A Tale Of Two Prophets

Well, good afternoon and happy Sabbath to all. Welcome to our visitors who are here with us today. And welcome to those who are also out on watching on the webcast. Happy Sabbath and good afternoon to all. Or for on the webcast, good morning. Perhaps it's morning wherever you are. Brethren, prophecy is a very fascinating subject. It's fascinating to all of us. Whenever there's questionnaires that are distributed saying, you know, what subjects do you want to hear more about or what subjects would you be interested in, prophecy is always either at the top or it ranks very near the top.

It's a very popular subject. It's fascinating. It's fascinating about knowing about the future. It's like sort of knowing the unknown of what lies beyond today. And, of course, God knows what lies beyond today. He knows the end from the beginning. But like anything that God does, He does it for a purpose. He does it for a reason. When He tells us about future events, He does this according to His plan. And when I say us, when He tells anybody, any of His people, down through time.

The reasons for prophecies can vary from time to time and from circumstance to circumstance. Different prophets had different types of messages. Today we're going to look at a time when there were two prophets that were active. Now, in the Old Testament, prophets weren't always active. There were periods where there was no voice, so to speak, from God. But today we're going to look at a time when two prophets were active.

A time when God intervened in the course of history, in the history of Judah, when He felt it was necessary. So today we're going to look at messages from God at a critical time in history, and specifically history of the nation of Judah. God sent two prophets at that time, and they served simultaneously to give messages to God's people, who again are talking about the nation of Judah at that particular time.

This is a critical time in the history of Judah. There's the time just after the Jews had returned from the captivity. They were taking captivity into Babylon. The Persians captured Babylon, and the Persians let the people of God go, sent the Jews back to Jerusalem. Also, when I talk about Jews, and I'll address this a little bit later, they weren't the only ones to come back.

Primarily, they were the people of Judah, or the Jews, the Jewish people. But with them were the priests, the Levites, and some Benjaminites came back as well. But predominantly, they were the nation of Judah, so they referred to as the nation of Judah, or the Jewish people. So we're going to take a look at this time.

God allowed them, in fact, sent them back to their homeland, and they were given a commission, and that commission was to rebuild the temple of God. This was a new beginning for them. They were just released from captivity. Their land had been destroyed. The temple had been destroyed. This was a new beginning, and God sent two prophets, two messengers to the people. He sent them for correction. He sent them for instruction. And He also sent them to encourage the people. The messages, obviously, were for the people back then. They had meaning to the people that lived in, you know, 520 or so BCE.

But also, the messages are written down. They have meaning for the future. They have meaning for our time, as well as perhaps times in the future as well. They have meaning for us today. So today, we're going to take a look at the messages from two prophets to see what they said to the people of God, to the Jewish nation, and then also what we can learn from these messages today. To pick up the historical setting, let's start by reading in the book of Ezra.

Turn to Ezra, the first chapter. Ezra, the first chapter, will start reading chapter 1 and verse 1. And again, this was a point that I mentioned where the Jewish people were released from captivity, where the Persian king sent them, not only release them, but sent them back.

So Ezra, starting in chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, and again Persia had conquered Babylon, the word of the Lord by the mouth of, excuse me, that, the word of the mouth, the word by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation through all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, so this is a proclamation from the king of the empire, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all kings of the earth, the Lord of heaven has given to me, and he has commanded me to build him a house or temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem, and whoever is left in any place where he dwells, in other words, if you don't want to go back with him, if you're left in any place where that person dwells, let the men of this place help him with silver and gold and goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. So here we see the king is sending the Jews back to, or the Jewish people, back to Jerusalem. The approximate time of this proclamation was 536 BCE, and along that, I'm going to just mention some sources that I used in putting this message together.

The sources generally agree one with another, but they're not exact. You look at different scholars, and they might say 536, one might say 537. So the dates are very close, but they're not necessarily matching up. They're not necessarily exactly. The dates I used were the ones I say were most consistent among the scholars. Whether the correct ones or not is not the most important thing. They are very, very close. It's not like they're years and years off. This would be one or two years, if it that. So some of these sources are a book called Haggai and Zachariah by Thomas T. Perrone. That's P-E-R-O-W-N-E. Notes on Haggai by Dr. Thomas Constable, the 2010 edition. My study Bible, the New King James Version of the Personal Study Bible by Thomas Nelson, publishers. And I specifically refer to the part where it says, Introduction to Haggai and Zachariah. And that's pretty much it. I also looked at a couple of other books, but most information I mind out of these books that I just already have mentioned to you. As I mentioned, I'm going to talk about specific dates. The dates might be off a year or so. They're not far off, but you might look in a book and say, or you look in your Bible and say, My Bible says a different date. Maybe it does, but it's not going to be that much different.

