The Shaking of Nations - A Harvest Tsunami Is On Its Way....

He wanted them to focus on Him and not on their ability to deal

with their obstacles. With Him they could do anything.

The Glory of the Past

One of the key factors that discouraged the exiles from

continuing work on the new temple was their comparing it to

Solomon’s temple. As these Jews laid the foundations to the

new temple, the workers and people became aware of how

inferior the new temple would be in comparison to the former

one.

Solomon’s temple was a grand structure with gold overlays in

its architecture and golden vessels used in worship. On the day

of its dedication, God had come and literally filled it with His

overwhelming glory (I Kings 8:10-11).

These Jews felt that God would want the same kind of temple

that Israel had in the past. They obviously could not produce

such a level of splendor in their current situation, so they would

need to wait until it became possible. The inability to build such

a magnificent temple and the difficult circumstances

confronting them brought work to a standstill. They went to build

their own homes to simply survive and make the best of a bad

situation. (Hag.1:3-4).

Haggai speaks of this backward focus: