Reflections on the Renewal of Relationship in Haggai 2:20-23

I was in Cornwell Park a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to see that there was one blossom out on the cherry trees. I’m not a gardener but it seemed very early and very cold for the cherry trees to be blooming. However it was sort of like God wanted to show case it for me... 

 I took a photo of it, as for me it was like the renewal of a promise of vibrancy and life after the long dormancy and barrenness of winter. The first budding of what will soon be a great burst of vivid colour, that will attract large numbers to the park to experience the beauty of it all. I hope I’m not being too flowery in my language but as I was reflecting on the passage we had read to us today from the end of Haggai, that blossom and the promise it conveys came to mind.

Jerusalem had been through a long barren time. The City and temple destroyed and the people taken into exile in Babylon. After seventy years they had started to come back to rebuild. They had focused on their own houses and priorities and wondered why they were not fining fulfilment in that. Haggai bought God’s word, challenging them to consider if it was right that they lived in panelled houses while the temple, God’s house lay in ruins. The people had then started to rebuild the temple, and God had responded by affirming his presence with them. They cleared away the rubble and re-established the altar, but had become despondent and discouraged, and again Haggai had bought God’s word to encourage them to continue, the promise was that God was for them, and able to provide what they needed. The people had continued and as they came to another major step along the way Haggai had again bought God’s word that while in the past God was not able to bless them because they didn’t have their priorities right, from this day forward God was going to bless them. AS we saw last week that had an immediate fulfilment in terms of a promised bumper harvest, but as we move to the passage today we see that it has a greater, meaning in terms of the renewal of relationship, for the returnees and for us.

Like all Haggai’s words it has a date, in this case it is the 24^th day of the month, we know from the rest of Haggai that it was the second year of king Darius of Persia. It is the same day as the previous word we looked at last week. But it is acknowledged as a separate word by being called “a second time”, and because it is a personal word for Zerubbabel. While it forms a separate unit, it is a continuation of the previous one. When a corner stone of a significant building was laid there would be words for and blessings for the priests, the people and the royal household. Also the previous word has focused on the past, where the people had not been obeying God, and then had moved to the hopeful present as they had responded and turned again to God, now Haggai looks to the future and a renewed covenant relationship.

We are going to look at this passage on three levels, as a personal word to Zerubbabel, as a promise in terms of the wider scope of God’s plans, and as part of the Purposes of God,  the coming of God’s kingdom and see how that all speaks to us today.

It is a personal word, to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, the civil leader of the remnant. The message to Zerubbabel is one that God will once again shake the heavens and the earth, the political and military forces of the world will be overturned and that God chooses Zerubbabel as his vice regent. It might be dangerous for such a word to be given to Zerubbabel as a low-level bureaucrat in the Persian empire that he is God’s chosen leader. Particularly in a time when Darius was consolidating his power and putting down rebellions. It’s why Haggai starts by addressing Zerubbabel in his official capacity as the governor, there is no sense here of revolt or to incite rebellion. Haggai is saying that it is God who will sovereignly act in a future time to turn the powers of this world on their head.

On a personal level for Zerubbabel, it is an acknowledgement of God’s presence and choosing of him. In the second half of the word starting verse 23 his status has changed he is now seen as the son of Shealtiel, acknowledged as God’s servant and being told that God would make him his signet ring.  Shealtiel was the son of king Jehoiachin, and here Zerubbabel is acknowledged in terms of his royal lineage, he is in the Davidic line as a king of Judea with all the promises that entails. In 2 Kings we are told Jehoiachin did what was evil in God’s eyes which had been like the last straw to break the camels back and So God had allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem and take the people into exile. In Jeremiah 22:24 the prophet had given a word from God that God was going to take Jehoiachin off like a signet ring. A signet ring was an important part of royal jewellery, with the royal seal on it. It was used to put the royal approval on laws, decrees and official correspondence. Who ever wore it had the authority of the king it represented. Now that relationship is restored with Zerubbabel. Now Zerubbabel is called my servant, he may have simply been considered as a minor official in the Persian empire, but in God’s eyes he was, his servant, his vice regent.  

 Zerubbabel’s status has been changed by the choosing of God.  It is the same with us at the heart of renewal in our lives and in our church is that change of identity in Christ. In Christ our identity is no longer constructed in the world terms but by Gods and it changes everything. We are God’s beloved, we are now as it says in John 1 sons and daughters of the Lord most high, no longer servants but friends, we are forgiven, we are called to reign with Christ, no longer citizens of this world but of God’s kingdom. We are now living stones being built in the dwelling place of God, a royal priest hood and holy nation. Called to declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his glorious light.  That makes a difference. It over throws the powers of this world to define us, to restrict us and control us. Yes, like Zerubbabel we find ourselves in a particular context, where in the scheme of things we feel small and powerless but it does not define us, it is God’s choosing his presence, his being with us and for us his purpose that matters. Like that first blossom for the season it is like the possibility and promise of new life and new possibilities in every situation we find ourselves in, God can soon shake thing up.

