Haggai is a short prophetic book in the Old Testament dealing with a specific time and situation. Israel had returned to her land from exile (as God had foretold and as a result of His faithfulness.) They returned to devastation and destruction. The temple – that magnificent edifice built by Solomon – was gone. The city walls were destroyed. It was a deeply discouraging sight, and not surprisingly, the people were focussed on survival, building new homes for themselves from the rubble.

Haggai’s word challenged them to look to rebuilding God’s house, to put their spiritual priorities above their personal ones. (Haggai 1:3-11) This challenge remains pertinent to every day and age. It is always easier to focus on our personal needs rather than on God’s kingdom.

Haggai spoke specifically to Zerubbabel (the governor of Judah, the top political dog, so to speak), to Joshua (the high priest, the chief representative of the Jewish faith) and to the remnant of the people in the land. His message acknowledged that the task seemed daunting (especially to those who could remember the glory of the former temple), but urged them to ‘be strong and work. For I am with you… Do not fear.” (Haggai 2:4-5)

This message comes to us today with renewed force. Paul tells us to ‘be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power’, urging us to put on the full armour of God so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes. (Eph 6:10-11) We need to be strong and to work. The harvest is plentiful, Jesus said, and we must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest field. (Matt 9:37-38) There is much to be done and so many practical ways we can serve God. It’s time to consider our priorities, to seek God first above everything else and not to shirk. As Paul said, ‘whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.‘ (Col 3:17)

Psalm 22 begins in despair: ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer, by night but I find no rest.’ (Ps 22:1-2)

There is a place for raw emotion in our dealings with God. There is a place for us to pour out our anguish, distress, confusion, bewilderment, anger and pain.

But there is also a place for truth. The psalmist goes on, ‘Yet You are enthroned as the Holy One; You are the One Israel praises. In You our ancestors put their trust; they trusted in You and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were saved; in You they trusted and were not put to shame.’ (Ps 22:3-5)

Truth acts like antiseptic cream on a raw wound. It stings, but it also helps the healing process. Truth cleans us. So often, our feelings are not aligned with objective truth (and we live in a society which at present seems to elevate feelings above truth and even derides the idea of objective truth which does not change.) Scripture does not tell us to deny, suppress or bury our feelings. The psalmists demonstrate to us raw, unvarnished, inelegant feelings plonked unceremoniously at God’s feet. But they also demonstrate to us the ‘yet’ and the ‘but‘ of truth. Change comes when feelings bow to the authority and lordship of truth. Victory comes when we hold on to truth rather than feelings as the solid, unchanging foundation of our lives.

Bring your feelings to God. But don’t rely on feelings to get you through today. Rely on God. Trust in Jesus, ‘the way, the truth and the life.’ (John 14:6) Psalm 22 was the psalm Jesus quoted on the cross, the lowest point anyone could ever experience. The cross was not the end of the story, however. Resurrection followed. Psalm 22 ends with worship: “They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: ‘He has done it!'” (Ps 22:31) This is what happens when truth reigns above feelings. Victory follows.

Mark Burgin spoke tonight from Exodus 3 & 4, looking at the calling of Moses and how God works with who we are and what we have to do extraordinary and miraculous things. Moses was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents and was rescued from death by Pharaoh’s daughter. Brought up as a prince in Egypt, he had to flee when he murdered an Egyptian he saw ill-treating a fellow Hebrew and ended up as a shepherd. He went from riches to a reality which looked nothing like his dreams and probably felt quite useless at this point in life. Yet his encounter with God profoundly changed him.

In these chapters, we see Moses effectively listing many reasons why God could not use him. He felt inadequate to the task and may well have felt that it would have been easier if God had called him earlier in life when he had some standing in Egypt! But who you are and what you have are enough for God, for He is the one who turns the ordinary into extraordinary. Moses’s stick became a serpent when God’s power came upon it; He gave Moses many miraculous ‘proofs’ of His power and spoke to him about what would be achieved. Moses’s initial response (‘Here I am’) is the starting point for every great ministry, for what counts is not ability but availabiity. Ultimately, God told him that ‘I am who I am’ was sending him, and that had to be enough. It’s not who we are or what we have that defines us. Who God is what really matters, and He can use each one of us to do amazing things.

We had another two birthdays to celebrate at church this morning.

Ogres, declared Shrek in the first film of that name, are like onions. They have layers.

Garry got a 3D printer for Christmas (which works by filament fusion), so I have had the privilege of seeing these marvellous things at work (making a bed for Barbie dolls for my grandchildren’s dolls’ house, making stars for our Christmas project and so on.) What is fascinating about 3D printing is that it, too, works in layers. The printer builds up a 3D shape layer upon layer. This box started out as one thin layer and gradually became a useful little storage box.

The Bible is in many respects a little bit like a 3D printer (or onion, or ogre…!) in that it has layers of meaning. When we study topics such as ‘the day of the Lord’, it’s the cumulative effect of numerous references which gives us the rounded (multi-faceted, 3D!) picture of what is meant by that phrase. We have looked at references in Isaiah and tonight saw how this phrase is used in other Old Testament books. The list is long!

• Jeremiah 46:10

• Ezekiel 30:1-4

• Zephaniah 1:7-18

• Zephaniah 2:1-3

• Joel 1:13-15

• Joel 2:28-32

• Joel 3:14-16

• Amos 5:18-20

• Amos 9:11-15

• Micah 4:1-8

• Zechariah 9:14-17

• Zechariah 14:20-21

• Obadiah 1:15

• Malachi 4:1-6

It is only through a cumulative, layer upon layer, reading of these Scriptures that we can see what ‘the day of the Lord’ means. It is a time associated with God’s personal intervention in history, with judgment and punishment, with God putting everything right. It is a time associated with the lofty being brought low and the humble exalted, a time of refining and pruning, a time of final reckoning. But this day is also associated with salvation and joy for all who have called on God’s name and relied on Him rather than on their own sinful pride: ‘The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.’ (Zech 9:16)

The New Testament builds on this solid body of facts and interprets them through the lens of Jesus. But that’s another Bible study for another day!