Tuesday, September 22, 2009
WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 1
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:24-26 ESV
John 17 is one of the most profound prayers in the entire Bible. Here we have before us one of the most intimate glimpses anywhere in Scripture of the mind and heart of the Lord as He prayed this prayer while on His way to Gethsemane. On that night we are revealed Jesus Christ’s ultimate concerns. His words are dominated, even in His darkest hour, by a spirit of high reverence for His Father and a loving concern for His then-present and future followers.
An overview of His prayer is that first, He prayed for Himself that night (Verses 1-5). He spoke of unimaginable glory and of perfect union with the Father in that glory. As He prayed He revealed as never before the single purpose of why He had ever left the glory of heaven. The hearts of the disciples were stirred as they realized the Presence of Deity. And then Jesus prayed for them! (Verses 6-19)They listened as He asked the Father to make them a part of the fellowship and life which Jesus Himself shared with the Father. But then, wonder of wonders, Jesus prayed for you and for me! (Verses 20-26) Jesus reveals His deepest desires and wants to His Father for you and me! Here is the climax of his desire:
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am" (verse 24).
Here is Jesus praying for us. He loves us in this prayer. Oh how He loves us in this prayer! Jesus is praying for all of His future disciples, these are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians, people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?
“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (Verse 24B)
This expresses Jesus’ concern not for our companionship with Him but instead for the fulfillment of our deepest longing. If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what he finally asks for you? That you may see him. The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them my glory, Father. Show them my glory, and they will have arrived at ultimate purpose."
As Augustine said, “Oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and hearts find no rest except we find it in thee.” The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: THE GLORY OF GOD. Nothing less will do. Jesus is not lonely and is not needy for our companionship. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not He, are starving for something: THE GLORY OF GOD! Jesus knew this. That is why He prays this way!
“To see my glory”. This is the very purpose of God creating us (Isaiah 43:6-7; Romans 9:23). This is the heart of all that the apostles preached (2 Cor.4:6). This is the goal of every Christian act (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is the focus of all Christian hope (Romans.5:2). This is what will someday replace the sun and the moon as the light of life (Revelation 21:23) and even now what the heavens are proclaiming (Psalm 19:1). When people see it and discover its worth they cry out like Moses, “Show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18) and David “One thing I ask and what I seek after is to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).
So here Jesus’ love is manifest by praying for us to experience the fulfillment of what we were really made for, seeing and cherishing His glory. Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Oh that we would bask in this amazing love!
This is the most loving thing, the highest good, that Jesus could do for us and ask the Father to give us sight. The love of Jesus drives Him to pray for us and then die for us, not that our value may be central, but that His glory may be central, and we may see it and savor it for all eternity.
"That they may see My glory!" For this sight is the very healing of our souls and the strengthening of our lives and the meaning of our creation and the fulfilling of our salvation! Jesus is praying that we would see His glory like the Father sees His glory. The Father sees the Son as He really is in all His worth and value. The Father who is the God of glory has given Jesus glory and sees the glory of His Son. How does the Father see His Son’s glory?
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3)
“He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
So the first part that we learn from Jesus as He prays for us is that God loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I will discuss that next time...
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
THOUGHTS ON PARADISE, GAINED, LOST, AND RESTORED
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:1,31 ESV
I was sad the other night in thinking about the many struggling people that I deal with as a pastor. People who struggle with addictions, broken relationships, lonliness, social disfunction, anxiety, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, unforiveness, suffering from consequences of bad decisions, discontentment, disease, mental illness, habitual sins, and so many other results from the fall. I felt so much love and compassion for them all and at the same time great feelings of helplessness over all the sorrow and pain that I see in this world. In my sadness I began deeply reflecting about the way things used to be before the fall, what happened after the fall, and what God intends to do someday.
When God created the world everything that He made was exceedingly beautiful and perfect. To God Himself it was “good”.
Paul Tripp describes it this way:
God's creative artistry, shown in the world he made and everything he placed in it, was a thing of gorgeous and stunning beauty. The hills were awash in multi-hued flowers, with no weevil to consume their leaves and no mites to infect their blossoms. The soil was packed with life-giving nutrients, and there were no thorns, thistles, or weeds to be found. Trees were laden with the lushest, sweetest, most succulent fruit. There were no plagues or pollutants. Nature grew, bloomed, and produced without struggle or toil. There was untainted natural beauty as far as the eye could see. It literally covered the earth. Animals frolicked, fed, mated, and produced without fear of predators or a fight with disease. The animal kingdom was a place of an amazing variegated beauty, all existing in an atmosphere of peace.
People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another. There was no stealing, lying, cheating, harsh words, abusive actions, strategies of vengeance, sexual immorality, broken families, or corrupt government. No one struggled with depression, anxiety, issues of identity, paralyzing regret, anger, envy, compulsion, addiction, fear, guilt, aloneness, hopelessness, or doubt. People didn't suffer from injury, disease, or old age. There were no hospital vigils and no viewings of the deceased. No one needed to ask for forgiveness and no one struggled to forgive. There was no marital disappointment and no employment gone bad.
People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give in to worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator.
