The Final Shakedown, Part 1 (Hebrews 12:26-27)

The Myth of a Harsh Old Testament God and a Gentle New Testament God

We turn please to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Once you're there, before we read, we'll ask the Lord's blessing on our time.

Let's bow our heads.

My father, our prayer this morning is simple, that you would open your word to us and allow the light of truth to shine upon our hearts and our minds, that we would grow in our love for your word and our commitment to it and our submission to it, and that you would transform us and change us by your word more into the image of Christ.

We pray that our hearts would be bent by your word and even broken if necessary, that we would both heed the warnings of your word and take comfort in the promises that are in your word as well. And so we pray that you would bless our time here to that end, in Christ's name, amen.

There is an unbiblical notion that seems to flourish among immature and untaught believers in Christian circles. And it is the teaching that there is a difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.

If you follow or hear or listen to progressive Christians or progressive Christianity, then it's not uncommon for you to hear this notion put forth in one form or another. And according to this idea, this doctrine, the God of the Old Testament is filled with wrath.

He is angry and seething at sinners, utterly devoid of mercy, grace, and love. His anger is overbearing and mostly unjustified. He is like a petulant child who bursts forth with a burst of wrath anytime he doesn't get his way.

And he can only be satiated and appeased by blood and death. And all he is known for really is his judgments. And then according to this same doctrine in the New Testament, we have Jesus. He came to show us that all the Old Testament writers got it wrong.

They didn't know any better. They were simply products of their time and their culture. They suffered from an ignorance of the one true God and were shaped by the superstitions of their age. But Jesus came to show us a softer, more gentler God.

He came to show us the softer side of Sears. And he stressed love and forgiveness and tolerance and acceptance. And according to this way of thinking, Jesus wants us to know that we have nothing to fear from God.

He is not mad at you. He's mad about you. He just can't get enough of you. Thinks you are fantastic. And he is okay with sin and unrighteousness. And he will wink at violations of his law and unrighteousness and holiness.

And that idea of repentance, well, that is an old-fashioned word and one that certainly doesn't belong in any New Testament understanding of God because God loves you just as you are. Now that message appeals to the fleshly man.

It appeals to us in our fallenness because really that is a God that is fashioned after our own image. It is a God who demands nothing, expects nothing, and will hold nobody accountable for anything. That portrayal of God is based mostly upon the most shallow of possible readings and understandings of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Yes, it is true that in the Old Testament we see the wrath of God on display. You see it at Sodom and Gomorrah. You see it in the judgment. You see it at the garden. You see it at the Tower of Babel. You see it all over the Old Testament.

There are many examples of the wrath of God, but it is equally true that the love and the grace and the mercy of God is on display all the way through the Old Testament as well. The Psalms are filled with references both to God's justice and to his lovingkindness.

These are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it is in the Old Testament that we read of God's redeeming love that he would send one who would be the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's heel and redeem a people for himself.

That is an expression of God's love, and that's all the way through the Old Testament. And it is true that in the New Testament we do read a lot about God's compassion for sinners and his grace and his kindness is on display in the person of Christ and in the teachings of the New Testament.

That is true, but it is also true that the New Testament is filled with references to hell and damnation and God's righteousness and the justice that will fall upon sinners. The wrath of God is described in the New Testament just as clearly and unequivocally and unapologetically as anything you will find in the Old Testament.

And to walk away from the Bible, a reading of the Bible with this idea that the God of the Old Testament's a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament is a God of mercy and grace, you have to ignore vast portions of the New Testament.

Certainly the entire book of Revelation, right? You have to ignore that entire book. In fact, you have to skip over quite a few, most of the epistles which warn of God's wrath and judgment and damnation.

In fact, you really have to just cherry pick a few references in the Gospels where Jesus talks about love and loving your neighbor and being kind to others and the golden rule. And you have to cherry pick those verses and exclude all of the passages where Jesus talked about the wrath of God and warned sinners to flee from the wrath that is to come and called sinners to repentance.

