• God’s word must be heard, listened to and acted on: “[they] obeyed the voice of the LORD their God” (Haggai 1:12).
• Proper authority must be recognised: “[they] obeyed ... the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him” (Haggai 1:12).
• Priorities should be reordered so that God and his ways are put first: “And the people feared the LORD.” (Haggai 1:15).
When this is done, the Lord will be with his people, will bless them and will strengthen them: “Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: ‘I am with you,’ declares the LORD. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius.” (Haggai 1:13-15). Through “[stirring] up the spirit” (Haggai 1:14) God will give us the ability to accomplish those things that we are to undertake for him and on his behalf.
Conclusion.
Just as the Israelites had no excuse for further delay in the days of Haggai, we have no cause to put off action. A time has come for us to rebuild our nation, not in bricks and mortar, but morally and spiritually: “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2). We are “living in [our] panelled houses while [the LORD’s] house remains a ruin” (Haggai 1:4). This is an utter disgrace. It must not be allowed to continue.
To their credit, once God’s wishes became known the Israelites did not waste time. The prophet’s first message was delivered “In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month” (Haggai 1:1). By “the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius” (Haggai 1:15) work on the temple restarted: “They came and began work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God” (Haggai 1:14). A mere three weeks to start work is pretty good going. If we were able to do as much it would be reason for encouragement indeed.
Regrettably, we have a long road to travel before we get to this point. We have yet to undertake the kind of reflection that God calls us to when he says: “Give careful thought to your ways.” (Haggai 1:5 and 7). A starting point will be for us to consider why we have so signally failed to build anything of lasting worth on the foundation of our material prosperity and our technological achievement. We have been busy “[storing] up for [ourselves] treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19). We need to ask: why do so many fall between the cracks of our Welfare State? Why do our institutions so often seem to promote perverse results? Why does the good so often seem to be hobbled and the bad to be promoted? This is just the beginning: the questions are legion.
Recent events have given us a nasty shock and brought us up short. The foundations of our prosperity no longer seem quite so secure. Things of this kind happen to gain our attention. This is our “time to seek the LORD until he comes and showers righteousness on [us]” (Hosea 10:12). If we will turn aside from wrongdoing and instead “store up for [ourselves] treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20) then we will assure ourselves of salvation, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21).
God has a great deal to say about rebuilding and renewal. He is “the LORD [who] will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.” (Psalm 102:16). At the very end of the Bible, Jesus reminds us that “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5). The Almighty wants to rebuild and renew us, as a nation and as individuals. His is a new architecture in which we become living stones, the very building blocks of a new temple: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him a new name.” (Revelation 3:12). We need to put our shoulder to the wheel and to rebuild in a manner worthy of our heavenly Father, no longer being “busy with [our] own house” (Haggai 1:9), but determined that the Lord’s house should no more remain a ruin in this land.
65. New citizens
Job 19:23-27.
Key word: renewal.
Until surprisingly recently the inhabitants of this country were described not as citizens but as subjects, defined in legal terms by connection to the monarchy. The relationship was one with obligations on both sides, but the role of subject was essentially subservient. Being citizens is felt to reflect more accurately the modern position and our status in a democratic society.[144]
With that in mind, it is humbling to reflect that God does not describe us as his subjects. He has authority and power beyond the wildest dreams of any earthly ruler, “but our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20). Our status before God is not that of subjects. It is of those having “the full rights of sons” (Galatians 4:5), being “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), God’s “fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9) and “friends” (John 15:15).
God renews us and transforms us despite all we have been and all we have suffered. He lifts us up beyond anything we can conceivably deserve. Through the phrases that describe our legal status before him we gain the merest glimpse of how wonderful will be the coming glory. Fine words; but fine words do not put food on the table, nor take away pain nor deal with the many ills of our daily lives. The ability to face such things and overcome them without losing sight of the renewal to come is something with which we need to grapple constantly. The experience of Job shows how.
Undeserved misfortune.