There was no doubt of his goodness, no fear of his anger. There was no overt rebellion or subtle disobedience. They obeyed his words and listened to his wisdom. There were no corrupting idols or competing systems of faith. No one was ever angry at God, and God had no cause for anger with the people he had made. People loved God's glory and in no way lived for their own.
In every way you could think or imagine, the world, as God created it, was a place of unparalleled peace and beauty. It was a sight and surround-sound glory display, reflecting the transcendent glory of the One who had made it out of nothing. His creative majesty was on untainted and uninterrupted display: the piercing red of the rose, the fluorescent scales of the fish, the sweet song of the bird, the gray grandeur of the rock, the earth-shaking roar of the lion, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the lacey delicacy of the leaf. Each part pointed to him. Each thing existed as a hymn to his glory.
But then something catastrophic happened. Man sinned, fellowship with God was ruined, and paradise was lost:
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ..To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:6,16-19)
How do you begin to express the result of the cataclysmic events that happened? Perhaps the apostle Paul did it best with this powerful statement in Romans 8:21:
The whole creation groans."
Do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever feel a sadness, a sense of loss, frustration, brokenness, mourning, grief, or despair over the way things are? Sometimes as a pastor I will look at all the suffering and pain and falleness in this world and just weep before the Lord. I feel this longing inside, a sense that this is just not the way it was supposed to be?
Look at the way this world has become since paradise was lost. This sadly, is the very world that we are so tragically accustomed to live in paradise lost!
Paul Tripp writes,
Lilies now fought with weeds that would choke out their lives. Pollutants floated as shadows in the sky and unseen toxins in the stream. Fruit and flower were blighted with disease. Pain, suffering, toil, disease, and death became the regular experience of everything in the creation. What was once very easy was easy no longer. What was simple became terribly complicated. Everything that was once free now was only obtained at great cost. What seemed once unthinkably wrong and out of character for the world that God had made now became a daily experience. Words like falsehood, enemy, danger, sin, destruction, war, murder, sickness, fear, and hatred became regular parts of the fallen-world vocabulary.
For the first time, the harmony between people was broken. Shame, fear, guilt, blame, greed, envy, conflict, and hurt made relationships a minefield they were never intended to be. People looked at other people as obstacles to getting what they wanted or as dangers to be avoided. Even families were unable to coexist in any kind of lasting and peaceful union. Violence became a common response to problems that had never before existed. Conflict existed in the human community as an experience more regular than peace. Marriage became a battle for control, and children's rebellion became a more natural response than willing submission. Things became more valuable than people, and they willingly competed with others in order to acquire more.
The human community was more divided by love for self than united by love of neighbor. The words of people, meant to express truth and love, became weapons of anger and instruments of deceit. In an instant, the sweet music of human harmony had become the mournful dirge of human war.
Yet, with all of the havoc that sin wreaked on the physical world and on the human community, there was another horrible result. It was something so unthinkable, so horrific, so hard to grasp, that it easily stands as the saddest thing that has ever happened on earth. This tragedy is portrayed in a seemingly mundane conversation captured in Genesis 3:8-10,
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
What a sad, sad moment! Here is a man, created to have the boundaries of his life reach to the furthest boundaries of the glory of God. Here is one who was created to get his identity, meaning, and purpose from an intimate relationship with God. Here is a person whose every word, thought, desire, and deed was meant to be shaped by a heartfelt submission to and worship of his Creator. What do we find him doing? He hides in fear when the One who is meant to be his life comes near! And so we continue hiding from God to this day.
How sad I am as I think about this loss of God and of paradise seen and lived out every day in this fallen world.
But thanks be to God who is seated on the throne and in Revelation 21:1-5, says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
Do you see and feel this wonderful and hope filled truth? "I am making everything new!”
There is going to be a restoration of all of God’s beautiful creation. Something new, something better, something wonderful, something hopeful, something beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!
It is summarized in Romans 8:17-25,
“And if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Neil Morse wrote a song that sums up our longing:
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
Where no one knows
The bad things that you´ve done
The past is truly gone
In the land of beginning again
And I
See a child returning to the sky
We´ll all play simple games
And all the hard things there
Are soft as rain
I wish there was
A way to start again
To wake up among friends
In the land of beginning again
And I
Love my brother more than my own life
And no one feels mean
All things are new
Behold - the slate is clean....
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
THERE IS A LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN!
Full of longing for the restoration of paradise and the restoration of all these precious people who suffer so,
Pastor Bill
I was sad the other night in thinking about the many struggling people that I deal with as a pastor. People who struggle with addictions, broken relationships, lonliness, social disfunction, anxiety, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, unforiveness, suffering from consequences of bad decisions, discontentment, disease, mental illness, habitual sins, and so many other results from the fall. I felt so much love and compassion for them all and at the same time great feelings of helplessness over all the sorrow and pain that I see in this world. In my sadness I began deeply reflecting about the way things used to be before the fall, what happened after the fall, and what God intends to do someday.
When God created the world everything that He made was exceedingly beautiful and perfect. To God Himself it was “good”.
