Person-2-Person - Current month

An email newsletter I subscribe to runs a reader poll each day. One such poll earlier this year asked, “When are you at your best?” Astoundingly for a night owl like me, 40.3% of readers answered “Morning.” 17.5% said “Afternoon.” 7% said “Lunchtime.” 7.2% said “Evening.” And amusingly, 28% said “About a decade ago.” At my age, I can definitely relate.

We can all reach a point in life when it feels as if our best days are behind us. Perhaps we’ve reached a plateau in our career or lost our job. Maybe our children have “left the nest” and we’re at a loss to define ourselves. In these present uncertain times, it might even seem as if our whole country’s best days are gone, as if something fundamental is in danger of being lost, or has already been lost, with no certainty that it can be regained.

There was a time when the people of Israel also yearned for the past. They had been “top dog” in their region after conquering all the surrounding nations (2 Sam. 8:1-14, 10:1-19). But it didn’t last. Their nation was divided by civil war into the separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah (1 Kings 12:16-20). In time, Israel was conquered by Assyria (2 Kings 17:1-6) and then Judah by Babylon (2 Kings 24:8-25:7).

When Babylon conquered Judah, Solomon’s Temple was burned and looted (2 Kings 25:8-15). Later, Zerubbabel, who was the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, directed the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 3:1-11), but it was a mere shadow of the old Temple. Many older people who remembered the original Temple had wept when the foundation for the new one was laid (vs. 12).

After the new Temple was completed, the prophet Haggai said to the people, “‘Does anyone remember how glorious this temple used to be? Now it looks like nothing.’” (Hag. 2:3 Contemporary English Version). The new temple couldn’t compare to the original. But Haggai didn’t stop at lamenting the past. Moments later, he told the people God had promised, “‘Then the brightness of my glory will fill this temple.’” (vs. 7b CEV). He wanted the people to have hope that God hadn’t abandoned them.

In Jesus’ time, Israel had been under occupation by the Roman Empire since about 63 BC. Its best days were long behind it. The priests acted as if they had power but the real power lay with the Roman authorities. The Jewish authorities could only do what Caesar allowed them to do. That was why Jesus’ trial took place under Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea (John 18:29-31).

Jesus’ followers expected him to restore Israel to its earlier prominence. Even after the resurrection, his disciples asked him, “‘Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king again?’” (Acts 1:6 CEV). But he told them, “‘You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls.’” (vs. 7b CEV). Instead, he exhorted them to wait for the Holy Spirit and then “‘. . . tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.’” (vs. 8b CEV). That command applies to us, as well (1 Pet. 3:15).

There can be times when our own future seems uncertain, as if our best days are in the past. God can change all that. The prophet Jeremiah wrote that God had promised, “‘I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.’” (Jer. 29:11 CEV). When we observe Easter and Christ’s death and resurrection, we remember that it brought about that future and that hope for you and me (Col. 1:4-6).

The power of Christ’s resurrection can fill our lives with glory, just as God’s glory filled the Temple (2 Cor. 3:17-18). Through John, the author of Revelation, God promised, “‘I am making everything new.’” (Rev. 21:5b CEV). New life in Christ is available to everyone (Eph. 4:20-24). Peter wrote that God “. . . has given us new life and a hope that lives on.” (1 Pet. 1:3b CEV). That’s a promise worth sharing.

“We saw his true glory, / the glory of the only Son of the Father. / From him the complete gifts / of undeserved grace and truth have come down to us.” (John 1:14b CEV.)