A New Tune - Pt 3

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” (Haggai 2:1-5 ESV).

Fresh starts and new tunes require us to turn from the past. I selected a picture of our home in Tennessee to illustrate this principle. We have had many houses through the years; and, we live in one that is marvelous now. However, this one might have been the toughest one to leave behind. The structure was not one of the best we’ve lived in, but it might have been the place where we thought we had finally arrived at our destination earthly location. Of course, God had other designs in mind. We subsequently moved from this house to our present house in Texas. It is smaller in size, and already larger in memories. It is a reminder that regardless of what we might think about the past, good or bad, God gives us the present while guaranteeing an incredible eternal future. Our reading today begins with a second oracle from God. Some of the people were old enough to have seen the former temple, and they could tell already that this makeshift reconstruction operation by the remnant could not compare “the former glory” (v. 3). These verses should remind ourselves that for God’s people, the glory days lie ahead, not behind. Whether it’s the remnant of returned exiles looking back to Solomon’s temple, or the retro Reformed gazing endlessly at the Puritans, or conservative Boomers daydreaming nostalgically about the 1950s, Christians need not be caught thinking our best times lie in the past. Whatever glory we’ve seen, whatever tastes of grace we’ve had, whatever sentimental feelings we have about some bygone era, whether last year or decades ago, it is not worth our ceaseless attention, or grumbling about how things aren’t now what they used to be. For the Christian, the best is always yet to come. We have reason to have more real hope than any other people on the planet for what is ahead in the next year, the next decade, the next century, and for all eternity. The grace of God, manifest in Jesus, is our rock-solid liberation from crippling nostalgia and from bellyaching about the “former glory.” By faith, we expect a latter glory that far outstrips the little foretastes of the glory we’ve had so far.