Zerubbabel

[Read Haggai 1:12-15]

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel…with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.

One of the blessings of the Christmas season is the anticipation of time spent closely with family and friends. Due to world circumstances many will spend a very different Christmas this year. Yet there is good reason to keep good cheer!

Zerubbabel was the ruler of Judah when the Jews began returning to their ancestral land after captivity in Babylon. He led his people during very difficult economic and social times, with a huge task of uniting his people under true worship by restoring the Temple of God.

When Haggai, the Lord’s prophet, confronts Zerubbabel and Joshua, the High Priest, with God’s Word and decree to rebuild, they immediately render themselves over to God’s plan. That is when the Haggai delivered this powerful word from God to them, “I am with you”.

Those words became all the more true when God entered into his own creation in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is called “Immanuel”, God with us. Though this is likely a Christmas season unlike any other, we can keep hope and cheer as we focus not simply on the challenges faced, but on the peace we find in Jesus.

This Christmas may we learn from the example of Zerubbabel, who when faced with national crisis turned to the Lord instead of away from him and led others into a renewed covenant relationship with the Giver of Peace, Jehovah-Shalom.

Pastor Brian Garcia
Crossroads – Sturgeon Bay



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