You have to ignore all of that, the red words of Jesus as it were in the Gospels and just sort of cherry pick the ones that make you sort of have the feels, the warm fuzzies inside. Just focus on those.

Jesus not only warned of the wrath to come, but the Jesus of the New Testament promised that when sinners face that wrath, He will be the one that they face. He said, the Father doesn't judge anybody as committed all judgment to the Son.

That's John chapter five. Every man and woman who has ever lived will stand before Jesus Christ and will either be welcomed into His eternal kingdom based upon the merits of what He has done or they will be cast into eternal damnation based upon the merits of what they have done.

And He will be the one who executes that wrath. The passage before us in Hebrews chapter 12 is one such warning of that judgment. It is the fifth and final warning passage in the book of Hebrews. There is implicit in this warning and we're looking specifically at verse 26 and 27 today, but the warning passages verses 25 through verse 29, the end of the chapter.

There is implicit in the warning, the reminder that forgiveness is available in Jesus Christ for this judgment will fall. The judgment that is warned of here will fall upon those who are impenitent and hard-hearted and will not repent and turn from their sin and trust in the Savior.

Let's read together Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 25. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.

And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised saying, yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Now, we have in that passage four motivations for attentive obedience in light of the blessings that we have received in Christ.

Remember, this follows on the heels of the blessings of the New Testament, the new covenant that are enumerated in verses 22 through 24, and that is contrasted with the fear and trembling that accompanied the giving of the old covenant described in verses 18 through 21.

The first motivation for obedience is in verse 25, it is the pattern of past judgments against disobedience, and we already looked at that last time we were together in the book of Hebrews. God has a good track record of dealing in justice with those who have received the warnings of judgment, and those who refuse His word and ignore the warnings will not escape, just as Old Testament Israel did not escape when they were warned.

If they would not heed the warnings, then they certainly would not escape the judgment that was to come, just like the generation that came out of Egypt did not escape the judgment when they refused to hear Him who warned them from heaven.

The pattern of God's past judgments is a harbinger of what is to come. You can look at God's past activity and how He has handled sin and what He has done, and every one of those is a foreshadowing of a much greater judgment that is to come upon sin and upon sinners, impenitent sinners.

So that was the first motivation for judgment verse, or sorry, for obedience, verse 25, the pattern of past judgments against disobedience. The second motivation is in verses 26 and 27, and this is where we're at today, the promise of a final future judgment on the wicked.

That is what is described in verses 26 and 27. Verse 28 is the pledge of an unshakable kingdom, and at verse 29, the perfection of an unchanging God. Those are our four motivations for obedience. Today, we're just focusing on the promise of final future judgment on the wicked.

Read verses 26 and 27 with me again. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Those two verses are describing an eschatological or end times judgment. There is a judgment coming that will be so severe as to remove everything that is temporal, so that only that which is permanent remains.

Verse 26, you will notice, contains a quotation from the Old Testament, and that is probably noted in your Bible translation in some way, either all capitals or by italics. Verse 27 offers a commentary or an explanation of the quotation from the Old Testament that we find in verse 26.

And there are a number of contrasts in these two verses. I want you to notice them. The author contrasts the shaking of the earth that occurred at Sinai with the shaking of the earth and heaven that will occur at the end of time.

He describes the then versus the now. His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. There is the threatenings of judgment at Sinai versus the promise of a final judgment.

There is the contrast of temporal and created things with eternal and everlasting things. And then there is the contrast with things which will be removed, and then things which can never be removed. The connection in verse 26 is with Sinai.

When the author says in his voice shook the earth then, what shaking of the earth was he referring to? He's referring to that monumental event recorded in Exodus chapter 19 when God met with His people at Mount Sinai after He had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

It is described in our passage in verses 18 and 19. So look up at those two verses. Remind you of the context. For you have not come to a mountain which can be touched into a blazing fire and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.

Words were spoken to them at that point. God spoke to them. And it was accompanied by the trembling of the earth and the mountain quaking violently. And though that is not described in Hebrews 12 verses 18 and 19, it was something that accompanied that event.

