Do You Put Your Money into a Bag Full of Holes? Haggai 1:6,9.

Do we still reap what we sow? Does that old idea still apply under the New Covenant? Do you harvest what you plant? Yes.

When Israel delayed in rebuilding God’s temple, He said: think about it. Figure it out.

“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough to feel full. You drink but never have enough. You put on clothes, but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it. ….Why? Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house” Haggai 1:6,9.

Are we taking care of God’s house? Are we tithing and giving to His work?

If you feel like you’re putting your money into a bag full of holes, maybe it’s because you are not giving money to God’s work. It is important to notice that only one month after the Israelites resumed work on the temple, God promised to bless them. 

“From this day on, I will bless you” Haggai 2:19.

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*The photo above is a Louis Vuitton purse that I affectionately call “the bag filled with holes.” If you buy this bag, not only will you lose the stuff that falls through the holes, but you will also waste $8,574.50 for a useless purse. (But hey, this website dealing in second-hand “leather totes” has marked this one down from $9.787.80, so it’s a savings of over a thousand dollars.)

GOD CAN CHANGE ANYONE. Ezra 6:22 and Proverbs 21:1.

Have you ever had a feud or a problem with someone that was impossible to solve?

God can make a way; He can reconcile enemies. Esau wanted to murder Jacob, but forgave him. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery—but they reconciled. Both Jesus and Stephen asked God to forgive their murderers. God is in the reconciling business.

King Cyrus sent the Hebrews home to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. But others put a stop to it, having heard rumors Jerusalem was “a rebellious city.” After the foundation was laid, years passed in which nothing happened. Then God again gave the Jews favor and “they finished the building according to … the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia” Ezra 6:14. God used three Persian kings to get this work done for the Jews. Not only that, it was paid for out of the Persian treasury. Considering the hatred between the sons of Isaac and of Ishmael (the Jews vs. the Arabs), this cooperation is amazing. Finally, they had a big celebration, complete with hundreds of animal sacrifices to dedicate the temple, and then they had a solemn observance of the Passover.

“They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful, having CHANGED THE … KING’S ATTITUDE TOWARD THEM, so that he supported them in the work on the house of the God of Israel.” Ezra 6:22.

There. Did you catch that? God CHANGED THE KING’S ATTITUDE toward them. God can change anyone’s heart. Even the heart of a prideful king.

“The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes.” Proverbs 21:1.

Does your heart need to change? Do you need someone else’s heart to change? Talk to God about it. He can change ANY heart! God is in the reconciliation business. Tell God about Proverbs 21:1, and ask Him to change hearts and attitudes, and particularly to change your heart and mine so that we love Him and His word more.

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*The photo above capturing a famous moment on October 21, 1967, is called “Flower Power.” The photograph was taken during the March on the Pentagon, when 18-year-old actor and protestor George Harris placed a carnation into the barrel of an M14 rifle held by a member of the United States Army’s 503rd Military Police Battallion (Airborne). The photo by Bernie Boston was nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize. I included it here to symbolize the fact that God can turn war into peace and can change the hearts of anyone–even a king, Proverbs 21:1. After uploading this picture, I saw the watermark: apparently this photo (or the online version I used) was recently the property of RMY Auctions, an auction house handling “historic and vintage photography.” RMY Auctions, PO Box 64, Wilder, ID 83676 (614) 551-9758.

The Day of Small Things. Ezra 5:10

Long ago, the people of Israel rejected God and His Word. Many died. Solomon’s temple was destroyed. God sent the survivors to live in the pagan nation of Babylon for generations. (That’s where Daniel faced the lions, and Shedrach, et al., faced the fiery furnace.)

Then God used King Cyrus to send the new generation home. When the new temple was built, many rejoiced, but many others wept loudly. Why did they weep? Because the new temple, (Zerubbabel’s temple–that Jesus would one day visit) was not as big or as beautiful as Solomon’s temple. They cried tears of shame and regret. Their pride was wounded.

Then God spoke to Ezra about the temple and about the people’s grief:

FOR WHO HAS DESPISED THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS? Ezra 5:10

God’s point is that small things can be just as good as big things. God can use a small school, for example, just as well as a large school, or a small church may bless people and be more faithful to the Word than a large church, etc. Small homes, small cars, small budgets, small people–if God is in it, who are we to question it?

