Haggai 1:15-2:9: Still Here and Still at Work

On the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.  In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” - Haggai 1:15-2:9

'For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.'

What does it look like when God is with you? I think that we--especially Americans--view the signs of God with us and "success" in a certain way: a story with a reconciliation, a big comeback win and a happily ever after. But this story, the disappointment when the exiles returned to a much diminished temple, reminds God's people that God is not slow and God isn't on our schedule. We need to leave God's reputation in God's hands.

I don't like that because it doesn't look good for God. Many times if I am thinking this, I am really saying that I don't like this because it doesn't look good for me or my group or my family. That is, I have staked so much on God's looking good that when he looks bad I look bad. And I don't want to look bad. It has stopped being about God and started being about me. We need to leave God's reputation in God's hands. 

Many of the psalms and prophets try to motivate God with this. "If you don't do something, God, people will ask what kind of God are you?" Unfortunately for me, God's answer is, "I can wait for the better outcome. I am not anxious and you shouldn't be anxious either."

I admit, I need encouragement some times. I am not that patient or confident. So I ask for the small sign, even if its not the whole enchilada, at least a taquito to hold me over. As the Lord says to Haggai, "And my Spirit remains among you." He's still here and still at work. 

1 Timothy 2:1-7: God Includes All Who Disagree With God

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. - 1 Timothy 2:1-7

"...who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 

There are a lot of "all" words in these verses. "made for all people", "all those in authority", "all people to be saved", "ransom for all people" and "mankind" (i.e. all people) Kings, leaders and Gentiles seem to be questionable, in the minds of some people. They are immoral, ignorant and headed in directions that are diametrically opposed to the way of God. There is temptation to just write people like this off, saying they get what is coming to them--that if we just ignore them, they will ultimately get what they deserve. But Paul flips this around. Rather than ignoring or isolating these people, he has been appointed to engage with them. In doing so, he is doing helping fulfill Jesus' own mission: "as ransome fo all people"

Part of that engagement is praying for the leaders in all ways: "petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving" That is, we pray for what we know or imagine are the struggles of the leaders. 

Then he goes beyond this to describe the "peaceful and quiet lives" citizens should live under these leaders. That is, our default posture is not rebellion but peace. Like Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." because they are creating an environment where growth and health are possible, not just for themselves but also for those around them. 

Then he says that he is a true and faithful teacher. That is not a role that can be achieved from a distance. Sure, you can convince your buddies how smart you are. But Paul wasn't appointed to preach to his buddies. Rather to those who explicitly were not his buddies, the Gentiles. 

 When I read the words "all" in these verses, I am reminded how ambitious God's plan of rescue is for the world and how much he must love all the people, even those who flaunt their disobedience or apathy. Grant that we could have the same attitude, even with those we disagree with.

Psalm 79:1-9: One Hurt By My Sin

O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble. They have left the dead bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild. They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead. We are objects of contempt to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us.

How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.

Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. - Psalm 79:1-9

 "How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?"

It is interesting how the author characterizes God's motivation in allowing the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of their neighbors. He calls it "jealousy"--"how long will your jealousy" burn. Is God the spurned lover who retaliates in a rage? And, following this line of thinking, is God going to respond to my sinfulness in the same way, in being angry at me?

Jealousy is a term about relationships--the relationship between lover and the beloved. The author uses this term--jealousy--to describe how God feels. Not the emotion of a static deity, but the emotion of a God who loves his people with an incredible amount of emotion. God is angry when we follow other voices--voices "that do not acknoledge" God. Voices that we like better than the voice of God himself. On one hand, he is angry that we are so easily tempted by other voices or even the sound of our own voice. On the other hand, he has no sympathy to those who deluded us and lead us astray. Jealousy is not the word for enemies, it is the word for lovers who choose another. 

God loves us with an intensity, so intense that the God of the universe is hurt by what we do. His love is too great to let us walk away. Love that desires nothing more than a restored relationship. 

When I think of God as someone hurt by my sin rather than a list of rules that I have broken, I think I am coming closer to the truth which ought to govern my life.

Jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1: Watching a Train Wreck

You who are my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused my anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. - Jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1

 "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved."

This is the tragedy of the redeemed. We rest in the solace of the fact that we are forgiven, and the urgency of repentance recedes from our consciousness. But this apathy is killing us and we idley pursue other things to fill up the emptiness inside. These things to take the place in our hearts that only God can fill are frustrating and even angering to God who cares for us. It is like the relationship between a drug user, his drug of choice and the parent who watches him gradually destroyed by his addiction. We are the addicts, chasing temporary solace while God sits by.

In these cases, what should God do to motivate us? Is he helpless in this case because of the magnitude of his mercy? No, he is not, but he knows that the solution requires bringing us to a place where we want him more than those other "gods" which we have tried to use to bring meaning, security and control in our lives. Sometimes we don't even realize that we have done this, this settling for the grace of lesser gods. Sometimes we think God is still there, to rescue us, even when things go wrong and even when we've been effectively ignoring his direction.

In these verses, God lets the other things that his people have been depending on, the land, the city, the temple all to fall away. Some of his people think that God would be upset, but not that upset. So they wait. But then God doesn't respond quickly. They fall into despair and that despair is heartbreaking to those watching this trainwreck of a nation: "Since my people are crushed, I am crushed"

Is God looking at me and watching a trainwreck of a person, slowly wasting away on a diet of insubstantial and meaningless God-substitutes? I hope not and when I slide that way, I pray he will not need to have to withdraw the same way he did to his people to get my attention.