We read of it in multiple places all the way through the Old Testament. Like for instance, where the incident is recorded in Exodus 19 verse 18, it says, Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked violently.

There are other passages that describe the same event. Judges 5, Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked and the heavens also dripped. Even the clouds dripped water.

The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord. This Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. Psalm 68 verse seven, O God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens and the drops of rain at the presence of God.

Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Psalm 77 verse 18, the sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightnings lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook. And what was the effect of that at Sinai?

It struck terror in the hearts of the people. They got very clearly the impression that this was not a God to be trifled with. This was a God who warned them. And if they did not heed his warnings, then they would face the judgment at the hands of this God who is a consuming fire.

Standing at the foot of that rock mountain, they saw that mountain and the ground upon which they stood tremble and shake so violently that the children of Israel felt as if these things which are immovable and impenetrable and unchangeable rocks, mountains of rocks would suddenly dissolve and fall apart into sand.

And they were terrified by that. The effect was a terror and a dread, and that was then. Now he says, if you thought that was a precursor of judgment, you ain't seen nothing yet. We have the promise of a judgment that is to come that is an even greater judgment.

Not just the shaking of a mountain, but the shaking of every mountain. Not just the undoing of one rock, but the undoing of every rock. Not just the terror and threatening upon one nation, but terror and threatening upon all the nations.

Not just the children of Israel, but all who have ever lived. That is the judgment that is to come. If you think Sinai was something and you think they were terrified, wait until the unbeliever stands before a holy and righteous God, having violated his commandments and is forced to stand there before the piercing glory of his holiness and his righteousness and give an account for every thought, word, and deed that they have ever said or done.

You think the children of Israel were terrified? That is nothing compared to the judgment that is to come. That is the point of the author in Hebrews 12. In verse 26, he quotes an Old Testament passage, but now he is promising, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.

That is a quotation from the book of Haggai, chapter two, verse six. And I know what all of you are thinking right now. You're thinking, Jim, I sure hope that you ask us to turn back to Haggai chapter two so that we can see the context of this quotation and what it meant to them and why the author of Hebrews quotes it.

And since that's what you're thinking, that's what we're gonna do. So turn back to Haggai chapter two, and this is where we are gonna spend the remainder of our time. There are a number of connections in the book of Haggai to the themes of Hebrews 10, 11, and 12 that I want you to notice.

Now I know that Haggai is one of those books that gets lost in the last 12 books of the Old Testament. So Haggai, in case you're still flipping and looking for it, is the third from the last book of the Old Testament.

Third from the last book. So find the division between the Testaments, start turning toward the left, and you will eventually run into it rather quickly. Haggai is the second shortest book of the Old Testament.

The only book shorter than that is Obadiah, which is a prophecy against the nation of Edom. Haggai is the second shortest book of the Old Testament, and it is only quoted in the New Testament one time.

It's in Hebrews chapter 12, which is something unique about the book of Haggai. There are a number of connections with our Hebrews passages. The book of Haggai describes an unshakable kingdom that we are promised.

It describes a judgment that is to come. It describes a reward for faithful saints who will be faithful to be obedient in the face of opposition from God's enemies. And it promises a reward for those who will obey God in the face of hostility.

Now, does that sound familiar? You've been with us through Hebrews, you realize that those are the same themes of Hebrews 10, 11, and 12. That's the very thing that we've been looking at. So it shouldn't surprise us that the author would quote now from the book of Haggai.

Let me give you a little bit of history and put this in some context for you. If you don't understand what we're about to cover here, you're gonna have to understand a little bit about the context in which Haggai is written.

We're going to cover basically the entire book of Haggai today. So I want this to be something of an encouragement to you, okay, on two fronts. Number one, if you wonder, why is it taking us so long to go through the book of Hebrews?

It's because we have to go back into the Old Testament and preach whole other books of the Old Testament as we're going through the book of Hebrews. Two, let it be known that we preach, I'm preaching through a whole book of the Bible in one sermon today.