Of the people that returned from the captivity, there's only about 40,000 to 50,000. Actually, a little bit more than 40,000 that came back from captivity. They're called a remnant. They were a fraction. There were many, many, many that were taken into captivity. So this is only a remnant, just a few that are coming back again. As I mentioned, they were mostly from Judah.

You can imagine the people that were coming back at this time. What must have been their mindset or their thoughts? In one sense, this is a time for rejoicing. Very happy. It's a happy time. They were being set free from captivity to return to their homeland, again, to rebuild a temple. Some of them must have understood that they were going to be captive 70 years. The 70 years was up. It's time to go back home again. Others understood the name of the king that was going to set them free, Cyrus. His name had been recorded like 200 years earlier in prophecy. It was foretold. So they were very happy. They were excited. They knew the king's name. Again, as I mentioned, this was a new beginning for them. Their God was acting on their behalf, and their God was acting strong on their behalf. But on the other hand, I can see also another mindset that may have been happening, and this is, I'll say, some are conjecture, some are my part, some are on scholar's part.

They must have been, you know, perhaps a little bit confused as well. At least they were affected by having gone into captivity. You can imagine, you know, we're God's people. We are God's special nation, a nation that God worked miracles for when God brought them out of the land of Egypt. It was a tremendous time. You know, God worked miracles just a couple hundred years previously in the life of their king Hezekiah. He again spared Jerusalem from the Assyrians. And when I throw these dates around, like, you know, in the time of the Exodus 900 years ago, and we think, well, that's just a date, but think about what was going on in the world 900 years ago. Roughly, you know, 1100 AD, give or take. That's a long time ago. The nation of Israel, Judah, had a lot of history. 200 years ago, at the time of Hezekiah, you know, give or take. And this nation has been around only a little bit more than 200 years. This is a long time. So while these events happened, and God was with them, it was a while ago. You know, what is it saying? You know, what has happened lately? What is going on lately? As I mentioned, only a remnant returned. There were many that were perhaps disillusioned, many because of the thoughts of religions of the day, especially in the Persian Empire, where, you know, one religion is as good as another. You know, your God, our God, you know, whatever. There was a lot of influences that were impacting and affecting the people.

Again, they had gone into captivity, and that just wasn't supposed to happen to God's people. This was God's own special people. And they not only went into captivity, but, you know, Israel was gone, and the temple was totally destroyed. Things were not working out, as some of them would have figured. You know, would God allow that to happen? Would God allow that to happen?

The Jews, the Jews who returned basically had a form of religion. While they say some were zealous, some were probably, you know, questioning, you know, why did this happen? What is going on? They did have a form of religion. When they came back from Babylon down to Jerusalem, the first thing they did, one of the first things they did was they built an altar. And it happened to be that time of year, and they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. So they had a form of religion. They came back approximately in 535 BCE. So it was a time of rejoicing, a time when they came back.

Turn ahead a few pages to Ezra the fourth chapter. Ezra the fourth chapter. And we see some of the things. Ezra the two, by the way, talks about the families that came back, and this was important as far as the chronology of establishing the priesthood.

But in addition to, they're other, let's say, just the mindset that they had, they also had enemies. They had enemies, as God's people always have enemies. And that's not surprising, as God's people have a major enemy, being Satan the devil.

And he always is standing ready to oppose whatever God is doing and to oppose his people. We need to remember who the real enemy is. So they came back, they built the altar, they observed the Feast, and they laid the foundation at the temple. And things were going along very well, but then the enemies came and said, you know, you can't do that. Well, first off, they said, you know, kind of subtly, they said, well, you know, let us help you build.

And these were, you know, the nations that were around, the Samaritans, and they really had no intention of helping. They wanted a more delay or just stop the work. And the Jewish people said, no, thank you, you know, this is something that, you know, we're going to do for our God all by ourselves. And so they tried other things. They harassed them from time to time. And then finally, dropping down into chapter 4 and start, pick up the story in verse 21.

