I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. – Haggai 2:7

 Today's Scripture Reading (August 21, 2020): Haggai 2

American journalist H. L. Mencken remarked, "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." Mencken died in 1956, so he was not commenting on our contemporary political situation. Having said that, I think that almost every President who has adorned the White House during my lifetime has been considered by some to be "a downright moron." But that highlights part of the problem. We struggle with what we want. We always have. What we should want, we discard into the trash. And what we should throw away, we give an honored place in our lives.

There is a little confusion concerning the phrase "what is desired by all nations." The NIV uses it as a descriptive phrase, allowing us to consider what is desired by all nations. And we can come up with answers. Power? Possibly. Wealth and comfort? Yes. Health? Definitely. All of these things can and are desirable.

But some translators have treated Haggai words as a title, instead of a phrase, The Desire of All Nations.  And using it as a title changes the way we interpret the phrase. For biblical scholars, the answer to the mystery of what is desired by all nations is a simple one. The answer is The Messiah. But just because all nations desire the Messiah, does not mean that we understand that.

For Christians, we understand the Messiah, or the Christ, to be Jesus of Nazareth. He is the "Desire of All Nations." And when he came and was presented at the Temple that was built during the days of Haggai, he finally filled Zerubbabel's Temple with glory, something that had been missing until the day he arrived in the arms of Mary and Joseph. But as far as opponents to Christianity are concerned, part of the problem is that Jesus, especially at the end of his ministry, was not desired. Jesus did not bring the power or wealth and comfort or even the health that the nations expected and desires. Instead, he brought a path to spiritual health, a way for the nations to mend their relationship with their God.

And so, we did not recognize the Messiah. We did not understand that we needed him. If we were to possess real power and wealth, that path starts with our relationship with God. All that ails this world, he heals. Instead, we discarded the very thing that we needed and desired, echoing the truth of Mencken's comment. It seems that whether we are talking about a president or a Messiah, the desire of heart's is that these positions be inhabited by "a downright moron."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Zechariah 1

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD's house.'" – Haggai 1:2

 Today's Scripture Reading (August 20, 2020): Haggai 1

Mark Twain famously commented that we should "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well." As a world-class procrastinator, I understand the comment. (Actually, I have tried to change my ways and have worked according to more artificial deadlines in my daily life for many years. Because I know that what I can put off, I will put off.) I think procrastination comes easily to most of us.

It would be easy to write off the rebuilding of the Temple to a case of procrastination. We can date these words to September, 520 B.C.E. That means that the people had been back in Jerusalem for eighteen years. In the beginning, the altar had been rebuilt, and the work on the Temple had begun. But the work had stopped. For the past fourteen years, nothing had been done on the Temple.

In their defense, there were some good reasons for the inactivity. First, the work was hard. What had been easy had been completed. Now, what was left was going to take a significant effort. The work was also expensive, and the exiles did not have a lot of money. The exiles had suffered under conditions of drought and the resultant crop failures. The people of the land opposed the rebuilding of the Temple, and the city of Jerusalem, by the exiles. And the people remembered easier times back in Babylon. The time was not right for a major building program. The exiles had good reason to want to wait a little longer. Waiting was an expedient course of action.

But Haggai wants to call the people on their procrastination. It is not that he does not understand their hardship. He has lived and is living through the same set of circumstances as the people. But sometimes, we need to set our mind on doing the hard things. There will always be reasons not to do the hard stuff. Haggai's message is that the time comes when we must choose to do the hard things.

It is a sentiment that was echoed by John F. Kennedy in 1962 in his speech at Rice University.

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too (John F. Kennedy; Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, September 12, 1962).

I think Haggai would have agreed. It was time for Israel to do the hard thing.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Haggai 2

So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the LORD, the God of Israel. – Ezra 6:21

 Today's Scripture Reading (August 19, 2020): Ezra 6

King Augeas was said to be a man of wealth and prestige. His wealth was partially represented by his herd of cattle, which according to the legend, was over 3000 head. The cows were likely divine, as they had been given to the King by the sun god Helios. Augeas had housed the cattle in his stable. According to the legend, King Augeas had kept the animals in his barn for thirty years. And for thirty years, the stable had never been cleaned.

The Augean Stables came to represent a job that could never be completed. The task of cleaning the stables had been put off for too long; it would be impossible to clean them now. And so, because it was impossible, the task of cleaning the stables was given to Hercules as his Fifth Labor. Unlike the preceding Labors, this one was not intended to kill the hero. It was just meant to humiliate him.

