Prophets Of Revival

by Edwin Neely, Brantford, Ontario | Category: Great Spiritual Revivals | Oct 1981

Revival! Godly men in darkened days have always longed for it! The cry of Habakkuk in a time of impending judgement was: "0 Lo~, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known" ('3:2). Ezra acknowledged the grace of God in bringing from captivity a remnant with a nail in His holy place ... reviving to setup the house of God (9:8,9). Revival is stones from the rubble (Neh. 4:2); it is the bringing forth of grain and wine after the unfruitfulness of winter (Hos. 14:7); it is the lifting of the humble spirit and the contrite heart (Isa. 57:15). Our own souls long for it. Yet adversaries without, apathy among many believers, and an unsympathetic environment all diminish its probability. In days much like our own, God reminded the people through two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, that He was the One able to shake heavens and earth and to pour down blessing upon His people.

The year was 520 B.C. Fourteen years previously under Zerubbabel's direction the foundation of the house of God had been laid. Then Cyrus of Persia died in 529 B.C. and an unsympathetic Ahasuerus came to power and lent an ear to Samaritan counsellors who convinced him that work on the temple should be suspended. In 520, what should have been a glorious house lay waste, overgrown with weeds and scarred by debris. Crop failure and economic recession caused the people to consolidate their financial position to secure personal comfort, but this brought neither contentment nor divine approbation. Lack of blessing both temporal and spiritual was accepted with gloomy resignation. In the midst of this, God gave four clear messages through Haggai in a period of four months and supplemented those with a series of visions and promises through his contemporary, Zechariah, all to the same intent: build the house; I am with you; I will bless you. Haggai's two chapters are delightfully simple and straightforward; Zechariah's fourteen are far-reaching and complex, but both contain a message for Israel and for our own age about the subject of revival (Rom. 15:4).

The command of God had not changed: "Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God by with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lo~" (Ezra 1:3); nor had any the authority to change that word no matter what the circumstance. The commandment was the more important because of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to which Haggai alludes in 2:7,9, "the desire (AV) of all nations shall come... the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former"... (While arguments have surrounded these verses as to whether Messiah's coming to His temple is meant, all things considered I read the verses in that way). This commandment to build is a reflection of the commis4on of the Lord Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 28:19. "Go ye therefore" was Haggai's message, and the Lord's. And once again the blessed pope, even the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ lends urgency to our obedience. Unfortunately, a "day of small things" led the people to say that it was not the right time to build the house. Haggai's four-fold message instructs all, whether hampered by prevailing philosophy or misinterpretation of Scripture. The house is to be built.

The first communication invites Israel to a consideration of their present state, an evaluation of living without due thought to divine commandment, the result of which is always much labour, little benefit. The second pleads with the people to realize that God is with them, and is reminiscent of that later, "Lo, I am with you alway". God was with them by covenant (2:5); His Spirit abode among them and His promise remained sure, reiterated for our own benefit in Hebrews 12:26,27: "now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things that are not shaken may remain. Wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have thankfulness (RVM), whereby we may offer service well-pleasing unto God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire". Haggai's third message reminds us that mere working on a holy project does not in itself make one holy. Association with dead works always renders one unclean. Thank God for repentance from dead works and the blood of Christ which cleanses the conscience from dead works, that in our day we may serve the living God. Our engagement in the building of God's house puts God under no obligation to bless. It is in His abounding grace that He deigns to use the efforts of men and to give the promise of any present 0r future blessing. Haggai's fourth message is directly to Zerubbabel, yet shoW5 us in him God's greater Leader. Zerubbabel was to be God's signet, His sign of authority in that day; in the present and in days shortly to unfold will the signet of God be impressed upon men through His greater Leader, for He is yet to be glorified in His saints and marvelled at in them that behaved (2 Thess. 1:10).

Between Haggai's second and third messages, Zechariah began to amplify what Haggai had been saying, particularly in Zechariah 1 to 8.

In the following chapters we are taken far beyond temple-building days of

the past to future ultimate triumph in Israel under Christ, when all to do with Israel will be holy unto Jehovah.

It would seem that the visions of the first eight chapters of Zechariah

came all in one night (1 :7),just five months after the rebuilding of the temple had been resumed. The first shows the divinely ordained interest of heavenly beings in earthly things, especially in things to do with the building of the house of God. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that this same interest obtains today. The second and third visions promise divine intervention in the nations so that God's purposes might be carried out and His servants protected, a matter which finds concurrence both in relation to the words of Moses in Deut. 32:8 for Israel in the past, and to Paul's in 1 Cor. 3:16,17 for God's people in this age. The calling out and together of a people and the furnishing of that people for the fulfilment of divine service is ever a priority item with God. Joshua, high priest over a covenanted people is to be reclothed in vision four, and the Old Covenant still in effect, renewed through the cleansing of people and priesthood, but points forward to the new one under which we now serve. Christ is a priest of good things now come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle (Heb. 9:11), and God's people are seen together in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:2). Notice for interest the nine times in the book of Hebrews where the Lord is called Jesus, the same name as Joshua, this Old Covenant high priest.

Vision five shows an earth-based witness (compare Rev. 1:20) into which fruit-bearing branches, "sons of oil", become channels which receive from the Lord beside whom they stand and pour forth that which is received to the sustaining and brightening of the testimony. Whatever all the explanations of the sixth vision of scroll and ephah might be, one thing is very clear. What is described by the angel as wickedness and associated with the curse has no place in the house of God. Wickedness pertains to Babylon and must be delivered there. Vision seven again emphasizes the working of the great powers in heaven in the fulfilling of divine purpose upon the earth; shows the triumphant crowning of Joshua the high priest, reflecting the victory of the Lord in the re-establishing of His people; and finally points forward to the Branch, who in a yet future day will build the temple of Jehovah.

The visions given to Zechariah by an unchanging God along with the four messages through Haggai should speak great encouragement to God's people who long for revival in our day. We must consider our ways; cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1); and build the house, ever aware of God's interest, presence and power with us. Words such as, "I am with you", "he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye", "I will take pleasure in it (the house), and I will be glorified, saith the LORD", should urge us on to a fulfilment of His purposes in us. God "willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).

Edwin Neely, Brantford, Ontario | Oct 1981
Great Spiritual Revivals