Haggai 1

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Haggai 1

Introduction

Read Haggai 1.1-15

The story is told of a man  driving down a street and the stop light turned yellow in front of him, so he stopped rather suddenly in order not to run the light.  There was a lady in the car behind him who assumed he was going to continue through the light and her following close behind.  Instead she had to slam on her brakes and endure waiting through a light she felt she could have made.  Needless to say, she was not happy.  She honked her horn at the guy, shook her first at him through the window, and screamed out the window at him.

As she was sitting in her car ranting and raving, she suddenly hears a knock on he window and there stands a police officer.  The officer proceeds to arrest her and take her down to the station.  She is fit to be tied.  She complains and she questions and she threatens.  He throws her into jail!

She sits there for an hour or so, and then the officer comes to the cell and opens the door and says, “Ma'am you are free to go.  I have to apologize.  I was behind you as you had to stop for that light and I saw you honk your horn and shake your first and yell at the guy in front of you.  Then I noticed the “Choose Life” sticker on your bumper, and the fish sticker, and the “Jesus Loves You” sign on your back window, and naturally I thought the car had been stolen.”

How we live says something about us.  It is a simple fact of life.  The way we live our lives says something about our values and beliefs, and if we are Christians it says something about our God.  This is the message of the first chapter of Haggai.  God tells the people, “How you are living is not glorifying me.”  A half-built temple does not glorify God.

Historical Context

Let me briefly set the historical context of the prophecies of Haggai.  The northern ten tribes of Israel are carried of into exile by Assyria in 722 B.C.  The southern tribe of Judah lasts until 586 B.C., when Babylon conquers Jerusalem for the last time and carries off much of the population into exile.  In 538 B. C. Cyrus, king of Persia, which had conquered Babylon, issues a decree of return.  Any Jew who wanted to return to his homeland was able to do so.  According to the book of Ezra, 50,000 exiles returned in this first wave of returnees, including Zerubbabel, who will become the governor of Judah, and Joshua, who will be the high priest.  

The people begin rebuilding the temple in the second year of return.  Unfortunately, political opposition and plotting by those who are living in the land prevent them from continuing the temple.  Those who oppose rebuilding the temple get Cyrus to rescind his decree and the building stops, somewhere around 535 B.C.  This decree is extended by Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, who follows Cyrus on the throne.  In 521 B.C. Darius, who is a distant cousin of Cambyses, seizes the throne.  Darius promptly rescinds the edict against rebuilding the temple.  We have the actual decree in Ezra 6, where Darius tells those who would mettle in the rebuilding, Let the work on this house of God alone.  Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. (Ez 6.7).  A truly remarkable decree.

This gets us to Haggai 1.1.  Haggai plants his prophecies firmly in history, and we know that this first prophecy came around August 29, 520 B.C. the second year of Darius.  

So we have a group of exiles who have now been in the land for 18 years, who have started the temple, been forced to give up the rebuilding, and through a combination of political opposition and simple inertia, allowed the building to languish over the years.  Now, even though they can rebuild the temple, the general argument, as found in Haggai 1.2 is, “The time has not come to rebuild the temple.”

So Haggai brings this message from God, from, as Haggai repeatedly refers to Him, the Lord of hosts.  And the simple message is, “Listen Judeans, finish the temple.  Finish the temple, because a half-built temple, does not honor God.”

So we take up this passage with a couple of key questions in mind.  The first question is, “Why did God want the Jews to finish the temple?”  What was so important about that?  The second question we hope to answer is this, “What difference can it make to us?”  We do not have temples anymore, we are not Jews, does this little book have any message that has meaning to 21st century believers in a culture and land far removed from that of Judea 500 years before Christ?

Crucible

The first thing we see from this passage I want to call Crucible.  We see God putting the returnees into a crucible.  A crucible is a place or occasion of severe trial, and this is where we find the people.  Look at verse 5, Now, therefore, consider your ways.  You have sown much, and harvested little.  You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill.  You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.  And he who earns wages, does so to put them into a bag with holes.  Then go to verse 9, You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.  And when you brought it home, I blew it away.  Why?  Declares the Lord of hosts.  Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.  Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.  And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.

So we see that God has brought difficulty into the lives of the people.  And this is a pattern we see very often with God.  When he wants to get your attention, God puts you into difficulty, into a pressure-cooker you might say.  

  1. The reason he does this is because we generally do not listen to God, unless He has our attention.  It is sad to say, but if we look at our lives, it is a truth we see again and again.  Plenty, whether it be money or goods, slowly, but inevitably tends to draw our hearts away from the Lord and we get more and more deaf until we cannot hear him any more.  We quit listening.  We cannot be too hard on the returnees here because when we look at them, building up their own houses and lives, while neglecting the temple, we see ourselves.  Plenty, sufficiency, having our needs met, tends to make us tone deaf to God.  I say that to our own shame.  So God has to get our attention.

