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Day Four: Small is Where the Kingdom Starts

As the timeline dragged on, Haggai points out how others reacted. Haggai 1:2-4 says some people moved away from the building of the temple to focus on other projects. These people were focused on their own needs and ignored the Lord’s house. Haggai instructs them to give careful thought to their ways. God made it clear that building his house was the priority. He told them, rather than focusing only on what you need, go up into the mountains and gather the timber to build God’s house and honor him with the work.

Lesson for Us: What is my priority? Does it match up with the priorities of God?

Let’s go back to Zechariah 4:7, because it tells us how this whole project is going to end: Then he [Zerubbabel] will bring out the capstone to shouts of “God bless it! God bless it!”

God said Zerubbabel would bring out the capstone. The capstone is the finishing stone on a building project. Zerubbabel started the project, and God promised that Zerubbabel would finish it and rejoice in it. According to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, this “was the most memorable event in Zerubbabel’s life — the spirit of prophecy suddenly blazed up with a most brilliant light among the returned captives … in a moment Zerubbabel roused from his apathy and threw his whole strength into the work.”

Apathy is the absence of passion, emotion or excitement. Somewhere along the way Zerubbabel and those working with him got distracted by other projects, discouraged by the process, frustrated by the sacrifice required and irritated by a lack of support. Zerubbabel failed to see how his actions in this moment, with these people, in that place would impact the future. That is where Zerubbabel was, until Zechariah reminded him why he had started this project in the first place - and promised that he would be the one to complete it.

Lesson for Us: We can get stuck in small thinking, our vision for the future obstructed by the obstacles of today. Just like the people in Zerubbabel’s day that “stuckness” can show up in our lives as distraction, discouragement, frustration, irritation and even doubt in God’s faithfulness.

As we’ve studied, we see the story about a small temple being built by a small group of easily distracted people, but God used these people and this temple for big purposes. God rejoices over small steps, and so should we.

Jesus spoke continually of small things, especially when he was describing the Kingdom of God In Luke 13:18-21 he compares the kingdom of God to a grain of mustard seed. A pinch of leaven. Even the mountain Zerubbabel was facing becoming level ground is a small thing when God is involved.

How often do we follow the example of the people of Judah? How often do we get discouraged because we are comparing what we have to what someone else had before? How often do we let things less important than the work at hand distract us? How often do we think bigger is better? How often do we give in to the belief that fast and furious is so much better than slow and steady?

Today’s Lessons for Us: Most of the things we do in life are made of small steps. Just about everything starts small — babies, buildings, cities, churches, families, relationships. Without the small steps, there would never be big things.

1. What small thing is God calling you to right now?
2. How are you responding to the small thing?
3. How does being stuck in small thinking exhibit itself in your life?
4. What are you going to do today because of what God has shown you?