We're doing the book of Haggai in one sermon. I'm gonna give you an overview of this whole thing. Haggai takes place in the closing decades of our Old Testament timeline in the Old Testament era. Haggai is the first post-exilic prophet.

So when you're reading through your Bible and you get to the end of the book of 2 Chronicles, you're reading about the fall and destruction of the nation of Jerusalem. Then you get to Ezra and Nehemiah, and you read about Zerubbabel's return to rebuild the temple, Ezra's return to reform the people, and then Nehemiah's return to rebuild the wall.

Those events take place roughly four and a half, five centuries prior to Christ. And that is basically the end of Old Testament revelation history by the time you get there. So now we're going back, in the book of Haggai, we're going back to about five, almost five and a half centuries prior to the birth of Christ.

But it is, keep in mind, toward the end of our Old Testament narrative storyline that we're familiar with in revealed scripture. He is the first post-exilic prophet, meaning that he was the first prophet to prophesy after the Babylonian exile.

We've heard of the Babylonian exile, Babylonian captivity. So to give you a little bit of Old Testament history, Israel had disobeyed the covenant that God made with them that's described actually in Hebrews 12, verses 18 and 19.

You remember the Sinai, the terms of that covenant? They had disobeyed that, and God's patience ran out with that nation, and he sent them into exile. So in about 597, 608, somewhere in that neighborhood, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came in and laid siege to the city of Jerusalem, eventually invaded it, Jerusalem fell, and that sort of ended the Davidic dynasty of that age.

And kings were taken, exiled to Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar led three deportations of Jews from the city of Jerusalem back to Babylon. He destroyed the wall around the city, he destroyed the temple, wiped out temple worship, basically, for that whole 70 years, and left just a remnant of the poorest and the worst of the Jews in the land of Israel.

And he took the best and the brightest and the best looking of all the Jews back to Babylon to bring to sort of include them into his culture and his society, and that's how Nebuchadnezzar grew his kingdom.

So he had conquered Jerusalem, brought Jews back to Babylon and dispersed the Jewish people. That was the Babylonian captivity. That started in 597, or around 600 BC, 70 years went by. During those 70 years, we have Daniel and Obadiah and Ezekiel.

Those are exilic prophets. Daniel writing from inside Babylon, and his lifespan basically spans that entire 70 year captivity. So 70 years pass, and about 538 BC, some Jews returned to the land with the king's permission to rebuild their temple.

And one of the men who returned with that group that came from Babylon was Haggai, and he was accompanied by Zerubbabel, who was a civic leader of the Jews, and Joshua, a man named Joshua the high priest, who was the religious or spiritual leader of the Jews.

A couple of years later, in 536 BC, they started rebuilding the temple. That was what Zerubbabel went back there for. Not just because he liked the barren desert of the Judean landscape, but Zerubbabel went back to rebuild the temple of his God.

He did this, of course, with the king's permission. And Ezra talks about these rebuilding efforts. Ezra comes later, but Zerubbabel returned with Zechariah and Haggai, and they started the rebuilding project, but they came up against opposition from the enemies of God.

The book of Ezra describes this opposition, and the people stopped. They faced opposition, and the people suffered from a little bit of apathy, and a little bit of indifference, and so they stopped the building in the middle of it, and they kind of went about their own lives for a period of 14 years passed.

Then in 520, something happened. Ezra chapter four says, "'The work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, "'and it was stopped until the second year "'of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.'". Second year of the reign of Darius, the king of Persia.

What happened in the second year of the reign of Darius, the king of Persia? Look at Haggai chapter one, verse one. "'In the second year of Darius the king, "'on the first day of the sixth month, "'the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai "'to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, "'governor of Judah, and to Joshua, "'the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying.'".

And then you have this prophecy where the prophets of God begin to encourage the people to start the building project again. Ezra describes this, and Ezra mentions both Zerubbabel and Joshua and Zechariah, which is the next book in your Old Testament, and Haggai.

Ezra chapter five, verse one. "'When the prophets Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, "'the son of Edo, prophesied to the Jews "'who were in Judah and Jerusalem "'in the name of the God of Israel who was over them, "'then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, "'and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, "'arose and began to rebuild the house of God "'which is in Jerusalem.

