Growing Discouragement

Last time, we began to look at the situation addressed by Haggai the prophet. A remnant of on-fire, committed Jews had returned to the land of Israel following seventy years of captivity in Babylon. They had returned filled with optimism and anticipation. They were psyched and ready to get to work rebuilding the temple. They started right with good intentions and godly motives. Yet, they faltered in their commitment when opposition came their way. They gave up on the project. What a warning this should be to all of us. Even the best of us can grow discouraged.

The first thing they did when they returned to the land was take up a free-will offering to pay for the costs of building. They gave 1,100 pounds of gold and three tons of silver at a great sacrifice. Wow! What a great offering. They just knew that something great was about to happen. God was at work, and they wanted to be a part of it. And they were ready and willing to be used by God. They cleared the temple court of rubble and they replaced the altar of burnt offerings on its base. Now they could begin the daily sacrifice again. By the next spring, they had the foundation laid. They were really humming along.

Then the bottom fell out. The Samaritans (Remember those folks that lived to the north that were half Jews and all apostates?)offered to join in and help. The Jews rightly turned them down. You don't join with the apostates to build the house of God. But then, with their wounded pride, the Samaritans decided to terrorize this little band. They threatened them, "You quit this building or we will beat you up and kill you." They slandered them. They wrote letters to the editor against them. They sent them anonymous hate mail (all the same tactics used today). And it wasn't long before the work ground to halt.

That always happens whenever you offend someone; whenever you invade their territory or violate their turf. They turn on you. The ones who were once your friends become your enemies. The ones who loved you now hate you and work passionately to destroy your ministry. And nothing you do will infuriate them more than not to need them, or if you ask someone else to help do what they consider their own private job. Count on it! As sure as shooting, wherever God is at work, Satan will be there to oppose. And he'll have plenty of willing human accomplices.

Against this little band of Jews, the threats worked. It wasn't long before the work on the temple ground to a halt. They ended up spending all their time dealing with the threats, and putting out the brush fires, and defending themselves, so that they didn't have time to build the temple. There was no time to do what God had called them to do. And the work ground to halt because these Jews took more notice of their enemies that they could see than they did of God whom they couldn't see. They were very human in their fears.

So time dragged on, and on, and on. The weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years. Soon a decade had gone by and still counting as these good,committed people became occupied with making a life and building homes and getting on with their businesses. And the temple of God lay in ruins, long forgotten.

Oh, what a warning that is to us. How easy it is to be distracted from the work of God. We mean well, but things come up. It was into this situation that the prophet Haggai was sent by God with an encouragement. His words to them will be a great encouragement to us as well.