The situation that the exiles returned to in Jerusalem could be compared to the King Augeas's stables. The reality is that the Temple had been destroyed, and the best and the brightest had been removed from the territory. Among those who were left behind, many of the more capable people, such as the prophet Jeremiah, had left for Egypt and had never returned. Jerusalem and the area that surrounded it had been l given over to a few Judeans, and other foreigners who were trying to make a life for themselves in and around the area. For seventy years, the people had worshipped without guidance. What developed out of that practice of worship was a hybrid belief that had its origins in many faiths, both from the Judean worship of Yahweh as well as from the rituals dedicated to the Canaanite gods. Religiously, Judah had become a stable that had never been cleaned. It really wasn't the fault of the people any more than the condition of the Augean Stables was the fault of the cows. But the question that remained was what could be done to correct the problem. Or was cleaning up the situation impossible.

And it is easy to get the impression that the exiles, much like the observers of the Augean Stables, had decided that the situation could not be cleaned up. The only thing that could be done was to isolate the two groups of people, maintaining two systems of worship, one for the exiles who were returning and another for the ones who had remained in the land. Ezra reveals this idea earlier in his writing.

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here."

But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, "You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the King of Persia, commanded us" (Ezra 4:1-3).

Ezra's comment in Ezra 4 makes it sound like the strategy of the returning exiles was to isolate. But the importance of Ezra's commentary here is that cleaning up the religious situation in Judah was not an impossible task. Some people had stayed in Judah throughout the era of the exile, and they were able to separate themselves from the hybrid beliefs that had grown in the period. These worshippers were willing to leave what they had grown to know and return to a more pure faith that was being promoted by the returning exiles.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Haggai 1

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. – Ezra 5:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2020): Ezra 5

Author J. K. Rowling in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" argues that "We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." Things often go better when we can all get on the same page, and it doesn't matter that the "thing" might be. It is one of the reasons that, as a society, I think we need to get a better understanding of our priorities. Often it seems that everything is essential to our agendas. But the adage holds. When everything is important, nothing is important.

So, it strikes me as significant that when the first Temple was built, Solomon's Temple, there was a singular unity between the secular and religious branches of government. The priests and the Levites were intimately involved in the project, but so was the King. Solomon drove the construction of the Temple that would bear his name, building the Temple according to the plans that had been handed down to him from his Father. We might remember the first Temple as Solomon's Temple, but before it was Solomon's, the dream belonged to David.

And as Israel rebuilds the Temple, again, we see a unity between the secular and the sacred. The second Temple would bear the name of Zerubbabel, the governor. But we shouldn't miss that this governor was a descendant of David, and if Israel still had a king in the days of Ezra, his name would have been Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel is standing shoulder to shoulder with Joshua, the High Priest. The two were unified in purpose. The Temple was important enough to cause these two leaders to lay everything else aside for its cause.

The question that arises in my mind is, what are those issues for us today? So much of the governing of our nations seems to be spent on doing the things that the other side won't do while we are in power and have a chance. Or, on the flipside, fighting the lunacy that seems to take hold of those who govern. Too often, I wish that leaders would sit down around a table and examine the things that they hold in common, together, and concentrate on completing or strengthening those things.

There will always be things about which we disagree. But sometimes, all of that needs to take the back seat so that we can do what is important to all of us. Sometimes, the Temple simply needs to be built.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 6

And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language. – Ezra 4:7

Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2020): Ezra 4

A friend tells a story about attending a dinner party that was held with a group of dignitaries in attendance. At the last minute, my friend was asked to pray a blessing over the meal. This tends to be the curse of being a pastor, whenever a prayer is needed, it is the pastor who is asked to pray. So, my friend responds that he would be honored. When the time for the blessing arrives, he is announced and invited to come to the podium to offer a blessing over the food. My friend steps up to the mic … and goes completely blank. Nothing, no words appropriate to the situation, come to mind. And so, my friend, in a deep voice, begins his prayer with all the importance that he could muster. "God is Good … God is Great! … Let us thank him for our food. Amen." A prayer from childhood, spoken with as much dignity as possible.

Our language tends to change with our circumstances. The reality is that we speak differently, use different phrasing, when we are hanging out with friends than we do when we are making an official speech. It is just the way that things are.

Ezra makes a point of telling his readers that the next few verses are written in Aramaic. And it is not just a transliteration, changing the language but using Persian letters, much like most pastors do when teaching from the biblical languages. This letter of opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem was written with Aramaic script or Aramaic lettering. If we were holding the original document in our hands, we would notice the definite change, because in the original Hebrew document, not only is the statement present, but the words used are not translated. Ezra 4:8 until 6:18 are written in Aramaic instead of Hebrew (as is Ezra 7:12-26).

The question that arises out of this change is, why? We might think that, possibly, it was the language that King Artaxerxes, the letter's recipient, was more comfortable with; that Aramaic was the language that the King spoke. But that isn't it. In his reply, Artaxerxes makes it clear that the letter "has been read and translated in my presence" (Ezra 4:18). Artaxerxes couldn't read or understand the language of the message. He had to find people that did understand the language to read it to him in a language that he understood, adding an extra layer between the letter and the King.

