Dealing with disappointment in an age of promise

We have all experienced disappointment, haven’t we? Maybe that new Marvel movie wasn’t quite as earth-shattering as we thought it would be, we got food poisoning on the first day of our vacation, the harvest is not as promising as we needed it to be, sometimes we hope great things for our church, but God has different plans. How should we respond when we experience disappointment?

We have all experienced disappointment, haven’t we? Maybe that new Marvel movie wasn’t quite as earth-shattering as we thought it would be, we got food poisoning on the first day of our vacation, the harvest is not as promising as we needed it to be, sometimes we hope great things for our church, but God has different plans. How should we respond when we experience disappointment?

We have all experienced disappointment, haven’t we? Maybe that new Marvel movie wasn’t quite as earth-shattering as we thought it would be, we got food poisoning on the first day of our vacation, the harvest is not as promising as we needed it to be, sometimes we hope great things for our church, but God has different plans. How should we respond when we experience disappointment?

The people of God felt this same tension in the book of Ezra. This morning we will be reading from . 70 years before the events of this story, Judah had turned away from God and followed idols, had not been careful to follow his law, had oppressed the poor and took advantage of the widows, refugees and orphans. They rejected God’s covenant and therefor God sent the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and exile almost all of God’s people to a foreign country. God wiped Judah from the face of the map because they had rejected God’s covenant. Ezekiel ch 11 describes this in an apocalyptic vision as the glory of the Lord leaving the temple and departing from Jerusalem. Will God ever dwell with his people again?

But again and again through the prophets, the Lord reminded his people that he has not forgotten about them and he will save them and bring them back home. The Lord is the kind of God who keeps his promises, even if his people fail. And God would do more than restore Israel to her former glory, he would fill the entire earth with his glory, so that all the nations would recognize that the Lord was God of the heavens and the earth. The temple would be rebuilt, and God would dwell in the hearts of his people. Seventy years after the fall of Jerusalem, the prophecy spoken by Isaiah was fulfilled and 40,000 Israelites returned to Jerusalem and began the work of rebuilding the temple. The Lord keeps his promises! Let us read what happened next from :

(read )

From this passage we can see that the people of Israel were rejoicing at the fulfillment of God’s promises, but in other ways it just wasn’t quite what they were expecting. This is because

Sometimes our greatest hopes can be our greatest disappointments.

But in spite of our hopes often not meeting expectations, we learn from God’s word that

The glory of the Lord will one day fill the earth, so we can live with hope.

From this passage we learn two things:

God has already fulfilled his promises, so we can rejoice

And

God’s promises are not yet fulfilled, so we must persevere

God has already fulfilled his promises, so we can rejoice

Shortly after the siege of Jerusalem, Ezekiel gave an amazing prophesy in the 39th chapter of his book that the Lord would restore the fortunes of the people of Israel, and that he would bring them back to their homeland and they would build a new temple that would be even grander than the first one. this new temple would be a symbol of God’s continuing presence among them and the glory of the lord would one day return to live among His people

The people of Ezra’s day got to experience a taste of the fulfillment of that prophesy. Israel did not return with any dramatic displays of God’s power like in the book of exodus where He sent plagues to save his people from their slavery in Egypt, but God worked quietly behind the scenes and stirred the heart of the Persian emperor and his people to preserve them as a unique people in the midst of their captivity and to return them home. Although these are quiet miracles, they are no less miracles, because there is no reason outside of God’s providential care that this people should have been preserved. Not only that but the gold stolen from the temple was returned, and the government gave a grant to rebuild the temple of the Lord. God would dwell among his people again!

The people for their part recognized that they were exiled because of their sin. They had not worshipped the Lord as he had commanded, they had not kept the sabbath, and they had not been generous to their poor. They didn’t want to waste this opportunity for a fresh start that they had been given and wanted to do things exactly as God had prescribed in his law. Their first task was to rebuild the temple and reinstate temple worship and sacrifice. They knew that God had redeemed them from Babylon, not so they can do whatever they wanted but to worship God and be a light among the nations by their distinct lifestyle. And they knew that the ability to worship God in their homeland and freely sacrifice to him was a gift and a sign that they belonged to him and they would not take that lightly.

