After seventy years in Babylon, Israel’s exiles crossed the threshold of Jerusalem expecting home to feel like home again. But in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai, even a restored temple and rebuilt walls cannot keep old priorities and old sins from returning. What do you hold on to when the future you hoped for cannot heal what exile exposed?
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
The pastor describes placing hope in temporary “lights at the end of the tunnel”—a vacation, a promotion, a marriage, a finish line that will finally make life feel right. What are some specific ways you’ve caught yourself anchoring hope in temporary things, and how does that affect your resilience when those things fade or disappoint?
Haggai challenged the Israelites to reprioritize around God rather than abandon earthly pursuits entirely. How do you personally distinguish between healthy ambition and the kind of self-focused kingdom-building he warns against? Where might your priorities currently be more about your kingdom than God’s?
Daniel stayed faithful under extreme pressure in Babylon while Israel had been unfaithful in freedom. What does that contrast suggest about the relationship between external circumstances and internal faithfulness—and how does it apply to whatever season you’re in right now?
Ezra emphasized working on the “inside” before outward service. Reflect on a time when you served or led without your heart being aligned with God. What was the result, and what shifted when your internal priorities changed?
After the temple was rebuilt and the exiles returned home, the people still drifted back into sin. What does that reveal about the limits of outward rebuilding—and what modern parallels exist where we expect external changes (church involvement, new environments, life circumstances) to fix what are actually internal spiritual problems?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Ashes where glory dwelt, Jerusalem shrouded in silence, the temple in ruins, its people far from home. Yet, in darkness, hope speaks. A future foretold, a new and forever promise, a return to glory, a nation restored, and a temple rebuilt. But even this wasn’t the end. The prophets spoke of a king whose dominion would forever be. We awaited this savior, this deliverer of his people, to accomplish what we never could.
Well, hello. I want to say hi to everyone in the room, but also everyone joining us at our Troy and O’Fallon campuses. Great to have all of our campuses together right now as we dive into the word. We are in episode 11 of our series, From Eden to Eternity. And in just 10 weeks, we have almost made it through the Old Testament. Now, I realize that the cool thing with this series is that we cover the arc of the Bible in 20 weeks. However, the challenging thing with this series is trying to cover the Bible in just 20 weeks. Obviously, there are many things we are glossing over, but the intent remains, and that is to understand the arc, the thread being woven all throughout Scripture by one author, the Holy Spirit, through 40 different people.
It’s truly fascinating to see how God moves and works throughout all of Scripture, throughout a span of 1600 years, to create a coherent book that shows God’s plan, His promises, and His love towards His people. We get a clearer picture of His character, too, and Scripture is a consistent reminder of those things. In Genesis, we really learn who God is, and then throughout the rest of Scripture, we’re reminded of that, and we get clearer pictures of that.
Think about that for a second. God is introduced at the beginning. He does not change from that introduction, but through the stories of His people, we get a better understanding of who He is. And us understanding God doesn’t actually stop at the Bible. It continues with our own life as well. Your own life is a continuation of the introduction to the Creator back in Genesis. Throughout your time on earth, you gain a clearer picture of who He is. He continues to reveal Himself, not just through Scripture, but also in your own life. The way that He works through the people we read about every day and talk about every week in the Bible, He is working through you just the same.
The reason the Bible is so crucial to our understanding of God is because it is the context by which we view Him through our own lived experiences. The Bible provides the context in which we better understand God in our own lives, and that is why we have to read and pray through and work to understand Scripture. Because without it, we’re missing the context by which God moves and works in the world today.
Why do some non-Christians think that God is a vengeful and hateful and uncaring God? Well, it’s because they lack the context of the Bible, the whole Bible. Not just pieces of it, but its entirety shows who God really is. And it paints God as a loving God who cares deeply for His people, despite His people continually turning their backs on Him, as well as us today.
Think through where we’ve been in the series. God created us for the sole purpose to walk with us. He created us in His image, and we bring Him glory. We’re His most prized creation that came with free will attached, but His desire was to walk together. But because of our free will, we sinned and became separated from God. And He would eventually flood the earth, wipe out all humankind, with the exception of Noah and his family, from which He would make a covenant to never flood the earth again, despite humanity’s sin. That was covenant number one demonstrated by His love.
