Episode 1592: The Latter Splendor

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,592 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Michael Jaquith: I'm Michael Jaquith. With I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability as men to really understand themselves is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Not to hold up the past as some sort of perfect time, but to recognize what was good about it and what was bad about. To recognize what worked and what didn't, to learn from it and make the future better than the past ever was. Welcome and thank [00:01:00] you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be.

Then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Haggai chapter two verses one through nine. I talk about how nostalgia can be an idol or be valuable, and I also talk about how God is with us, but we sometimes gets wrapped up in the wrong things. Haggai chapter two verses one through nine and the second year of King Darius in the seventh month on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the [00:02:00] prophet Haggai saying, speak now to zero.

Bob, son of she. Governor of Judea and to Joshua, son of Jeek, the high priest, and to the remen remnant of the people and say, who is left among you? Who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing yet? Now take cor courage, says the Lord. Take courage. O Joshua, the high priest.

Take courage. All you people of the land says the Lord. Work for I am with you, says the Lord of host. According to the promises that I made you when I, when you came out of Egypt, my spirit abides among you. Do not fear. For Thus, as 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 the nations so that the treasure of all nations will come and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.

The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The [00:03:00] latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of host. What good is looking back, what good is nostalgia? What good is that feeling of the good old days?

But think about it honestly, there. There's value in looking back, right? There's value in even false nostalgia. The feeling of the good old days, and remembering what used to be as a sense of comfort and belonging. However, we can also get caught up. In nostalgia, living in the past and losing track of the present, and even losing track of the future.

Nostalgia, like most things can become an idol to us. It can become instead of healthy attention to the past that we can understand our legacy, learn where we stand and take [00:04:00] lessons from. We can begin to hold up the past as some sort of false idol of perfection. I think some of that is going on in our culture today.

So when you look at this passage, you have to think, was Haggai a proponent of nostalgia in this text? After all, he's talking about looking back to what used to be, and he's even wondering, does anyone remember the former glory of the temple in Jerusalem that now is standing here in ruins before them?

Yeah, there's one possibility that's wondered about maybe the prophet was older and he himself remembered this, and now he's inviting others to join him in reminiscing about the past. However, that's hard to say because we really don't know much about the prophet Hagi. There is something though here about the power of the past that [00:05:00] Haggai is using.

To encourage the present and to envision a future. He says, yet, now take courage, and he declares that to the governor as they set to work on the building or the rebuilding of the temple. This is going to be a difficult task. It's going to be full of tears and fear and anger. As people have to remember what was lost and all of the suffering that came while they were in ex exile, but the prophet is here saying, take courage 'cause you're not alone.

That is probably the overall message of this passage. You are not alone. I am with you, says the Lord of Host. And that's needed because the task at hand is difficult and struggles will come. There's a lot of things coming in the future that it's telling [00:06:00] us that are going to involve struggle, and maybe there's conflict and maybe even there's shaking up of the populous and shaking up of what we believe and what we think is true, and even how we hold up the past as some sort of perfection.

Yeah. And yet the prophet is saying, here, take courage. God is in control. God is the architect of the vision and the Arthur of the story, and the future is brighter than the past. We can't just live in the past. We have to move forward to a better future. The later splendor what's coming is greater than the former indeed.

In history, as the temple was destroyed and rebuilt each rebuilding, they made it bigger and better before and that's what Haggai is saying. That's part as what of the role of the [00:07:00] prophet here. Not to talk about the architecture and the design and how it's going to be bigger and better in this way or that, but rather saying.

Where is the real glory? It's not in the rocks and the silver and the gold and the filigree. Instead, the glory here is the purpose of the temple.

The purpose of the temple being where God is with them, and Haggai even reminds them that God never for soaked them. He never left even though the temple was destroyed, even though the building isn't in. Ruins. God was still with them. He didn't say, oh, I, I'm gonna head out and I'll be back when you rebuild the temple instead.

No, God was through fully present throughout. Even when your current situation is in ruins, God [00:08:00] is present even when it seems that the hope of the past and the excitement. Of the future are miles away from us. God is with us, and at the end, Haggai is pointing to the future saying, don't just focus on the wrong things.

Don't just focus on the former things. Don't just focus on the building and the house. And the temple itself instead. Focus on the people with whom God resides. Focus on God and the people. Focus on who you are. Focus on what is really important to you. Focus not on the building, but on the people. And I think that's so [00:09:00] important for churches to do to recognize that the church isn't the walls, the church is the people.

The church is the actions and the moments that we serve and love. We shouldn't focus on building structures, but rather building structure to do the work of ministry. To do the good work that God is calling us to do, to reach out, to help others, to dream, to build, to bring people together, not to split them apart, not to hold up the past as some sort of perfect time, but to recognize what was good about it and what was bad about it.

To recognize what worked and what didn't, to learn from it and make the future. Better than the past ever was. [00:10:00] Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the [00:11:00] world.