Job was a righteous and God-fearing man, wealthy and respected, but Satan said that Job only honoured God because of what the Almighty had done for him. Satan challenged God to “stretch out your hand and strike everything [Job] has and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11). Yet God had confidence in Job’s integrity and replied to Satan: “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:12). From that moment, Job suffered calamity upon calamity. His children and his servants were killed; his wealth and his health were taken from him. Even his wife said that the only thing for him to do was to “curse God and die.”(Job 2:9).
The context of Job 19:23-27 is that the afflicted man is in discussion with friends about the reason that sudden misfortune has come upon him. In accordance with the received wisdom of the day, the friends say that Job must have brought this on himself through his own sin, but Job protests his innocence. In the course of responding to his friends’ arguments, Job says something insightful and, in the context, unexpected: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” (Job 19:25-26)
This is one of the most profound statements in the Bible: it shows Job’s faith growing in the face of adversity, not diminishing, and it shows a penetrating discernment of the spiritual reality that lies behind the passing moment. A man who has lost everything is not crushed by the experience, even though he is weighed down and sore afflicted. His spirit soars to a new level of understanding as everything that might previously have been a source of pride and perceived strength is stripped away.
Unquenched faith.
We need to learn the perspective that Job had. We live in circumstances that cloud our vision: disconnected from nature, we imagine that we can tame its power; well clothed and shod, we do not see our spiritual nakedness; with our bellies full and our houses stuffed with possessions, we do not recognise their emptiness and our own need to be filled by God. When these material things are stripped away, as they surely will be, we will be nothing without our Redeemer.
We need to go through the same process that Job went through. As the discussions with his friends continue, his faith in a heavenly solu
tion to his earthly sufferings becomes more and more assured. As so often when times are difficult, it is a case of two steps forward and one step back:
• He starts by bemoaning the fact that there is nobody to intercede between him and God. “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us …” (Job 9:33).
• He next recognises that he does have someone to plead his case, although at this point he regards this person as still being somewhat remote from him: “my witness is in heaven, my advocate is on high.” (Job 16:19).
• Then he comes to the painful realisation that the people he counted on for help and support in his distress cannot or will not provide these things: “He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me. My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger … all my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.” (Job 19:13-15 and 19).
• From that low point, when all earthly help and hope is exhausted, he comes to the triumphant recognition that “my Redeemer lives.” (Job 19:25).
That Job’s trust in God is well placed is shown by the book’s epilogue: “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before ... The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters ... After this Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years.” (Job 42:10, 42:12-13 and 42:16-17).[145] It is noteworthy that Job’s first thought is for his friends, not for the restoration of his former health and prosperity. These things are presumably given to him as well for the same reason that they were given to Solomon after he prayed for wisdom: “The LORD was pleased ... So God said, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have you asked for the death of your enemies ... I will give you what you have not asked for – both riches and honour’” (1 Kings 3:10-13). In the same way, Jesus reminds us to “seek first [God’s] kingdom and righteousness, and all these things [food, drink, clothing and other material needs] will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33).
Uncertainty disarmed.
In just the same way, we can confidently place our trust in God and in his Word, the Bible. We can work through areas of doubt as Job did, growing in faith as we do so and disarming the uncertainty that so often makes us less effective than we can and should be. The harmony of the message and teaching contained in Scripture should greatly reassure and encourage us. This collection of sixty-six separate books, written at different times and places by authors from every walk of life, using different languages and literary forms, with no way of knowing that their work would be gathered one with the other yet forms a cohesive whole that is entirely congruent in doctrine, teaching and prophecy.
The book of Job is a case in point. It is commonly reckoned to be the oldest in the Bible, dating at least from the patriarchal period – the time of Abraham, over 4,000 years ago. Some even speculate that it records an oral tradition dating back to the end of the last Ice Age, based on its numerous references to extremes of cold weather. For example, when God appears to confront Job at the end of the book, he says: “From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” (Job 38:29-30).[146] Given this, the consistency of what Job says with what Jesus taught and demonstrated through his life on earth is striking, the surest of antidotes to the frequently expressed (but never proven) claim that the Bible is full of contradictions. Consider the statements in Job 19:25-26:
• “[My] Redeemer lives …” Job does not say that a Messiah will come at some indeterminate point in the future. He says that right here and now he has a living Saviour.
