They took her from her home and her family. She was but a small school girl with pigtails and two front teeth missing. The times were very serious, but she was not. It was the still of the night when the soldiers came. A terrible banging on the door was followed swiftly by men in boots moving quickly from one room to the next creating a horrible noise. Her mother cried out her name, this she remembered. Down the steps she was plunged, ever so quickly. In the kitchen below were several men in uniforms. She grabbed the rail for a moment, as if to steady herself, but she was trying to understand what she was seeing. Her father was on the floor, his face squeezed beneath the boot of a soldier. She was thrust violently forward, compelled down the stairs. With only a glance, she noticed the tear in her fathers eye – and that despite his swollen face and the obvious pain of the boot pressing him to the floor – his eyes did not leave her when she was pulled through the room. She had no idea where she was being taken. She knew nothing of work camps or death camps. She couldn’t comprehend the horrors she would see in the coming days at that moment. To her, life was simply about her mother, her father and her older sister.
She knew of summers at the creek and picnic baskets. She tasted the warmth of her mother’s best apple pies. She licked the insides of the bowls when momma baked. She had not seen hardship, and she knew little of the life that lay beyond the walls of her home and her nearby school yard. All this was about to change. As she was dragged beyond her father’s eyes, she looked up and saw her mother shoved against the kitchen wall a soldier angrily leaning into her. Though she was being pulled quickly, and though it hurt her arms a lot – the sight of mother’s face burned deep within her heart. She did not know where they were taking her, but she made a choice from that moment on to live with her mother’s face buried deep inside. She was tossed into the back of a truck and left sitting on a bench beside other children. The cold night air enveloped her as she sat without shoes or socks and in nothing but a long night shirt.
She may never see her momma again, but she would not forget her face. She would recall everything she could about that face. She thought in the coming days often of her tender eyes, her gentle voice and her laughter when father would say something funny at dinner. She remembered the way momma taught her to set the table and to fold the napkins – though where she was taken no such luxuries were found. During the days and nights at the camp, she learned to work. She struggled to find food, and she often heard the voice of her mother in her ears. Be kind. Don’t cry. Stand up straight. She had the voice inside her. And she
followed the shadow of her momma pressed against the kitchen wall. She wished she had listened more as a child. She wished she had wanted to play less and sing more with momma.
When I think of my dad in memories my childhood, he doesn’t appear as the man I know today. In fact, I see him in “black and white”. He is a contrast image – instructing right and disciplining wrong. He is a cardboard cut out of the man I have come to know as an adult. Only with maturity did I learn to see him as he is – a real man. In the same way, the laws of God could be obeyed as a list, but they left the people with only a shadow of the wonder of the person of their Heavenly Father.
Key Principle: To restart life, we need more than a shadow – we need intimate relationship that comes by opening our heart to the call of our Master.
Order: In 539 BCE Cyrus captured the city of Babylon and the world for the Jewish captives changed dramatically. By 537 BCE the people returned to the land and were given a commission to rebuild the Temple by Cyrus, together with supplies and limited funding. In 536 BCE the work on the altar and Temple had begun after the journey back to the land. The altar got completed and sacrifices were renewed. The stone was cut and the supplies were assembled for the foundation of the Temple. The progress moved slowly as the hindering of enemies about made the work difficult to accomplish.
In about 530 BCE, all work was stopped by the false accusations of surrounding governors to the king (Ezra 4) – all work was halted for about a decade – although the altar appeared to function throughout. August 29, 520 BCE Ten years of STALLED OUT WORK needed a restart. How do you restart a life that has stalled? How do you gain the enthusiasm to get things going? Haggai’s message against the inertia and apathy that set in during the “decade of delay” (Haggai 1).
Intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father is preceded by surrender of myself to His purposes:
- God initiated the conviction – real change begins with an often unexplained stirring of the heart (1:1).
- God dealt with decision makers – God addresses the one who can make the change. You can’t change everything, but are called to surrender what is YOURS to change (1:2).
- God connected their mouths with their hearts – what we really feel does wear through our mouths (1:3-5).
- God connected the sin of their hearts with the struggles of their daily life – sometimes we have to have things pointed out to us! (1:6,7 and 9-11).
- God addressed the will of the people and surrender – until we surrender to Him nothing else matters (1:8, 12 and 14).