Enter Abraham, and humanity continues to sin, and evil continues to corrupt, but God’s plan for humanity stands. And a second covenant that demonstrates His love is made in this time to Abraham, that he will father an entire nation from which God will lead and protect. The nation begins to take shape, but they do so in captivity in Egypt. God used Joseph to save their lives from famine, but He used Moses to deliver their lives from slavery.
Here we see a third covenant of love made to Moses. God promises Moses that He will make Israel into a holy kingdom of priests that will spread His glory to all the nations. This brought us to David. God made David the king of Israel. And while David clearly sinned and made horrible decisions, he was still a man after God’s own heart. And God made another covenant of love, promising David that from him will come a descendant that will be the ultimate king, who will ultimately save mankind and reign in the ultimate kingdom forever. This leads us to the greatest love covenant yet to come in the series: Emmanuel, the savior of the world, the only one who will end humankind’s separation with God. That’s Jesus.
You see, for the last 10 weeks, we see the pattern over and over. God makes a covenant with His people, His people break it, and God restores it. Time and time again, the consequence of a broken covenant is separation from God, but it’s never God breaking the covenant, it’s His people. And it’s the same in the New Testament, and it’s the same today. Bad things happening in the world doesn’t make God vengeful, hateful, and uncaring. It’s actually His restoration of us that proves He is a merciful, loving, and faithful God.
From creation to today, we sin and we separate from Him, and He restores and draws us back in. He makes promise after promise that He will love you and redeem you. It’s crazy to think about it like this, but it’s kind of like a child playing baseball in the house and ends up breaking several things, and most often that child will feel terrible and apologize and say to the parent, “I promise I won’t ever do that again.” But with God, it’s the parent looking back to the child and saying, “I promise I will love you anyway.”
We make the mistake, but God makes the promise. And it just doesn’t make sense, but that’s the kind of love that God gives to us, and this is the kind of love that is demonstrated by Him woven throughout the Bible. And it’s no different where we find ourselves in the series today. Season three: From Exile to Emmanuel, episode 11, today, Not Yet Home.
Where we’re going to be today are in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai. You might want a head start to try to find those books. It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally made it and found all those books. This is where we see Israelites are indeed in exile. Their continued disobedience of choosing idols over God, of compromising themselves, has led them to ruin. Think about it — 39 kings Israel had, but only five honored God. And again, their fall was not a result of God breaking His covenant; it was a result of their choices and actions to not follow Him.
Actually, this is where we see His covenant with Israel still alive. He didn’t allow them to be destroyed; they just were captured. And even though they are in exile, God does not abandon them. So here we are, the Israelites are living in exile in Babylon. This is where we’ve left off. And it’s an exile that lasts for roughly 70 years — an entire generation, and probably twice that long until most people are actually returned from exile.
Here’s what I think is fascinating about the Israelites in exile. For much of Scripture, we read about godly people being unfaithful to God and sometimes being restored back to God, right? Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, later on in the New Testament, Peter, Paul, the disciples — all godly people that strayed away, made mistakes. We read of their sin, and it’s encouraging from a human point of view to see people that God chose still mess up. It gives us hope that no one is too far gone, there’s no sin or mistake that ultimately disqualifies us from Jesus.
But I also want to bring up someone who demonstrated faithfulness while in exile. And unlike many of those other people I mentioned, this was someone that stood out because of his faithfulness in a time of extreme pressure to be unfaithful. Most of us know the story of him, and that’s Daniel. Most of us know the story of Daniel; even if you don’t grow up in the church, you probably know the story of Daniel. Maybe we just don’t know where Daniel’s story takes place. This is where it takes place — while they’re in exile.
You see, Daniel was one of the first of the Israelites exiled to Babylon, and being thrust into a new culture, pressured to bow to the king and worship him, Daniel remained faithful to God in the face of death. So while the Israelites were unfaithful in freedom, Daniel was faithful in exile. Go figure, right? Like, we have been reading time and time again of God showing favor to Israel, and Israel spitting on that favor. We ask ourselves, how? How can you have all that you need in front of you and turn your back on God? And then we see Daniel, faced with death. He’s told not to pray to God, yet he still prays to God.