• “[In] the end he [the Redeemer] will stand upon the earth …” The Redeemer will actually come amongst us here on earth.
• “[After] my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” This statement must have seemed nonsense to Job’s friends: how can a man’s skin be destroyed and yet the man in his flesh be able to see God? From a Christian perspective, of course, it sounds like a straightforward affirmation of belief in physical resurrection.
• “I will see God.” Even in the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sadducees could not agree on whether there was resurrection of the dead, yet here Job says it as clear as day.
Well over 4,000 years ago was made a statement that is completely compatible with Christian belief, which stands as a glorious affirmation of faith in the most trying of circumstances and a forms timely reminder for those suffering adversity: our Redeemer lives.
Uncommon power.
Job’s statement of faith does not exist in isolation. It is not there so that we may give it mere intellectual assent and then forget about it. It does not float in ether, divorced from the real world. It is part of God’s Word and as such it has power. The Lord says: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11).
Job tells us how we should treat this Word: “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock for ever!” (Job 19:23-24). This prayer is answered, for what Job says is recorded for posterity. What is written does not just comprise artfully crafted phrases. The words affirm a central and overarching truth: that there is a heavenly solution to earthly sufferings and that God will renew his people. The renewal takes a number of forms:
• It affects our legal status and our spiritual wellbeing: as “Redeemer” (Job 19:25), the Lord will buy back his people from slavery and set them free.
• It sets at nought the effects of age, disease, decay and death: “after my skin has been destroyed, yet ...” (Job 19:26).
• It gives rise to new birth in a glorious resurrection body: “in my flesh I will see God, I myself will see him with my own eyes – I and not another.” (Job 19:26-27).
• It brings us into the presence of God for an eternity of close fellowship with him: “I will see God” (Job 19:26).
Job tested these words and found them to be true. He relied upon God in the most appalling circumstances and discovered that it was possible to come through the tunnel of suffering and into a place of blessing on the other side. God brought renewal.
Conclusion.
Our nation desperately needs renewal. With Job we might say, “How my heart yearns within me!”(Job 19:27). We should plead with our Redeemer to bring this renewal about, to free our society from the things that bind it and to set it on a new course involving close relationship with him and obedience to his Word.
At the same time, we need to reflect on the means by which God might bring renewal about and the consequences of renewal for our everyday lives. We need to translate our citizenship of heaven into a new concept of how our earthly citizenship should be played out, both to enable renewal and to allow God to give effect to it through us. Modern England has again become a nation of subjects, of people who are slaves to every passing whim, blown hither and thither by the blandishments of advertising and the tittle-tattle of media without the firm anchor of faith to stay their course. This land desperately needs to hear, believe and act upon the words spoken by Job: “my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25). We must tell forth this word so that our people once more have the chance to be citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Only then will renewal come.
66. New resolve
Luke 2:41-52
Key word: determination.
Each January
brings the season of New Year’s resolutions. Whether we make them or not, whether we keep them or not, they are hard to avoid. Perhaps they bore us, perhaps they excite us, perhaps they offer new possibilities or perhaps they only make us feel guilty. Sometimes the resolutions we come across are frivolous. Sometimes they are worthy. Sometimes they are just this year’s fashion. If we are serious about making the best of resolutions for the year ahead, however, we need to consider what the Bible has to say about them.
A resolution is a resolve or settled purpose. It involves being determined, firm and bold in sticking to the goals we have set. In terms of the Christian life, there are both negative and positive resolutions that we need to make. That is to say, there are things that we must resolve not to do and things we must resolve to do. We need to turn away from what is bad. We need to make a deliberate effort to turn our backs on thoughts and words that are wrong. Thus King David says: “I have resolved that my mouth will not sin” (Psalm 17:3). We need to free our deeds from things that are displeasing to God, even when that means going against what society considers normal or acceptable. So the young Daniel, a slave in Babylon and subject to his captors’ whims, risked punishment and perhaps even death for his defiance when “he resolved not to defile himself” (Daniel 1:8).
Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching) Page 47
