Our 56th Word is Stir Up

It’s really a short phrase and the definition is simple, to incite to action.

“So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high pries, ant the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God.” (Haggai 1:14)

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Even a little first grader knows that life can be a beatdown. And when hope slips away, discouragement knows how to find its way in through the cracks. In such times, our tendency is to pull back and start going through the motions. Before we know it, we’re on autopilot. Soon we’ve got a bad case of spiritual narcolepsy. We’re literally sleepwalking our lives away!

This was the experience of the group of Jews who had returned eagerly to Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile. On the front end, talk of “being back home” and “rebuilding the temple” sparked big grins, enthusiastic whoops, and high fives all around. Sixteen year later, such phrases resulted in eye rolls and yawns.

Around 520 BC, God responded. he gave his prophet Haggai a short but blunt message intended to stir up the demoralized populace.

OK, stir up is two words in the English language. In Hebrew however, it’s only one word, the verb ya’ar. Ya’ar means “to alert or rouse or awaken.” In Haggai’s case this wake-up call involved a curious coctail of divine words: a pointed question, a sobering challenge, repeated twice, to ‘give careful thought to your ways” and the comforting reassurance, “‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord.”

The result? Wide open eyes. Trembling hands. Racing hearts. The Lord stirred up everyone who heard Haggai’s holy message, Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and “the whole remnant of the people”

Being stirred up is more than getting goose bumps, it’s being jolted back to reality and spurred to action. notice that, as a result of Haggai speaking the very words of God, both leaders and regular folks “came and began to work on the house of the lord Almighty, their God.”

This phenomenon, which happens repeatedly throughout the Bible, reminds us that God shakes slumbering hearts awake. He uses His Word and His people to jar sluggish souls.

In his books and sermons, the 18th century preacher and author George MacDonald often discussed this idea of needing to be roused or awakened from spiritual drowsiness. One of the old soul’s prayers was “Lord, wake me oftener, lest I sin.” In another place he spoke of the need to wake our souls “unnumbered times a day.” Translation: we need to be stirred up”!

I you are battling lethargy of the soul, ask God to send a Haggai into your life. Sometimes all we need is someone who will, without apology, declare the truth of God to our slumbering hearts.

Questions to Ponder

1. When in your life have needed to be stirred up?
2. How exactly did God do that?