And this is one where we may read and think, oh, it’d be understandable for him to maybe not pray to God to save his life, and yeah, he doesn’t. And we know what happens, right? He gets thrown into the lion’s den, God delivers him unharmed.
I think this is a message that God is conveying. God is looking for faithfulness, no matter what season we are in, whether it’s times of freedom and plenty, or times of captivity and desolation. And if you’re keeping up with the timeline, Daniel serves God while in captivity in Babylon. Daniel earns the trust of the Babylonian king and serves in his royal court. Babylon would eventually fall to Persia, and Daniel continues serving under the new regime but faces death when he refuses to compromise his faith.
Then Daniel gets to a point where he would have understood the prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah said after 70 years, Israel’s captivity would come to an end. So Daniel, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, begins to pray, to confess Israel’s sins, and ask that restoration would happen soon.
I believe Daniel began to grab onto a little hope. He saw that light coming to an end, and he said, there it is. Let’s go.
You know, I was a youth pastor for close to 20 years, and so I have what I call my youth pastor hall of fame storybook, because you can imagine the amount of crazy stories over 20 years that happened. A few years ago, I was leading a group of high school seniors on a post-COVID mission trip. Every year, I would take a group of seniors their last semester before graduation. We would go on a mission trip, typically out of the country, to Haiti or Mexico. But because of COVID, we couldn’t do that. So I picked New England because it had the word England in it. I was like, that’s kind of out of the country, right? It’s England. Most people had never been there — cross-cultural experience. So we went to New England. It was 2021. We went with the purpose to help churches that were starting up, help them get going — whatever we could do to help them. It was a church planting organization. New England is a very unchurched area. We began doing a lot of work in the area.
Like any mission trip, we had a built-in free day. With that free day, we decided to drive down to Boston and just explore. We walked around Boston, caught a Red Sox game for really cheap because it was COVID, and we got to see all kinds of stuff. But earlier in the day, as we entered the city, we needed to find parking to get out and explore. Like any big city, parking is at a premium. What makes things even trickier is I’m driving a 15-pastor van. So it’s bigger than a normal car.
Well, I find this underground parking garage and sort of last second decide to pull in because it’s just hard to find parking. So I’m like, there’s a parking garage. I’m going to pull in.
At the top of the parking garage, as you enter, there’s a sign with a height limit. Now, if you’re driving a normal car, you don’t really pay attention to that because, of course, you’re going to fit. But in a 15-pastor van, apparently, you should pay attention to that.
And I actually did. I saw it said seven feet. So I’m looking around the van for the height of the van, and I located it. It said seven feet. I quickly do the math. I think we’re good. Second guess it a little, but looked in the rearview mirror to see a long line behind me. I have nowhere to go. So I do the math again. I think it’s fine. I think it’s fine.
It wasn’t fine. It was not fine. My co-leader turns to me and said, “You think we’re going to fit?” I said, “I guess we’re going to find out. That’s how we’re playing this right now.”
And it was when I heard the sound of a fluorescent light bulb busting that that question was answered. We did not fit.
I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the type of panic when you’re in a parking garage underground, a line of Bostonians in cars behind you, a group of teens in your ear. I’m not one to be claustrophobic, but I started to feel that way a little. Quickly, two parking garage guards come running towards me asking, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m apparently changing your light bulbs.” So if you just show me where the light bulbs are, I will take care of that for you. I pointed behind me and said, “Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?”
Funny enough, there’s a big truck behind me that was scraping the top as well. Evidently, the part of the garage where you can turn around safely before entering was closed off for construction. So now I’m just in too deep in the garage to pull back up. I tell my passengers, “Please get out of the van. I just need everyone out. I’ll meet up with you.”
One of them said, “Meet you where?” I said, “Somewhere in Boston. I’ll find you. Or I won’t. I honestly don’t care right now. I was a great youth pastor.”
One of the guards got a tire pressure gauge and started letting the air out of my tires. That was what we came up with. I think that bought me an inch.
