Faithfully yours - Embracing the greater glory

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Published on Saturday, May 14, 2016

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

Around 485 BC, a small group of ancient Israelites began the long trek to Jerusalem. Their nation had been living in ancient Babylon, in exile, for 70 years. Very few of those who made this trip had ever been to Jerusalem; but they were going in obedience to a command given by Cyrus, the king of Persia. He had asked four things of them—return to Jerusalem, rebuild the temple of God that the Babylonians had destroyed and while offering their daily sacrifices, pray for the health and well being of the king.

As they returned, they began to dream of the temple they would build. They wanted it to be as glorious and magnificent as they had heard Solomon’s temple had been.

But their city lay in ruins. It had not been lived in for 70 years. What stones remained still bore the scorches left by the fire, set by the Babylonians, that had reduced the city to ashes. But that was all they had to work with and so that is what they used.

The temple they built looked more like a dog house than a temple. On the day of its dedication, instead of celebrating their achievement, the people wept uncontrollably, convinced that God would never be pleased with such a pitiful building.

But God surprised them. He sent them a messenger named Haggai who told them they had nothing to fear. God had a wonderful plan for them. He would fill this new temple with his glory and would make it more magnificent than the Solomon’s temple had ever been.

As for the exiles themselves, God was going to take these people, who had suffered so much because of their sins, and make from them a strong nation that would never be driven from their land again. His plan was to create a nation filled with people who would honor him, obey his commands and live in peace with God and with their neighbors.

That is precisely what God did; and from that humble group of people came the greatest gift ever given to humanity. God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ our Lord, was born of a virgin named Mary. She was a direct descendant of Zerubbabel, the man who led the exiles back home.

It is never easy to rebound after you have watched your world go to pieces around you. One of the first things we must accept is that our lives will never be the same again. They won’t be because they can’t be. Some relationships will never be restored. Some of the positions of influence we held will never be regained. We may well spend the rest of our lives out of the limelight; and that may be the best thing that ever happened to us.

Sometimes God has to allow us to lose the things we treasure the most. Relationships break up. Businesses fail. Investments disappear. Jobs are lost. We can go from having it all to having nothing at all. God allows this—not because he’s angry with us, but because he wants to free us from the things that are keeping us from being what he wants us to be and doing what he wants us to do.

He breaks us and then, from the broken pieces of our lives, he puts together something that pleases him, sets it in a quiet corner of his garden, fills it with light and life and says: “Now bloom where you have been planted.” His smile of favor and hand of blessing rest on all who hear these words and obey them.