August 27, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: Now hear these words, ‘Let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built.’ I AM aware this is also what the prophets said who were present when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord Almighty. Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse among the nations, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.‘” (Zechariah 8.9, 13)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

If we know the history of the rebuilding of the Temple as the Sixth Century B.C. came to a close, we would be aware that it happened in two events. With the laying of the foundation in 536, times were desperate, but the people were committed to accomplishing what God had commanded. Unfortunately, Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and Israel (the Northern Kingdom) were still struggling under the auspices of foreign leadership. There had been a disconnect between the powers of the past which had ruled over this land in the time of exile and the new king who had risen to power. Economically, it was a struggle for those who remained in the land to survive much less thrive enough to build the Temple in Jerusalem. [Some similarity might be drawn between those times in Judah/Israel and that of the South in the United States in the years following the close of the Civil War. In some ways, that struggle continues to this day in spite of the truth that the “end of the War” has long since passed.] This is what was happening as God spoke through Zechariah to the people to take up the task again. Religious fervor for the building of the Temple was bound more in the nationalistic pride of Judah/Israel than in the spiritual devotion to do what was right in the sight of the Lord. It was a difficult time being a faithful Jew. The phrasing of “for a time you have been a curse among the nations” reflects upon the burden felt because they existed in the midst of foreign nations. Pharaoh felt this way about the descendants of Jacob who had become like an infestation in the years following Joseph’s leadership leading up to the days of Moses. The Jews were a people set apart even if they were not the most faithful to God and had become self-consumed. It was their arrogance and self-centeredness which had created the schism between themselves and God. It was for that that God allowed the foreign nations to invade the land and take the leadership of “Israel” into captivity. Now that very idea of being “set apart” was drawing them together to become a nation among nations. Had they learned their lesson during the time of exile? Had they recaptured their faith and trust in God? They were certainly being put to the test as the building of the Temple was started. Like their distant ancestors who dwelt in Egypt for 400 years who had to build bricks without straw, so now this new generation was struggling to rebuild the Temple in the midst of economic and political hard times. They gave up the call to rebuild following the completion of the foundation. It was just too much to do on their own.

Now God was responding to their resignation. They had done all they could do with their own meager resources and limited strength. They were faithful to the task but the task was too great to complete on their own. It is this recognition which brought them full circle to God. They could not do this on their own. It was impossible and improbable. We could add the words of Jesus as He spoke to the disciples on the day of the visit of the Rich Young Ruler. As the young man walked away filled with sorrow as he “considered the cost of discipleship,” the disciples themselves pondered their own future. They said, “If it is too much for a rich man to gain eternal life, then what chance for those who are poor?” Jesus taught, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven. Remember this: What seems impossible for man to do is fully possible for God.” The time had come when the people would be receptive to now hear the words of God with an attitude of faith and not merely obedience. Obedience smacked of the Law. Such thinking was bound upon works and one’s own strength and perseverance to fulfill the requirements (and usually with the minimum standard in mind: greatest gain with the least effort.) This type of thinking would be insufficient to the task. They would not be saved by “works” but by faith. As they put their trust in God, His word of provision became apparent. We know that after this Nehemiah was able to convince King Darius to send an abundance of resources to Jerusalem (including soldiers for defense). It would still take some convincing of the people to trust the process, but it happened and the Temple was rebuilt.

Are we willing to be equally resigned, mighty ones of God? Are we willing to trust the process of “walking by faith and not by sight”? In the call to “remake America,” regardless of which side of the aisle assumes leadership, it will not happen and cannot happen unless God is the author and provider of it. This means that the people must take ownership of their true identity which is in God alone. Obedience to the ruling authorities alone will prove insufficient to the task of “remaking America” unless we are measuring it against the image in which it was first created. We struggle today because we seek to make America in our own image instead of aligning ourselves with the first image Maker who is God. If this nation will not repent and turn from its evil ways, if it will not humble itself and become a people of the Word of God in prayer and in praise, then it will continue to stumble and crumble until it is merely dust on a page of history long turned. Like Judah/Israel of old, we cannot be afraid, and our hands must be strong for the task. These strong hands are those who “work the land from which we came, who gives thanks to God out of the fruits of our labors and who reach out to serve the neighbor in love as God has so loved us.” Will our hands be strong again?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.