Luke 13:10-17: Nitpicking A Miracle To Death

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. - Luke 13:10-17

When God does something wonderful for someone, suddenly the spotlight is no longer on me and I sometimes feel jealous. I mean God has done wonderful things in my life and what happened to this someone is no more incredible than what happened to me. So I nitpick and find something that they aren't doing just right so that their "wonderful" moment wasn't quite as wonderful. By knocking them down, I am putting the spotlight back on myself. And that is sin.

The most incredible day in the life of this woman was the day when she met Jesus. He struck down the spirit that was crippling her, letting her experience--for the first time in "eighteen long years"--walking upright and probably without pain. But when Jesus did that, the spotlight was taken from the "synagogue leader" who probably felt himself the most upright in the whole town. So that leader looked for something that would make the woman look less impressive. "Oh, healed. Well, she was healed on the Sabbath and all good Jews know that God himself rested on the Sabbath and therefore no miracles from God occurred on the Sabbath." Bam! Put that woman--and Jesus--in their place. But Jesus revealed his comments for what they were--a thin veneer of righteous over a heart full of selfishness. 

I am guilty like this. Minimizing the work of God (and the credit he should rightfully get from it) by trying to make it smaller than it was (it was a miracle) by nitpicking all the flaws so that it appears less miraculous. But the lie is not in the miracle, it is in the nitpicking. "Oh yeah, but you didn't do X or Y or Z. How could you do that?" Instead of giving God full credit and letting him deal with the question of details. I'm probably the guy in the New Jerusalem complaining about the environmental impact reports that weren't filed before it was installed on planet Earth. But God is great. And God does good work. And any attempt by me to distract from that is wrong.

Hebrews 12:14-29: Don't Allow Yourself To Be Trivialized In My Sight

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” - Hebrews 12:14-29

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord" The first part of that sentence seems harmless: "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone..." If it says "make every effort" and I tried really hard to get along with people, then haven't I met my obligations? And if they are still mad at me, what can I do? I mean, I tried hard right and they didn't respond so if we aren't at peace, it isn't my fault. Right?

Even the second part of the sentence seems pretty tame: "be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." It is easy to read holiness as being a good person and we know that God requires that we are holy to be close to him. We know that we are supposed to follow the rules and act like God would expect of us.

So what's the big deal?

Holiness isn't just a warm and fuzzy. It actually can be scary. The author goes back to Old Testament, when Moses and the people of Israel were learning about God and he said they need to treat him differently. Getting close to God was like getting close to fire. That's why they had to be careful getting close to the mountain of the presence of God, so they wouldn't die.

Fire heats and it purifies, it also consumes and scorches. You have to respect it or you get burned. While we don't come to a literal mountain where God is dwelling, we are still trying to come close to God through Jesus. Treating God like he is our buddy is to relate to him unrealistically. It is unrealistic to treat God like our peer. He is not our buddy. It is foolish to treat God like someone we bargain with. He needs nothing from us and we have no leverage. It is foolish to treat God like a person. He is not at risk of dying nor is he confined to the limits of a physical body. When we say God is holy, we are saying that he is fundamentally different from us, in being and in character. Assumptions about him can lead us fatally astray. We have to respect God the way we respect fire: good, powerful and at the same time dangerous to be on the wrong side of. 

This very fire that we rely on and are grateful for cannot be underestimated and trivialized like a Christmas card or an Easter basket. It cannot be ignored or set aside. "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”" Lord, don't allow yourself to be trivialized in my sight. 

Jeremiah 1:4-10: Ignoring the Spirit's Truth At My Own Peril

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” - Jeremiah 1:4-10

How do you react when someone like your boss asks for someone to raise their hand to undertake something you don't know how to do? Do you react by keeping your hand down? Do you wait to see how everyone else reacts--maybe someone else knows how to do it? Do you pause to consider whether the unknowns in this case are worth the risk?

I tend to err on the other side. If someone asks if I can do something, I tend to say "Yes" and then figure out what they are talking about later. 

This is what happened to Jeremiah when God is looking for volunteers. His first response is a cautious one--I am too young--, not sure that it is worth the risk or maybe thinking that God had overestimated his capabilities. But God says to Jeremiah: "Don't say that you are too yong" He doesn't even give Jeremiah the pep talk like he did for Joshua ("be strong and courageous") or promise help like he did for Moses ("Aaron will speak") He just says: "You must go to everyone I send you and say whatever I command you." And that was enough for Jeremiah, even though the message was tough.

Sometimes God gives us tough things to say. Maybe not the same as Jeremiah. But a truth that needs to be heard. A truth which, if not said, has bad consequences. Not saying the truth might seem like a better, safer option. But God knows better and commands us to say it despite our misgivings and despite the personal consequences of how others might think of me.

Sometimes I like to speak the truth. Maybe for the wrong reason, because I want to use the truth like a weapon and not as a guide. Other times I don't like to speak the truth because it has negative personal consequences in the short term. Right at that moment, God's Spirit often whispers a command: Speak my truth. And I ignore that whisper at my own peril.