God's Shaking is for Our Making
For thus says the Lord of hosts: once again, 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 splendor, says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:6, 7)
Hag. 1:4, 9, 2:4-9; Ps. 31:24; Joel 3:16
What Is God Saying?
Haggai is a post-exilic prophecy given to Haggai for fifty thousand Jews released by Cyrus after seventy years of captivity. Free at last. Free to go home. Free to rebuild. The first thing was to rebuild the Temple ... before building homes, planting vineyards or expanding flocks. The highest priority was to see that God had His rightful place. The unifying symbol that would hold them together as God's people was the Temple. The foundation was laid with zeal, but then a mood of pessimism took over. They thought that this Temple could never be as great as Solomon’s. Discouragement led to inactivity. The work ground to a halt. Then, after 15 years, Haggai came on the scene. He called upon the people to get with it, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses, while this house (God's House) lies m ruins?" (Haggai 1:4).
The message hit home. The weeds, the rubble, and the waste of disuse were cleared away. On this foundation, under the watchful eye of Zerubbabel, the Temple would be brought to completion, but it was through Haggai that God awakened His people.
How Does This Apply To Us?
The plans we make, the dreams we dream, and the hopes we cherish are sometimes shaken by unexpected problems and discouragement. We can find ourselves wanting to give up as did the workers on the Temple, ‘This Temple could never equal in splendor the Temple of Solomon. What's the use?’ But God honored His Words, ‘In this place, I will give prosperity’ (Haggai 2:9). God sometimes must shake to make. He must get rid of the dust and clear out the debris. In Hebrews 12:26, 27, we see that God's shaking took place so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Pray With Me
O Lord, whose shaking is to make, let me not shrink from Your wise and merciful providence even when it leads in a direction not of my choosing and in ways that are hard and unpleasant. Give me faith to see beyond the trial to the reward and beyond my test to Your best. Give me hope that lifts the downcast spirit. Give me love that finds in His disciplines the treasure of grace and understanding.
Your shaking is for my making. How can You build Your best without removing the debris of willfulness and waste? How can You build for eternity on the hollow pillars of pride? How can You build a temple fit for Your dwelling, until the sagging timbers of broken promises and the crumbling walls of prejudice are removed? Your shaking is for my making! Then, as the shaking is done and the making begins, fill this house with splendor, Your splendor O God. No longer the sputtering candles of what the world calls great, no longer the grey of compromise, the shutter-drawn windows of sin, but only the openness that lets You in with all Your splendor. Grant me such openness toward You, O God, that my heart shall neither fear the shaking nor miss the making until the splendor of the living Christ fills all my being.
To His undying praise and glory. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Prayer is talking with the Heavenly Father about our problems, our hurts and disappointments, but we also let God, in the power of His Spirit, clear away the rubbish and debts, even if it calls for shaking. In prayer, we lose our fear of negative things because we know God loves us and has a perfect plan for our lives. This plan unfolds in prayer as we recognize that God's shaking is an expression of love. ‘Do you not know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?’ (I Cor. 3:16) God says, ‘I will fill this house with splendor.’ Come to prayer in faith and you will leave it with splendor, God's splendor.