Paul Tripp describes it this way:
God's creative artistry, shown in the world he made and everything he placed in it, was a thing of gorgeous and stunning beauty. The hills were awash in multi-hued flowers, with no weevil to consume their leaves and no mites to infect their blossoms. The soil was packed with life-giving nutrients, and there were no thorns, thistles, or weeds to be found. Trees were laden with the lushest, sweetest, most succulent fruit. There were no plagues or pollutants. Nature grew, bloomed, and produced without struggle or toil. There was untainted natural beauty as far as the eye could see. It literally covered the earth. Animals frolicked, fed, mated, and produced without fear of predators or a fight with disease. The animal kingdom was a place of an amazing variegated beauty, all existing in an atmosphere of peace.
People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another. There was no stealing, lying, cheating, harsh words, abusive actions, strategies of vengeance, sexual immorality, broken families, or corrupt government. No one struggled with depression, anxiety, issues of identity, paralyzing regret, anger, envy, compulsion, addiction, fear, guilt, aloneness, hopelessness, or doubt. People didn't suffer from injury, disease, or old age. There were no hospital vigils and no viewings of the deceased. No one needed to ask for forgiveness and no one struggled to forgive. There was no marital disappointment and no employment gone bad.
People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give in to worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator.
There was no doubt of his goodness, no fear of his anger. There was no overt rebellion or subtle disobedience. They obeyed his words and listened to his wisdom. There were no corrupting idols or competing systems of faith. No one was ever angry at God, and God had no cause for anger with the people he had made. People loved God's glory and in no way lived for their own.
In every way you could think or imagine, the world, as God created it, was a place of unparalleled peace and beauty. It was a sight and surround-sound glory display, reflecting the transcendent glory of the One who had made it out of nothing. His creative majesty was on untainted and uninterrupted display: the piercing red of the rose, the fluorescent scales of the fish, the sweet song of the bird, the gray grandeur of the rock, the earth-shaking roar of the lion, the endless gurgling of the stream, and the lacey delicacy of the leaf. Each part pointed to him. Each thing existed as a hymn to his glory.
But then something catastrophic happened. Man sinned, fellowship with God was ruined, and paradise was lost:
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ..To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:6,16-19)
How do you begin to express the result of the cataclysmic events that happened? Perhaps the apostle Paul did it best with this powerful statement in Romans 8:21:
The whole creation groans."
Do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever feel a sadness, a sense of loss, frustration, brokenness, mourning, grief, or despair over the way things are? Sometimes as a pastor I will look at all the suffering and pain and falleness in this world and just weep before the Lord. I feel this longing inside, a sense that this is just not the way it was supposed to be?
Look at the way this world has become since paradise was lost. This sadly, is the very world that we are so tragically accustomed to live in paradise lost!
Paul Tripp writes,
Lilies now fought with weeds that would choke out their lives. Pollutants floated as shadows in the sky and unseen toxins in the stream. Fruit and flower were blighted with disease. Pain, suffering, toil, disease, and death became the regular experience of everything in the creation. What was once very easy was easy no longer. What was simple became terribly complicated. Everything that was once free now was only obtained at great cost. What seemed once unthinkably wrong and out of character for the world that God had made now became a daily experience. Words like falsehood, enemy, danger, sin, destruction, war, murder, sickness, fear, and hatred became regular parts of the fallen-world vocabulary.
For the first time, the harmony between people was broken. Shame, fear, guilt, blame, greed, envy, conflict, and hurt made relationships a minefield they were never intended to be. People looked at other people as obstacles to getting what they wanted or as dangers to be avoided. Even families were unable to coexist in any kind of lasting and peaceful union. Violence became a common response to problems that had never before existed. Conflict existed in the human community as an experience more regular than peace. Marriage became a battle for control, and children's rebellion became a more natural response than willing submission. Things became more valuable than people, and they willingly competed with others in order to acquire more.
The human community was more divided by love for self than united by love of neighbor. The words of people, meant to express truth and love, became weapons of anger and instruments of deceit. In an instant, the sweet music of human harmony had become the mournful dirge of human war.
Yet, with all of the havoc that sin wreaked on the physical world and on the human community, there was another horrible result. It was something so unthinkable, so horrific, so hard to grasp, that it easily stands as the saddest thing that has ever happened on earth. This tragedy is portrayed in a seemingly mundane conversation captured in Genesis 3:8-10,
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
What a sad, sad moment! Here is a man, created to have the boundaries of his life reach to the furthest boundaries of the glory of God. Here is one who was created to get his identity, meaning, and purpose from an intimate relationship with God. Here is a person whose every word, thought, desire, and deed was meant to be shaped by a heartfelt submission to and worship of his Creator. What do we find him doing? He hides in fear when the One who is meant to be his life comes near! And so we continue hiding from God to this day.
How sad I am as I think about this loss of God and of paradise seen and lived out every day in this fallen world.
But thanks be to God who is seated on the throne and in Revelation 21:1-5, says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
Do you see and feel this wonderful and hope filled truth? "I am making everything new!”
There is going to be a restoration of all of God’s beautiful creation. Something new, something better, something wonderful, something hopeful, something beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!
It is summarized in Romans 8:17-25,
“And if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Neil Morse wrote a song that sums up our longing:
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
Where no one knows
The bad things that you´ve done
The past is truly gone
In the land of beginning again
And I
See a child returning to the sky
We´ll all play simple games
And all the hard things there
Are soft as rain
I wish there was
A way to start again
To wake up among friends
In the land of beginning again
And I
Love my brother more than my own life
And no one feels mean
All things are new
Behold - the slate is clean....
