Looking Back to Move Forward

Well, we are in week two of three of our new teaching series, “Renew the Vision.” It’s called that because the book of Haggai teaches us that the Israelites had drifted away from God spiritually and so the call to rebuild the temple was a call to renew their worship. It was a call to renew the vision of God dwelling in the midst of his people again through the temple.

Last week, we looked at how the book of Haggai is set in the middle of the book of Ezra, where the Israelites had begun to return to Jerusalem after a 70 year exile in Babylon and had started rebuilding the temple, but because of opposition, they had quit for 20 years and had left the temple in ruins while they built themselves luxurious homes. We were challenged in the first chapter of Haggai to check our hearts - to reevaluate our priorities and place God above our own comfort.

This week, as we look at the first half of chapter two, we are going to be challenged to look back in order to move forward. So, let’s read chapter 2:1-9 together.

Haggai 2:1–9 NLT

Then on October 17 of that same year, the Lord sent another message through the prophet Haggai. “Say this to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of God’s people there in the land: ‘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. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.’ “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!”

Pray.

Chapter 2 of Haggai starts just over a month later after chapter 1. The rebuilding of the temple is ongoing, but the people are discouraged. And if you have ever tried to move forward in life while you are experiencing discouragement, you know how hard it is just to get out of bed, much less build a temple. And so, God, in his loving grace to his people, sends them another message through the prophet Haggai in order to encourage them. This morning, I want to break down Haggai’s message into three sections.

Section 1: Remember God’s Presence

Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the leaders of the Israelites in Jerusalem, who are overseeing the construction of the new temple are discouraged. They know of the size and grandeur of the temple that Solomon built and they know that what they are building isn’t even close. Have you ever been doing something and then compare yourself to someone or something else and then get so discouraged because they are so great and you’re so pathetic, that you want to give up? That’s what Zerubbabel and Jeshua were experiencing. Compared to the old temple, theirs just didn’t stack up. So why bother?

I think a lot of us face our discouragements alone. We hear something and it worms its way into our brain, making us second guess ourselves, making us sometimes want to quit or give up. And the longer that those thoughts stay bottled up in our brains, the stronger they become and the more alone you feel. But I want you to know a deep truth this morning: God sees you. He sees how you are feeling and he is ready to meet you in it.

When we read our passage in Haggai 2, we see something that’s amazing. God doesn’t condemn them for building a smaller temple. He is not disappointed in them. He doesn’t challenge them to do better, to make it bigger or anything. God just lets them know that he sees them.

Haggai 2:3 “‘Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendour? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all!” God is empathizing with their feelings, because our God is a god of compassion and love. Psalm 103:8 “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.”

So in his compassion, he sees them in their discouragement and he empathizes with them. But he also encourages them. He stirs courage in them by telling them to keep going, keep building.

Haggai 2:4 “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.”

God, through Haggai, encouraged the Israelites by promising that he was with them in their rebuilding - that they weren’t alone. This is important because we gain strength when we know we aren’t alone in whatever we are facing. And the beauty of the Christian faith is that we are never left alone - we have an omnipresent God who is personally and lovingly involved in every aspect of our lives.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:35-38 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”

When we are faced with discouragement or disappointment, let us remember that God is with us. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He is with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And just as he says “get back to work” to the Israelites, he says to us, “keep going in what I’ve called you to.”

The first thing we need to remember is God’s presence. The second thing we need to remember is God’s faithfulness.

Section 2: Remember God’s faithfulness

It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.

Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean... For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.

But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie's own words, "Cherry," that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off." I felt something land on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. And after 21 days adrift, they were all rescued. Rickenbacker even made it to New Guinea and delivered the message he was carrying to General MacArthur. Years later, every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle.

It is so helpful to remember the presence of God that is all around us when we are faced with a trying circumstance. But we should also remember God’s faithfulness to us - remember what God has done for us in the past. Captain Rickenbacker spent his life after the war in gratitude for what God had done for him and his men. And so often, we get down and discouraged by the now and we forget all the ways God has been leading us up to this point. But we have a faithful God and, as the old hymn goes, we should count our blessings - we should take inventory of what God has done in our lives and I’m convinced that when we see all the ways God has been for us in the past, it will give us the courage to keep moving forward.

For the Israelites that Haggai is speaking to, people who have faced persecution and now discouragement in their attempts to rebuild the temple. God gives a single line that is meant to stir their hearts by recalling what God has done. Haggai 2:5 says, “My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.’” God is reminding them of how he was with Israel and freed them from slavery in Egypt, how he protected them on their wanderings through the desert and how he parted the red sea, vanquishing the Egyptian army. In this one, short line, God invites them to look back so they can move forward.