So I very gingerly weaved around the garage, just going back and forth, dodging the light bulbs and the water pipes. At one point, I see the light coming from the exit, and I’m like, there it is. But I had to turn this way first because I had to dodge all these things, so I had to turn away from it, which just kind of made me panic a little more. Eventually, I’m just weaving in and out gingerly. I get to the end, and when you get to the taller ceiling, that was one of the biggest reliefs I’ve ever experienced. Literally, I made it to the light at the end of the tunnel. I was free. I was driving around Boston with four flat tires, but I was free. I was out of that dark, loud, stressful underground parking garage.
There was a moment down there I honestly wanted to just exit the van, walk away, just tell them to keep it. Like, you can just keep it. I’ll find another one. But I knew I couldn’t do it. I was in it. I had to get out of it. That feeling of seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.
You see, Daniel, like all the Israelites, had been through it. They were in the tunnel for decades. There was a light beginning to emerge.
One of the beautiful things about the Bible is it highlights the faithfulness and unfaithfulness of everyday people. But Daniel encourages us to look for ways to be faithful to God, not just when you’re in the promised land, but also when you’re in exile in Babylon.
Seventy years had passed. Persia comes in to conquer Babylon. Cyrus becomes the ruler of Babylon, opening up the door for the Israelites to return home. That’s where we’re going to pick up on.
Ezra chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. Here we go. Here’s where the light begins to emerge:
“It says, ‘In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.’
Verse 4: ‘And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.’”
So here we go. The Israelites are given the green light to head back home. The first of what would be three returns that would cover about 90 years begins. The first return was led by a man named Zerubbabel, and he was tasked with leading the Jews back to Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. In Ezra chapter 2, we can see a list of the 50,000 people that returned with Zerubbabel. Not just the people, but the 700 horses, the 400 camels, the 7,000 donkeys and mules. In fact, let’s read Ezra 2 to get a better understanding of who was returning. I’m just kidding. We’re not reading that. We’re skipping a lot of Scripture in this series. We can skip Ezra chapter 2. That’s acceptable. But Ezra chapter 2, if you want to dig deeper this week or fall asleep quicker at night, just read Ezra chapter 2.
So the first wave of Israelites have returned, and they begin rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. They get the altar and the foundation complete. While some celebrate, others lament because the new temple is not turning out as grand as the old one. In Ezra chapter 4, we read of enemies to Israel basically distracting them from completing the temple, and they even bribed government officials to get them to halt construction.
Enter the prophet Haggai. Now, we’re really getting into the weeds of the Old Testament, and I love these little minor prophet books that pack a big punch. You may have never even opened the book of Haggai before, but Haggai basically sits there. It’s been like 15 years since the exiles have returned, and the temple still sits incomplete. So here he is, a prophet, probably thinking, well, I’m not the leader here, but somebody has to say something, right?
Sure enough, God gave Haggai the words to deliver to the Israelites, found in Haggai chapter 1. I want to read a few of these verses that Haggai delivers to the Israelites, starting in verse 3:
“‘The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways, because you have sown much but harvested little. You eat but you never have enough. You drink but you never have your fill. You clothe yourself but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so just to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build a house that I may take pleasure in it, that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You look for much, and behold, it came to little, and when you brought it home, it blew away. Why? Declares the Lord of hosts, because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce, and I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.’”
I mean, that’s a call-out of all call-outs, isn’t it? Listen to what he said: “You have planted much, but you’ve harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but you’re not warm. You earn wages only to put them in bags with holes.” He’s telling them, “You’re working really hard, but you have little to show for it.”
Is this stuff, these earthly things, worth putting your priority into? All your hard work at satisfying yourself just comes up empty. Is this a time for you to be living in your nice houses while God’s house remains a ruin? Can we maybe reprioritize a little?
I don’t think Haggai is telling them to abandon the earthly things. I think he’s telling them to reprioritize, to live as though God is the center of your life. You say He’s the center? Well, live like He is. You don’t need to abandon your homes and cars and money, but maybe adjust your priorities. If God is truly the center of your life, then your life will reflect that by your priorities.
It’s so easy to work all day, every day for something. The question we must ask ourselves is, are the things that I’m working all day, every day for eternal or temporary? Do I put so much effort into building my kingdom that God gets the leftovers? Maybe you’ve been ignoring the calls to serve somewhere in the church because by the time Sunday rolls around you’re tired from the work week and all the weekend things that you have nothing left to give.