I wish there was
A way to start again
Just blink and count to ten
In the land of beginning again
THERE IS A LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN!
Full of longing for the restoration of paradise and the restoration of all these precious people who suffer so,
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
YOUR GOD IS LARGE AND IN CHARGE Part 2
"The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts."Haggai 2:20-23 ESV
Our God is the great maker and promise keeper. When God makes a promise, He tells His people what He is going to do. So when God makes a promise, God telling us NOW what He will do in the future. As we continue in Haggai, we see that God spoke to Zerubbabel about the future in Haggai 2:20-23 with two promises.
We can lump these statements in verses 20-23 into two broad categories:
A. The first promise has to do with the overthrow of earthly kingdoms
We see here God repeating His promises from earlier in Haggai 2:6-7, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.” Now the promise in Haggai 2:21 -22 obviously refers to the same shaking, which God said would take place “in a little while.”
Although there may have been some partial fulfillments of that shaking of the nations when Persia, Greece, and Rome were overthrown, the final fulfillment is still future in our day! Clearly God’s idea of “a little while” does not coincide with our idea of “a little while”! Peter wrote to mockers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” As Peter goes on to point out, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4, 8-9). There is coming a day when God is going to shake the heavens and the earth. In that day everything made by the hand of man will come crashing down.
Revelation 16:17-20 describes that day and connects with the Battle of Armageddon just before Jesus returns to the earth: “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘‘It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.” Think of it. Paris leveled, Tokyo in ruins, London turned into a disaster area, New York burning, Miami in flames, Los Angeles in ashes, San Francisco fallen to the ground. Everything that man builds collapses before his eyes. So it is with everything that is of this world. This is a sobering reminder, and one we dare not forget.
B. The second promise has to do with God’s plans for Zerubbabel
“On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 23).
What part can a person play in God’s purposes? Haggai offers Zerubbabel the answer to this question here. First, you are my servant. The word here was used for many of God’s most famous servants, from Moses to Joshua to David. God says one of the most important roles one can have in the purposes of God is to simply be His servant.
Then He says “I will take…I have chosen you” Again note the first-person pronoun repetition. God does not place conditions on this strategy; he just says that I will do it. God says that he will “take” and “has chosen” Zerubbabel. These two terms imply special divine selection for a special purpose. God also said that that he would make him a signet ring. Most of us are not familiar with the concept of a signet ring. The signet ring was a stone carved with the symbol of the person in power. It was used by pressing it into clay tablets to authenticate what was written on them. Thus, it was much like a signature today. The signet was a precious object. So it was kept on the ruler’s finger or on a cord around his neck. It was guarded with his person. God was saying that Zerubbabel was going to be like that to God. God was going to place the governor on his finger or hang him around his neck so that, even though nations and even heaven and earth should be shaken, Zerubbabel would not be shaken. He was safe in God’s hand and so are you.
As the Lord’s signet ring he also had the seal of God’s promise to provide for the future Messiah. In other words, through his bloodline, God will continue the royal line and bring in the King of Israel. Zerubbabel is the descendant of King David. When David was the king of Israel, God made a promise to him that the throne would never depart from his family. Zerubbabel belongs to the royal bloodline. Through him, God will bring in Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke trace the ancestry of Jesus Christ back to Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27).
God’s Kingdom will be established. His King will come through Israel. God’s salvation plan is on track. Nothing has changed, despite Israel apparent failure. God is planning for the grand entry of His Son. Man sees only the present. God sees the future. Israel may have lost sight of it, but not God. Man may have become disillusioned with what is going on, but not God. God’s plan for you has not changed.
Thus the book ends with a stirring word of encouragement to a discouraged leader and to us. It was God’s way of saying, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Be greatly encouraged. You have no idea of how great my plans are for you.”
Five times God has asked us in this book to “consider your ways”. Now this day God wants us to be encouraged and strengthened by considering His ways. He is in control. He keeps His promises, and He is on your side. He had a purpose for Zerubbabel and He has a purpose for your life. “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his father’s” (Acts 13:36). God has a plan for every life. God wants you to realize His call upon you. And each life works in the master plan for the world. He is concerned about every individual fulfilling His purposes in their generation. He wants the moms and dads, husbands and wives, grandparents, managers, laborers, kids, and especially you, to achieve what He has for them. And He will do it through you. He will choose, He will make, and He will take you to you divine purpose. And just like Zerubbabel you will never know the full reaches of your life.
Ajith Fernando tells the story of a godly missionary who faithfully served in a village in Sri Lanka over a long period of time. He did not see anyone from that community come to Christ during his lifetime. After his death a young missionary came to the village to take his place and was surprised to see almost the entire village respond to the call of same gospel his predecessor had proclaimed to them for so many years. Perplexed and humbled, the young man asked the villagers why they did not respond to the gospel during the time when that great and godly man lived among them. They responded that the old missionary had told them that “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And if they became followers of Jesus Christ they would not need to fear death. What he said impressed them, but they needed to see if what the man said was really true. So they watched him live and waited till he died. In seeing the way that he lived and the way that he died made them all want to become Christians.