"'And the prophets of God were with them, "'supporting them.'". So God raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. And he raised up those two prophets so that they would preach to the people, prophesy to the people, encourage the people, and the people then would be motivated to return back to the rebuilding project on the temple, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua.

Their ministry was to comfort and motivate the people, to encourage them to pursue holiness. So the idea of holiness is all the way through the book of Haggai and through the book of Zechariah, particularly.

Their ministry was to strengthen the people, to endure the hostility, and to look forward to a kingdom that was to come, the kingdom being the ultimate reward for their faithfulness. Again, these themes should sound familiar if you've been with us in the book of Hebrews.

There is a kingdom that is to come that will reward the faithful. So endure in faith, Hebrews 11 says, so that you may receive, having done what you are supposed to do, and may receive that which is promised.

Haggai's ministry was to come onto the scene and to tell the people that, let's get back to building this temple, understanding that God still has a plan for our nation, there is a kingdom that is to come, there is a king who is coming, and with him will be his reward.

That's Haggai and Zechariah, that's their ministry, that's their prophecy. Now, Haggai is unique because we know the exact date of every message that he preached. They're given to us in his book. There are four distinct messages that are given over the course of 16 weeks.

So he preached four times in 16 weeks, and each one of them is dated. And given the amount of time that I've been here in the last couple of months, you might think that I'm adopting the Haggai model for ministry, but that is not my intention at all.

Look at Haggai 1, verse one, you will notice the date that is given in the second year of Darius the king. We know that that's 520 BC. The first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel.

That's the first introduction to the first message. Then there was a second message, Haggai 2, verse one. On the 21st of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. The third message is Haggai 2, verse 10.

On the 24th of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet saying. And then the fourth message is Haggai 2, verse 20. Then the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month.

So you may not think that he's preaching a lot, but you have to give him credit because he preaches two messages on the same day. Message three and four are actually delivered maybe a morning and an evening service.

I don't know what. But he's preaches these four messages over the course of these 16 weeks. The second and the fourth messages are the ones that are our focus. But in order for us to understand and appreciate his entire ministry and everything that he's kind of driving at here, I'm gonna give you briefly an overview of messages one to three as well.

Message number one is a reproof and an encouragement to build the temple. So remember the temple building had stopped and it stopped for 14 years. The God raised up then Haggai and Zechariah and said, go preach to the people, get them motivated.

They will go back out and they will rebuild the temple. So chapter one, verse two says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the people says the time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.

Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your panel houses while this house lies desolate? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, consider your ways.

This message was really straightforward. You people are saying that it's not time to build a house of the Lord. We've had opposition. Now's not a good time. It's really, it's kind of out of season. We don't really want to do this.

We've had some hostility. God has sort of closed the doors. I mean, if God wanted us to do this, it would be easy, right? He would make it easy. Hasn't been easy, therefore the time has not come. And then Haggai comes on the scene and says, oh, but it's time for you to build your own house.

And yet this place to worship me lies in ruins and desolate. You won't work on this, but you'll build your own houses. So consider your ways. And then in verses six through 11, God describes how he was chastening the nation, disciplining the nation.

Does that theme sound familiar? Hebrews 12, remember our whole series on discipline that lasted like 90 weeks or something like that? We went through what discipline was. God chastens the nation through that period of time.

And he says, I've withheld your blessing. You go out and you sow and then you reap and the reaping and the harvest is thin and you bring it home and I blow it away. You're under a curse. Why you say, look at verse nine of chapter one.

You look for much, but behold, it comes to little. When you bring it home, I blow it away.

Why?

Declares the Lord of hosts because of my house, which lies desolate. While each of you runs to his own house. You have all the money and time and effort to spend on yourselves, doing your own thing, building your own kingdom, taking care of yourself, living in luxury.

But what I brought you back here to do, you have neglected to do for these last 14 years. Then verse 12 says the people obey the voice of the Lord through Haggai the prophet. There was encouragement in verse 13.

