Hag 2:1-3 In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai,
saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Nosed each, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
A question is asked the men who had seen the previous Temple of Solomon about how this new temple, known as the Temple of Zerubbabel/Herod’s temple, looked in comparison to the temple of Solomon. We find the question answered in Ezra 3.10-13. It’s pretty obvious that as far as these older men were concerned, in comparison to Solomon’s temple, this new temple to the natural eye was really nothing at all. There is a huge spiritual lesson for us here.
We do not go forward in what The Lord is doing in our lives by looking in our “spiritual rearview mirrors”. There is a grave danger in looking back at how things used to be. Many saints (myself included) can look back at the glory days of the Jesus Movement and wonder. Why aren’t things the same today?
Paul exhorts us to forget those things that are behind, and to press on in Christ today. Jesus tells us that we cannot put new wine into an old wineskin. It is one thing to look back and be challenged to move forward in the purposes of God because you are inspired by the faithfulness of God. It is another thing to look back and compare what God is doing in your life or in this church with the way it used to be “x” amount of years ago.
When Lot’s wife looked back, she became a pillar of salt; good for nothing. The Lord is challenging the people of God through Haggai back in 520 B.C. and us reading this blog with this simple but profound truth: Don’t look back at the way things used to be, trust Him, and get in tune with what He is doing in your life right now.