“For who has despised the day of small things?”

… wise words…

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Resolutions and Uphill Battles. Ezra 4:5 and 5:5.

Change is hard. New Year’s Resolutions are hard. Turning around old habits is hard. Starting new habits is hard. It is hard to study more or to become a reader. It is hard to begin eating right. Or to begin an exercise program. All new goals are hard to reach. First, you must overcome your own habits. Second, you must overcome inertia—the fact that you are sitting still—and begin moving. Third, you must overcome your expectation of easy success: we expect things to be easy; we expect to be good at things. But new things are hard, and most of us are prone to self-pity and giving up. Thus, rather than celebrate small victories, we beat ourselves up over our seemingly large failures.

But if you can overcome these four, if you can conquer (1) your habits, (2) your inertia, (3) your expectation of easy success, and (4) the temptation to feel sorry for yourself and quit, you may face a fifth challenge: (5) actual enemies who will work against you and try to prevent you ever reaching your goal.

The Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem were busy building a new temple. First, their enemies offered to help them with the construction, a suspicious move that the Israelites saw through at once. “We alone must build the temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us” Ezra 4:3. 

Then the enemies of Israel began bribing officials “to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus” Ezra 4:5.

Next, the enemies began a letter-writing campaign, slandering them to the new king. “the Jews … are rebuilding that rebellious and evil city … Let it now be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and its walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, duty, or land tax, and the royal revenue will suffer” Ezra 4:12-13.

Finally, the new king forced the Jews to stop work, apparently for 16 years. 

“But God was watching over the Jewish elders” Ezra 5:5. 

God allowed discouragement. He even allowed the new king to temporarily halt progress. But God was watching over His people, and they did eventually achieve their God-given goals.  “Then the Israelites, including the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy” Ezra 6:16.

If you are trying to achieve something good, if you are working toward a goal that will enrich your life and honor God and grow His kingdom, do not be discouraged.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary” Galatians 6:9.

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What’s With All These Ancestors and Family Trees? Ezra 2:59-62.

Americans do many things well:

Space travel, radio and television transmissions, weather forecasting, computers, automobiles, jet flight, modern medicine, antibiotics. We have stopped polio in its tracks and rid the world of smallpox.

But Ancient Israel did one thing better:

RECORD KEEPING.

The Bible includes the most detailed records of so many things. The writers count days, weeks, months, and years, nails, plates, bowls, priestly garments, swords, shields, timber, precious metals, animals used for sacrifices, tithes received, crops harvested, days with rain, days without rain, spoils of war by pound and by category, and on and on.  There is even a tally of the number of “left-handed men who could sling a stone at a hair without missing” (there were 700) Judges 20:16.

Americans also keep a lot of records. I manage a massive spreadsheet containing an incredible amount of data, and I can print reports at the push of a button. Our nation has buildings—warehouses—filled with records, all of them rapidly being copied onto servers for digital storage.

But America remains a land of independent people who want to be off-the-grid: we may enjoy access to each other’s records, but we like to keep our own business private.

In Ancient Israel, people took pride in written records. Written records gave you and your family legitimacy. The records proved you belonged—and you did not belong unless you could prove it. The American Dream is a uniquely New-World concept: you show up, put down roots, and in a few years, you are one of us. In spite of decades of controversy over U.S. borders and immigration policy, it remains true that most nations are not as quick to welcome newcomers as we are. In older nations, it is sometimes understood that you will only be welcomed–you will only belong–if you can prove that your distant ancestors also belonged.

Israelites kept family records—generations and generations of births and deaths. The Bible contains a sampling of these records, but if you read it closely you learn that the records it includes are but the tiniest fraction of the records available at the time of the writing.[1] There must have been shelves and shelves covered in scroll after scroll, everything carefully written down by hand.

The Bible includes some 25 genealogies, filled with names only speakers of Hebrew can understand. And while these lengthy registries are only a fraction of the records Israel had in storage, to us they are hard to read and about as interesting as a phone book.  So why are they in the Bible?

Families matter to God.

The Gospel of Matthew—the opening of the New Testament—begins with the most important family line of all time:

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” Matthew 1:1.

