Time for a refocus

The Great Resignation

The Great Resignation is a term coined by an economist last year after an interesting observation of worker behaviour was observed during the pandemic. People started quitting their jobs at much higher rates than previous experienced. Why are they quitting? Well, that’s probably a question that will keep economists employed, but though there is a connection with the pandemic, it would seem the issue actually runs much deeper then that. I don’t want to sound like an expert on this, because I’m not, but from what I’ve read, it would seem that the pandemic gave people pause to think, and came with the realisation that they’re deeply dissatisfied with their working situation. For many, it’s a matter of being asked to work too hard, with not enough pay or recognition.

And so they’ve quit.

Actually, it’s been described here in Australia by the then treasurer Josh Frydenburg, as the great reshuffle, because a lot of people are able to snap up new work.

But its an interesting phenomenon, even if it shouldn’t be entirely unexpected when you think about it. You see, when your job seems like a dead end… you’re not enjoying it… you’re not being able to achieve what you want to achieve… well, your motivation to keep showing up will begin to fade.

Now, I’m going to suggest that something similar can happen in our Christian journey.

We start out all excited. Perhaps after your initial conversion… or maybe after some great experience… and we’re energised to do all manner of things.... good Spiritual practices… various means of service and ministry… maybe a bit of evangelism… and perhaps some sacrifices in your life, after all, you’ve been motivated to follow the one who epitomised self-sacrifice.

But then something happens - and I suspect if you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ll have experienced this on more than one occasion.

It gets hard!

You get little appreciation for your efforts. You see little fruit, if any at all from what you’ve done. You’re tired. You’re fed up with all the politicking that goes on. You’ve sacrificed - but where’s that left you? I’ll tell you where - with less things and less time.

It’s not that we give up on it all (although sadly for some, people do make that choice), rather, it’s that we shrink back into our shell - a kind of self-protection almost. Because it’s so hard, we just focus on our self. Is it selfishness? Or is it self-preservation?? I’ll let you be the judge.

So where to from this point? Well, that’s actually the question I want to explore today. Because, whether you’re at that point today or not, chances are this sort of thing will happen. Unless of course you choose never to step up, in which case the question essentially still applies - where are you going to go on your Spiritual journey from here?

Link with Haggai

Today, we’re going into the world of Haggai and we’re going to find some people which have had their own great resignation of sorts. We’ll explore how their initial enthusiasm had waned after some struggles, and what Haggai says to them to get them going.

Context

So let’s enter their world now and see what we find.

Let me start by bringing up the timeline I’ve been using. We’re now getting towards the end of our timeline. The fall of the Northern Kingdom was a long time ago. We’ve spent a few weeks then looking at that time between this fall, and when the Southern kingdom will fall. Last week when Dale looked at Zephaniah for me, we were right in the middle of that period in fact - during the reign of Josiah, the king who actually brought about a lot of reform.

But despite the reform that Josiah brought about, it didn’t bring the lasting change that was needed, and eventually, after suffering a few defeats at the hands of the Babylonians, they finally succumbed around 587 to 586 BC.

And something that will become critical in what we look at today, when the Babylonians did come in for the final defeat, they also demolished the temple.

The temple is actually going to feature today, so let’s just talk about this for a moment.

We can trace the origins of the temple back to the tabernacle that God told Moses to build while they were wandering around in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.

The tabernacle was where the glory of God dwelt. It was the focus on the Israelite worship. Eventually, that tabernacle was brought to the promised land, and there is stayed for many years. But while David was king we see the need for this to become a permanent feature. But God however says to David - it’s not you to build it, but your son.

And so Solomon builds the temple and it becomes this very significant moment in the journey of the people of God.

But the significance of this only adds to the utter devastation of what happened at the hands of the Babylonians. You see, while it is bad enough that they are taken from their land, but for these foreigners to desecrate that which is most sacred would have been too much to bear.

But we get this period where the vast majority of the Israelites are living in Babylon.

But in 539BC, something big happens. Babylon falls at the hand of the Persians.

Cyrus is now king of a vast empire.

And with this big change, comes change in policy. Most significantly for the Jews - they are allowed to return to their land.

We read about this in the book of Ezra. So let’s have a really quick look at that now.

So Ezra 1 starts with Cyrus’ decree - but what’s noteworthy in the decree is not just that they can return, but that they should build the temple for the Lord in Judah. In fact, the decree goes for three verses and is essentially all about the new temple.