This word is not just about the renewal of a personal relationship, its about  the renewal of a covenant relationship and a promise. God had made a covenant with King David, that a descendant of his would always be on the throne. With the exile that covenant seems to be broken and lying in tatters, but with this word Haggai acknowledges that it is alive in Zerubbabel. But there is a future element to this “on that day” declares the Lord Almighty, says that the ultimate fulfilment of what God is saying is in God’s timing. Zerubbabel is told that God chooses him, and the which ties in with the Hebrew word Messiah or chosen or anointed one, and it looks forward to the messianic king and the bringing in of the Kingdom of God into the realms of humanity.

The prophecy of a Davidic king points us to Jesus Christ. Zerubbabel’s title as My Servant invokes the words of Isaiah 53 about God’ servant suffering and dying for the forgiveness of the sins of many. In Matthew and Luke’s genealogies or whakapapa of Jesus Zerubbabel is named, God’s promise on that twenty fourth day of the ninth month draws us to Jesus.  From a very early stage the Church saw Jesus as fulfilling that covenant with David. In his sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2 Peter speaks of Jesus coming and his death and resurrection in terms of the promise of a descendant of David on the throne forever. With his death and resurrection, and ascension is of Jesus high and lifted up and at the right hand of the Father. This renewal of covenant promise with Zerubbabel, is part of God’s pan for the renewal of relationship with all people through Jesus Christ.

The remnant has an expectation that the messianic age would start with the completion of the temple. But as the Old Testament scriptures come to an end we find God’s people sitting and waiting for the messiah to come. It is the same for us we want God to act know and do something here. In the first onset of ecological concerns in the 1970’s one group of academics decided that the problems of caring for the environment were going to be hard for people to tackle because it needed a change of perspective. Most people could only focus on the immediate future and their immediate circumstances and surroundings, it was going to be hard to convince them to think long term and worldwide. How their energy consumption and lifestyle was going to impact on the world in twenty thirty forty fifty a hundred years. We are the same when it comes t wanting God to act and move… But as Peter Craige says “ the time table of God is more obscure than at first it appears, though it I no less certain”.

Well in actual fact from Haggai’s word to Zerubbabel we do know where the Purpose of God is heading. God’s plan and God’s purposes. “ God is going to shake the heavens and the earth, the powers of this earth, both political and militarily will be overthrown. God’ kingdom will be established. In the Old testament prophets there is the idea of the day of Lord a time when, God judgment and God’s reign will come. As we’ve looked at the Messianic promise in this passage we see it is inaugurated with the coming of the messianic king, but it’s the hope of peace (God had said through Haggai in this place I will give you pace) of things being put right. In the book of Daniel, Daniel has a vision of a statute with a head of Gold a torso of silver, legs of bronze and lower legs of iron and feet of clay. It represents the realms of man, the empires and world powers that would come and fall, and in his dream,  he seem a rock come and smash the feet of clay and topple the statue and a large mountain grow out of the rock. It is all very surreal, but a picture with the coming of Christ, that change will happen that God’s righteous reign would start to be established on the earth. It is the hope that we have in the face of poverty and oppression and injustice that God’s righteousness and God’s justice and mercy would come. That is what God is working towards seeing his Kingdom come. We live in what people call the tension between the already and the not yet. That Kingdom that turning of the powers of this world on its head inaugurated in Jesus Christ and their ultimate fulfilment in Christ’s return. God’s purpose is the restoration of right relationship for the whole of creation.

Haggai Speaks to God’s people at a crunch time along the story of God’s kingdom. With the return from the exile, God is about renewing and restoring his people and his promise with them in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ and the hope of reconciliation of all people with God, and God’s kingdom being established. Zerubbabel and Haggai had expectations and hopes of God would do on a big scale. For them it would have revolved around an independent nation of Israel, and the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship God there. But for us as we look back  at them and the remnant in Jerusalem rebuilding the temple, I don’t think in their day to day slog and work and obedience to do what God had called them to do, they would  have realised in history what God was doing through them and its ultimate impact on people, through Christ. It is the same with us, as we go about living lives that are obedient to God’s call in Christ on our lives we may not be aware of the impact or echoes that what we do will have in God’s activity in the world… In the story of Christ bringing renewal and hope into peoples lives. It may seem like putting one stone on top of another, it may seem small steps in an impossibly large task, it may be as small as simply showing kindness and care to another person in Christ, sharing your faith with a friend, or a continued demanding of justice and change in a certain area, and we don’t know in the scheme and plans of God what God can do with that to bring change and renewal. People talk of the way of tackling issues in the world like the ecological crisis is to think globally, have the big picture but to act locally. It is the same with with following Christ, to have the big picture of the Kingdom of God and to work locally in what we do… You don’t know where that first bloom of something new will lead.

We’ve been looking at Haggai to see what it has to say to us about renewal in the Church. What Haggai says is that renewal happens as God’s people hear his word and respond positively to it. All the way through Haggai we see that happen God speaks the people respond and God acts… each message finishes with Gods action “I am with you”, “in this place I will grant you peace”, “from this day on I will Bless You” and today “ for I have chosen you”. Renewal for us happens  personally and as a church when we again renew our relationship with Christ, as Arch Bishop Justin Welby puts it “ when we are captivated afresh by the love of Christ”.

We often want God’s blessing without the turning to him. When that love of Christ becomes the priority and driving force in our lives, renewal comes change happens, God moves. I started talking about the single bloom at Cornwell park, but the direction and moving of God is that we will be like the blaze of colour when all the trees are in bloom, full of the goodness and the beauty of God.