‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 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. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty.’ Haggai 2:6-9 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hag.2.6-9.NIVUK
For someone who has spent quite a bit of time in Asia, I have a shocking confession to make. I'm not a big fan of karaoke. Maybe it's because I have a blunderbus of a voice - I have the volume but not the precise aim to hit any notes. But it's more likely because most people who sing karaoke have a voice not that different to mine. And from living above a bar that had karaoke three times a week, I can tell you that as the night goes on, it definitely does not get better. If I was close to a karaoke bar right now (which I'm not - praise God!), I'm sure I'd hear one song on repeat pretty much every night. I'm sure I'd hear these words echoing out loud and clear and probably way out of tune: "And I say, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah I said hey, what's going on?" Because that's how we're feeling, right? We all want to know what's going on. Why? Because we don't know! None of us knows. Even the wisest among us has no clue. Allow me to interject with a theory. It's just a thought. What if God is using this crisis to make us into something new? I mean, He definitely has form. When the Jews disobeyed so much that the exile was coming, He sent the message through Jeremiah that they were like clay in the hands of a potter and He was the potter (Jeremiah 18:1-6). He was asserting His right as their God to break them down and re-make them. When the Early Church missed the call to reach the nations off their agenda, God put it back on rather forcefully by using persecution to drive them out (Acts 8:1-4). What if He's doing it again? What if He's using a huge event in world history to re-make us? Every one of us will have something to rebuild once things settle down. All of us have our lives, some have their jobs and careers, some have their families, some have companies and churches and services. The question is: are we asking what God wants in this or are we too focused on rushing things back to the way they were before? These verses were written following a huge and destructive cataclysm in the history of the Jewish people - the Exile. God's people were starting to pick up the pieces and re-build. These verses show His plan for His people then, and give us something important to think about now. The first part of the plan is THE SHAKING OF THE NATIONS, and we will see that in my next blog.
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