At my wife’s last nursing job, occasionally she worked nights three shift in a row. She works while I sleep and vice-versa so i hardly ever got to see her. It was kinda like living as a bachelor again. If my wife was not around, I didn’t have any marital duties. I didn’t have to serve my wife, make her food, get her water if she asks me too, I can eat a lot of donuts and she would never even know! I can just sit and do whatever I want! And yet, I was overjoyed when she finished her night shifts, because I get to make her food, because I get to get her water, because I get to give her a shoulder rub. She’s my wife, and the acts of service are a sign of our covenant and relationship! For the people of God, the worst aspect of the exile to Babylon is that for seventy years they did not get to participate in the covenant relationship like they once did in Jerusalem. For 70 years Israel was not able to worship freely, was not able to sacrifice to the Lord in the temple, was not free to keep the sabbath like they once did, was not able to live out the fact that they had a covenant relationship with the Lord. Now that they are delivered they shouted for joy that they were able to sacrifice again because that is their privilege as the people of God!

So they began the work of building the temple immediately. If we compare this passage to the first temple dedication in 2 chron 5:11-14 we find a lot of striking similarities. The first thing you notice is that as near as they could they copied the original temple dedication ceremony, down to the instruments and the words they said. They knew that God takes worship seriously, they knew that they were exiled because they had failed to keep their end of the covenant, they wanted to make sure they did it right this time. And the people rejoiced because they saw this second chance at life as a great work of God’s mighty deliverance

And God’s deliverance of his people from Babylon was not the last redemptive act he did for his people! He not only promised the people of Israel that they would be delivered as a political entity, but he promised that they would be forgiven from their sins, that they would be given new hearts that actually desired to follow God, and that he would humble all the nations so that people from every nation would call upon the Lord. And the Lord is the kind of God who keeps his promises. He did that through sending his son Jesus to die for his people. People of God, do you know that the fact that you are worshipping the Lord today is a fulfillment of promises made thousands of years ago?

God sent his savior to save his people and he was kinder and gentler and more powerful than we could ever imagine. He didn’t come in wrath but came on a mission of mercy to save his lost sheep! And he saved his people in a deeper and more lasting way than they could ever imagine. his people were not only saved from other who would sin against them, but they were saved from their own sin! And we are not saved by doing any works of the law, or trying to impress God, but simply by believing in God’s promises, that he sent his son to die for us. And he has not left any of those that he saved alone but he has taken them and placed them into a family that is spread throughout the whole world so that even though God’s people come from all over the world, from china, africa, Bulgaria, and even iowa, we can call each other brother and sister and call God our father. We are privileged to love the Lord by obeying his commandments. No one but God’s people gets to love the Lord in this way! People of God, isn’t our salvation wonderful? Do we not have every reason to shout in praise for such a great salvation is ours? It is deeper, wider and more lasting than anyone could ever guess because our God is greater than anyone can imagine.

We have every reason to shout for joy, just like the Israelites did in , so rejoice in the salvation of our God! The promises of God are ours, and we can hold onto them in the midst of our darkest moments. If God can save his people from Babylonian captivity, then he can deliver them from any enemy who wanted to harm them. If God can deliver you from your sins, he can deliver you from any enemy who would try to tear you away from him. If he has placed you in his family, then he will not let you be abandoned for long. The Lord has already loved you with an amazing love, when the enemy causes you to doubt this love, remember what God has already done for you. He has fulfilled many of his promises to his people!

But the shouts for joy are not the end of this story because

MP2: God’s promises are not yet fulfilled, so we must persevere

Even though God has so thoroughly saved us, it doesn’t feel done does it? If we compare this again to 2 chron 5:11-14 there is a striking absence of a major character. (read 13-14) In , the king is there, the priests are there, the people are singing God’s praises, and yet the temple is not filled with the glory of God. where’s the glory at in this story? Why hasn’t God shown up yet? If God’s salvation is so great, why are his people so small? Why is his temple so much more pathetic than all the old men remembered? Why is Jerusalem still in ruins? The Prophets said that they would be restored to their former glory, but they are poor and still enslaved to this outside foreign power. and immediately following this passage, the efforts to build the temple are stalled for twenty years! Is God not actively involved in the world anymore? Does he not really show up now, like he did in days past? Didn’t God promise that he would return to his temple like he did before? Did we mess up, or does he just not care? No wonder those old men wept during the temple dedication. They wept most who hoped most

