Think Carefully About Your Ways (Haggai 1:1-11 )
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We will be in Haggai this morning.
We finished 1 Peter last week, just a friendly reminder we record all those sermons, so if you desire you can go back and listen from the church’s website, fbcira.com.
All the sermons I have preached are up unless we have technical difficulties.
So Luke, Lamentations, Philippians, Esther, Titus, Genesis, and 1 Peter are all up and available as a resource for you.
Haggai is at the end of the Old Testament, it goes Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and then Matthew…
Haggai is a prophet, and he is in the minor prophet’s section, so if you memorize the books of the bible you gets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Laminations Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, something-ea, something-ai, someone, Hesitations 1 and 2nd, he is in that section.
He is called a minor prophet because he is shorter. Haggai is the 2nd shortest book in the Old Testament, he is the 10th of the 12 minor prophets, and in the Jewish Canon all 12 were typically written on one scroll.
So to understand the prophets we have three exegetical barriers we must overcome;
We have to understand the Biblical Context of when and why they prophesy;
We have to understand the historical context of what is going on;
And we have to understand what biblical prophecy is and is not.
Biblical & Historical Context
Biblical & Historical Context
In the biblical story line, we are at a complicated point. There is lots going on, lots that has happen.
We have Creation,
the fall with Adam and Eve,
We have the Israelites going to Egypt to escape famine under Joseph,
we have the Exodus from Egypt with Moses,
The conquest with Joshua,
we have judges,
we have the kings,
Saul being first,
David being second (and seen as the best king) and
Solomon as the third king, David and Bathsheba’s Son.
Solomon carries the line of the snake crusher, the Messianic line.
Solomon also builds the Temple that is beautiful and fantastic! As we walk through Haggai we will talk more about this…
After Solomon dies in 922 B.C. the Kingdom Splits.
Judah and Benjamin are in the South and known as the Kingdom of Judah.
It is in Judah that Jerusalem is located, and the temple.
The other 10 tribes form the northern kingdom, and are known as Isreal.
This is where history gets hard, because we have Kings who rule in both kingdoms, prophets who prophecies to either the northern or southern or even both at various times.
However Isreal, the northern kingdom is run by king after king that is not following after God (Wicked/evil in the eyes of the Lord) and as a punishment they are defeated by Assyria in 722 B.C. (200 years after Solomon died)
Think about that, not that long of a time, yet the United States is barely older than the northern kingdom.
Judah the Southern Kingdom has some kings that do well, Josiah comes to mind, however most of their kings were not good either and led the people wrong.
They had prophets too, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah all prophesying before Babylon conquers Judah.
This is where the dates gets a little fuzzy… somewhere around 606-605 b.c. Babylon exiles some of the youngest and best from Judah.
You’ll probably know 4 of the men taken,
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abendego.
Another more through exile comes in 597bc, with a large amount of Jews taken, including Ezekiel.
And then in 586-587 Babylon comes back and sacks everything, destroys everything.
The city of Jerusalem, the walls, the temple itself is all in rubble and many more jews are taken.
In 582 another round of Jews taken to Babylon.
Lamentations is written around here, Lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
For 70 years Judah is in exile in Babylon.
However in 539, the Persians defeat the Babylonians.
Babylon falls.
Now Babylon when they conquered people they would take the youngest, brightest, most potential and indoctrinate and assimilate them into Babylonian Culture.
This is what happens to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack and Abendego.
They got new names, ate from the kings table, were given nice things and luxurious, in hopes that they would adopt Babylonians gods, and ideologies. and thus make Babylon even more powerful.
So this is why Nebucadnezzer has them thrown into the fiery furnace when they do not worship a chocolate bunny! (Thanks veggies tales.)
However the Persians have a very different system. Instead of sacking their homes, and bringing them to their headquarters to indoctrinate them, forcing the exiles to worship their gods,
The Persians would let people stay in their homes, however their would be a tax, but their would be religious freedom. Their hopes that were by allowing the people to live in their homeland, worshiping their own gods, they would give allegiance to the Persians and help fight because it could be worse.
This is a similar system to what the Roman’s employed…
So Babylon falls in 539, and in 538 b.c. Cyrus the Ruler of the Persians allows a group of Jewish exiles to go back home. Its around 50,000 people in the first wave that is released. This is when and where Ezra and Nehemiah prophesy!
Ezra rediscovers the law, they read it before the people there is weeping and crying.
Nehemiah understands a threat is coming and so he mobilizes the people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem to protect themselves.
However not all the Jews come back… Daniel and the boys are still in Babylon but dealing with Darius who is the ruler of Persia… Babylon was captured by Cyrus… Darius becomes ruler but it’s a long story and I would rather use our time in the text.