- God offered comfort to the faithful – because His presence fills the holes of a surrendered life (1:13)
I cannot be what God wants me to be until I clearly understand that I was made to be a tool in His hands, to complete His purposes. Every fiber of my being is called to surrender, and every fiber fights back with no natural desire to do so. I want to control and I fight to be pre-eminent in a world where I was designed for neither – control nor pre-eminence! Surrender is the path to victory.
By September 21, 520 BCE the Lord stirred the spirit of the people (Haggai 1:14) and the Temple worked resumed. This time there was little fanfare, and the zeal of the people was seen in their GRIT to work, not their hoopla and noise. By October 17, 520 BCE, the people were already seeing the building take shape. Their spiritual enemy began to pummel the team – here God offered another essential word from Heaven –
I will not be able to remain encouraged in my walk with God if my eyes are turned to the wrong measures of “success, fulfillment and meaning”.
- The older people looked back and got discouraged about the methods of ministry (Haggai 2:1-3). It is possible that the way you did it before was better, but it is also possible that it was not – and your memory isn’t that thorough.
- The young and untested leaders began to look within and see insufficient resources to complete the task (2:4-5). In your energy and right walk – it is possible you will conclude that YOU are the one bringing the success.
- The people began to look around, and were discouraged by the wealth and power of the nations around them (Haggai 2:6-9). It is easy to begin to believe that what people have is THEIRS – yet only the Lord truly owns anything!
God told them that the past was no measure, their abilities no measure, their meager wealth and size no measure – the whole work was to be a miracle of God’s power, borne through God’s presence in God’s people! They needed only to trust Him and surrender themselves to accomplish His purposes.
By the beginning of November 520 (Zechariah 1:1) the people were already losing heart. They knew that God COULD do great things in the lives of people – but they didn’t think THEY were the people God would do them through! God raised up another prophet – Zechariah (Yahweh remembers!) to tell them a story of their own past that was designed to remind them of a critical error –
The text says clearly, “Your fathers enraged Me, you must turn your back on those practices that I may come back close to you. Don’t be like them. Listen, though they did not. Your fathers are gone as are the prophets that called them to repent. The promises I made completed themselves in their lives.” (Zechariah 1:1-6)
Zoom in on a couple of important terms in this short but powerful word from God:
- Power of the Past: We cannot change directions until we admit the one we are traveling on is leading us astray. We can easily be diluted into believing that because others before us (people we love and revere) did no better, we should set our standards no higher than they lived. Part of the story of your defeat isn’t just about YOU, it is about your family and the habits and excuses you have grown familiar with. “We are just like that in my family” is holding back your opportunity to go past a surface knowledge of God. His Spirit is being quenched by family excuses!
Note the term “Lord of Hosts” in 1:3 (3 times), in 1:4 and 1:6. “YHWH Tz’vaot” is a term used for the commander of an army. He is the Supreme Commander of the armies of the Heavens. A second and essential element of the term is tied to TIME. (tsaw-baw’: can be understood as an appointed time, as a war was in ancient society.) The term speaks of the Lord of both the physical and spiritual realm. He is Lord of those alive in this world – and those who have already passed into the next, or were not a part of this realm.
- Power of the Pattern: (1:5-6) You know that I promised the promises would OVERTAKE (naw-sag’: to reach; to offer the ability to attain) you if you followed, and OVERTAKE you if you rebelled (cp. Dt. 28:2ff). God told the people at Ebal and Gerizim that they obedience would offer them the ability or platform to attain blessing, as disobedience would offer them the platform of chastisement.
In the cold rains of December 18, 520 BCE, the chilled rains were making life difficult in the building trade, but they continued on with obedience. Silently, discouragement was setting in with the chill in their bones. God spoke again to Haggai (2:10-23) -
God got His word into the hearts of the discouraged people that their work was unholy, even in obedience, because they felt the work made THEM surrendered to Him. They mistook their HANDS for their HEART – a deadly mistake.
Do you see it? God commanded and they OBEDIENT. Yet God said they “did not come back to ME.” You can only RETURN to a place you have been. Think about it: They started the journey in UTTER DEPENDENCE on the God of Abraham. In time they were building well. The work was going up as it should have been.
2. Though obedience is desired by God, the end goal is not the work you are doing. God doesn’t need a Temple to live In, a church to be worshipped in, or a family to show His testimony through. We don’t obey because God depends on us to run the planet. The goal of the Christian life is INTIMACY and DEPENDENCE, not getting my way or receiving blessing. The goal is and must always be MY MASTER’S GLORY. If we are ready to become empty of our own purposes and filled with HIS purposes, He may open the door of blessing. He hasn’t forgotten us. He doesn’t want us to suffer. God does bless His people. He went on to tell them:
2:18 ‘Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the LORD was founded, consider: 19 ‘Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.’”
