The Bird Feeder Series

“No, I didn’t.” He sighed. No work on the birdfeeder over the Thanksgiving holiday. That was o.k. There was still plenty of time to get it done and give it to the family as a Christmas gift.

There was just one problem. Christmas was the busiest time of year for Jeff. And, the weather was starting to get nasty. Most days, when he came home it was already dark, and it was usually cold and rainy. One Saturday, he got up with the notion that he would do the bird feeder that day. He was being kind of lazy as he enjoyed a big breakfast. He looked at the birds in the backyard as they landed on a tree limb and splashed in a mud puddle. His son came into the room. “Hey Dad, you want to watch a college football game with me?”

They had watched a lot of games together. He looked out at the spot where he had imagined there would be a bird feeder. ‘Nah!’ he thought to himself, ‘I am not going to work on it today. I just don’t feel like it.’ He looked at Sidney. “Sure son. I’ll watch the game with you.”

On Christmas morning, after the presents were opened and they had eaten a nice meal, Jeff went out to the back yard, and threw breadcrumbs onto the wet snow. A few birds came and ate them. ‘Why didn’t they have more birds?’ He wondered to himself.

When Haggai was a profit in Old Testament days, God wasn’t trying to get the people to build a bird feeder. He wanted them to rebuild his temple. Why was the temple so important? It was the center of worship for the Hebrew people. It was the place where the high priest, on behalf of the entire nation, offered sacrifices to God. It was a place that all people could come for prayer and instruction.

The temple had been destroyed 50 years earlier when the Babylonians came in and defeated God’s people. Most of the young men had been carted off – back to Babylon – as slaves. Those left behind were wounded, weak and vulnerable. God had given His people up because of their unfaithfulness. However, he preserved a remnant. There was a portion that lived on in Israel, and, there were some who survived in exile. They maintained their faith. They had turned their back on God. They had worshipped foreign Gods. They had forgotten about justice. But, when they realized the consequences of their actions, they turned back to God, sometimes with words of praise, sometimes with lamentations, sometimes with prayers that couldn’t be expressed in words. God never forgot His people. Even in their lowest hour, He never abandoned them. He heard their prayers and led the Persians to defeat the Babylonians. Then God softened the heart of Persian King Artaxerxes, and he allowed Israelites to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. They had been taken away as young men. They returned tired and old.

God did all of this so that His people could return to the land He had promised to their father Abraham. However, He did not simply do it to bring them home safe and sound. He wanted them to once again worship Him. He wanted them to be a holy nation and a light to the entire world.