We live in difficult days. We have reached the perilous times which the apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Timothy 3. When we look around at the Christian testimony—that which professes to be for God and for Christ in this world—how much ruin and failure we see! Then we have to acknowledge that we are part of that ruin and failure. Is there a resource for us in these days? Thank God there is, and it is still Christ! In our verses from Ezra and Haggai, we see that the cedar wood was still to be used in the rebuilding of the house of God in recovery, as in the beginning. How good to know that even in our days Christ, in His greatness and glory, is enough for us!

Notice in the verse from Ezra that they had to give money to obtain the cedar wood. Surely in our days, too, it will cost us something to seek to build with Christ and nothing else. We may find opposition or reproach as they did in Zerubbabel’s and Haggai’s day. But what an encouraging message the Lord would give to the people through Haggai the prophet: “Build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.” How encouraging for us today, too! If we desire to return and obey His Word and build only with Christ, even though in great weakness, the Lord tells us that He values that, and He will take pleasure in it! What grace! And more than that, He will be glorified. May this be our desire to build up the gatherings of the Lord’s people today with the true cedar wood—Christ Himself—even in these days of weakness and difficulty.