Chapter 4 and verse 21, it says, well, no, finally, what they did, I got ahead of the story a little bit, got ahead of my notes as well. What they did was, they said, well, we've got to stop this building. So they went up and back to the king of Persia. And they said, the Jews are rebuilding the city. They're rebuilding the wall around the city. This is a rebellious people. They've caused trouble from time, you know, from the beginning.

You can't allow them to do this. So again, this was a false charge that was brought. At best, it was inaccurate. But at worst, it was a false charge. They weren't rebuilding the wall. They weren't rebuilding the city.

They were working on the temple of God. But the king heard this, and he said, well, they can't do that. I'm not going to allow them to do that. They have got to stop. And so he sent a message back with these men, basically saying, thou shalt not build. So with that, now, in verse 21, it says, now the command to make these men cease. So then the men came back from the king, straight to Jerusalem, and said, you've got to stop.

The command to make the men cease, that this city may not be built until a command is given by me. That's the king. It says, take heed that you do not fail to do this. Why should your damage increase to the hurt of kings? And then in verse 23, it says, now when a copy of the king, Artaxerxes' letter was read before the various men, the scribes and their companions, they went up with haste to Jerusalem against the Jews. And by force of arms, so they had a little army with them, they made them cease.

So the work on the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased, and it was discontinued under the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. So the king said, no building, and they had an army with them, and the work on the temple stopped. Continuing on into verse 5, it says, then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Idol, the prophets, prophesied that the Jews were in Judah at Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.

Now the thing that we don't see as we read this is there's a period of 15 years between the last verse of chapter 4 and the first verse of chapter 5. Nothing was done on the temple for 15 years. God watched the temple languishing, if you will, and He said, that house has to be built, so He sent these two prophets.

Period, again, of 15 years lapsed. And then it says in verse 2, so is Rubblebel, the son of Sheltiel, and it says, Jeshua or Joshua, the son of Joseph, rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. So here, as I mentioned, there's a period of 15 years that takes place. To see some of the things going on during that time, turn ahead to Zechariah. Zechariah, and we'll start reading in verse 1. Zechariah 1 and verse 1. We'll pick up the story and continue more as far as the historical setting is concerned.

Zechariah 4, starting in verse 1, says in the eighth month of the second year of Darius. So this roughly is November in about 520 BCE. The eighth month, the second year of Darius, the word of the Eternal came to Zechariah, the son of Beccariah, the son of Ito, the prophet, saying, The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. And He was angry, and He swept them away.

As we remember, the sin of Israel and Judah previously that led to captivity was number one, Sabbath breaking, and number two, idolatry. Those were the main things that God sent prophets to warn the people about. Now they spread into other activities, but those were the two main things. It says, Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return to me. So He's telling people now, again 520, repent, return. What were they doing? Were they doing the same things? It says, Return to me, and I will return to you. So there is a promise, says the Lord of hosts, Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds. But they did not hear nor heed, says the Lord. Turn over a few more pages or a couple more pages to Zechariah the third chapter.

Zechariah the third chapter. And we'll see a little bit more, and then we'll actually pick up what the problems of the people were. Zechariah the third chapter, starting in verse one. This is a message to Joshua the high priest. He would have been the one who would have been commissioned mainly to rebuild the temple. Zechariah 3, 1, it says, Then He showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand. So again, you've got God's servant, and he's being opposed by Satan. The adversary is always there. He's always there, but now Joshua has an angel to help him. He has an angel to help him oppose the work of Satan. It says, And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. And then it says, Is this not a brand plucked from the fire, referring to Joshua? So basically, Joshua was like a stick that was on fire. And if he hadn't been pulled out of the fire, he would have been burned up. He says, This is not a brand that's plucked from the fire. It says, Now Joshua, again, the high priest was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. So again, we ask the question, What are filthy garments?

What was the problem that was taking place at this time? What are the filthy garments?

Obviously, we can all say it has something to do with sin. But specifically, what? Continue in verse 4, it says, And then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, See, I've removed your sin from you. So again, it did have to do with sin. The sin was forgiven. It was taken away. But again, something happened between verse 3 and verse 4. Obviously, repentance happened at that time. But what specifically did he repent of? Again, I mentioned that Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying at about the same time. Haggai was prophesying a little bit before. Let's turn back a couple of pages to the book of Haggai, and we will pick out what was happening at that particular time. What was the sin of the people? What caused the high priest to have the filthy garments?

