We continue to hear from the prophet Haggai today in our first reading. The prophet is bringing a message from God to the people who have returned from exile in Babylon to the city of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed. He is specifically addressing this message to Zerubbabel, the governor, and to Joshua, the high priest, and the rest of the remnant of Israel that survived and that has returned from exile. This message is delivered around the time of the summer harvest. However, as a further sign of God’s displeasure with them, the harvest is meagre.
Haggai asks if there is anyone among them who saw this Temple in its former glory. It is possible that some of the older exiles had seen the former Temple built by Solomon in all its magnificence and glory, the Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians more than six decades earlier. If they had not remembered it or were not around at that time, surely they had heard stories about the Temple from their parents and grandparents. The Temple was a place of hope for the Jews. They place their hope in rebuilding the Temple. That hope would be realized in Jesus.
We may long for the past. We may long for things the way they used to be. On one of the pilgrimage podcasts I listen to, I heard a quote that was attributed to the Christian author C S Lewis that state: “'You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” The Jews could not go back and change the history of the destruction of their Temple. However, they could look at their present way of life and their relationship with God and could try to make things better.
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