Esther is also taking place after the return of the exiles in a different place.
Then you have Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The last three OT prophets (if you don’t count John the Baptist.)
All three are prophesying to Judah after they have returned from the exile.
And Haggai and Zechariah are probably prophesying at the same time, with Haggai being slightly earlier.
The first wave of Jews return to Jerusalem in 538 b.c. and rebuild the altar in Jerusalem so they can make sacrifices again.
Next the people built the foundation of the temple, .
So then all the enemies, especially the Samaritans, around Judah heard they were rebuilding the temple, they came and “offered” to help.
However with it being the temple, the leaders refused the help…
So this made Samaria upset.
They caused the people of God to be afraid of them, they caused some issue by appealing to Cyrus and thus construction on the temple was halted around 537-536 ( A year or so into construction). They set up the altar, and the foundation within a year or two of returning and then stopped.
All of this may have just sounded like an information dump on you, however listen to Ezra 4:24-5:2
24 Now the construction of God’s house in Jerusalem had stopped and remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
1 But when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them,
2 Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, helping them.
This is where Haggai enters into the Biblical Story, he shows up and is ready to prophecy.
Biblical Prophecy
Biblical Prophecy
When I think about prophecy I conjure up imagines that are not helpful or biblical.
I think about people who will stand up and yell I have a word from the Lord and then they spout nonsense, mainly about future political events or enemy nations and these often conjure up images meant to strike fear into us. Or now a days they don’t stand up and yell they post videos on social media thanks TikTok, instagram, and Facebook. They go viral because hey tickle ears. They envision themselves as the lone one following the Lord and everyone else isn’t.
I think of people who call themselves prophets as way to say whatever they want and build a platform to be heard while also saying you can’t say anything against me because I am a prophet, I am the Lord’s anointed. They post videos of themselves “preaching” and progressively over time you notice they are in better and better shape, their thinning hairline, suddenly disappears, they are energetic and red faced with vains popping out, they say spiritual sounding things meant to go viral on social media.
None of those are biblical prophesy.
The Prophets in the Old Testament are doing two very clear things, they have two messages, and sometimes God calls them to do odd things to make these points, walk around naked, cook over a fire of poop, marry a prostitute and never leave her, etc.
But the message is always two fold it’s a message of Judgement and Hope based on God’s Covenant with His people.
So these biblical prophets are giving strong judgmental messages. To both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
God warns through the prophets, if you disobey God’s laws you will be judged.
God Reminds them of this message… repent or be judged.
God Explains… you disobeyed that why you have been judged.
Imagine when you were a child and your parents got you new shoes… they would issue a warning or at least I got a warning take care of these shoes they are new we need them to last, if you don’t you will get in trouble.
Then it rains one day, it’s the one day of the year that we get rain… your parents remind you if you get those shoes unnecessarily muddy and ruin them or tear them up you will be in trouble… we need them to last.
But then you are outside and you see it!!! It’s the perfect opportunity… your sibling is walking right next to a massive and deep and muddy puddle! You know that if you jump right now and land as hard as you can in the middle of this deep and muddy puddle it will cover them! It’ll be so funny!
So without thinking much more you launch into the air stomp in the puddle shower your sibling in water and mud from head to toe! They are covered and furious! So they tackle you in the mud puddle you defend yourself between laughs, until you hear the voice of your parents… what are you doing!!!
You duck your head do the walk of shame back to the house… by the time you get to the door your parents have the water hose out and they hose you down… they leave the little pressure washer end on hoping it hurts a little and scrubs off some of the disobedience. You go inside, change clothes, and you get punished! Swats, chores, early bed time, eat veggies etc.
While you are getting punished your parents explain to you why you are being punished… they hold up the shoes and say you ruined these shoes! We needed them to last and you got them muddle and all torn up because you didn’t obey. You disobeyed this is why you are facing punishment or judgement.
That’s the judgement message of the Prophets…
In God’s covenant in the Old Testament with Moses on Mount Sinai when God gives the law he gives a conditional aspect of the covenant… obey my law or you will be punished. If you disobey you lose God’s blessing.
Judgement.
However the prophets message doesn’t doesn’t end in judgement, they often end in the second part of the prophecy… Hope.
After the judgment, God is going to honor the unconditional aspect of the covenant that He gave to Abraham… Remember God tells Abraham I will give you numerous ancestors, a land, and you will be blessed to be a blessing…
Then when it comes time to confirm the covenant, God puts Abraham to sleep and God and God alone walks between the sacrifice showing that God is going to keep His covenant even when the people fail.
The Prophets give the warn, remind, and explain the judgment and then they offer hope....
There will be a:
New Exodus
New Passover Lamb
New Temple
New Covenant
New King
That God’s judgement is discipline not disownment. It’s meant to correct, and to bring us close to Him.
