Presence Weekly 4/15/2024

The DEVO - The “Proximate Restoration” Mission

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that 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: 

2 “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. 3 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. 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.” Ezra 1:1-4 (ESV)

In the reality television show, Extreme Home Makeover, they always start with a house that is not all that it needs to be. Maybe it lacks the space or accessibility.  Possibly it is worn down and outdated. Usually there is some fantastic and heartwarming story involving the type of person you wish could have everything improved.  During the restoration of their home, the family is typically sent away somewhere on a vacation to be pampered, like Disney World or Cabo!

The show started with the house just getting a makeover, but eventually just turned into knocking down the entire home. Of course, the moment that the show is moving toward is when the people are standing on one side of the street with all their neighbors and their view of the house is blocked by a bus. Then, the bus moves, and the people are blown away by the incredible new home they have been given. There is laughter and tears of gratitude. The workers celebrate their work, and the family celebrates the great restoration of their home.

The moment depicted in this passage has a very different story line and a devastatingly disappointing reveal.  

Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.  And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, 

“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” 

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.  Ezra 3:8-13

The Prophet Haggai, who served the LORD as herald to the people during the rebuild, records the magnitude of the situation this way:  

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ” Haggai 2:1-9

To be sure, this was an extreme home makeover, but with several key differences. The people of God have not been on vacation, but in exile, which they had earned for their sins. Now they are sent back to their devastated home to begin the hard work of rebuilding their formerly beautiful temple. And, as they get the foundation laid, they realize that they are effectively working on the floor plan for a mobile home. It is a crushing blow when the realization hits them. 

Yet, for all of God’s people, especially those serving and leading in the public square through policy advocacy, writing, and implementation, these passages provide critical missional guidance. In participation of Christ’s mission of making all things new, we are experiencing and extending an incomplete restoration - a restoration that will always include joy, mixed with sorrow.  While God has promised a complete restoration of all things, our efforts will always be proximate to the ultimate goal.  Therefore, the question for us is, how can we endure until that day?

Recognizing what is broken that needs restoration

First, we must recognize what is broken that requires restoration. When the first wave arrived back in Jerusalem after being released from captivity by Cyrus in 539, their eyes would have taken in a disaster. After 70 years in captivity, most of this group would have never seen their homeland before. They were born in captivity and only knew the former glory of this city and the temple from the stories they had heard from their parents, and more importantly from the Scriptures. The masons and craftsmen among them, along with the Levite priests, would have probably memorized the dimensions of the former temple, and all its adornments. But they only knew it second-hand.

However, the oldest among them would have remembered it well. And now, all their eyes can survey is destruction. The walls of the city have been torn down, the temple is in complete ruins and everything has been burned. The dry bones of many of their relatives were likely under many of the stones. It would have been clear what needed restoration – the entire city.  

Those working on the Hill, at Cabinet agencies, think-tanks, policy centers, or lobbying groups have a keen eye for what is broken that requires restoration. Through their positions, many are in a position to do something about it. 

It occurs to me that this group of people had much in common with Adam and Eve. They recalled the relative wholeness of the kingdom and had something to compare the present restoration against. However, I say “relative wholeness of the kingdom,” because even the best and most flourishing aspects of the kingdom they experienced before the exile were a far cry from the kingdom that existed within the Garden. In the beginning, God’s presence did not dwell in a tent or a temple, but was with them in an intimate way.  The presence of God had departed the temple 70 years earlier, and it did not return with them.  Even as they were weeping over what had been lost, their concept of what had been lost was incomplete compared to what had actually been lost years ago. What should have become clear to them was, not only did their temple and their city need restoration, they needed it as well. The exile happened, not because their city was falling apart, but because they had fallen apart and away from God.

And so, it was not just the city and the temple that needed restoration, it was them. They, too, needed to be fully restored to God. That is what they needed to recognize first. Sometimes, seeing what needs restoration is easy, but no meaningful restoration can take place until we recognize what is lacking and that restoration is necessary.

God calls us to do exactly what the people had to do upon returning from the exile, to take a moment, stand on the vista, and then walk among the ruins and see what needed restoration. We cannot walk around our lives or our city with our eyes closed to the devastation and what is lacking. And we also cannot do it without having some idea of the way it is supposed to be.

Repairing what needs restoration

Second, we must work to repair what needs restoration. This was an “all-hands-on-deck” task. All the people of God were needed to be involved in the reconstruction of the temple and the city. They were working actively. Each of them had a role to play in the restoration of the city. Each of them had a skill that was needed. But, before the reconstruction could begin, a more difficult task had to occur – the clearing away of the burned out and broken debris. There were stones that would have required much labor to move. This task must have taken months. The process of getting ready to rebuild starts with clearing away all the wreckage.  

The process of rebuilding is also often met with the distraction of outside forces, especially ones that don’t want the restoration to take place.  They were under constant threat from the locals, primarily the Samaritans. It is recorded elsewhere that most of this restoration project took place with a trowel in one hand and a spear in the other.  This was not a fun job! This was not going to be a quick task.

Washington and the larger public square is no different. Repairing what is in need of restoration often involves untangling and dismantling years of previous outdated or failed policies. Each action of preparing the ground often reveals even more brokenness and the restoration work often has unintended negative consequences. There are also political obstacles and gamesmanship at work to thwart or redirect even the most needed restoration work.   

The task before them must have seemed huge. I think all of us can recall how easy it is to idealize a big task. We imagine all the work in our minds, set aside a couple of hours, or a weekend; but then, once we get into it we realize that the job is much, much bigger than we thought. Most of the time, that realization is not only overwhelming, it saps all of our energy.

What will keep us on task? The reward at the end! But there’s just one problem with that. What happens when our finished work is less than we had imagined or hoped? What happens when the restoration we were counting on falls short?

Coming to terms with proximate restoration

Ezra and Haggai provide a critical perspective on all our efforts of participating in Christ’s mission of making all things new - they are all proximate and awaiting a full, complete, and permanent restoration!  Until then we are experiencing and extending an incomplete and insufficient restoration.  

We see from the first two verses of Haggai that these passages are happening at the same time. It is, perhaps, the editorial of Haggai that drives them to the weeping that Ezra records. The Haggai passage helps us to understand that the people were supposed to grasp the fact that this was an incomplete restoration.  They were intended to grasp the incomplete nature of the restoration and long for the fullness.  Because without this realization of something lost and missing, they would not have a full understanding of their own need for complete and lasting restoration. While disappointed, they were not left without hope, but are, in fact, told that their hope is as certain as the second coming of Christ.  We are all, therefore, waiting for the fullness of our restoration. And the fullness of that restoration will bring joy, without sorrow.

This restoration is hope based on a promise from the LORD who is “good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel,” and “according to the covenant I made with you.”

While the rebuilt temple will never regain its former architectural splendor, it is not unimportant to God’s mission of making all things new.

“Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ” 

Centuries later, Christ, the new and living temple, would fill this restored temple with his glory as he announced a new covenant that would see the treasures of the nations stream into him through the gospel. 

As Christians who are participating in the restoration of what is broken, we must remember that the full restoration of all things comes not through our efforts but through Christ. This allows us to exhale and get about the work of participating in Christ’s mission of making all things new.  

Last Things...

After an excellent weekend at the Evangelical Theological Society’s Eastern regional papers conference, we have a lot of new content coming. Stay tuned!