There is a neat story in the book of Joshua chapter 4. Joshua is lead the Israelites and they have just encountered another miracle from God. God stopped the waters of the Jordan river so that the Israelites could cross over into the promised land. So God commands Joshua to get one person from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to grab a stone from the riverbed and carry it to where they were going camp for the night. There they made a pile of these stones as a memorial for what God did.

Joshua 4:21-24 “Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.””

To help the next generation trust in God, God had them make a memorial to remind them of what God has done. In the same way, when we are faced with discouragement, opposition, weariness or even that sense of spiritual staleness that we all seem to encounter from time to time, we need to take an inventory of how God has worked it the past and you will find, if you do it, that your heart may be lifted, your courage may be strengthened and your passion renewed as you remember God’s faithfulness.

Hebrews 10:23 NIV

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Through Haggai, God called the Israelites, and he calls us, to remember his presence, his faithfulness, and his purposes.

Section 3: Remember God’s purposes

Playwright, critic, and political activist George Bernard Shaw wrote, “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

He is saying that when we find our purpose, we will find our joy. And while our deepest joy is not found in what we do, but in simply being with Jesus and allowing his love to wash over us, there is a piece of joy that is found in living out our purpose.

For the Israelites that Haggai is speaking to, God wants to remind them of WHY they are building this temple. It doesn’t really matter that its smaller and less grand than Solomon’s temple. What matters is what God is going to do with it.

Haggai 2:6-9 says, ““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!””

Now, before I continue, let me take us on a small tangent. In these three verses, we see the phrase “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies” FIVE times. In all, that phrase occurs 14 times in the two chapters that is the book of Haggai and almost 300 times in the Bible. Some translations refer to it as “the Lord of Hosts.” So why does Haggai use this title for God in this letter? He uses it as an encouragement for the people. These are a people who were conquered by Babylon and then, while residing in Babylon, were conquered by the Assyrians. These are a people who have been experiencing local persecution for trying to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. They have felt powerless and vulnerable so Haggai wants to remind them of who their God is. Their God, and ours, is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies - the chief commander of the angelic host, whom we see defending Elijah, whom we see worshipping Jesus at his birth and who will follow Jesus when he comes as the white rider to destroy his enemies in Revelation 19. Our God is El-Shaddai - the almighty and he is on your side. So that’s why they use that term for God so much here; it’s to help an oppressed people remember that their God is powerful and is on their side.

Okay, coming back to what God is trying to tell the Israelites here. God is casting a vision for the future. He is telling them that this temple they are building is going to be filled with God’s glory, that it will be filled again with treasures and that it’s glory will be greater than the glory of Solomon’s Temple. And, in some ways it was because this temple is the temple where the miracle of Hannukah happened. This is the temple that Jesus was dedicated in 8 days after his birth by Simeon and Anna. This temple saw the Messiah teach in its courts and flip the tables over in rage over the injustices performed there.

God was telling the Israelites to remember the purpose of the temple. He was helping them to renew their vision for worship in Israel at the temple again. When we learn the why of something, it can be far more motivating for us. When I would tell my oldest daughter that it was time to go to bed, sometimes she didn’t want to. She would ask, “Daddy, why?” and I would reply “because you’ll live longer” while giving her this look. And then she went willingly. It was great.

When you know your purpose, your why, your motivation grows. So what’s your purpose?

1. To be loved - Ephesians 1:4-5 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

2. To love - Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are made in the image of God. 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”

Everything in your life can be boiled down to these two things. Your purpose is to love God and love others like God loves them and to receive and abide in God’s love, to snuggle into it like it’s a big, soft blanket on a cool day. And God’s love was demonstrated most fully in what Jesus did for you and for me when he died as a sacrifice to make us right with God.

So remember your purpose and allow it to motivate you through the times of discouragement and lethargy.

Conclusion

We all face discouragement sometimes. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and we don’t feel like we measure up. Sometimes we are discouraged because there is opposition to our ideas and plans. Sometimes we experience discouragement because, despite our best efforts, we aren’t getting anywhere. Whatever the source of your discouragement, sometimes the best way to overcome it is to remember. Remember that God sees you and loves you as you are. Remember his faithfulness how he has provided for you, sustained you, cared for you and saved you through his son, Jesus. Remember the reason why you are doing what you’re doing. Sometimes, looking back can help you to move forward into whatever God’s calling you to.

Pray.