But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

Not all sung praise and shouted for joy that day. For there were some who were there who remembered the Great Temple of Solomon. Many years had passed but they still remembered the glory of Solomon's Temple. How could they forget such a magnificent structure?

The old Temple was three times higher and four times larger than what was going to be built under Zerubbabel and Joshua. Solomon was one of the greatest kings of the east, Zerubbabel was only a governor under the authority of Cyrus.

They did not sing this day when the foundation was laid, they wept over what was past over what had been lost.

When the temple was nearly finished God spoke to them through the prophet in Haggai 2:2-5 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

 Who can blame them for remembering? But God’s message is this. Those who were weeping and looking only back at the past had missed the truth behind the Temple itself. It wasn't about the king who had built it, it wasn't the grandeur and the beauty of the building that made it great. It was the God who dwelt there and made it His Temple.

It wasn't Zerubbabel or Solomon or Ezra but God who filled the temple with his glory. It was God who called for this work to go on.  It was God who would see it though the difficulties and interruptions that they would face.

You Can’t Go Forward if You keep Looking Back.

Used to be a song LeeOra and I listened to, so long ago it was on a cassette tape.  If you don’t know what that is then you missed one of the joys of music, back in the day. Especially as the tape go old and come unwound and then tangled inside your car cassette player. What joy, that was. But one of the lyrics in that song has stuck in my head, "You can't drive straight ahead, while looking in the rear view mirror."

It’s true in driving, its true in the church, true in our families and its true in our lives as children of God. You can't go forward to what God has in store, if you’re looking backward at what was left behind.

Scripture: Want to hear one of the toughest verses in the Bible? Look at Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus says to those He had called to serve the cause of the Gospel, “You aren’t going to be fit for service if you keep looking back.  

You can't rebuild a temple, relaunch a church or restart your life by building on memories of the past. Good memories or bad memories aren’t fuel for moving forward. The power to move forward comes from the promises of God for the future. You build on the faithfulness of God's people. You build on sacrifice, on service and on supplication. And then you can restart once, twice or a hundred times if necessary, because God will never run out of mercy and His word will never run out of power.