And so you could imagine their excitement.

A whole new generation would have grown up hearing stories of the old land where the temple stood. And now, they get to be part of bringing it back. God is good!

Ezra 1:5 talks about those whose hearts God has moved, and they’re gathering all they need for this monumental new task. King Cyrus even gives back many of the articles belonging to the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had taken. God is good!

And so many, although not all, of the Jews set out on their journey back to the promised land. And there are two characters that feature both in Ezra’s account and also in Haggai. That is Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jozadak.

So let me introduce you to these two.

Zerubabbel

First Zerubabbel. What’s important about him is that he actually descends from the line of David. We’re not going to see him become a king in the same sense that we saw the kings prior to the exile - but he does become a leader, in fact, he is called a governor.

But Zerubbabel is particularly going to take some focus when we get to the end of Haggai.

Joshua

And then there is Joshua. He has descended from the high priest and so he is the one that is going to take on this role. Actually, remember this Joshua, because he’s going to come up again next week when we look at Zechariah.

Rebuilding

Well, these two essentially lead the first wave of returnees, and in Ezra 3 they start by rebuilding the altar before the rebuilding of the temple really gets underway.

By the end of Ezra 3, we have some foundations down - and you can feel the jubilation. They even get the cymbals out. And they exclaim - God is good!

But there are mixed emotions. You see, some of the older people remember what it used to look like. And though some people are taking great joy in the promise of the foundations - but they are overcome.

And so we see something brewing right here. People are on fire for God, but it’s starting to sink in - this is going to be hard.

The struggle

And so we start to see the beginning of what I earlier suggested was akin to the great resignation. You see, it didn’t take long and they start to face opposition. The start of Ezra 4 details this.

And so it doesn’t take long it all just gets a bit much. What started out with so much promise has just drizzled out into a whole lot of… blah...

520 BC

Which brings us to the prophecy of Haggai. And one of the great things about Haggai is that of all the books in the Bible, this is perhaps the one we can date with a high level of accuracy and confidence. We have enough information to convert from their calendar system to ours, and so when we get to the first verse of Haggai, the date in our system is the 29th August 520BC.

Now remember I said that Cyrus had issued his decree back in 539 BC. The start of the temple rebuild was about 2 years after arrival, which means we’re about 17 years (or thereabouts) after the rebuild began that Haggai starts speaking to them.

Haggai’s message

So have Haggai open in front of you now. And in the second verse it’s almost as if we have our evidence for the great resignation. The people are saying: “The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house”.

The reality is - the time had come some 17 years prior. But they had got tired of being shot down every time they put their head up. They had got tired of working hard with next to no reward. So of course they’ve just said - fine, I give up - maybe I’ll just go keep to myself and make my own house look nice.

And who can blame them. They would have got a lot more reward from that.

It is with this background, then, that Haggai says the words in verse 4: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

I wonder if they’re thinking at this point - but Haggai, you don’t understand - it’s been hard.

But Haggai continues - with words that he will repeat: “Give careful thought to your ways”.

He recognises that it has been hard. It’s actually in verse 9 where he gets to the heart of it. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little”.

I suspect they’re thinking - yes, we had been so hopeful.. we’d been excited and energised… but it did turn out much.

But stay in verse 9, because that all important question of ‘why?’ gets asked.

And it essentially boils down to the fact that they had lost their focus. Yes it had been hard, but taking your eyes off the goal isn’t the answer.

The response

Well, as we’ve seen throughout this series, the various prophets messages have not always been heeded, but on this occasion, our new friends Zerubbabel and Joshua do heed the message.

But what about the previous hardship?

Well, here’s the thing… once they respond in verse 13 we hear the Lord say: “I am with you”, and then it talks about Yahweh stirring up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua and the whole remnant of the people.

You see, the hardship would most likely have continued, but when the Lord is with you, nothing is impossible.

And this is why it is so important to keep your eyes on God.

Those hardships will distract. But you can’t let them. Don’t be tempted to join the great resignation.

So remember, Haggai message cam eon the 29th August. Well, we can calculate from the last verse of the chapter that they restarted the build on the 21st September 520.

Promised glory

Okay, the the temple work has now restarted, but we get to the first verse of chapter 2, and 26 days has elapsed, because now we find ourselves on the 17th October 520 BC.

