Believe And Work

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.” (Zec 8:9 AV)

 

Israel had returned from captivity and began the work on the temple.  In the interim, Cyrus, king of Persia died.  He was the king who ordered the Jews released so they could return and rebuild.  Darius became king and knew nothing of this edict.  Through manipulation by the enemies of Israel, Darius halted the work.  He wrote to those who would oppose the rebuild and gave them the authority to stop the work.  Haggai, a prophet at the time, encouraged Israel to continue the work because the law and God were both on their side.  Now, Zechariah gives his supporting opinion and sheds light on the reason the work stopped.  He declares to the works to “let your hand be strong” and reveals the reason their hands were not strong.  They lost faith in the prophets.  From Isaiah to Jeremiah to some of the other minor prophets, it was told to them the work of rebuilding the temple would come to pass.  Yet, they allowed a misguided edict to stop the work.  They focused on their own homes and lands and neglected the work of God.  When we stop believing the word of God, we become far less industrious to see the work of God continue.

When we stop believing in something greater than ourselves, then our commitment drops off.  Even if the end of the thing is guaranteed.  My wife and I watch a lot of cooking competition shows.  Master Chef was one of them.  Junior Master Chef was even better.  We watch them to learn and grow in our own confidence when it comes to cooking.  There are two dishes that almost always make the competition.  These two dishes take attention to detail and patience.  The first is a souffle.  The other is risotto.  We cringe anytime a competitor deliberately chooses risotto.  Risotto is an Italian rice dice that takes much finesse.  I’ve never cooked it and probably never will.  There are instructions and techniques that must be followed to the letter.  There is no room for artistic license.  It must be cooked a certain way with no variation.  Otherwise, the texture will completely fail.  Failure by the competitors usually comes because they do not trust the process.  They lose hope that when followed, the recipe and process will yield perfect risotto.  I cannot tell you how many times a chef presented his or her risotto to the judges and apologized for it before they tasted it.  They gave up on generations of wisdom and technique and failed.  Knowing the dish would be a failure, some cast it aside and never used it.  They lost commitment to making it work.

Israel stopped the work because they failed to believe Isaiah and Jeremiah.  They gave up hope the temple would ever be rebuilt.  The church has many promises.  Our work is not in vain.  We will be part of the greatest harvest of souls that comes during the tribulation.  We won’t be here to see it, but in large part, our soul-winning efforts will impact that harvest that we will not see.  Jesus is coming back and it will not matter who wins or loses an election.  The King of kings and LORD of lords will reign and it will be the end of God-hating governments.  If our hands have dropped off the work, it is because we have failed to believe.  Time to ask the Spirit to grow our faith again.  Time to commit to what the scriptures reveal.  Time to believe in the prophets again.  Time to take the hammer back up and commit to the work.