So Haggai, just a couple pages back, chapter 1, starting in verse 1. And this message is addressed both to Zerubbabel and Joshua. It says, In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, so basically, and again, this is a date that's pretty consistent in the various scholars, August 29th, 520 BCE. So this is a couple months before the times we just read about in Zechariah. This is the historic or this is the events that are leading up to that point in Zechariah, where the filthy garments are removed and the new garments are given. In the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah. So we have the civil ruler and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, so this is a message, thus says the Lord of hosts, saying, This people says the time has not come, the time has not come that the Lord's house should be built.

This is the definition of the dirty garments, the filthy garments. People are saying, We don't need to work on that. Why do we need to work on the temple?

Besides, the king told us not to work on the temple. What can we do? The people become very lethargic, very self-centered, and while very interested in their own doings, as we'll continue to read on and see, it says, When the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses? Paneled houses, these are houses, you know, a little bit of luxury, either wood paneling or plastered and painted, you know, nice houses, you know, not just block or wood, but nice houses. It is time for you to have a nice house for yourself and this temple lie in ruins. Now therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Now think about this a little bit. You've been going your own way, you've been working for yourself, you've been trying to accumulate, it says you have so much and you bring in a little. You eat but do not have enough. You drink but are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves but known as warm and he earns wages, earns wages to put in a bag with holes. In other words, you've been working very, very hard but where are the blessings? You know, where's the accumulation? Actually, you could talk a lot about this point. I look at, you know, putting this, putting wages in a bag with holes. To me, this is a classic definition of inflation. You know, you can put your money in the bank and rather than it accumulating, it tends to go the other direction.

Things were not good. God was not blessing that society. So then in verse 7, he continues on and he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You know, think about what you're doing, think about the temple. Consider your ways. And then he says, go up to the mountains and this is what you need to do and bring wood and build the temple. Then I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much but indeed it came to little. In other words, you know, you worked very hard, but you know, it's blown away. When you brought it home, he says, I blew it away. Why, says the Lord of hosts, because of my house that is in ruins. Well, every one of you runs to his own house. In other words, you have your place. What about mine? Therefore, the heavens above you withhold the dew and the earth withholds its fruit. For I call for a drought on the land and the mountains and on the grain and on the new wine and the oil and whatever the ground brings forth on men and livestock and in all labor and all your hands. So Zachariah, excuse not Zachariah, Haggai went around proclaiming this message, telling the people you need to repent. And what they needed to repent of was ignoring the work of God. Verse 12, his prophesying was very effective. His preaching was effective because then it says, then Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltia and Joshua, the son of Jehozedek, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God in the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord God had sent them, and the people feared the presence of the Lord. So now you have Haggai preaching. Perhaps Zachariah, although again, the message in Zachariah was a little bit later by a couple months. Zachariah could have been active at this time as well. But anyway, the people listened to the voice of God. It says, then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke to the people, saying, I am with you, says the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltia, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozedek, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant. So again, it was just a remnant of the people that came back. And they came and they worked on the house of the Lord of the hosts, their God, on the 24th day of the sixth month. So Haggai had been speaking, preaching, prophesying for about a little over three weeks. It was a very effective message. It says, on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius, so now the people went about, they started to build. And now, then we come to another situation. This is about three weeks after they started to build. Discouragement started to set in. It says, in the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, speaking out to the Lord of the Lord, who is left among you, who saw this former temple in its glory.

In other words, who is here who saw the temple that Solomon built? That was a fabulous house.

Obviously, what they were building now wasn't anywhere near what Solomon's temple was.

And I try to think of an analogy of what we could identify with today. And as I do this, I do want to say that I like this building. I think this is a very nice building that God has provided for us to do the work at this time. However, I'm going to say, how many people have seen Ambassador College in its, quote-unquote, glory days? And I'm talking about in Pasadena, and not necessarily looking for a show of hands. If not, try and an envoy, which is the annual from Ambassador College, and I'm calling it the college because it was the college in those days, not the university. You look at beautiful buildings, and I'm not necessarily talking about the auditorium, which itself, again, was a very, very, very, very fine building. But any of the buildings that were back there, this building doesn't really compare to it. I think that's a situation that they were looking at then. They wanted to build something, you know, to honor their God, and they didn't have the resources. They didn't have the wherewithal to build a fine building such as that. So continuing on, it says, who saw the former temple, you know, the temple of Solomon? And how do you see it now? You know, what are you looking at now, you know, this building?

