TEMPEL BUILT
It felt just like yesterday when I and 50,000 exiles come to Jerusalem. That was in 536 BC.
We started our temple building two years later in 534. It was a sad and disastrous time when we quit the project in 522. The imposter called King Smerdis the Persian smashed everything we did to pieces. 12 precious years were wasted.
Instead of doing what is right and resuming the building of the temple we left in sadness and depression to spend our time building our own houses. We were not doing well financially and went through a terrible financial depression.
In 520 two prophets, Haggai and Zachariah appeared on our horizon and did not spare words to tell us that we were washouts and must resume the building immediately. And we did.
Please do not underestimate the work of the prophets in your life.
Hag 1:1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:
Hag 1:2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house.'”
Hag 1:3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:
Hag 1:4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
In 515 BC. the work on the temple was done and the temple was ready to be dedicated.
Have ever started out with a dream of accomplishing something very special? Maybe a happy home but then it turned out to be the unhappiest place on earth.
Or you wanted to become a successful businessman but your partner frauded you and you lost everything.
Or you decided that you would get involved in the Lord’s work. But when the first test of your faith came, you quit, as I also did.
Listen to what else Haggai spoke to us:
Hag 1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.
Hag 1:13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.
And what effect did this message have on me?
Hag 1:14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God,
What put me back on track were these words of the prophet Haggai. But then he wrote something else that is also meant to encourage the fallen ones.
Hag 2:23 “‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
Signet ring. Heb. chotham, regarded as an object of great importance, authority, and value (see on Jer. 22:24). These wonderful words of promise to Zerubbabel should bring encouragement to all of God’s children.
“God will not suffer one of His truehearted workers to be left alone to struggle against great odds and be overcome. He preserves as a precious jewel everyone whose life is hid with Christ in God. Of every such a one He says: ‘I … will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee’” (7T 67).
My dear friend. Have you given up on life? Given up on yourself? Given up on God? Please reject the insinuations of Satan. God says you are a precious signet ring on His finger.
ZACHARIAH
Let me also share with you the encouraging words that God spoke through Zachariah to me:
In that same year 515 the building was completed.
Immediately after Zechariah’s vision of Joshua and the Angel, the prophet received a message regarding the work of Zerubbabel.
Zec 4:1 Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep.
Zec 4:2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps.
Zec 4:3 Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
Zec 4:4 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
Zec 4:5 He answered, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied.
Zec 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
I thought that I had all the skills to motivate myself and my people to start building again after we lost our vision, but that was a mistake.
I had to allow the Holy Spirit to work in my heart to accomplish what I wanted to do for the Lord.
There was another message for me:
Zec 4:7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!'”
Zec 4:8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Zec 4:9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
This to me was a great inspiration.
Elijah lost faith and ran away. He stopped building the temple of God. But God sent him back to finish the job.
And this is what God wanted me to do. “Go back Zerubbabel and carry on where you have stopped.”
And what the Lord said to me, He also says to you. “Go back and start all over again. Do what I wanted you to do.”
Zec 4:10 “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”
In rebuilding the house of the Lord, Zerubbabel had laboured in the face of manifold difficulties. From the beginning, adversaries had “weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,” “and made them to cease by force and power.” Ezra 4:4, 23.
But the Lord had interposed on behalf of the builders, and now He spoke through His prophet to Zerubbabel, saying,
“What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!'”
Throughout the history of God’s people great mountains of difficulty, apparently insurmountable, have loomed up before those who were trying to carry out the purposes of Heaven. Such obstacles are permitted by the Lord as a test of faith.
When we are hedged about on every side, this is the time above all others to trust in God and in the power of His Spirit. The exercise of a living faith means an increase of spiritual strength and the development of an unfaltering trust. It is thus that the soul becomes a conquering power. Before the demand of faith, the obstacles placed by Satan across the pathway of the Christian will disappear; for the powers of heaven will come to his aid.
The way of the world is, to begin with pomp and boasting. God’s way is to make the day of small things the beginning of the glorious triumph of truth and righteousness. Sometimes He trains His workers by bringing them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulties.
Often men are tempted to falter before the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end, God will make the way clear. Success will come to them as they struggle against difficulties. Before the intrepid spirit and unwavering faith of a Zerubbabel, great mountains of difficulty will become a plain; and he whose hands have laid the foundation, even “his hands shall also finish it.” “He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” Zechariah 4:9, 7.
The promise, “Ezr 6:14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.
Shortly afterward the restored temple was dedicated. “The children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy;” and “upon the fourteenth day of the first month” they “kept the Passover.” Verses 16, 17, 19.
This section of our series ended in 515 BC. Darius died in 486 and his son Ahasuerus ascended the throne. He separated from his wife Vasti in 483 and married Queen Esther in 497.