It took Cherie awhile to figure me out, after we got married.  If I had a book in my hands and she talked to me, I generally did not hear what she said.  She would complain that I was not listening to her, so I would tell her, “listen honey, if you want to say something to me, you need to get my attention.”  One night we were lying in bed, and I was reading a book, and she said, “Did you set the alarm clock?”  Absorbed in my book, my only response was, “Huh?”  “Did you set the alarm clock?”  “Huh?”  All of the sudden, Cherie reaches over and knocks the book, and … bang, my book went flying out of my hands and off the end of the bed.  “Did you set the alarm clock?”  Startled, but having my full attention, I said, “Yes.  Yes, I set the alarm clock.”  And after a pause, “see, when you get my attention, I listen to you.”

God often puts us into difficulty in order to get our attention.  In order to get us to listen.  He does that in many ways, but we find two of them here in Haggai.  He does it by insufficient supply.  Vs. 9, You looked for much, and behold, it came to little…the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.  God gets their attention by ensuring that they do not have what they need.  

When we do not have what we need, what do we do?  We cry out for help.  We begin to say, “I do not have what I need.  Why not?”  and we go to God and say, “How come you promise to supply all my needs, and  yet I do not have sufficient supply of, whatever,” and God says, “Now that I have your attention, I have been meaning to tell you something.”

  1. The second way that God gets our attention is by supply that appears sufficient, but then is never enough.  I think God does this to us more than we realize, because it is a little more subtle than insufficient supply.  Look at the end of verse 6, You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.  And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag of holes.  The picture here is of adequate supply, you have clothes, but when you put them on, you still are not warm.  You are getting paid, but it is as if you keep pouring your money into a bag with holes in it, it goes dropping out of the bottom.

So one question you should be asking yourself, if you have money coming in to meet your needs, but you are always finding yourself with extra expenses, things you did not see coming is this, “Is God trying to get my attention.”  

And it is God.  He makes that clear in the passage.  Vs. 9, I blew it away.  Vs. 11, I have called for a drought.  We certainly have difficulties which are the normal ups and downs of living life in a world filled with sin and temptation and trial.  However, God also at times, brings drought upon us, He purposely brings difficulty upon us.  The funny thing is, the difficulty is for our ultimate good.  It is to shape us and mold us into people that are more Christ-like, and the more Christ-like we are, the more satisfied we are in God, and we find that it is God we need, and not the world's pleasures.  Every difficulty God brings down on our lives, is for our ultimate good.  Even while it is painful for the moment.

So if you find yourself in difficulty, due to finances, or perhaps health, or your living situation, etc. etc. the first question you must ask is, “God, are you trying to get my attention.”  God can bring trials into your life for any number of reasons, but this is the first question you must ask, because this goes to our priorities, and if we do not have our priorities straight, we will have no other part of the Christian life straight.  So look at your life and the difficulties and say, “What are you trying to tell me here, God?”  Some of us, and it is amazing, but some of us have a pretty high tolerance for pain when it comes to God speaking to us.  I have found that God is patient enough and loves us enough to keep tightening the crucible until we hear Him.  Listen, brothers and sisters to God!  This brings honor to Him and it is for your good.

Command

The second thing we see in this passage is Command.  God gives the people a simple, and straightforward command.  Vs. 8,  Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house [and by that he means, the temple], that “I may take pleasure in it, and that, I may be glorified,” says the Lord.

Finish the temple.  Simple, clear, concise.  This is the kind of command that Marines like.  In all of Haggai, this is the only command that God gives the people.  Everything else is commenting about this simple command.  Finish the temple.

Now.  Why does God want them, why is it so important to God, that the people finish the temple?  God was not being glorified by the unfinished temple.  Why would he be glorified by the finished temple?

The temple was the dwelling place of God on earth.  Remember, the Holy Spirit had not been given.  He did not indwell all believers in God.  If you asked a Jew where you might find God on earth, they would answer, “He is only to be found in the temple.  He dwells in the temple.”

Do you see the problem?  There was no temple!  Any stranger who came through Jerusalem would see that partially built temple and say, “Hmm, they surely do not have much respect for their God, do they?  They all live in nice paneled houses, while their God has nowhere to live.  Can you see how the partially built temple was dishonoring to God.  Every day and day after day it spoke to the misplaced priorities of the people.  So God wanted the temple rebuilt because it was so profoundly dishonoring to Him to have it partially built.

Why had the people not completed the Temple?  These were not “bad” people - as I am going to argue in a minute.  They were not chasing after other gods.  They were not idolators.  They loved God.  They were devoted to him.  Why was the temple not being built?  

I suggest that it is because of the simple inertia of life that we battle as human beings.   They did not set out to build half a temple.  External events forced them to stop and then the normal worries and concerns of everyday life took over and pretty soon everyone got used to having the temple sitting over in the corner half-repaired.  After 18 years it became a fixture of life and an accepted part of their lives.  No one stopped to consider what it spoke about God.  I want to stop here for a minute and ponder the implications for us.  None of them stopped and said, “what does that half-built temple say about God?”

