Consider Your Ways
Text: Haggai 1:1-15
Introduction: The book of Haggai is the second shortest book of the Old Testament and the first of the postexilic writings. In other words the last three books of our Old Testament were written AFTER the captivity of the Jews was passed and the people had begun returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. Haggai is a sister book to the book of Ezra. You will remember from our study in that book how Ezra the scribe told how, under the protection of king Cyrus, in 538 BC Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem with 50 000 Jews to live in the city again and to rebuild the temple.
Now although the project began well, in time its progress was hindered when their enemies petitioned a new king, Artaxerxes to prevent the work on the premise that Jerusalem and the Jews had always been a source of insurrection and trouble in the world, and for a time the work ceased. It was during this cessation in the effort that God raised the prophet Haggai, along with Zechariah to encourage the people to begin what they started. You it is easy to start anything. It is the finishing of it that is difficult, but nothing of worth was ever done for God that did not cost somebody something, and did not meet with obstacles and problems along the way. So Haggai was raised of God to spur the people on, to keep them focused and to help them set their priorities straight. His theme? “Consider your ways.” Haggai wanted these people to take a long hard look at themselves, and to ask themselves how it was and why it was that the work God gave them to do was uncompleted. He wanted them to consider the Lord, to remember His promises and His purposes, and he wanted them to finish what they started.
In relaying this message Haggai was direct and to the point. His prophecy consists of four messages, which were delivered in a matter of months.
I. Consider Why Their Progress Had Been Delayed – 1:3-7
A. Ezra tells how that when the people first arrived at Jerusalem there was an excitement and enthusiasm for the work.
1. It wasn’t long until they had cleared the ground and laid the foundation for the temple.
2. But then their enemies also got to work and from the moment they returned to Jerusalem and set the themselves to completing this task the Samaritans made numerous representations to the kings of Persia, both Cyrus and Artaxerxes calling for the work to cease.
3. And cease it did, with almost fatalistic resignation the Jews downed tools and for fourteen years or so nothing happened.
4. In time the foundation became muddied over and weeds began to grow.
B. Now, the Jewish people could explain this.
1. You see, they said it wasn’t the right time to build the temple, and their reasoning went something like this, “The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.” (vs 2)
2. “Well, the prophecies, predicted 70 years of captivity, and although we are in Jerusalem, we are still under occupation, and many of our people are still in Persia, so obviously this is not the time to build the temple. The time will come when the captivity is fully ended and we are free.”
3. It is interesting how nothing really changes… you see we hear a lot of that same reasoning today, particularly from those, like ourselves who view prophecy from a premillennial point of view, and who believe that the end times are marked by a great turning away from the truth.
4. We say, “Well, you know, it’s the last days, and not many people are going to be saved in the last days. Didn’t Jesus say that when he came He would scarcely find faith upon the earth, didn’t Paul say we would be living in perilous times,” etc.
5. And he consequence of that kind of thinking is that we are demotivated to serve the Lord as we should, which a pity, because actually as the age approaches its inevitable end we should be stirred to urgency and not given to complacency.
6. But how many say, “Oh there will never be another revival, - it’s not the time.”
7. Do you know what? That’s the wrong attitude. This fatalistic notion that we are doomed to failure because the coming of Christ is imminent is not the right approach to Biblical prophecy.
8. You know it is interesting. The Charismatic churches are full to over flowing in this country, and many of us considering them to be in error wil say that is a “sign of the times,” but has it ever occurred to you that Charismatic people are often far more pro-active in their outreach than most others?
9. And did you ever ask yourself why? You see most charismatic groups are postmillennial in their approach to prophecy, they believe that Christians are to establish the kingdom before Christ comes, so they are working to that end. In other words they are motivated.
10 Now, it seems to be we have to right approach to prophecy, but the wrong attitude to outreach, and they have the wrong approach to prophecy but the right attitude to outreach.
11. Maybe we need to stop saying, “It is not time.” You don’t know that. Yes, these are the last days, but they have been the last days for 2000 years! Yes Christ may come today, but then again He may not. And we have no more right to say that God will not grant revival today than we have to say the Jesus is coming this day.
12. Prophecy should be a tonic, not a narcotic, and we need to busy ourselves about God’s business.
B. Now notice how God rebuked these people.
1. “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?”
2. Isn’t is funny how we always have reasons why we cannot serve God, but we always find the time and the money to serve ourselves?
3. Someone put it this way:
• Isn’t it strange how a 20 pound note seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?
• Isn’t it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you’re at church, and how short they seem when you’re watching a good movie?
• Isn’t it strange that you can’t find a word to say when you’re praying, but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend?
• Isn’t it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of popular novel?
• Isn’t it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit at the back row in Church?
• Isn’t it strange how we need to know about a church event three weeks in advance so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?
• Isn’t it strange how difficult it is to learn and share a truth about God with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?
• Isn’t it strange how we believe everything that magazines and newspapers say, but we question the words in the Bible?
C. The truth is our “reasons” aren’t reasons at all – they are excuses, and an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.
D. These Jewish people of Haggai’s time said, “The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.”
1. But they seemed to have plenty of time to work on their own houses.
2. God points at the lovely wooden panels on their homes, and he asks “How is it your house seems to be in fine order, but mine is disappearing under a carpet of weeds?” “How come you have time to build your house, but no time to build mine?”
3. In fact when the Lord tells them to build his house notice (vs 8) that they are to “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house.”