Then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people saying, I am with you, declares the Lord. This is the encouragement. Just like Hebrews chapter 13, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

That was God's encouragement to the nation. I will be present with you. Chapter one, verse 14. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Hoseidak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.

And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. Here's another thing that makes Haggai unique among all the other Old Testament prophets. And probably only, thinking off the top of my head here, probably the only one who had this kind of response like this was Jonah.

But the people responded to Haggai's message and Zechariah's message. That makes them unique, especially when you compare them to the pre-exilic prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. When God said to them, you'll go to the people and you'll prophesy, but I wanna give you a little heads up.

They're not gonna listen to you. In fact, they're gonna stiffen their necks, they're gonna harden their hearts, and they're gonna come after you, but they're not really coming after you, they're coming after me.

It's because they have rejected me that they're gonna reject you. But go out and preach. It's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be horrible. You're gonna hate it. They're gonna hate you. You're probably gonna die doing this, but you need to go out and preach to the people anyway.

And they didn't, and exactly what God said was gonna come fast came to pass. People rejected their messages. And Haggai stood up and preached, and the people said, you know what?

He's right, we need to get back to work.

Let's get back to work, let's rebuild the house of God. And they did it, and they were encouraged and edified and strengthened through the ministry of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah. The second message begins in chapter two, verse one.

And this really is one of the ones that we need to focus on because this is the message that the book of Hebrews quotes. Beginning of verse one, chapter two, on the 21st of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.

This was addressed to the leaders, civil and religious, and to the remnant of the people. That is those people who had come back out of Babylon and were here and were doing the work. Speak to them and say, verse three, who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory?

And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing by comparison? What was going on? They were rebuilding the temple, but these are people who had just come out of Babylon. They didn't have a lot of wealth.

They came into a land where commerce was nothing, industry was nothing, trade was nothing. All they really had was the shirt on their back and they're scraping together a living. And then they're called to go and to rebuild this temple.

But what do they really have to offer to it? So they start to rebuild the temple and there were some among them who were old enough to remember Solomon's temple before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

And they compared this temple as small and meager as it was to Solomon's temple. And said, man, we remember the glory of Solomon's temple. That was truly magnificent. This thing is so small. And they got discouraged.

Could God really be pleased with the work of our hands when this is all we have to offer to him? And so Haggai comes along to encourage them. They wanted to do it right. They were discouraged by the outcome of this.

What they were doing was inglorious compared to Solomon's temple. Remember, Solomon was so wealthy that silver was considered as nothing in his days.

Why?

Because of the wealth of that land. Solomon had money to burn after he built his temple. And then that was destroyed and all of its wealth plundered by Nebuchadnezzar. Then they come back to the land and they're doing their best to scrape together stones and timbers.

They have almost nothing with which to rebuild that house. And so they were discouraged.

Verse four,.

But now take courage, Zerubbabel declares the Lord. Take courage also, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest and all you people of the land. Take courage, declares the Lord, and work for I am with you.

That's the promise again, right? I will never leave you nor forsake you. Go about your work, declares the Lord of hosts. Verse five, as for the promise which I made when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is abiding in your midst.

Do not fear. Notice that the author connects the children of Israel coming out of Egypt into the land with nothing and telling them to conquer the land with what he is telling them here to rebuild the temple.

They came out of Babylon with nothing and he's saying, rebuild the temple. And the excuse of this generation could have been the same as the excuse of that prior generation. Now we don't wanna go up into that land.

You don't understand, Lord. We don't have anything to fight those people with and they're like giants. And so he is comparing this generation with the previous generation. Remember the previous generation, they disobeyed what they heard and they were judged for it.

And here the author is comparing this new generation coming out of Babylon with that old one. And he's saying the promise is the same. God will be with you, therefore build the temple. And then there is the promise of this incredible glory that is to come.

Verse six, thus says the Lord of hosts, once more in a little while, here's our passage, long time to get there from Hebrews 12, verse 26. I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and also the dry land.