The Jews had been in Babylonian captivity for seventy years when Cyrus released them to go back to Israel. They came back to a barren broken city. Jerusalem’s walls had been torn down and the temple was razed to the ground. Some among them remembered the grandeur of the old Jerusalem and the magnificence of Solomon’s temple. The others had been told the stories so many times they felt like they too were returning home. They came from captivity “like those who dream.” (Psalms 126)

Zerubbabel, heir of the throne of David, was placed as governor over the land and Jeshua, a descendant of Aaron, was established as the priest. They immediately set up an altar and began offering sacrifices to the Almighty. And they began collecting supplies for a new temple. 

When the builders laid the foundation for the temple, the trumpets blew, the cymbals crashed, and the priests sang, “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” The people shouted. The young people shouted for joy. The ones who had seen Solomon’s temple wept because it was nothing compared to the first house. The sounds of joy and the cries of sorrow were so loud they could not be distinguished by the people far outside the city.

This was the dream, the mandate from the Lord to rebuild the temple. But people could not look away from the past. Then the Scriptures says the people of the land, the Samaritans, began to discourage the Israelites and trouble them and Ezra 4:4 says they “weakened the hands of the people of Judah.” And the building stopped.

Every day Zerubbabel would walk past the foundation of the temple and ask, “Lord, why is the dream laying here desolate? Why did we start if we could not finish?” Every day for almost 20 years the people averted their eyes when they came near the place where the temple should have stood. The dream lay unfinished. The people saw it as dead.

The one day, two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, began prophesying to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Zech 4:6) They continued, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me to you. For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zech 4:9-10) The prophets spoke life into the dead dreams and the people listened. 

Ezra 5:2 records, “So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.”

Many times our dreams may seem to have come to a standstill. Others look at them and say they are dead or obsolete. But when the mouth of the Lord has spoken something into existence it is not over until every word has been accomplished. Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” God’s timing may not be what we thought and His ways may not be the way we imagined it would go, but His words will come to pass and the dreams He has placed in our heart will come to fruition. All it takes is a word from God, an obedient prophet, a breath of the Spirit for the dream to spring to life again. Then we who have been given the dream must immediately rise up and finish what God has placed in our hand.

Be ready, its time for hibernating dreams to be awakened!