I’ve not experienced many natural “disasters” in my life so far. When my family moved to Huntsville, it was right after the major tornadoes hit in 2011. I remember that many of the homes had been rebuilt, but the wildlife showed its damage. The trees (that were still standing) were permanently stripped of foliage and were slanted due to the high winds.
More recently, I have experienced the disaster of Hurricane Helene. My wife and I were fortunate to only be inconvenienced by the storm. When the storm hit the Greenville area, we didn’t realize how badly it was going to impact the local area. We lost power for a few days, but that was quickly restored. On that Friday the storm hit, we had to find a place for my wife to work since we had no internet. As we were looking for a place, we saw the whole city grid was essentially without power. We were able to track with the rest of the city via social media updates. The downtown was flooded; trees had fallen over roads and on power lines; live power lines were laid across roads; traffic lights were down causing accidents everywhere. People were rushing to stores for generators and bags of ice. The bread and milk were gone days before due to a massive French Toast competition I assume.
When the Greer area received power a day later, there were droves of people looking for places to charge phones, find food, and to connect without internet. I remember seeing Chick-Fil-A absolutely swarmed with people the whole day, every day for a long time. After I started working there a week or two later, they informed me how chaotic it really was—they had sold out of many items, borrowed resources from other Chick-Fil-A locations, and had a wait list for people who ordered tea. They had actually run out of tea! That is crazy to me.
All-in-all, our area seemed a little chaotic, especially since it took a long time to clear trees and power lines from roads. If it were not for internet updates from other areas of the Carolinas, I would say things got pretty bad here. But let me zoom out for a second.
Hurricane Helene caused close to 80 billion dollars in damage in its path from Florida up to the Smokies. Some lost life-long homes and some lost their lives in this hurricane that ravaged the Southeast. I remember seeing videos of cities in Florida constructing storm walls around hospitals. People were stranded on roofs while storm waters rose.
Florida managed because they were prepared, but the Carolinas were not prepared for what came next. Roads were washed away, and homes were absolutely destroyed. There were even videos of families saying good-byes as the flood waters carried children away from their parents. 80 billion dollars does not and can not even factor for that kind of loss.
Why do I speak of all these things? When I hear of Hurricane Helene, I think of a local town called Chimney Rock right outside Asheville, North Carolina. This little town was totally erased by the flood. My words cannot describe the damage done.
This picture is the same road before and after the hurricane.
You can search videos, news articles, and social media posts about the destruction in this area. A couple of months later, my wife and I drove through some of the areas that were heavily impacted as we drove up to Tennessee to see my aunt graduate. I could not even comprehend how the engineers would address a plan to rebuild. One half of the divided highway we were on was gone—it was just clay and broken branches. So, as I said, I am fortunate to only have been inconvenienced with no internet connection in my apartment complex that was barely scratched by a tree branch.
But what does Chimney Rock and Asheville, North Carolina have to do with Haggai? Where is the connection here? Well, the connection is in the human experience of rebuilding after tragedy.
Israel was ravaged by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar when they were taken into captivity by the Babylonian empire. Houses were demolished and Solomon’s temple was destroyed. The emotional weight of the temple’s demolition would be incomparable for our western minds today. I would say it could be like the nation’s capital being destroyed, but some people might like that…..The temple was precious to them because it was God’s dwelling place on earth. That’s an amazing thought—God dwelling with them in the Holy of Holies. Not only that, but when the richest man in the world builds a temple to honor the God who gave that wealth to him, you can expect that it was quite a sight to behold! But as the nation was taken captive, that beautiful site was destroyed.
After many many years, Israel was released. The Persians had overthrown the Babylonian Empire and Cyrus decreed that Israel be released to go rebuild their nation—specifically their temple. As they arrived back in their homeland, I can only imagine what it was like. No one had kindly cleaned up the debris and rebuilt the place. Everything was left in ruins for whenever they would return.
Israel started to rebuild despite the emotional turmoil that was going on within them. Ezra shows that they were being obedient to the command of God and the instruction of Cyrus—they would rebuild the temple as it was their duty to God. However, their progress was short lived. They had cleared enough of the temple ruins away to lay another foundation. Upon their dedication of this momentous occasion, the congregation had an interesting response.
When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph, holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed. They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For he is good; his faithful love to Israel endures forever.” Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid.
But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple, but many others shouted joyfully. The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the weeping, because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.
Ezra 3:10-13
Doesn’t that hurt your soul a little bit? The ones who knew the glory of Solomon’s temple wept in its memory while the beginnings of something new were being celebrated. Haggai will address this sentiment at the end of his first address to the nation. Haggai speaks more into that human feeling of disappointment than other post-exilic accounts I feel. Solomon’s temple was gone—it could not be replaced. There is a tragedy in that reality that deserved to be mourned. But as Ezra points out, only the older generation could connect with that level of grief.
I don’t want to steal the thunder of my actual Haggai series, so I need to finish up here.
You can connect the dots. Those families who had the instinct to flee from cities like Chimney Rock—can you imagine how they felt as they returned? Some could not even return because the singular road up their mountain was destroyed. I remember people saying private helicopters and even donkeys were used to access these damaged towns with disaster relief.
As the progress was made to rebuild those towns, do you think there was rejoicing and also tears of mourning? Generational homes being replaced with a trailer at best. I’ve not experienced loss like this, but I can only imagine what it must be like to return to your home that was damaged by flood waters. Seeing your belongings strewn about across the ground in and outside the house. Where do you even begin? It can’t go back to how it was—that’s impossible. And for that reason, we weep.
But we can rejoice because we are here, and God has blessed us with life and with new beginnings.
But how do we handle ourselves in that moment? It’s as if the soul is in free-fall and could end in a crash or in a soft parachute landing. Haggai speaks to the tattered soul who has experienced loss and disappointment. But Haggai does not speak right when that moment has happened—he speaks when the time has come to move on. Israel had time to heal, and they had gotten off track and disappointed God through their actions. They had chosen selfishness rather than obedience. They had chosen fearful self-preservation rather than honoring their Deliverer. And their Deliverer tells them to consider their ways—what have they been doing?
So how about you? What are you needing to rebuild? What destruction are you experiencing in your soul? We don’t let ourselves live in ruins—it’s not practical. So something has to be rebuilt. Will it show honor and trust in God or will it show that you are foolishly trying to protect your hurt?
Explore Haggai with me to see how we can honor God as we move on from our hurt while rebuilding a new sense of “normal”.