Meanwhile, our kids’ classrooms are too big or have to be closed because we don’t have enough volunteers. That’s just an example. I’m not calling you out, unless you feel called out; then I’m calling you out, I guess. Maybe you haven’t taken the step to take your faith seriously by getting into a course or finding a small group community, or coming to youth group because maybe you just don’t have the time or energy. All legit.
But could it be that we don’t have the time or energy to grow spiritually because the world has taken it all, and we have nothing left to give? Could it be that we don’t have the capacity to build relationships with our neighbors, co-workers, or classmates because we don’t see that as an eternal priority, because the world’s priorities have zapped us dry?
Now, hear me on this, this is not a stop-spending-money-on-yourself, start-spending-it-on-the-church plea. This is a stop-building-your-kingdom-at-the-expense-of-God’s-kingdom plea.
You know, the prophet Zechariah comes in and piggybacks Haggai’s words in Zechariah chapter 8 verse 9. He says, “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.”
Sure enough, after the words of Haggai and Zechariah, over the next four years, the temple would be completed. It was the kick in the pants the Israelites really needed.
Roughly 80 years after the first return, another wave of Jews would return led by a priest named Ezra. While Zerubbabel’s mission was to rebuild the temple, Ezra’s mission was to restore God’s word. Ezra begins teaching the law back to the people.
While Haggai was concerned that Israel’s priorities were misplaced by neglecting the temple, Ezra was concerned that their priorities were misplaced by neglecting their hearts. Haggai challenges the people that they only care about themselves, and Ezra challenges them that they need to care about themselves, but not in a build-your-kingdom kind of way, but a build-your-relationship-with-God kind of way.
Ezra wanted the people to reprioritize by telling them to implant God’s word in your heart before you teach God’s word in the temple. Ezra said, “Let’s work on the inside. Let’s work on the inside.” After all, this is where the root of our problems come from — the inside.
So what if you serve in the church, if your heart is hardened towards God, work on your heart, work on your own relationship with Jesus, then love out of that relationship. Serve out of that relationship. You don’t have to know all there is to know about the Bible to serve or teach, but it’s important to grow yourself before you help grow others.
About 10 years after Ezra came a third wave returning from exile, and a man named Nehemiah led that wave to return. While Zerubbabel’s mission was to rebuild the temple, and Ezra’s mission was to restore God’s word, Nehemiah’s mission was to reconstruct the walls around the city to reform the community.
The city of Jerusalem without walls was a continuing symbol of the nation’s humiliation. So Nehemiah returns and organizes an incredible army to rebuild the walls. Unlike the temple that took a couple of decades to rebuild, Nehemiah completed the wall in a couple of months.
There you have it: Haggai, Zerubbabel, and Zechariah urging the rebuilding of the temple to restore rightful worship to God; Nehemiah urging the rebuilding of the wall around the city to restore community. But the reality was those were all just buildings and city walls.
Ezra brings the word to the people one more time in Nehemiah chapter 8. I love the words that he brings in this chapter. You have the temple completed, you have the walls completed, you have the bulk of the Israelites back, back home, and they’re all together. Here you go. This is like a last rally cry.
Ezra, the priest, in verse 2 of chapter 8, brought the law before the assembly, brought the word of God before all men, women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And Ezra opened the book, the word, in sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. As he opened the word of God, the people stood. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. They bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law.
Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not be grieved.”
All the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
This is a pretty awesome part of the story where Ezra and Nehemiah and priests gathered the nation. They rebuilt the temple, the walls, but at the reading of the word, they all stand to hear it. They all stand to hear it, symbolizing that it’s not the temple or the walls that we place at the center; it’s God and His word. They told the people the grief you feel is because of your sin. It’s conviction. It’s good. But don’t be grieved at the past, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Let’s celebrate because God continues to keep His covenant with His people. We’re standing here today as a testament to that. There is hope.
It’s pretty powerful stuff in Nehemiah 8. It would be awesome if it ended like that, right? The stand-up, the reading of the word, they rejoice. That’s a great ending to Nehemiah, to the Old Testament. But of course, it doesn’t.