In comparison with it, is it in your eyes as nothing? And yes, it was in their eyes as nothing.

But again, the message, yet now be strong as the rubber bell, says the Lord, be strong, Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, and all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work, for I am with you. God is giving them encouragement at this time. They realize that, you know, what they lost is far more than what they're going to be building. But the important thing is, God said, I am with you. According to the word that I covenant with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains with you. Do not fear. For thus says the Lord of Hosts. And then in verse 6, it all of a sudden flips way into the future. Way into the future. I don't know what the people would have thought that heard this at this time. But it says, for thus says the Lord of Hosts, once more. It's a little while, and I will shake heaven and earth. It's kind of interesting. It says, once more. When did he shake heaven and earth the first time? I don't know. Perhaps in the rebellion of Satan, perhaps during the days of Noah's flood. But obviously, he shook it in the past, and he's going to shake it once more. He says, the sea and the dry land, I will shake all nations, and they shall come to desire of nations, and I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. And then God said, you're worried about how you're going to furnish this temple? He says, the silver is mine. The gold is mine. It all belongs to me anyway, says the Lord. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in this place, I will give peace, says the Lord of Hosts. So here, again, God is saying that this latter temple is going to have more glory than the former. Now, he wasn't really talking about the building that the Jewish people were building at that time. That temple was what lasted roughly four or five hundred years, and then it was destroyed. What he's talking about is the temple at the time of the end. It's a prophecy way for the future as far as Haggai is concerned, as far as the people that lived at that time are concerned. Continuing on in verse 10, another message, and Haggai had four messages. It's a short little book, but there's four messages. It says, on the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts. Now ask the priest concerning the law. Go to the priest and ask him about a law, saying, If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge of his garment he touches bread, or stew, wine, or oil, or any food, will it become holy?

So this is, I'll say, a technical question, but also one that has meaning to them and us.

And the priest answered and said, No, it's not going to make something else holy. And again, that's right. And Haggai said, If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, Yes, it shall be unclean. And what he's talking about at that particular point is the people at that time, again, because of their lethargy, of their self-centeredness, of their neglecting the work, they had become unclean. And one unclean thing leads to another unclean thing. Uncleanness spreads. Putting it in today's vernacular, we say, A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Sin spreads. And it not only spreads, it's not necessarily the same type of sin that's here. It can spread, be a different type of sin, and on and on. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. And Haggai is saying to the people, You are unclean. You are leavened. But in verse 14, it goes on and said, Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people. They're unclean, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord, and so is the work of their hands. And then it says, Now carefully consider from this day forward, from before the stone was laid upon stone. And it says, you know, since a day is basically, I'll paraphrase this, since the days you started this work, you had nothing. You know, you were putting money in bags with holes. You looked for, you know, say 10 gallons of wine, and you had five. It just wasn't there. You weren't blessed. But now that you're doing the work, this is in your best interest. You will be blessed. Again, God is going to be with you. And then in the last part, the fourth prophecy, which is roughly December of that year, 520, 20 to 23, which I'm not going to read now, it's again another prophecy for the future, again, strengthening Zerubbabel, encouraging him, although Zerubbabel at this time is a type of someone who's going to come at a later time, someone who's coming after our time. Well, let's go back to Zechariah. Let's go back to Zechariah. And we saw verses 3 and 4 where something happened. The priest's garments were cleansed. He had repented. And again, his garments were cleansed. And what cleansed and what happened is the people started working on the house of God. They started doing the work. This was the problem. This was the thing that caused the filthy garments. This is what was cleansed. This is what they repented of. They started working and they were blessed. In Zechariah chapter 4, Zechariah chapter 4, we'll just quickly look at some things here. It's how was the work accomplished? And again, I'll do a little bit of reading. It says, Now the angel of the Lord who talked with me came back and wakened me as a man wakened out of his sleep and he said to me, What do you see? And he said, I'm looking and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it and on the stand seven lamps. Two out of trees are by it, one at the right side of the bowl and the other on the left. So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me saying, What are these, my Lord? The angel who talked with me answered me and said, Do you not know what these are? And he said, No. Now basically, the picture is, and again, this is stood as a rubblebell at this point, but he knew what was in the temple. There was a candelabra and apparently there was a bowl of oil that would be filled and then the oil would be dispersed out to the various arms of the candle. Well, now you've got these two olives, and he understood that. You know, that was in the temple. That was something that he could identify with, but now there's these two olive trees and they didn't have olive trees in the temple.