“I am FOR you” – but the problem with Judah in the past wasn’t LACK, it was ARROGANCE AND SELF SUFFICIENCY.
Later the same day, December 18, 520 BCEanother Word from God came specifically for the leader of God’s people. Even he was worn out. The work was not as exciting and was just plain hard by now. These were the chilly “dog days of winter”…
The final message is directed specifically to Zerubbabel, the governor of Israel at this time, and the royal heir to David’s throne. He appears to be a bit discouraged, yet in his blood coursed the promise of God to his father David. Would he be the one through whom the line would bring blessing? Though the answer in retrospect was YES, he couldn’t see the future. Neither can we. We have the promises of God and yet we have no promise that THIS LIFE WILL GO WELL if we do what God says.
20 Then the word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 ‘I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.’ 23 ‘On that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’” declares the LORD of hosts.
If I am not promised fame for my hard work, nor fortune, nor power nor pleasure — why do it then? Because my life is for my Master. My hope is in HIM – not what I can accomplish. If He chooses blessing for my days, I shall be glad. If He is most honored by my submission in hardship, I must be willing to bow my head. He owes no martyr anything – for He blesses them when they enter His arms.
Zerubbabel was promised that God would act in the future in a decisive way. He would be like God’s signet ring – a stamp that authenticated His royal authority. God never forgets the promises He makes.
Our life must become enduring SIMPLE – I serve an audience of ONE. My unbridled desires for more quick and complete fulfillment will kill the joy of process and the simplicity of needs in our lives. God is a process God – He wants blessing to be more fulfilling because it is worked at over a long period of time. He wants the uncertainty of the result to force us to walk with Him daily, over a long period of time to see results. We plant, weed, water and wait! God has designed life with an uncertainty of outcomes so that we will not simply “do right to get right” and be satisfied, but be forced to lean on Him for each day and each need as we obey – still uncertain of the short term outcomes – certain only of His long term GLORY.
There they are. Five Calls of God – Each offers a unique help to getting a PLAN B LIFE on track:
- If God is stirring – I will seek Him for direction.
- If God is convicting – I will probe more deeply into what I can do to bring a smile to Him.
- If I am lacking -I will ask Him what He desires to show me.
- If I am being stubborn about something in my life – I will carefully hand it over to Him.
- If I think I am not good enough – I will trust thatGod can make me more than I am.
- If I walk in fear – I will stand closer to the Father who cannot be defeated.
- If I feel small in the face of others about me – I will take comfort that I am a uniquely handcrafted item!
- If I become discouraged that others are getting ahead – I will look at the finish line of life and see that Jesus is there, with everything I will need to be satisfied!
- If I think my work isn’t becoming what I thought it could – I will more carefully examine if it is becoming what will please my Master!
I have grown accustomed to ungodly standards – but my bar must be raised to my Master’s measure!
- If I am satisfied in my sinful practices – I will think about the day I stand before my Master and hear from Him how I did.
- If I think “I am doing pretty well” – I will ask the Spirit of God to pierce my heart with areas of stubbornness and disobedience that I have grown accustomed to.
- If I am experiencing serious lack in what I need – I will examine my life more closely to see what God is trying to show me.
- If I think I am doing much too little for the kingdom of my Master – I will ask God to show me what I am doing that is less important and wasting the time.
- If I am obedient by disappointed or discouraged – I will submit my desires for recognition, or reward in this life to the gentle hands of my Master, who knows how to reward well.
- If I am a discouraged leader or others – I will ask God to take joy in the efforts of my hands, and then trust Him to do it!
- If I am impatient with God’s answers on my behalf – I will deliberately bring to mind that God is a process God. I will hoe, plant and water… and God will get glory even if I never see the increase.
To restart life, we need more than a shadow – we need intimate relationship. That king of renewal comes by carefully yielding to each of His calls in our life.
Some 30 years ago while raising 3 children as a single parent, I was blessed to have the teaching of making Christ the head of our household. One afternoon, overwhelmed with cares, standing in the kitchen with dirty dishes and laundry all around me, I cried out to the Lord and clearly heard “Just do it, just do it for Me.” It was sustaining and memorable. This teaching helps me understand better what He was telling me.