When all is said and done, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah ended kind of sad. The temple was neglected, the Sabbath was dishonored, and sin began to overtake hearts again.
It’s pretty incredible what we place our hope in in life, isn’t it? Just in general. Often it’s easy to just look forward and see what’s ahead. It’s easy to place our hope in our earthly kingdom things. It’s kind of what motivates us a lot of times to press on. Whether it’s, “I got lunch after church today; I’m looking forward to that. I can sit through church; I’m going to have a great meal.” Something a little like that.
Maybe it’s a vacation, or a date, or a marriage, or a job promotion, or a pregnancy, or a possible cure. We get really excited about things in life that translate to hope. These little lights at the end of the tunnel, we get really excited about.
I mean, the amount of hope that our worship pastor, Brad Streeter, has in the Cleveland Browns around the NFL draft every year is just mind-blowing. There’s so much hope.
Sometimes we actually live for a light at the end of the tunnel. “What’s next? What can I look forward to?” And so we put that hope in it.
Sometimes I have a long day, and my light at the end of the tunnel is my bed at night. I’m like, there it is. I can’t wait to get there. It’s my light. But it’s things that we tangibly enjoy, and all of it — and I mean all of it — it all fades away.
Eventually it all fails or fades. The light inevitably dims, or we get to the light only to see another tunnel on the horizon. They’re temporary lights.
The Israelites thought that they could see the light at the end of the captivity tunnel. There’s home. There’s our temple. There’s our walls. We’re home. They put their hope in those things; they put their hope in returning home to Israel, thinking that that would make everything better.
But rebuilding Jerusalem did not rebuild their hearts, and the truth was they weren’t home yet. Doing all the things for God doesn’t right your relationship with God.
Their hope wasn’t entirely in the right spot.
I believe we need to anchor our hope in Jesus, not the things of this world. The truth is, there is only one light at the end of the tunnel. There is only one hope that will never let you down, and that is Jesus.
So you put your hope in Him and what He offers. He died so you could get to that light at the end of the tunnel.
What do lights at the end of the tunnel always do? Inevitably, they pierce through the tunnel into that darkness. So it’s not even getting to the end of the tunnel where you have to experience the light. You get to experience it in the tunnel as well.
Exiting exile does not require you to focus on the light and think that one day we’re going to get there, but it does ask you to focus on the light that’s in there with you, and even if you lose sight of it or cannot see it at the moment, it’s there. Hope is there.
I did get out of that parking garage, and I was wounded with flat tires and a scratched-up roof, and I was missing a few people from my van, but I did get out. I found a gas station. I aired up my tires, and I looked for a parking lot, not a garage, and I got out, and I stayed out, and I learned from that one.
Here’s how I’d like to close today. I want to read a passage from another minor prophet. We have one more week before we jump into a new season that takes us to the Messiah, the ultimate light. Malachi helps prepare our hearts for that one. As I read it, I would love for us just to listen to these words, but as I do, I’m going to ask us to stand and hear these words from Malachi chapter 3, verses 1 through 4:
“It says, ‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.’”
Amen.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, whatever season that we may be in, whether we feel like we’re in a season of freedom, and Lord, whether we feel like we’re in a season of exile and desolation, whether we’re in the thick of a dark tunnel, Lord, I pray that we wouldn’t begin looking for little tiny things to put our hope in that just sustain us into the next tunnel.
I pray that we wouldn’t put all our efforts, all of our money, all of our time, all of our everything that we have into getting to that temporary light.
But Lord, I pray that we would fix our eyes on the true light that can pierce through any tunnel, that we begin to experience the light in the tunnel.
Lord, that You have loved us so much, that You do love us so much throughout Scripture. You show time and time again that You’re promising, no matter how much we break Your covenant, that You will never break Yours, that You’re going to love us anyway.
You give us time and time again, You give us ways to do that. But ultimately, look at the cross, see Jesus as the ultimate way, the ultimate light, the ultimate hope that we have in this life.
I pray that our eyes would be fixed on that light and on that hope, and that we would live with joy because of that, because of what’s ahead and what we’re in right now with You.
It’s in Your name we pray. Amen.
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