Tending my garden is simultaneously one of my favorite and least favorite activities. I love the idea of gardening: of hours spent in the warm sun, hands in the dirt, digging up and delivering fresh, beautiful blooms to a vase on my kitchen table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reality, the work of gardening is work\u2014hard work. It\u2019s never simply warm when my garden needs tending because I live in the south and it is almost always scorching hot. It\u2019s sweaty labor, on sore knees and with callused fingers, pulling up the same weeds week after week. I love it for what it produces; I usually dread the work to get there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people of Judah\u2014the southern kingdom\u2014had been exiled by the Babylonians. Their temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, their lives in ruin. After they returned to their city, the good work of rebuilding began. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then it got hard. While they envisioned the glorious return of God\u2019s presence to his holy temple, the reality of building felt daunting. Then their neighbors from Samaria started attacking them, making the job really, really hard. So they stopped. For years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prophet Haggai served an important role as God\u2019s messenger by encouraging the people to return to the work of rebuilding the temple. And Haggai prophesied directly to Zerubbabel, who was the governor of Judah, saying \u201c\u2018Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,\u2019 says the LORD\u201d (Haggai 1:8). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zerubbabel responded instantly. Verse 12 says, \u201cThen Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him.\u201d The Lord later honored Zerubbabel\u2019s response and hard work, saying \u201c\u2018I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant\u2019\u2014this is the LORD\u2019s declaration\u2014\u2019and make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you\u2019\u201d (Haggai 2:23). The signet ring marked the authority given by God to rule his people; as Zerubbabel was part of King David\u2019s family, this symbolized the continuation of God\u2019s covenant with David\u2014that someone from his house would rule God\u2019s people forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working for the Lord can often feel slow, tedious, or like we\u2019re under attack constantly. The fruit is not ours (it is the Holy Spirit\u2019s alone) but we are empty vessels in the Lord\u2019s hand. We are more like the Judeans than Zerubbabel\u2014slow to listen or to do the hard things required to tend to our spiritual well-being. But as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:58, \u201cTherefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord\u2019s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tending my garden is simultaneously one of my favorite and least favorite activities. I love the idea of gardening: of hours spent in the warm sun, hands in the dirt, digging up and delivering fresh, beautiful blooms to a vase on my kitchen table. In reality, the work of gardening is work\u2014hard work. It\u2019s never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":72155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pitot"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72122],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"ZERUBBABEL<\/b>
\r\nby Melanie Rainer<\/i>
\r\n
Tending my garden is simultaneously one of my favorite and least favorite activities. I love the idea of gardening: of hours spent in the warm sun, hands in the dirt, digging up and delivering fresh, beautiful blooms to a vase on my kitchen table.<\/p>
\r\n
In reality, the work of gardening is work\u2014hard work. It\u2019s never simply warm when my garden needs tending because I live in the south and it is almost always scorching hot. It\u2019s sweaty labor, on sore knees and with callused fingers, pulling up the same weeds week after week. I love it for what it produces; I usually dread the work to get there.<\/p>
\r\n
The people of Judah\u2014the southern kingdom\u2014had been exiled by the Babylonians. Their temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, their lives in ruin. After they returned to their city, the good work of rebuilding began.<\/p>
\r\n
But then it got hard. While they envisioned the glorious return of God\u2019s presence to his holy temple, the reality of building felt daunting. Then their neighbors from Samaria started attacking them, making the job really, really hard. So they stopped. For years.<\/p>
\r\n
The prophet Haggai served an important role as God\u2019s messenger by encouraging the people to return to the work of rebuilding the temple. And Haggai prophesied directly to Zerubbabel, who was the governor of Judah, saying \u201c\u2018Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,\u2019 says the LORD\u201d (Haggai 1:8).<\/p>
\r\n
Zerubbabel responded instantly. Verse 12 says, \u201cThen Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him.\u201d The Lord later honored Zerubbabel\u2019s response and hard work, saying \u201c\u2018I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant\u2019\u2014this is the LORD\u2019s declaration\u2014\u2019and make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you\u2019\u201d (Haggai 2:23). The signet ring marked the authority given by God to rule his people; as Zerubbabel was part of King David\u2019s family, this symbolized the continuation of God\u2019s covenant with David\u2014that someone from his house would rule God\u2019s people forever.<\/p>
\r\n
Working for the Lord can often feel slow, tedious, or like we\u2019re under attack constantly. The fruit is not ours (it is the Holy Spirit\u2019s alone) but we are empty vessels in the Lord\u2019s hand. We are more like the Judeans than Zerubbabel\u2014slow to listen or to do the hard things required to tend to our spiritual well-being. But as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:58, \u201cTherefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord\u2019s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.\u201d<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"45","scripture":"Ezra 3:1-8, Ezra 5:2, Haggai 1:1-4, Haggai 1:7-8, Haggai 1:12-15, Haggai 2:1-5, Haggai 2:20-23, Zechariah 4:8-10 ","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}