8/2 Where There is a Will There is a Revival.

This week I noticed an excerpt from Charles G. Finney’s “Revivals of Religion,” featured in a periodical I was reading. Finney was a dynamic nineteenth century revivalist who ministered in New York City, New York State and other parts of the country as well as helping to found Oberlin College in Ohio. His works are still considered valuable resources on revival. But to cut to the chase, the excerpt from the work cited above caught my attention because I had been musing about the need for genuine revival as compared with rampant emotionalism spurred on by cunning manipulation. Three prerequisites for revival stood out from a longer list of ten. They are: (1) the willingness to make sacrifices (similar to those of our VBS workers this past week) to promote revival, (2) accepting whatever God decides to do in promoting it. and (3) strongly desiring and expecting revival. There is a very compelling illustration of this in the Bible. I turn our attention to the Book of Ezra (chapters 4-6) where there was an enthusiastic and very energetic move to rebuild the Jewish temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.

About 70 years after the first wave of Jewish captives were exiled to Babylon, a relatively small contingent of Jews were allowed by the Persian Emperor, Cyrus (who had conquered the Babylonians) to return to Jerusalem with permission and the necessary funding to rebuild the city and their temple. They made a good beginning but began to encounter opposition from their Samaritan neighbors, who had also experienced exile or resettlement at the hands of the Babylonians, but who were now also under Persian rule. Although the temple foundation and its altar were completed within 5 years, all further work was disbanded. The Samaritan troublemakers had convinced the Persian authorities succeeding Cyrus to order all further construction in the city to cease. This so discouraged the Jews to the effect that they abandoned their mission and settled down in their homesteads and concentrated on making a living (see Haggai 1). They were convinced that they had no political influence or the means to finish their work especially the reconstruction of the Temple of God. They felt that God was not in their rebuilding efforts and they lost their sense of destiny and belief that they were special in God’s eyes. So they didn’t make any more waves and kept their noses clean lest they stir up anymore contention and opposition over “a lost cause.” About ten years went by. (see chronological chart in the NIV Study Bible on the book of Ezra)

Suddenly, the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah arrive on the scene and in the space of about six months stir up such a “holy fuss” so that new life was infused into their fellow countrymen. Work on the temple was resumed and with it new opposition came from the governor of the territory that included Judea/Jerusalem. But the “revived” Jews turned the tables on their oppressors. They used the same tactics employed by their enemies to secure a work stoppage by appealing to the Persian authorities and with God’s favor, the then current Persian Emperor, Darius, strongly supported the new thrust by the Jews and even ordered their oppressors to fund the entire project with the tax monies that the latter would have sent to their Persian overlords. What a reversal! The prophets had moved their people to make sacrifices (i.e. reorder their priorities, see Haggai 1:4), accept God’s conditions for success (Haggai 1:7f), and were encouraged that God was with them (Haggai 1:14). We, too, ought to take heart and make sacrifices, commit to God’s plan no matter where it leads and expect revival because God is with us. Where there is a will there is a revival.