This is an astounding claim, one that would have been the most incredible headline in the entire lifetime of those who read it. Nothing in Jewish history was more important than the birth of the Messiah, the Promised One, who would be descended from both King David and Father Abraham. Jesus was among the many in Israel whose entire family line was a matter of public record.

God used family trees and ancestral records the way He used prophecy: He was creating a setting for the coming of the Messiah, so that when Jesus arrived, it would be clear to those “who have ears to hear” (Matthew 11:15) that this was indeed, the long-awaited Anointed One.

Families matter to God.

But the Bible’s use of family lines highlights another key point, the New Testament principle of grace.  When the Hebrews were released from 70 years of captivity in Babylon and began returning to Jerusalem, each family was required to produce records indicating that they were, in fact, descended from Abraham. Moreover, those who descended from priests had to come up with written records to prove their priestly ancestry, or they would be disqualified from the priesthood.

“The following are those who … were unable to prove that their families and ancestry were Israelite: Delaiah’s descendants, Tobiah’s descendants, Nekoda’s descendants [a total of 652], and from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai….  These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood” Ezra 2:59-62.

The Bible is the story of

God’s Chosen People.

God had a story to tell—a story He would participate in—but He had to start somewhere. He began by choosing Abraham, blessing his descendants, and calling them His Chosen People. Through the family of Abraham, “all the world would be blessed” Genesis 22:18. That family line was important. There were the 12 sons of Jacob (re-named Israel), and those 12 fathered the 12 tribes. The tribe of Levi was chosen to be the priestly tribe—and only those descended from Levi could perform the duties of a priest.

Unfortunately, following seventy years of captivity in Babylon, some were unable to locate records proving them to be descended from the priesthood.  Others were unable to locate records proving them to be Israelites at all. The consequences to these gaps in the written record were severe. You wanted to be a member of God’s Chosen People. And if you were supposed to be one of the priests, you did not want to lose that privileged calling, for it would mean the loss of your career.

Genealogical records could make you or break you.

BUT—Jesus, the Anointed King who fulfills prophecy and fulfills family lines, changed all that. Because of Him, none of these things matter any more.

In Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female,” Galatians 3:28. Jesus tore down the dividing wall between people and each other and between people and God (Ephesians 2:14), literally ripping the curtain from the temple, Matthew 27:51. Not only are we all one, not only are Gentiles now invited into God’s presence, but no more human priests or earthly sacrifices are required in order to reach God’s presence. Hebrews may come to God through the sacrifice of Christ—and non-Hebrews may come to God through the sacrifice of Christ. In His Grace, we are all one.  None get a boost because of their “privileged” family line, and none get pushed aside because they lack records proving they are among the chosen.

When you read Genealogies, remember:

(1) The Bible deserves your patience—hang in there when you read the boring stuff and God will bless you as you read.

(2) If you ask the right questions and read with some imagination, you will find useful nuggets of truth even in lengthy genealogical records.

(3) Realize that family trees seem to matter to God; perhaps you should learn a little more about your own.

(4) Remember that we are all part of the human family—if you dig much, you will find that your ancestors include kings, queens, saints, and sinners, war heroes and murderers, slaves and slave owners. There are good and bad people in every family tree, and you will find them if you can locate enough records.

(5) Be thankful, because in Christ NOTHING in your family of origin or ancestry controls your life today. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you can come to God just as you are. He will forgive your sins, restore your life, and fill you with joy and hope for the future.

GRACE. 

When you see the lengthy genealogies—thank God that no one expects you to prove your worth by coming up with ten generations of records.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heir according to the promise” Galatians 3:26-29.

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[1] I suspect the Bible includes far less than 1/10,000 of the genealogical records available at the time of the writing. I have no basis for the number; it’s just a wild guess. The point is, the records in the Bible are but the tiniest sampling of the records available.

*The picture above is of the Czech scrolls from the Memorial Scrolls Trust at Westminster Synogogue, London. This collection of 1,564 Torah scrolls (nothing to do with genealogies) was rescued from the Nazis by Rabbi Yablon who donated them to Westminster Synogogue, New Kent House, London, where they arrived in 1964. Gradually many of these scrolls have been returned to the synogogues in the communities from which they were stolen. See https://www.westminstersynagogue.org/our-czech-scrolls.html

SURRENDER YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Ezra 3:11-13; Zechariah 4:10.

What do you expect God to do for you?