So basically, what this is picturing is you've got two olive trees that produce oil that drip into this bowl that feed the candles. And there's a whole lot of symbolism here, but I'm going to be going a different direction. These two olive trees, again, produce oil. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Where does the Holy Spirit come from? God and Jesus Christ. This is the picture here, and if we continue reading on, we'll see that. And he says, you know what these are? And he says, no, I don't. So he answered and said, this is the word of the Lord to his rubbable, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. That's the subject here. By my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Then kind of an interesting thing here. It says, who are you, O Grey Mountain? Before his rubbable, you shall be a plane. When they start rebuilding the temple, the king had still had an order saying, you know, thou shalt not build. This is the king of an empire. You know, you don't really cross him without really, really good reasons. And of course, if God tells you something, that is a really, really good reason. So at this time, you know, a mountain symbolizes a government. It symbolizes a king. And what he's saying, he says, who are you, O Grey Mountain? A great mountain? Before his rubbable, you're going to be a plane. Don't worry about the king's rubabelle. You continue to build. And then it goes on and says that, you know, the hands of the rubabelle have started the temple, and by his hands, it's going to be completed. And the temple was completed in four years, from 520 to 516 BCE.

So we see that this work then was done by individuals, individuals who were stirred up by God, individuals who God used with his spirit to get them to build the temple and to do the work. Well, let's turn ahead to the New Testament. In the New Testament, the book of Acts. Look at the book of Acts and starting in verse 1. Book of Acts, and you'll probably see where I'm going with this. Again, the work at that time was done by God, using his Holy Spirit to stir up individuals to do the work. So here we have chapter 1 in the book of Acts for those who were here on Wednesday evening, and it's a very fine Bible study, and this scripture was also mentioned. Chapter 1, starting in verse 4, says, being assembled together with them, and so that he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, this is Christ, you know, talking to the disciples, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So again, it's a prophecy of them receiving the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, well, Lord, is this the time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? It's a question, I think, that's been asked over and over and over and over again through history. And he said, it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

God is empowering his people with his Spirit to do a job, to do a work. And again, I believe this was also mentioned on Wednesday night that that's a pretty audacious statement. You know, you're talking to a few people, you know, in the Middle East 2,000 years ago and saying, you're going to reach the ends of the earth. That's exactly what did happen. A little while later in the book of Acts, you know, the apostles were preaching, they were captured, you know, taken before the council, they're severely threatened at this point, not beaten at this point, but threatened. And then the apostles go back and says, Peter and John, they go back to the disciples and they, what happened? What happened? He said, well, they threatened us. Well, but they became more bold, and they prayed a prayer, and where they were, you know, the house where they were, were shaking.

Again, more encouragement from God. Go forth and do the work. Let's turn ahead to 2 Timothy of the first chapter. 2 Timothy of the first chapter, and we'll start reading in verse 6, verse 6 and 7, verse 6 and 7. Familiar passage to most of us, a passage that many of us have memorized. 2 Timothy of the first chapter, starting in verse 6.

This is instructions from the apostle Paul to Timothy, where he says, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God, again, the Holy Spirit, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. And he says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear. It's not a temerity. It's not of lethargy. It's not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. So this is something that each of us needs to be doing. Needs to be doing individually. It's something that we need to be doing collectively. Again, when we do the work, it's made up of individuals, but the work as a whole. We need to be working together, stirring up the Holy Spirit within each and all of us to do the work. Think about the commission. I'm not going to turn there, but I think we're familiar with it in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20, if you want to put that in your notes. Christ sends forth the disciples to teach and preach all nations, to teach about Him, to teach about His kingdom, to teach about His ways, to preach about the good news of the kingdom of God. That's a commission that He gives to us, and He gives it to all of us. When we think about it, let's look at the United Church of God, AIA. And I'll ask a question or two to those of us who are here, to those of us on the internet.