But Aramaic was making a transition into the culture. As Ezra was rebuilding Jerusalem, Aramaic was becoming the language of business in the area, much like English has become the language of commerce throughout much of our world. In the Middle East, Aramaic was the language of money.

And even more importantly, Aramaic was the language that the reply would be written in when it came to the exiles. And by writing the original letter in Aramaic, those who opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem were offering a template for the written reply, a cease and desist order from King Artaxerxes, commanding the exiles to stop their rebuild of the city, should that letter ever come.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 5

 

Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices. – Ezra 3:3

 Today's Scripture Reading (August 16, 2020): Ezra 3

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities on the planet. The city might have been called Rusalim four thousand years ago, and then Urusalim and Jebus before it was finally christened Jerusalem, a name that means "The City of Peace." Yet, peace was something that Jerusalem seems to have rarely known during the long years of its existence. Throughout the pages of history, Jerusalem was destroyed at least twice. It was a city under siege twenty-three times, captured and recaptured forty-four times, and attacked at least fifty-two times. Today, the peace of the city is an uneasy one, as the city has been divided into four cultural and religious quarters; the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter.

As Ezra tells his story, Jerusalem is struggling, two generations after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the city, which was likely the first time that the city had been completely destroyed. But it was not necessarily uninhabited. Jerusalem, even after its destruction, remained an important city. There is no doubt that the remnant of the Jewish population left in Israel frequently found its way back to the city to worship. Those who wished to worship the God of Israel had likely built crude family altars around the place where Solomon's Temple had once stood. It is also likely that those who worshiped gods other than Yahweh had found their way to Jerusalem as well, celebrating the ancient Canaanite gods of the land on the mountain that had once been dedicated only to the worship of the God of Israel.

So as Israel returns to Jerusalem, they have some decisions to make. Everything has been destroyed, and so the needs of the city are vast. But they decide that the first thing that they need to do is rebuild the altar. The rebuilding of the altar, on its previous foundation, made sense. They knew where the altar had to go, it was an easy rebuild, and it reflected the spiritual priority of people and worshippers who were returning. If Jerusalem were going to succeed, it would only be because they had chosen to place the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob first and resume their worship of him.

But there was another problem. Those who had been worshipping on the mountain for the past two generations had left their altars and religious paraphernalia on the holy site. And many of them had no desire to be kicked off of the mountain just because the exiles had decided it was time to come home. But for the altar to be correctly rebuilt, that was precisely what was going to have to happen.

And so, the people are scared. They know that they don't need more enemies in the area that we were now trying to inhabit. But they also wanted to do things right. And so, they tore down the crude altars that had been built in the area, so that they could rebuild the altar that they believed that their God demanded. And they were not going to allow their fear to stop them from doing what was right.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 4

Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. – Ezra 1:7

 

Today's Scripture Reading (August 15, 2020): Ezra 1 & 2

There are many ways to lose something. Sometimes we misplace the item (my keys often find themselves into this category). At other times, we have it stolen away from us. And sometimes, in a moment of insanity, we simply give the item away. But in all of these instances, the truth is that the item is lost to us, it is no longer under our control.

Historically, we know that everything that used to exist inside of the Temple has been lost. But how it was lost differs. Sometimes the items were taken. Sometimes the items were misplaced. And even at other times, important things from within the Temple were given away. If the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba sharing a son is true, then one of the tales of that relationship is that Solomon gave away the Ark of the Covenant to his Southern friend (or was it stolen, the story seems to change). But legend says that Menelik, the son of Solomon and Sheba's queen, brought the Ark to Ethiopia, essentially saving it from all the destruction that would claim the other articles of Jerusalem's Temple. But the truth is that it doesn't matter how something is lost. It is still lost. The Ark of the Covenant might be in Ethiopia (and no, I really don't think that it is there), but only one man is allowed to see it, so it is still lost to the rest of us.

As Ezra begins his tale, there is no doubt that the Temple and everything that was in it was lost. The Temple and some of the items that were traditionally housed inside of the Temple had been destroyed. The author of 2 Kings seems to make this clear: "As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and cut up the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the Lord" (2 Kings 24:13). But there is some disagreement over the wording. While it seems that 2 Kings indicates that at least all of the gold items were destroyed, that might not be the case. The word translated as "cut-up" could simply mean "cut off." It wasn't that all of these items were destroyed, but that they had been removed from their former uses and were unavailable to the priests of Israel. Essentially, they were lost.

And as Ezra begins his story, King Cyrus returns these items, stolen from the Temple, that he still had in his possession. Undoubtedly, if we had a list of the items taken by Nebuchadnezzar and those returned by Cyrus, there would be a discrepancy. Maybe, it was more of just the mundane objects that Cyrus still had from the days of Nebuchadnezzar, those that were worth little, and yet still found their origins in the Temple. But Ezra makes it clear that at least some items from Solomon's Temple were returned. And in a way that the writer of 2 Kings probably couldn't imagine, the lost, at least some of it, had been finally found.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 3