We feel this same tension today, don’t we? We read in the gospels about the amazing ministry of Jesus and his apostles and wonder, why doesn’t God show up right now like he did back then? If God really loves me as much as the pastor says he does, why would he allow me to suffer like I do? Why would my body be racked by disease? Why do I still struggle in my own heart with sin? Why doesn’t God just deliver me from my addictions already? Why is life so hard if God has really and truly saved me? Why did I get fired from my job, why is my child strung out on drugs right now, why did my wife leave me? Why weren’t our children raised from the dead like that little girl in ? Is God’ great and mighty salvation that the bible talks about limited to things I can’t see or touch? Because that kind of sounds like a copout doesn’t it?

People of God, when I first read this passage I thought the song of praise they were singing was only sung so they could imitate the first temple dedication ceremony as nearly as possible, but that not why. This was a confession and a hope. When they sang this song in 2 chron, that the Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever, they sang this song in power, Israel was at the height of their wealth, their empire was the largest it would ever be, the people were following God in mass and Israel was unified. That song was sung by a people who had been experiencing the steadfast love of the Lord. But When they sang this song in , the situation was completely different. They sang this song after 70 years of exile, when the nation was diminished to 40,000 people, when their city lay in ruins around them. And yet they believed, that the Lord is still good, and the Lord’s steadfast love still endures forever towards Israel. They sang that song in hope and joy.

Brothers and sisters, God has fulfilled his promises, but he is also not done fulfilling his promises. We live in a time that theologians call the already and the not yet. We have already experienced God’s amazing salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have tasted his glory and we can see that it is good, but we have not yet experienced God’s complete deliverance and we say how long o lord. How long must we suffer? Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ has also suffered, he knows what you have gone through and he mourns with you when you mourn. He even mourns with us right now as we mourn the fact that our beloved pastor is not called here for the rest of his life. But He has not left you alone but has sent his Holy Spirit to be your comforter and helper. The glory of the Lord did not fill that temple in Ezra’s day, but that does not mean that the Lord abandoned them. God has made us a temple where his glory is made manifest to the watching world and he dwells among us. You have God’s presence with you every day, whether you feel his favor or not and he has sealed you for the day of redemption. So persevere through suffering!

Wait for God’s deliverance with patience because he has promised you that even if you are impoverished, even if you are abandoned, even if disease takes you and you die, you will still be safe in the hands of your loving father, no matter what happens. The Lord is the kind of God who keeps his promises. And if Jesus died to save you, He will complete the work he started in you! People of God, you have been given the power to endure because the Holy Spirit dwells within you, and you have been given the hope to endure because God’s promises are sure. And our suffering is not in vain, but it will be used by God to transform us, so that more and more we will be changed into the likeness of his Son.

Conclusion:

The disciples on the day Jesus died on the Cross thought that God’s messiah was not nearly what he was cracked up to be. He was supposed to save God’s people from all their enemies, and yet he was killed by the hands of ruthless men. But three days later, their tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy, because their friend and Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead in glory! He ascended into heaven and is interceding for us even today, and brothers and sisters, he is coming back. One day our hearts will be completely purified, one day our sicknesses will be completely healed. One day those who have died in Christ will rise again. One day the new Jerusalem will descend and one day the glory of the lord will fill all the earth! Revelation promises us that there will be no temple in the city in that day for the Lord himself will be present with us, and all the nations will worship the Lord together. Our Lord Jesus will dwell with us and we will see him face to face! This future is so certain that speaks of this as if it is already completed. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this people of God!

From the passage we learned

God has already fulfilled his promises, so we can rejoice

But

God’s promises are not yet fulfilled, so we must persevere

But we know that ultimately

The glory of the Lord will one day fill the earth, so we can live with hope

God’s people in the day of Ezra did not see the fulfillment of God’s salvation but they got a taste and they hungered for more. Even today we do not see God’s complete salvation though we have a larger portion than they did through Jesus Christ, but one day what we see in part will be made whole. Hope in the Lord people of God, for he always keeps his promises!