Out of Babylon to Zion by Prof. Lucas A. Reed

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 28, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 25.

"Out of Babylon to Zion"

By Prof. Lucas A. Reed

XII. God's Mighty Assurance

GOD'S people were not to fear the nations. They were not to be alarmed at the opposition of kings.

"For thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. . . . The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts." Hag. 2: 6, 7, 9.

As yet there was no decree of the Persian monarch giving them authority to continue the work at Jerusalem. A decree had come a few months before from the usurper, the Pseudo-Smerdis, compelling them to cease from the work. As yet they had no knowledge of what position Darius might take with reference to this matter. Possibly he would maintain the decree requiring them to cease from the work; but they had word from God — a decree from the Most High — to persevere in their labors, and they were obeying God.

And in these words the Lord is assuring them that He will take care of Persia and the king of Persia; that He will shake all nations; and that instead of the nations' showing opposition, the Desire of all nations shall come, and God would fill His house with glory. Altho this latter house was beginning small, perhaps unsatisfactorily, yet He assures them that its glory shall be greater than formerly; and best of all, in this temple He would give peace.

There was nothing for them to fear from the powers of the earth, for God was controlling the events of the nations.

"Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother." Hag. 2: 21, 22.

The Lord gives one final assurance that He will prosper them if they are obedient; that from the moment they begin to rebuild the temple, the moment that they begin again to take hold of the work, from that moment they could date the beginning of a new prosperity.

"And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord: since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye turned not to Me, saith the Lord. Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you." Hag. 2: 15-19.

In the promise that He made to His people with reference to the building of His former city, He assures them that all the treasure necessary for the building and embellishment of His house would be forthcoming. He declares, "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts." Hag. 2: 8.

How thoroly this statement is verified in a few months thereafter! Recorded in Ezra 6, verses 8 and 9, is a decree issued by the king of Persia, which reached them in a year or two after these statements of the Lord through Haggai; and in that decree we read these words:

"Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place. Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered. And that which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail."

And still later, something like sixty years afterward, another decree from a Persian king was issued in which this provision was made:

"And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, and all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem." "And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God. The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure-house. And I, even Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily, unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?" Ezra 7: 15, 16, 18-23.

Truly the Lord was providing for His work and for His people. As we study the times, we are constantly impressed with the fact that the Lord would have done even more had His people relied upon Him with that faith which they should have had, and had they worked with the zeal that under the circumstances should have animated them.