!” (Haggai 2:6-9 NLT)

I don’t know how you top that. I don’t know what you can add to a promise like that made to a people who had so completely wasted every opportunity God had given them, and were now privileged by God’s grace with even another opportunity. How good God is and how gracious—not just to Israel, but to me!

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