Do you think “I’ve obeyed Him, so I know He will give me _________”?

Examples: You work hard in school, so you expect God to bless you with money. You are pure with the opposite sex, so you expect a rock-star spouse. You give your talents to God, so you expect fame and fortune. We expect God to reward us. Sometimes He proves our expectations wrong.

After Israel had been captive in Babylon for 70 years, God raised up King Cyrus to send them home. Cyrus sent 50,000 Hebrews back to Jerusalem to rebuild Solomon’s temple. Two years later, they laid the foundation and celebrated. Finally, Israel had a home and a temple.

“Then all the people gave a GREAT SHOUT of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders who had seen the first temple wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house…. The people could not distinguish the shouting from the weeping because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away” Ezra 3:11-13.

Israel was home! So who was disappointed? The ones who remembered the original temple. Why? Because Solomon’s Temple was better. The new temple was a disappointment to anyone roughly 80 years old and up—because they knew what had been lost.

But the old folks were wrong and had to release their expectations. The prophet Zechariah said as much:

“For who has despised the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:10.

That means, “how dare you complain about what God has done?”

We must obey God and be grateful when He rewards our obedience in SMALL ways. We are told to “rejoice always,” and “in everything give thanks.” Do not put expectations on God; they will rob you of the pleasure of the small things.

God DOES reward obedience. But sometimes a small reward benefits you more than a big one because it makes you grow as you learn to love God and be thankful whether He sends big rewards, small rewards, or even no rewards this side of Heaven.

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*The wall at the center of the above picture is commonly known as the “Western Wall” or the “Wailing Wall.” It is the last remaining outer wall of the ancient Jewish temple and thus, the most important religious site for Jewish people in the entire world. The Western Wall is one of the outer walls of the Temple Mount, its lowest stones dating back to Herod’s modifications to Zerubbabel’s Temple (temple built during the time of Ezra described above) which was later re-named Herod’s Temple. In 516 B.C., it was the new temple behind this wall that excited Ezra’s younger generations, while disappointing the oldest who could see that the new temple was not as grand as Solomon’s Temple had been.

Predestination vs. Free Will. Daniel 11:27.

How can God know the future, yet still allow us to make our own decisions?

“If he knows what I’m going to do, then didn’t He CAUSE me to do it?”

“Foreknowledge is not cause.”

I love that simple answer from the Dragon in the John Gardner novel GRENDEL. “Foreknowledge is not cause.” Just because God knows something, does not mean God caused it—though He might have! 

Remember: there are many, many things about God that we are not able to understand. Yet, we have nearly 800,000 words in the Bible that we can understand. God has given us an incredible window into His divine mysteries. But He reserves some truths for Heaven.

Predestination is one of the mysteries we may never grasp on earth–and that is okay.

Here is my favorite way to explain predestination and free will.  When a man is approaching the Pearly Gates, he sees a sign that says, “Whosoever will may come,” Revelation 22:17. But once he is inside the gates and looks back at the entrance, he sees a sign that says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” John 15:16.

The point is: PERSPECTIVE. While we are on earth, everything we do feels like free will.  We make choices every day—what we eat, what we say, where we go, whether we study the Bible, whether we tell the truth, and more. Everything about our Christian faith feels like choices we made using our free will.  But when you get to Heaven, God may reveal to you the ways He was working behind the scenes, changing your heart, causing you to make decisions you would not otherwise have made. God does give us a free will. We have agency. But God has agency also—and more than we do. And He will accomplish His plans. He may predestine more of our circumstances than we would ever imagine.

In Daniel 11, an angel shows Daniel a vision of the future, including battle after battle between various kingdoms. 

“The two kings, whose hearts are bent on evil, will speak lies at the same table but to no avail, for still THE END WILL COME AT THE APPOINTED TIME. The king of the North will return to his land … At the APPOINTED TIME he will come again to the South … Some of the wise will fall so that they may be refined, purified, and cleansed until the time of the end, for [the end] WILL STILL COME AT THE APPOINTED TIME” Daniel 11:27-29, 35.

There are appointed times.

God has a calendar and there are plenty of things scheduled. They will happen at the time He appointed—no matter what men do, they will never alter the dates on God’s calendar. Why? Because God is SOVEREIGN over times and places and choices and circumstances and our entire lives and all of human history.

