Be Strong and Work

I have been considering lately how God is faithful to speak to our need.  When God told His people not to be afraid it was because they were inclined to be fearful; God's exhortation to be strong and courageous because He was with them was because they felt otherwise.  While we would be content with God validating our feelings, His wisdom and truth revealed to us transcends them.  By virtue of who our sovereign God is, His promises in his word and who we are in Jesus Christ, He gives us all the encouragement and comfort we need to keep going as we labour for His glory.

We see an illustration of this in the word of the LORD through Haggai the prophet spoken to Zerubbabal, the high priest Joshua, and the people of Israel that were rebuilding the temple after a long period of captivity.  Haggai 2:3-5 reads, "Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? ⁴ Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the LORD; 'and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,' says the LORD, 'and work; for I am with you,' says the LORD of hosts. ⁵ 'According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!"  Those who built the temple were discouraged when they recalled the glory of the former temple constructed by king Solomon.  When a building is destroyed and needs to be rebuilt, wour preference is to build back better, to improve the design and functionality of it.  But that is not what happened.  They did not have cedars from Lebanon, a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, or brass beyond measure (1 Chron. 22:14).  Compared to the house Solomon built, the house into which they poured their efforts amounted to nothing in their eyes.

Perhaps you have experienced this personally in ministry or labours for the LORD's sake.  You have answered God's call to serve, yet your efforts have not resulted in something monumental--hardly worth a mention at all compared to what you have seen or heard of in the annals of biblical or Christian history.  The builders of the temple were doing a grand thing by obediently investing their labour to build God's house, yet when they compared their materials and finished product to what stood previously, it was almost embarassing.  They may have been horrified to think of those coming up to the temple to worship and say, "That's it?"  Praise God He was not dismayed or troubled by the house that was an inferior structure to the previous one, for He was still the awesome, mighty God whose Spirit remained among them.  God told each of them to be strong to work because God was with them.  God's promises and covenant had not changed at all, and His word remained true and trustworthy.  The lack of hammered gold on the doors, the absence of the great brass pillars or the enormous sea sitting on the backs of oxen did not hinder God from fulfilling His promises to them.

God went on to say in Haggai 2:6-9:  "For thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; ⁷ and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the LORD of hosts. ⁸ 'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts. ⁹ The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts. 'And in this place I will give peace,' says the LORD of hosts."  The temple they were building--that looked like nothing by comparison to the former temple--would be filled with greater glory than the house Solomon built because the promised Messiah would personally enter it.  The Old Testament prophets did not see a gap of time between Christ's first and second advents, and thus this also alludes to the Millenial temple where Jesus our great High Priest and KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS will one day reside.  God promised to bring peace in Jerusalem, a place often marked by conflict, and by faith God's people could rest in the promise God would make the modest structure far more glorious than ever before in the future.

Take heart, dear Christian!  Be encouraged, you who labour in the LORD!  You may not have much to show for your labours for Christ's sake, but God is with us and will never leave or forsake us.  Paul said our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and though you make be weak and weary--physically unable to do what you once rejoiced to do unto the LORD--the glory of your latter temple will be greater than the former.  God will be faithful to His promise, having swallowed up death in victory.  Paul said in Philippians 3:20-21, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."  Our bodies may shake with fatigue, age, illness or fear, yet by God's grace we will enter the kingdom of God which shall not be shaken.  As it is written in Hebrews 12:28-29, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. ²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire."