Hope for our waiting and wondering if life will ever feel good again

By Dean Collins

It really is hard to imagine things getting back to normal. With each passing day it’s difficult to remember how things used to be. And we wonder if we will ever see the good old days again.

Maybe the exiled Jews felt the same. In fact, a careful reading of Jeremiah, Lamentations, Zechariah, Ezra, and Haggai tells us as much. God’s chosen initially had a hard time believing the temple would be destroyed and that they would live in exile. But then, as the seventy years of exile were nearly finished, they couldn’t imagine going back home. Yet that’s exactly what happened. The rebuilding of homes and the city had begun, but the temple rebuilding had stalled.

Fading vision

Have you ever had a big dream for how things were supposed to look, but as you got started the reality didn’t match your vision? Maybe it was a renovation you imagined. Maybe it was a mission you knew you were called to embrace. But as you began, there were just too many challenges, and before you knew it, you drifted to easier endeavors. They were important, after all, and so you justified letting the big project go. The vision of what could be started to fade.

Haggai wrote just a couple of chapters that described some in Jerusalem who wondered if it was time to rebuild the temple. The Word of the Lord from the prophet was, “Go get the supplies and get started.” Waiting was over. Yet many focused on building their homes and getting their own lives back to normal instead of doing the work of God.

The older crowd who had faint memories of how the temple used to look compared their current progress on the temple and threw up their hands in despair. This was nothing like the good old days. But again the Word of God came loud and clear: “Work for I am with you.” God reminded his children that he made a covenant and he would not break his promises. “My Spirit remains in your midst .“

All glory

God’s glory once filled a tent, and his glory can fill whatever version of a temple built in his name. God is the owner of all the resources and possesses all glory. He needs only open hearts and willing hands, and then he will do the rest. According to the word from Haggai, the latter glory of this house would be greater than the former. And where God resides there will be peace.

With the advantage of time we know all of this to be true, even as we wait in this season of Advent. Hebrews chapter 3 reminds us to consider Jesus. And as we wait to celebrate the birth of a Savior, we also wait for our Savior to return in glory. We know from Scripture that the Christ-child ushered in a new Kingdom by way of a new covenant. New promises of God are offered to us that include forgiveness for our sin, victory over our death, and eternal purposes for our lives. The gift of Jesus means that our broken lives, flawed in more ways than we care to admit, become vessels of the living God. We, together as the people of God, have become God’s temple.

Surrendered life

Beauty has come and will come from the ashes of every life surrendered to the Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. No virus, no pandemic, no drug addiction, no divorce, no business failures, no illness can stop the glory of God that comes when lives are surrendered to the Savior born in Bethlehem.

So as we wait we can trust completely in the words of the prophet, knowing his words to be true. The latter glory of this house is greater than the former. The psalmist declared that no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Consider Jesus; he is forever faithful over his house. Hold tightly to your confidence in God. Trust and brag on the hope we have in Christ the King.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Haggai‬ ‭2:3-9‬; Psalm‬ ‭84:1-2, 10-12‬; Hebrews‬ ‭3:1-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

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