The Prophets were not just spouting random things and yelling about the future hoping to scare people into God’s presence, they were issuing words from God based on His covenantal relationship with His people: messages of Judgment and messages of Hope.
So now we understand the Biblical context, Right after the exile
The historical context, Babylon is done it’s the Persians and the temple contribution has stopped because of hostile neighbors (Samaritans)
We understand biblical prophecy: Message of Judgement and Hope mainly based on past or present events.
So Let’s read Haggai 1:1-11 and then pray and walk through this verse by verse.
1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
2 “The Lord of Armies says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.”
3 The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
5 Now, the Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways:
6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.”
7 The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.
8 Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
10 So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops.
11 I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, fresh oil, and whatever the ground yields, on people and animals, and on all that your hands produce.”
Pray
Think Carefully about: Who, When, and Why
Think Carefully about: Who, When, and Why
1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
2 “The Lord of Armies says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.”
Haggai gives us the exact date of his prophecies!
2nd year of Darius (the new Persian Ruler) 1 Day of the 6th Month.
So this would be August 28th, 520 b.c. for now what is important about the date for us is it tells us it’s harvest season, the round bailers are rolling in the fields...
It’s given by Haggai
Not much is known about the Prophet Haggai, he is only mentioned in Scriptures a few times and not much background is given at all.
He probably prophecies when he was at least in his 70s, because as we will see in Haggai 2, he talks like he was familiar with the Old Temple meaning he saw it before exile.
His name means festival or procession so he was probably born around or on a festival.
Thats all we really know about this man.
Haggai is directed to the leadership of Judah specifically two men:
Zerubbabel and Joshua
Zerubbabel is the son of Shealtiel- who was the son of King Jehoiachin, the king of Israel when Babylon came and exiled the people.
So he is carrying the Davidic line, the line of the snake crusher, the messianic line.
He is the Governor of Judah, not king because Persia is ruling over Judah. He was probably appointed by a Persian King to be the governor of Judah.
Joshua is the son of Jehozadak, so he is descendent of Levi (the priestly line) and his dad was taken captive in the 587 bc Exile to Babylon.
So Haggai is making sure we know from the get go… that God has not forgotten His covenantal promised, by showing us who is ruling Judah. They didn’t get forgotten in Exile or lost.
The line of David is intact.
The priestly line able to offer sacrifices to appease God is intact.
God quotes the people, It’s not time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.
This is the people talking about the temple.
It’s been 20 years since they stopped working on the temple… they built the altar, they built the foundation, and then they stopped because of pressures from Samaria, and other things too, funds were a huge one, they didn’t David and Solomon’s wealth.
So in their minds over the last 20 years they are waiting for their situation to change before they tackle the Temple rebuilt.
This is the setting of Haggai.
A people tired, broken, worries, apathetic, unmotivated, living in the shadow of past glory, longing for life to get better…
Think Carefully about: What’s Most Important
Think Carefully about: What’s Most Important
3 The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
5 Now, the Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways:
6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.”
The Word of the Lord comes through Haggai the Prophet, so what Haggai says is really what God is saying.
They people think it’s not time to rebuild the temple God’s house, where God dwelt among his people, while at the same time they managed to get their houses built.
Paneled probably doesn’t mean their houses were filled with fake wood walls, orange shag carpet, and popcorn ceilings, you know decorated to a tee with tiny figurines and trinkets, a cat clock here, clown posters there!
It’s referring to a roof or a habitable house.
It’s God saying you have found a way to make your houses livable, while mine is in ruins.
The Temple was more than simple a building, it’s where God dwells among his people, and so they seem to be content living in completed houses without God living amongst them in His.
In fact God tells them think carefully about your ways:
You planted a whole lot, and harvests only a little.
You have food to eat, but you are not enough for a feast.
You have enough drinks to drink, but not enough for a party.
You have clothes to wear, but not enough to be comfortably warm.
You have money, you put in it your wallets or your purses but it’s like there is a hole and those funds are just gone.
We learn their in a famine a drought. And Persia is upping taxes, while inflation is skyrocketing (sound familiar?)
So they have gold and silver, but worth less today than it was yesterday and will be worth less tomorrow.
Essentially Haggai is saying, why are you valuing your own house more than the Lords?
God is the provider, He has given you enough not excess but enough.
It’s difficult and it’s hard, your gonna have to buy generic ketchup for a while, but none of that is a good excuse to allow God’s house, the temple to lie in ruin.
God will provide for his people, get motivated.
Check what you value.
This is true for us too… Show me your calendar. Show me your bank Statement. Show me your social media. and I’ll show you what you really value.