Do you see what God can do? He is purposeful with you and your life, He is the sovereign Lord, He is large and in charge to accomplish His plans for you and through you.
Pastor Bill
Our God is the great maker and promise keeper. When God makes a promise, He tells His people what He is going to do. So when God makes a promise, God telling us NOW what He will do in the future. As we continue in Haggai, we see that God spoke to Zerubbabel about the future in Haggai 2:20-23 with two promises.
We can lump these statements in verses 20-23 into two broad categories:
A. The first promise has to do with the overthrow of earthly kingdoms
We see here God repeating His promises from earlier in Haggai 2:6-7, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.” Now the promise in Haggai 2:21 -22 obviously refers to the same shaking, which God said would take place “in a little while.”
Although there may have been some partial fulfillments of that shaking of the nations when Persia, Greece, and Rome were overthrown, the final fulfillment is still future in our day! Clearly God’s idea of “a little while” does not coincide with our idea of “a little while”! Peter wrote to mockers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” As Peter goes on to point out, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4, 8-9). There is coming a day when God is going to shake the heavens and the earth. In that day everything made by the hand of man will come crashing down.
Revelation 16:17-20 describes that day and connects with the Battle of Armageddon just before Jesus returns to the earth: “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘‘It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.” Think of it. Paris leveled, Tokyo in ruins, London turned into a disaster area, New York burning, Miami in flames, Los Angeles in ashes, San Francisco fallen to the ground. Everything that man builds collapses before his eyes. So it is with everything that is of this world. This is a sobering reminder, and one we dare not forget.
B. The second promise has to do with God’s plans for Zerubbabel
“On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 23).
What part can a person play in God’s purposes? Haggai offers Zerubbabel the answer to this question here. First, you are my servant. The word here was used for many of God’s most famous servants, from Moses to Joshua to David. God says one of the most important roles one can have in the purposes of God is to simply be His servant.
Then He says “I will take…I have chosen you” Again note the first-person pronoun repetition. God does not place conditions on this strategy; he just says that I will do it. God says that he will “take” and “has chosen” Zerubbabel. These two terms imply special divine selection for a special purpose. God also said that that he would make him a signet ring. Most of us are not familiar with the concept of a signet ring. The signet ring was a stone carved with the symbol of the person in power. It was used by pressing it into clay tablets to authenticate what was written on them. Thus, it was much like a signature today. The signet was a precious object. So it was kept on the ruler’s finger or on a cord around his neck. It was guarded with his person. God was saying that Zerubbabel was going to be like that to God. God was going to place the governor on his finger or hang him around his neck so that, even though nations and even heaven and earth should be shaken, Zerubbabel would not be shaken. He was safe in God’s hand and so are you.
As the Lord’s signet ring he also had the seal of God’s promise to provide for the future Messiah. In other words, through his bloodline, God will continue the royal line and bring in the King of Israel. Zerubbabel is the descendant of King David. When David was the king of Israel, God made a promise to him that the throne would never depart from his family. Zerubbabel belongs to the royal bloodline. Through him, God will bring in Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke trace the ancestry of Jesus Christ back to Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27).
God’s Kingdom will be established. His King will come through Israel. God’s salvation plan is on track. Nothing has changed, despite Israel apparent failure. God is planning for the grand entry of His Son. Man sees only the present. God sees the future. Israel may have lost sight of it, but not God. Man may have become disillusioned with what is going on, but not God. God’s plan for you has not changed.
Thus the book ends with a stirring word of encouragement to a discouraged leader and to us. It was God’s way of saying, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Be greatly encouraged. You have no idea of how great my plans are for you.”
Five times God has asked us in this book to “consider your ways”. Now this day God wants us to be encouraged and strengthened by considering His ways. He is in control. He keeps His promises, and He is on your side. He had a purpose for Zerubbabel and He has a purpose for your life. “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his father’s” (Acts 13:36). God has a plan for every life. God wants you to realize His call upon you. And each life works in the master plan for the world. He is concerned about every individual fulfilling His purposes in their generation. He wants the moms and dads, husbands and wives, grandparents, managers, laborers, kids, and especially you, to achieve what He has for them. And He will do it through you. He will choose, He will make, and He will take you to you divine purpose. And just like Zerubbabel you will never know the full reaches of your life.
Ajith Fernando tells the story of a godly missionary who faithfully served in a village in Sri Lanka over a long period of time. He did not see anyone from that community come to Christ during his lifetime. After his death a young missionary came to the village to take his place and was surprised to see almost the entire village respond to the call of same gospel his predecessor had proclaimed to them for so many years. Perplexed and humbled, the young man asked the villagers why they did not respond to the gospel during the time when that great and godly man lived among them. They responded that the old missionary had told them that “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And if they became followers of Jesus Christ they would not need to fear death. What he said impressed them, but they needed to see if what the man said was really true. So they watched him live and waited till he died. In seeing the way that he lived and the way that he died made them all want to become Christians.
Do you see what God can do? He is purposeful with you and your life, He is the sovereign Lord, He is large and in charge to accomplish His plans for you and through you.
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
YOUR GOD IS LARGE AND IN CHARGE
"The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts."
