04/26/09                                                                                                           

 

Sunday class: Prov. 30:7. "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: 8. Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

 

Scripture reading: #177

Vespers @ 5: “Comforting When They Are Hurt or Alienated” (7 passages of scripture)

Wednesday @ 7: Luke's writings - to whom, what, and why. Luke looks at “The Good Samaritan” and “Jesus visits Mary & Martha.” Discussion based upon the book "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" by Thomas Cahill.

Fulfillment? Build the kingdom! 4th prophetic period (Haggai - ministry era 538-516 B.C.)

Haggai 1:1. In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

 

2. This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'" 3. Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:

4. "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

 

5. Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

 

7. This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 8. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.

 

9. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.

 

11. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands." 12. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest,

 

and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

 

13. Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. 14. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,

 

and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15. on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.          

 

Haggai 1:5. Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

 

9. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house."

The work of the 'Kingdom' has changed - it is no longer rebuilding a temple, although lots of ambitious preachers and churches will still use this text to get their people to build bigger and more elaborate buildings. While the structure of the "house" has changed, the emphasis and warning of Haggai's prophecy is still as applicable today as it was 2500 years ago.

'Keeping up with the Joneses' has redefined Western-world Christianity. The excesses of present day capitalism and the clingings of Calvinism's work-ethic-produced prosperity has created a delusion of fulfillment that is as wrong today as it was for the returning Jews during King Darius' glory days of the Persian Empire.

The diasporic Jews had learned to enjoy and replicate a lifestyle in Persia that they had not known - ever. They were now free to take the extravagance of Persian culture and transplant it into their old ancestral homeland. Persia embodied a luxury and culture that even Alexander (the Great) would covet two hundred years later.

But the trappings of a luxurious culture provided no real lasting fulfillment...they discovered that. Alexander would plunge himself into it and never recover.

Building the Kingdom, for the past twenty centuries, has been by the spreading of the Spirit all over the world, not the spreading of a culture. It is not the increase of "meat nor drink" - the tangible things of life, "but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17) that is the work of, and response to, building the Kingdom of God.

It took twenty-three days for the Jews in Palestine in the 6th Century B.C. to refocus their attention to rebuilding the temple. We can change our focus today. What do you consider to be the proof of God's blessing?

 

My bet is on "righteousness, peace and joy..."

 

One can experience that whether in a Third World Country or one of the richest countries on earth.

The blessings of God are color-blind and without regard to geo-political considerations. "For God so loved the world..." He keeps on blessing and blessing; unfortunately many who call themselves by His name are chasing fool's gold rather than eternity.

You can't buy, live in, dress up in, or drive fulfillment. Fulfillment only comes with His Kingdom and it's available everywhere to everyone.

 

That's the great equality of God.