God, teach us how to pray. Fill us with reverence and awe for One Who stands outside of time and controls all things. We praise You!

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WE WILL REFLECT GOD’S GLORY—LITERALLY.

When God the Father sits on His throne, “Earth and Heaven flee from His presence” Revelation 20:11. Imagine! God is so fierce the earth itself flees from Him. Then in the New Jerusalem (heaven) “the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because GOD’S GLORY ILLUMINATES IT; its lamp is the LAMB” 21:23. “Night will no longer exist, and people will not need lamplight or sunlight, because God will give them light” 22:5.

Imagine God’s glory—golden sunlight, but infinitely stronger and more beautiful. And His people reflect that: “I saw an angel coming down, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor” 18:1. (One angel lit the whole planet?) And it’s not just angels: “Those who are wise [during their earthly life] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness LIKE THE STARS forever and ever” Daniel 12:3.

You may shine like a star!

C.S. Lewis wrote on this:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to WORSHIP… There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a ‘mere mortal.’ Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors [the lost] or everlasting splendors.” –from THE WEIGHT OF GLORY.

God, may we use our time wisely! Make us wise lovers of Your word. May we point people to Jesus and lead many to righteousness. Remind us that EVERY DAY counts, EVERY DAY we are storing up treasure in heaven—our REAL HOME. Thank you for encouraging me today that it is what I do for heaven that matters, not my achievements or failures on earth.

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STARS. Philippians 2:14-15.

We talk about movie STARS, sports STARS, rock STARS. But what is a star? Why do we use the metaphor constantly? Imagine the inky blackness of a starless sky. If you could spend a moonless night at sea or on a mountaintop a thousand miles from civilization, you would see true darkness. Yet stars remain: distant, blinking lights. A cloudless sky filled with stars provides enough light to walk by. And that’s the point: a star lights things up, a star stands on a dark stage and shines like a light.

The Bible says your life can shine like a star—both here and in heaven.

Daniel 12:3 says of heaven that “those who lead many to righteousness will SHINE LIKE THE STARS forever and ever.” Sharing your faith—that will make you a star in heaven.

And Paul writes of believers who are stars on earth:

“Do everything without grumbling or disputing, so that you may be called blameless and pure, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, AMONG WHOM YOU SHINE LIKE STARS IN THE WORLD” Philippians 2:14-15.

Do you realize you live “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation”? You do. But hang in there. Endure.

  1. Serve without grumbling or disputing.
  2. Be blameless and pure.
  3. Live as a child of God, above reproach, though surrounded by the crooked and perverse.

Then you will SHINE LIKE STARS IN THE WORLD.

When you serve with a good attitude and honor God, the people living in darkness will see God’s light and He will use you to “lead many to righteousness” (Dan. 12:3) so you will then SHINE LIKE THE STARS FOREVER AND EVER.

Do you see? Walk with God in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. Serve with a kind, helpful attitude. Be blameless and pure. Then those living in darkness around you will see God’s light and turn to Him. Thus, if you shine like a star on earth, you will also shine like a star in heaven.

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WHAT LIES BEYOND? Daniel 12:2-3.

Do you ever wonder what’s ahead? What comes after this life on earth? Does heaven sound boring? Some joke that all their friends will be in hell, so that’s where they want to go. But your eternal destiny is no joke.

“Those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” Daniel 12:2-3.

If you walk with God and live wisely, reading the word and filling your mind with God’s wisdom, He promises you will “SHINE LIKE THE BRIGHT EXPANSE OF THE HEAVENS” or as I would paraphrase it, “you will shine like the brightest blue sky on a clear summer day. But there’s more: “those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the STARS forever and ever.” Isn’t it funny the way we use the word “star” in today’s culture? We compare movie stars and other celebrities to stars shining in the sky. Perhaps when we look at famous people or the royal family, we see the way they shine brighter, perhaps, than some of the dimmer lights around them.

But God is not concerned with royalty or celebrity. He promises that it is His WISE children who will truly shine in eternity. And it is those who lead others to righteousness that will “SHINE LIKE THE STARS FOREVER AND EVER.”

Do you want to be a star for God? Do you want to serve Him and shine forever? I do.

Dear God, teach us to walk in your wisdom and to share your message and your truth with others. Make us shine for your kingdom!

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