This is a commission that is given to us as well. It's not just given to the Council of Elders. It's not just given to Mr. Luker. It's not just given to Mr. Eddington. When you think about the Church, what is the Church? The Church is a group of called-out individuals, people, people called out by God for a purpose. So when the Church has a commission, we all have that commission. And so when I talk about the Church, it's about us. It's about ourselves. And looking at that, I want to ask a question or two. It's kind of a hard question, but we're coming up to the point of year where we ask ourselves some difficult questions.

And the question is, you know, it talks about, I said the commission, which says, go teach and preach. And it says, make disciples of all nations and baptize.

My question is, how are we doing? How are we, the United Church of God, AIA, doing?

I kind of think about that there was a period of roughly 16 years, 15 years, between the laying of the foundation and the start to rebuild the temple. The United Church of God, AIA, has been in existence about 16 years. And I don't know if there's any meaning there or not.

But it's kind of interesting. And I look back, you know, like, how are we doing?

What are we doing? As I mentioned, this is the time of year we look to examine ourselves. I used an expression a while ago, a little leaven. Leaven's the whole lump. Passover and an leavened bread are approaching. This is one of the things, one of the things that we can look at, ask ourselves about. As I mentioned, we also, you know, they had a new beginning. We have a new beginning now. What are we going to do with this new beginning? It's a time for us to stir up the Spirit of God that is within us, to be going forward individually, to be going forward collectively, to be about our Father's business. Let's turn back to the, excuse me, the book of Ezra, the book of Ezra, and we'll see some interesting things, a couple more interesting things. I thought it was kind of humorous the way that it turned out, is the Jews were building again.

They'd resumed, and of course it didn't take long for the enemies, those who were around them, to realize. And when I say the book of Ezra, basically, well, start chapter 5 verses 3 and 4.

The enemies, the people around, realized that, you know, they're at it again, you know, they're building the temple. They're not supposed to do this. The king said, you know, don't do this.

So chapter 5, starting in verse 3, it says, at the time, Tetanai, the governor of the region beyond the river, and when Shaltar Banzai and their companions came to them and spoke to them, said, who's commanded you to build this temple and finish this wall? Now, they really weren't working on the wall. They were working on the temple. And the Jews at that time probably said, well, you know, God has told us to do this. Plus, many, many, many years ago, Cyrus told us, actually not many, but, you know, 15, 20 years ago Cyrus told us to do this. Then accordingly, the men, they took down names. You know, they wanted to know who's doing this, you know, they start taking names. And so they run back off to Darius and said, they're doing it again, you know, they're building. They're not supposed to be doing it. And it says, not only that, they say that they have a command, not only from their God, but from Cyrus to do that. So Cyrus was a fair-minded individual. Also, I would imagine there's God's involvement in taking place here. And so the king said, okay, well, we'll look for this decree of Cyrus to see if it's existed. And sure enough, you know, he finds the decree. So in chapter 6, starting on about verse 3, well, he finds the decree. It says, in the first year of the King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God. Let the house be rebuilt in the place where they offered sacrifice and let the foundation be firmly laid. So again, the foundation of the temple and the building of the house, King Darius found that. And so he said, okay, if that's what King Cyrus said, that's what needs to be done. That house needs to be built diligently.

And that they need to really be diligently about that and get that house built. It's supposed to be built. And not only that, and he's talking now to the enemies that came there that wanted to stop the building, he said, not only is that house going to be built, you're going to help them.

You're going to take tax money that you normally would have, and you're going to support the building of that temple. You're going to take oxen, you know, you're going to take sheep, you're going to provide sacrifices, you're going to provide raw materials, you're going to provide money so that they can build that temple. I thought that was kind of a humorous way, the story, the way the story turns out. The enemies, you know, try and try and stop. Instead, you know, now we've got to help them in building this building. So as I mentioned before, the Jewish people finished building the temple through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah in roughly four years. That was done, that was complete. And again, they finished that work.

Hopefully, brethren, as far as we're concerned, when the records are written, when the books are rolled out, when the records are written, hopefully the same thing will be said about us. We also have a work to do, and hopefully it will be said at that time that we finished the work that God gave to us to do.