Haggai 2:20-23 ESV
It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price. There were a treacherous lot of implements: Hatred, jealousy, envy, doubt, lying, pride, lust, and so on. Laid apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless looking tool, well worn and priced very high. “What’s the name of this tool?” asked one of the purchasers. “Oh”, said the devil, “that’s discouragement.” “Why have you priced it so high?” “Because it’s more useful to me than the others. I can pry it open and get inside a person’s heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools. Now once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose. It’s a badly worn tool because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me,” The devil’s price for discouragement was so high, he never sold it. It’s still his major tool, and he uses it regularly on God’s people today.
Discouragement is like the Trojan horse of ancient myth. If you let discouragement get inside of you, it can defeat you from the inside out, and will cause you to fear life’s challenges rather than face them, to give up instead of get up, to quit rather than persevere, and to prevent you from entering in and enjoying the blessed life that God desires for you. Oh brothers and sisters, God wants to encourage each and every one of you in your discouragements.
Hebrews 6:17-18 says, “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
How much encouragement does God want to give to you? Strong encouragement! Note the word! He might have said, “Great encouragement” or “big encouragement” or “deep encouragement”. They would all be true. But the word is really “strong”. Encouragement that stands up against anything that comes against you and your life. Preach this to yourself. “God desires me to have strong encouragement!” That is what we have seen over and over in my meditations on the book of Haggai.
God’s remedy to discouragement is to speak to us His Word and for us to hear the Word of God again. We need to hear the Word each time we feel down and to preach it to ourselves like Haggai did to the Jews.
In Chapter 1 we see that after 16 years of disobedience and divine chastening the spirit of the people was stirred by the Word of God. “Consider your ways, go, and build”. The people were moved and motivated by the word to do the work of rebuilding the temple.
Then when discouragement set in after the first month, God came with a second message in chapter 2:1-9, He said: be encouraged about the seeming little and insignificant thing that you do. Take courage, work, and fear not, because you build more than you see. All you see is a paltry temple. But God promises to take your work, fill it with his glory, and make your labors with a million times more than you ever imagined.
And then when discouragement came after two more months, God came with a third message in chapter 2:10-19, “from this day on I will bless you." I have spoken, you are experiencing the blessing right now, now trust that my present blessing will be yours tomorrow! Your past will no longer determine your future. I will turn 16 years of chastening and cursing into abundant blessings!
And now a fourth word of encouragement comes for their leader, Zerrubabel in verses 20-23. This message came later on the same day, Dec 18th, as the last message. God came with His timely message, specifically for him. God says, “Tell Zerubbabel I have a message for him.” And that message is simple. God has the final word in every circumstance. God wants Zerubbabel to look at who He is and what He will do. To Zerubbabel and to all of God’s servants who may be discouraged, God has this word: I AM LARGE AND IN CHARGE, I WILL PREVAIL!
I.GOD IS IN CHARGE
How much of your life are you in control of? You can eat right and exercise well, but you cannot set the number of your days. When an illness strikes, you can do nothing to prevent it. Outcomes are not determined simply by the power of your own will. We need to be reminded, and submit ourselves to the only One who is in control. Not just control, but absolute control of everything, including your life! Seven times in this little paragraph God tells you He is in control. Note the repetition of the first personal pronoun, “I”: “I am about to shake the heavens and the earth…” “I am about to overthrow the throne of kingdoms…” “I am about to destroy the strength of kingdoms of the nations”…“I am about to overthrow the chariots and their riders…” “I will take you, Zerubbabel…” “I will make you like a signet ring…” “I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
These are not foolish statements made by someone who likes to brag. They are promises made by the Sovereign God of the universe. You get the impression that God has an idea about what He is going to do! History is not just careening out of control with God desperately trying to grab the reins! The Sovereign God controls all of the events of history for His purpose including your history. “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
As He declares through Isaiah: The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand” (Isaiah 14:24). “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10)
Job declares, "But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. "For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him” (Job 23:13-14).
Nothing can come against God’s set purpose and plan for you. We can be shocked and discouraged by what wicked men are doing today. Or what the devil sets to do. Yet nothing evil can thwart God’s set purpose. God twists what is evil and causes the good to triumph. He has the final say. Therefore no discouragement or trouble in life can really have a hold on us, if we do not let it by faith, because we know and trust that God has a hold on us.
C. S. Lewis says, “Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God.” Why did Zerubbabel need to hear this? Why do we? To prevent him from being overwhelmed by hopelessness, in the bleak situation. We are all susceptible to this, and can easily lose faith in God and doubt God’s control over all things. We react to such situations with fear and worry and anxiety, and end result is that we will try to solve the problems on our own. We are afraid that unless we act, something awful will happen. As one said, fear is false expectations against reality.
We saw in Haggai 1 the reality that we cannot even control the simple things of life. They may work hard in the fields but that is no guarantee of a good harvest. They earn wages but there is no assurance that they can keep them. There is just one thing they can ‘control’ - they can control the one thing that mattered most in life – Haggai wants them to put their trust back in God. Seek Him first, do His will, and worship Him. This is what we can do!
Many things are beyond our ability to control, the one thing we do control is our response to God in the midst of them. We can blame God, attack God, and accuse Him, or we can simply trust that He alone, being the sovereign God, knows what He’s doing and why He’s doing it. God is in control. That is the response I must hold on to when things in my life are falling apart. No matter how discouraged you get; no matter how much you want to quit and give up; don’t ever forget that God is still in control. He is the same supreme Ruler over every circumstance, every trial, every hurt, every wrong, every death, every loss, every pain, and every injustice we experience.