I get the impression that what’s actually happened is that some of that discouragement has come back.

Just look what it says in verse 3 “How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?”

It seems to me, that they’re about a month into their new excitement, and they’re going - what is this? It’s not even going to be anything like what it was. You can almost hear them say - maybe we were right to give up after all.

But Haggai’s message from the Lord says - no - I need you to be strong. He says, “be strong” to Zerubbabel. He says “be strong” Joshua. He says “be strong” you people.

Be strong - because you just wait and you will see that this house will again be filled with the glory of God.

And more than that… just look at verse 9: “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house.”

Now you could perhaps argue that when Zerubbabel was finished, this actually wasn’t the case. It didn’t match up to what Solomon’s temple was like.

But it is interesting to note that roughly five centuries later, when the Romans were in control, and Herod was the governor in this region, he did major works to this temple and made it the spectacular temple that we get in the day of Jesus. It did exceed that of Solomon’s temple.

But there is a further way in which this becomes an even greater truth.

You see, yes the temple did become even greater with Herod’s help. But with Jesus, the temple takes on a new Spiritual dimension. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. This represented a big change. Jesus became the temple for us - because in Jesus dwelt the fullness of God.

And this new temple was by far greater.

And the promise ends - “and in this place I will grant peace” - and in case you’re wondering, if you remember me talking about it before - that the word “shalom”. A peace unlike anything this world offers - a peace that is the completeness of God on earth.

The effect

The effect of this prophecy, is to give a bigger perspective. When things seem to go slow and the results don’t seem to be coming - we can remember that God’s glory will still be found. Your current project might pale in comparison to what others are doing, or possibly even what you’ve done in the past - but don’t ever forget God has a much bigger picture.

Third prophecy

In the remainder of chapter 2, we get two more prophecies, and I’m only going to really brief touch on them in the interest of time.

Starting in verse 10, we find ourselves now on the 18th December and Haggai asks a series of questions about food being consecrated and being defiled. Now I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of this - but the point that Haggai is making is that these people have been a defilement and effectively they’ve got what they deserved.

But God’s about to give them further encouragement - the encouragment which will give them the spur to keep on going.

You see, despite the fact that they deserve what they’ve got, God has chosen to bless.

There might not be any seed in the barn. The vine, the fig-tree, the pomegranate and olive trees might have all failed to bear fruit.

But just look at the end of verse 19: “From this day on I will bless you”

We’re seeing here the type of grace that we find in the New Testament. The type of grace that says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We become blessed, not because of anything we’ve done, but because God has chosen to bless us.

Fourth prophecy

The fourth and final blessing then comes on the very same day. The fourth, starting at verse 20 concerns Zerubbabel. It’s essentially an annointing of sorts for this man.

In the very last verse it says of him “and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you”.

Now we could explore this in more detail - but basically I want to suggest that what’s happening here is that God is saying, look, I’m not finished with all of you yet. I still have plans. I will raise people up when I need to, I’ll create things as needed. You don’t need to worry because I, the Lord, have got this in hand.

Application

And so what do we make of all of this for our own situation?

You see, just like the Jews returning from Babylon, we can have that initial excitement only for it to quickly wane when things get tough. We can be asking the question: whats the point?

Well Haggai can be the encouragement that we need.

You see, Haggai’s first prophecy reminds us that when we refocus back on God, that he will be with us and he’ll carry us through.

The second of his prophecies remind us that there is future glory that we can look forward to - that even though things might seem hopeless, in fact there not because we’re working towards something so amazing.

The third prophecy reminds us that even though we don’t deserve this, God is chosing the bless us, so don’t be discouraged, there is blessing to come.

And the final blessing is a reminder that God’s got this. He will raise people up where needed because God is over all of this.

Conclusion

Haggai’s prophecy doesn’t take us to the end of the rebuilding of the temple. However we get the end of the story in Ezra. In fact, a letter is sent to Darius, who instructs the people in Judah to helps the Jews financially. The temple then gets complete and dedicated by Zerubbabel in the year 516 BC, meaning after Haggai’s urging them to restart, it only took them 4 years.

Haggai showed them it was worth it to keep going. He showed them that God will remain with them and that God has big plans for the future.

And the same is for us. If you keep your focus on him, he will remain with you and will lead you to a big future.

Let me pray...