Now.  Let me bring this closer to home.  Why should Haggai matter to us?  We have no temple, therefore we have nothing to leave half done.  This book has no relevance for us today.  Right?  Wrong!

Where does God dwell today?  He dwells in the hearts of every believer.  Thus Paul in Gal 2.20 - I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.  Christ dwells in the hearts of each believer.  Do you see where we are going here?  Do you see what Haggai is telling you?  Finish your life!  Build your life!  Does the state of your life testify to the world and to other believers that your chief desire is the honor of God?  Or are you like these returnees, giving lip service  to God, but you have other priorities.  

Now, I think almost everyone here fundamentally desires to please God by the way they live.  I do not think most of us - yes, there are a few here who are the god of their own lives, but I think most of us sincerely desire to bring honor to God in our lives.  What gets in the way?  The normal wear and tear of life.  The little concerns and difficulties and problems that naw away at us day after day, and before we stop and realize it, all of the sudden, God is no longer first priority in our lives.  Its not like we made a decision one day to drop Him down a notch or two, it just creeps in because of the inertia of this world, that continually draws us away from God.  

So my question for you is, “what does the way you live your life say about your God?”  It is a serious question isn't it.  It is a crucial question.  The danger of living a life which does not put God  first, is not so much what it says about us, as bad as that is, as hypocritical as that is, the danger is what it says about God!   It dishonors God.  No one gets up in the morning and says, “I want to see how many ways I can bring dishonor to God today,” and yet we do that day after day as we live our lives by sheer inertia, do not spend time with Him, do not consult Him.  If nothing else, I hope this chapter of Haggai makes you stop and say, “what does my life say about God?”  “What does my life say about God?”

Now, I said that these were good people who had just gotten caught up in the wear and tear of life.  I think we see that in vs 12ff.  What we see after Crucible and Command is Obedience.  We see the people respond.  Then Zerubbabel the song of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high preist, with all the remnant of the people,  obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.  They obeyed.  No questions.  No argument.  No justifying their actions.  They obeyed and they all obeyed.  They were ready to hear God's word to them.  Do you see how differently they responded to the message of God then the Jews  before they got carried off into exile.  Jeremiah spends his whole ministry telling the people what God calls them to do, and they reject him and they reject God.  Not so here.  They obey.

The reason we know that it is true obedience and not just an obedience of convenience is because they have a change of heart and then a change of behavior.  The order here is of great importance, so let's not rush past it.  They “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God…and the people feared the Lord.”  Then God speaks to them that He will be with them - notice the mercy there, let's not slip by that - and then, they actually take up the work.  Their hearts are changed which leads to their behavioral change.  False obedience is concerned only with appearances, “Alright, we will go finish the temple,”  true obedience starts with heart change.  And that is what we find here.  Heart change and then behavior change.  

So let me leave you with this question.  People of God, does your life honor God?  Christian, does your life honor God?  If it does not.  If the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart and saying, your life is dishonoring God, then Haggai is still speaking to you tonight.  He is saying, “Christian, finish the temple.”  “Christian, finish the temple.”  Are you going to obey?

Finish the Temple

Haggai 1

I.  Introduction

A. Illustration

B. Read Hag 1.1-15

C.  Historical Background - Decree of Darius - Ez 6.7 - , Let the work on this house of God alone.  Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

 2.   Haggai - 29 August 520 B.C.

 3. Summarize situation of returnees. - Argument Hag 1.2 - The time has not come to rebuild the temple.

 D.  Two Key Questions - 1. Why did God want the Jews to finish the temple?  2.  What possible difference can it make to us?

II.  Crucible

A. Crucible - A place or occasion of severe trial - vs. 5-7 & 9-11

B. A Common pattern - For God to get our attention

Illus: Cherie and the book

C. Two ways of putting us in difficulty here

 1. Insufficient supply - vs. 9 - Q:  How come you promised…?

 2.  Appearance of sufficiency but never enough - vs. 6

D. It IS God! - vs. 9, 11

E.  Appliction - First Question - “Are you trying to get my attention?”

III. Command

A. vs. 8

B. Why does God want this? - Testimony to Strangers and to the rest of the Jewish community where our priorities are.

C. Why did they not complete it?  - Inertia, normal difficulties of life which took precedence. None ever asked - “What does this temple say about our God?”

D.  Application

 1. Where does God dwell now?  Gal 2.20 - I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.

 2. We here are much like these returnees.

 3. What does the state of your life testify about your God?

IV. Obedience

A. They obeyed! - vs. 12ff

B. True obedience not convenient obedience.

C. Application: People of God does your life honor God?  Christian, does your life honor God?  “Christian, Finish the temple.  Christian finish the temple?”

Are you going to be obedient?

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