When you doubt it, simply affirm again what the scriptures say, not what experience screams, nor what logic reasons, nor what negative unbelief of others might say to add to your discouragement. Submit to it, and embrace this quality about God. The Lord reigns. To know that God rules – to realize His sovereignty – is to be delivered from fear and despair. God’s sovereignty is, as John Piper puts it, “The strong wood of the tree that keeps our lives from being blown over by the winds of adversity. It is the rock that rises for us out of the flood of uncertainty and confusion. It is the eye of the hurricane where we stand with God and look up into the blue sky of his mastery when everything is being destroyed. ‘When all around gives my soul gives sway, this is all my hope and my stay’.”
II. GOD IS LARGE AND IN CHARGE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS PLANS
Our text does not contain any conditions. God does not say, “I hope to be able to shake the heavens and the earth…I would like to take you, Jerubbabel, if you’re willing, and make you My signet ring. I sure hope that you say yes!” God is quite absolute in declaring what He will do in the future to accomplish His plan. God says, “I will shake the heavens and the earth…I will overthrow the thrones…I will destroy their strength…I will overturn their armies and kill them.”
God is clarifying and reminding the leadership of a restored, yet still broken, Israel that He is large and in charge. And He will do great and mighty things even among the pagan nations that surround them. God is the initiator of good and of calamity. Nothing is beyond His power, and everything that happens passes across His desk and gets His approval. God’s ability to accomplish His sovereign purpose does not depend on the puny resources of His people, but on His power and might.
The Bible is loaded with stories of how God delights to overthrow powerful kingdoms that dare to exalt themselves over His weak, vulnerable, chosen people. He is the God who brought the plagues on the mighty Egyptians and drowned their king and his army in the Red Sea. He toppled the walls of Jericho. He delivered the horde of Midian into the hands of Gideon with a mere 300 men. He felled Goliath and put the Philistines to flight at the hands of a teenage shepherd named David. He delivered Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the siege of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, by sending His angel to kill 185,000 soldiers in one night. He repeatedly declares in His Word, as Jeremiah put it, “Ah Lord God! Behold You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!” (Jeremiah 32:17; see Jeremiah 32:27; Genesis 18:14; Zechariah 8:6; Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37).
To be continued...
I pray that this week you will wholeheartedly trust in a God who is large and in charge of your life,
Pastor Bill
Haggai 2:20-23 ESV
It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price. There were a treacherous lot of implements: Hatred, jealousy, envy, doubt, lying, pride, lust, and so on. Laid apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless looking tool, well worn and priced very high. “What’s the name of this tool?” asked one of the purchasers. “Oh”, said the devil, “that’s discouragement.” “Why have you priced it so high?” “Because it’s more useful to me than the others. I can pry it open and get inside a person’s heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools. Now once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose. It’s a badly worn tool because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me,” The devil’s price for discouragement was so high, he never sold it. It’s still his major tool, and he uses it regularly on God’s people today.
Discouragement is like the Trojan horse of ancient myth. If you let discouragement get inside of you, it can defeat you from the inside out, and will cause you to fear life’s challenges rather than face them, to give up instead of get up, to quit rather than persevere, and to prevent you from entering in and enjoying the blessed life that God desires for you. Oh brothers and sisters, God wants to encourage each and every one of you in your discouragements.
Hebrews 6:17-18 says, “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
How much encouragement does God want to give to you? Strong encouragement! Note the word! He might have said, “Great encouragement” or “big encouragement” or “deep encouragement”. They would all be true. But the word is really “strong”. Encouragement that stands up against anything that comes against you and your life. Preach this to yourself. “God desires me to have strong encouragement!” That is what we have seen over and over in my meditations on the book of Haggai.
God’s remedy to discouragement is to speak to us His Word and for us to hear the Word of God again. We need to hear the Word each time we feel down and to preach it to ourselves like Haggai did to the Jews.
In Chapter 1 we see that after 16 years of disobedience and divine chastening the spirit of the people was stirred by the Word of God. “Consider your ways, go, and build”. The people were moved and motivated by the word to do the work of rebuilding the temple.
Then when discouragement set in after the first month, God came with a second message in chapter 2:1-9, He said: be encouraged about the seeming little and insignificant thing that you do. Take courage, work, and fear not, because you build more than you see. All you see is a paltry temple. But God promises to take your work, fill it with his glory, and make your labors with a million times more than you ever imagined.
And then when discouragement came after two more months, God came with a third message in chapter 2:10-19, “from this day on I will bless you." I have spoken, you are experiencing the blessing right now, now trust that my present blessing will be yours tomorrow! Your past will no longer determine your future. I will turn 16 years of chastening and cursing into abundant blessings!
And now a fourth word of encouragement comes for their leader, Zerrubabel in verses 20-23. This message came later on the same day, Dec 18th, as the last message. God came with His timely message, specifically for him. God says, “Tell Zerubbabel I have a message for him.” And that message is simple. God has the final word in every circumstance. God wants Zerubbabel to look at who He is and what He will do. To Zerubbabel and to all of God’s servants who may be discouraged, God has this word: I AM LARGE AND IN CHARGE, I WILL PREVAIL!
