Blame Enough to go Around

"...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." 

About 50,000 Jews returned to their homeland from their seventy-year captivity in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had completely destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, and all the temple furniture. The first thing the remnant did was rebuild the altar for worship. Then came the laying of the foundation of the new Temple, of which our text speaks. We're told the younger generation, who had not seen the first Temple, "...shouted aloud for joy." And that the older ones who remembered the grandeur and glory of the first, "wept with a loud voice." For in their days, the Temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world. And this new Temple fell short of the one in their day.

It is possible to get trapped in the "good old days" of the past and miss what God is doing today. On the other hand, we can get caught up in all trendy modern methods of today and fail to see what great things God did for our fathers in the past, which is for our learning. We can be haunted by the past or haughty in the present. But it is possible for each to learn from the other! The "shouters" and the "weepers" can unite if each will give a little. It is easy to err on either side of the issue. Those who looked back failed to move forward, and the others, excited about what God was doing now, didn't follow through with the work. They left it for some fifteen years. Both squandered the opportunities the Lord had given them. 

The "ancients," like some of us older folks today, evidently forgot it was the sins of their generation that brought about the fall of the Kingdom to begin with. Plus, although the present Temple was not as great as the first, God promises, “The glory of this latter house will be greater than the former.” God fulfilled Haggai's prophecy, for it was in this Temple that our blessed Lord Jesus walked in His day. This should be a lesson to all of us elderly, and a blessing, encouragement, and challenge to a younger generation.