Some of us are wanting to do so much more for the Lord we are just waiting for the right time, waiting for the kids to get to a different stage, your career to get to a different point, your spouse to support you, etc. Whatever it is, you are waiting hoping something will happen… maybe what God is saying is now is the time.
You don’t come to God put together and perfect, you come to Jesus broken and humble… you come to Jesus needing a doctor not healthy. You come to Jesus needy and desperate.
Those are who Jesus saves.
Think Carefully about: Who’s really in Control
Think Carefully about: Who’s really in Control
7 The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.
8 Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
10 So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops.
11 I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, fresh oil, and whatever the ground yields, on people and animals, and on all that your hands produce.”
We see God through Haggai again saying Think carefully!
Go get the stuff to build the temple.
Stop waiting for home depot to just drop off the lumber, go get it.
build the temple and God will be pleased! and God will be glorified!
Then Haggai begins explaining things to the people… You brought your harvest and I ruined it… why?
You expected it to produce much but I didn’t… why?
Because my house is in ruins.
My presence with you is more important than your harvest.
In fact you act like you don’t have enough to fix my house, but somehow you found enough to get your own houses built and put a roof on…
Like yes the times are hard, there is inflation, there is a drought, there is all these external things happening, but also your heart is more concerned with selfish things than with God.
Because of that disobedience… because of that hard heartedness, then only God would be able to know this about them… the skies don’t have dew and the land doesn’t produce crops.
The Skies and the Land obey even when mankind disobeys.
You financial hardships, your livelihood you are worried about is brought about because you forgot who is really in control.
This is not Haggai offering up some prosperity Gospel that is if you will build the temple the the cosmic vending machine you call God will give you what you want, like you could force God to do something.
This is Haggai being used by God to say I know your heart… i know the real reason you haven’y built the temple… it’s not because of inflation, it’s not because of bad harvests, it’s none of that in fact I have sent those things to you to draw you closer to me.
The truth of our lives is when we have more than enough we are often farthest from the Lord, and when we only have just want we need we tend to lean in and trust God pray to God more and more.
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread and not our weekly or monthly bread. Because we need to pray again and again and trust God again and again.
This is why in the wilderness God provided Manna and the Israelites were only commanded to pick up what they needed for that day, so that they were dependent on God and the more God came through the more trust they built up for God.
So Haggai clearly here is saying it’s time to finish what you started 20 years ago… built the temple.
Value God’s Presence.
Trust God’s sovereignty to provide.
Application: Think Carefully about your ways… your Heart.
Application: Think Carefully about your ways… your Heart.
I want to leave the sermon here for this week… you can read ahead and see what the Jewish people do, but right now we have heard what God commanded them to do… will they obey?
This is the command for us too,
It’s so easy, 2000 years after the cross for us to get complacent.
It’s so easy for us to with our lips say I am ready to grow in you Jesus I am a Christian, but to live passive and lackadaisical lives that from Sunday at 12:01pm through Sunday at 9:59am look identical to the world.
Maybe there is a break on Wednesdays…
God is not calling his people to be inactive or passive, He has called Christians to actively trust in Him!
That looks like us understanding that our external action, the things that we do are first and foremost formed in our heart.
If your heart longs to please God you will find ways to do it.
If you heart has been captivated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I am a sinner saved by nothing more or less than the grace of God then you live that out in ways that God brings.
You don’t sit hoping that there is a crystal clear sign for what God wants you to do… he wants you to rebuild the temple… whats the temple now? Your very heart.
When you are saved the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, like God dwelt in the Temple.
It’s not about a physical location, it’s about God’s presence in you.
But let’s not forget… Haggai wasn’t talking to one person… he was talking to God’s people gathered together.
It’s not enough to say well… I am good but so and so needs to get their act together… I’m going my part I’m on the committees, I’m teaching the classes, I’m serving but so and so needs to step up!
No we are one body… we have covenanted together if you are member which means we are in this together.
I can tell when someone doesn’t like something or feels separated from the church body, because instead of saying what are we doing, what do we have planned, why did we do this or that… it’s what did y'all do? Why did y'all do that? What do y'all have planned?
Brothers and Sister if you are saved by Jesus Christ, if you have repented of your sin and turned to Jesus in Faith you are not meant to be doing life alone, you are meant to have brothers and sisters who have covenanted with you to help disciple you and are dependent on your discipling them too.
The body isn’t complete without you… you are important and valuable.
Are you building your own house or the house of the Lord?
Believers grow in Jesus and grow together in His Church.
Build up the body of Christ. Serve your brothers and sisters, share the Gospel with your words and actions. Apologize quickly and work to keep church unity.
Unbelievers repent and turn to Jesus… this is where your hope is at. You are not good. You are not worthy. And you are not hopeless… if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raises Him from the grave you will be saved… what is keeping you from salvation today?