When Later Becomes Never

Have you ever put something off, telling yourself you'd "get to it later," only to discover that later, the job had grown three sizes bigger and twice as stubborn? Oh, friend, do I have a story for you, and it comes straight from the pages of the Old Testament, tucked into the often-overlooked books of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah.

When the Israelites finally returned home from their seventy years of Babylonian exile, they had one big, holy assignment waiting for them: rebuild the temple. And bless their hearts, they actually started strong! They gathered together "as one man" in Jerusalem, set up the altar, and laid the foundation of the Lord's house with singing and shouts of joy so loud that some couldn't tell the weeping from the celebrating (Ezra 3:1, 10-13). It was a beautiful, hopeful beginning.

But then opposition showed up, the way it always seems to.