I.GOD IS IN CHARGE
How much of your life are you in control of? You can eat right and exercise well, but you cannot set the number of your days. When an illness strikes, you can do nothing to prevent it. Outcomes are not determined simply by the power of your own will. We need to be reminded, and submit ourselves to the only One who is in control. Not just control, but absolute control of everything, including your life! Seven times in this little paragraph God tells you He is in control. Note the repetition of the first personal pronoun, “I”: “I am about to shake the heavens and the earth…” “I am about to overthrow the throne of kingdoms…” “I am about to destroy the strength of kingdoms of the nations”…“I am about to overthrow the chariots and their riders…” “I will take you, Zerubbabel…” “I will make you like a signet ring…” “I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
These are not foolish statements made by someone who likes to brag. They are promises made by the Sovereign God of the universe. You get the impression that God has an idea about what He is going to do! History is not just careening out of control with God desperately trying to grab the reins! The Sovereign God controls all of the events of history for His purpose including your history. “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
As He declares through Isaiah: The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand” (Isaiah 14:24). “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10)
Job declares, "But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. "For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him” (Job 23:13-14).
Nothing can come against God’s set purpose and plan for you. We can be shocked and discouraged by what wicked men are doing today. Or what the devil sets to do. Yet nothing evil can thwart God’s set purpose. God twists what is evil and causes the good to triumph. He has the final say. Therefore no discouragement or trouble in life can really have a hold on us, if we do not let it by faith, because we know and trust that God has a hold on us.
C. S. Lewis says, “Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God.” Why did Zerubbabel need to hear this? Why do we? To prevent him from being overwhelmed by hopelessness, in the bleak situation. We are all susceptible to this, and can easily lose faith in God and doubt God’s control over all things. We react to such situations with fear and worry and anxiety, and end result is that we will try to solve the problems on our own. We are afraid that unless we act, something awful will happen. As one said, fear is false expectations against reality.
We saw in Haggai 1 the reality that we cannot even control the simple things of life. They may work hard in the fields but that is no guarantee of a good harvest. They earn wages but there is no assurance that they can keep them. There is just one thing they can ‘control’ - they can control the one thing that mattered most in life – Haggai wants them to put their trust back in God. Seek Him first, do His will, and worship Him. This is what we can do!
Many things are beyond our ability to control, the one thing we do control is our response to God in the midst of them. We can blame God, attack God, and accuse Him, or we can simply trust that He alone, being the sovereign God, knows what He’s doing and why He’s doing it. God is in control. That is the response I must hold on to when things in my life are falling apart. No matter how discouraged you get; no matter how much you want to quit and give up; don’t ever forget that God is still in control. He is the same supreme Ruler over every circumstance, every trial, every hurt, every wrong, every death, every loss, every pain, and every injustice we experience.
When you doubt it, simply affirm again what the scriptures say, not what experience screams, nor what logic reasons, nor what negative unbelief of others might say to add to your discouragement. Submit to it, and embrace this quality about God. The Lord reigns. To know that God rules – to realize His sovereignty – is to be delivered from fear and despair. God’s sovereignty is, as John Piper puts it, “The strong wood of the tree that keeps our lives from being blown over by the winds of adversity. It is the rock that rises for us out of the flood of uncertainty and confusion. It is the eye of the hurricane where we stand with God and look up into the blue sky of his mastery when everything is being destroyed. ‘When all around gives my soul gives sway, this is all my hope and my stay’.”
II. GOD IS LARGE AND IN CHARGE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS PLANS
Our text does not contain any conditions. God does not say, “I hope to be able to shake the heavens and the earth…I would like to take you, Jerubbabel, if you’re willing, and make you My signet ring. I sure hope that you say yes!” God is quite absolute in declaring what He will do in the future to accomplish His plan. God says, “I will shake the heavens and the earth…I will overthrow the thrones…I will destroy their strength…I will overturn their armies and kill them.”
God is clarifying and reminding the leadership of a restored, yet still broken, Israel that He is large and in charge. And He will do great and mighty things even among the pagan nations that surround them. God is the initiator of good and of calamity. Nothing is beyond His power, and everything that happens passes across His desk and gets His approval. God’s ability to accomplish His sovereign purpose does not depend on the puny resources of His people, but on His power and might.
The Bible is loaded with stories of how God delights to overthrow powerful kingdoms that dare to exalt themselves over His weak, vulnerable, chosen people. He is the God who brought the plagues on the mighty Egyptians and drowned their king and his army in the Red Sea. He toppled the walls of Jericho. He delivered the horde of Midian into the hands of Gideon with a mere 300 men. He felled Goliath and put the Philistines to flight at the hands of a teenage shepherd named David. He delivered Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the siege of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, by sending His angel to kill 185,000 soldiers in one night. He repeatedly declares in His Word, as Jeremiah put it, “Ah Lord God! Behold You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!” (Jeremiah 32:17; see Jeremiah 32:27; Genesis 18:14; Zechariah 8:6; Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37).
To be continued...
I pray that this week you will wholeheartedly trust in a God who is large and in charge of your life,
Pastor Bill
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