4. But wait a minute, in Ezra’s account the wood for the Lord’s house was already on site! – see Ezra 3:7 – it seems they took the wood that was given for God’s house and used it on their own homes. They took what belonged to God and spent it on themselves!
5. How typical of man. And are we any better, when God gives us every resource to spend on His service, but we spend it on our homes, our hobbies, our holidays, our entertainment, our pleasure and ourselves?
6. Do you think that God doesn’t see that? That He doesn’t know? That Jesus is no longer standing by the treasury? (Mark 12:41) Consider your ways.
E. And do you know what God did in response? Are you ready for this? He hit them with a ”credit crunch”! That’s right, He made the economic conditions such that although they brought home wages, their wages were “put it into a bag with holes”. – See 1:9-11
1. In other words, He saw to it that their money did not stretch, that their homes were devalued, that their harvest was ruined.
2. And the people saw all of that for what it was – a wake up call – and they started to build the temple again.
3. But do you know how long their new found vigour lasted? One month.
4. How come? They began to think they were wasting their time. They had listen to the ‘ne’er do well’s’ who criticised the work.
II. Consider Why Their Plans Had Been Disparaged – 2:1-9
A. As the new temple began to rise out of the ashes, some of the older people began to doubt and to question.
1. They started to make comparisons between the new temple, and the old.
2. You see some of them were around 66 years before when Solomon’s temple stood on this site in all its glory, but this temple did not compare!
3. They were making good progress until some old men came down to watch the work.
a. The Lord quotes their words, “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?”
b. They said, "Do you call this a temple? This heap of ruins here? We saw Solomon’s temple, and what you are building here is nothing compared to that. All the gold and silver that was in that temple – now that was a temple! Besides, you don’t even have any gold or silver. How are you going to decorate this temple?"
c. And you know what happened? The people got discouraged and they said, "You know, they’re right. We don’t have any gold or silver. We don’t have anything to make this temple beautiful. What’s the use? Why bother?" So they quit.
4. That’s the way it is with a lot of older folks – they are always living in the past, always wanting the young to do things their way, live up to their ideals, always pouring cold water over new ideas and a fresh vision – you know something there is a real danger in that.
5. It seems the older you are the more resistant to change you become, and, if I may say so, often the more selfish you become. Criticizing what others may be trying do, suggesting that nothing is ever good enough. You know what that’s not true!
a. Do you remember what happened when they first laid the foundation for the temple? – See Ezra 3:12
b. The older men wept and the younger men rejoiced. Why? Because the old people hankered after the past, whilst the younger looked to the future.
c. Nothing really changes – does it? The older folks like he hymns, the younger the choruses, the older like the traditional the younger the contemporary
5. Some people are so caught up in the past that they cannot get excited about what God is doing in the present!
a. Still, there are others who are so willing to embrace the newest trends and methods that they forget about what God did and how He worked yesterday.
b. The truth of the matter is this: The past is gone forever and åwe live in the present.
c. We need to look back and glean what we can from days gone by, but we have to live in the here and now, and we need fresh vision and fresh fire.
d. The great lesson that God wants to impress upon us is that God always does a new and different work. The thing that is coming in the future is always better for our present situation than the past. We do not need to hang on to these things of tradition.
B. What did God have to say to those who discouraged the work with their criticisms?
1. First of all He reminded them of His presence – 2:4
1. Three times He tells them to be strong. He tells the governor, the high priest and the people “be strong.” The word intimates stubbornness and determination. They needed stickability, they needed perseverance to see the job through.
2. Not only were they to be strong, but they were to work. You see faith is not only about being, it’s about doing, it’s about engagement and involvement.
3. God was saying, "Keep on working, I am with you. And when I am in your midst you don’t need to worry about how it is going to turn out. It may be different but it will always be better."
2. Then He reminded them of His provision – see 2:8
a. God is not so poverty stricken that He relies on human resources – the whole earth is the Lord’s.
3. Thirdly, He reminded them of His purposes – see 2:6-7
a. The glory of this temple would not be in the gold and silver, but in the person of Christ – the “desire of all nations”, someday he would grace this building with His presence.
C. So the people picked up their tools and they began working again.
III. Consider How Their Practices Had Been Defiled – 2:11-14.
A. Now Haggai has a third message for the people.
1. To put it in layman’s terms, the Lord was effectively saying that the good apple never makes the bad apple better, but the bad apple always corrupts the good.
2. Sin is always transferable – holiness never is.
3. The point was that the temple was a holy thing, and the work they were doing was a good work, but their efforts on the temple could never rectify the wrongs in their lives.
4. In other words the good never outweighs the bad. And so the people were encouraged to do something beyond a physical work, and to look deeper and to have hearts that are right with God.
5. You see if your heart isn’t right, it only contaminates every other thing that you do, that includes our worship, our witness and our work for the Lord.
6. Isn’t that a great lesson for us this morning? To do what’s right because we’re right! Because our hearts are clean and our lives are pure, because of what God has done and is doing within us.
B. Let me blunt.
1. If you are here worshipping the Lord, and your heart’s not right, you’re wasting your time. Because God will not accept your worship.
2. If you are giving for any other reason, other than the love of God, you’re wasting your money; your offering is unacceptable.
3. If you are praying for your will to be done in heaven, rather than God’s will to be done on earth, sorry, but that’s not going to happen. God doesn’t hear that kind of prayer.
4. If you are witnessing to win an argument, rather than to win a soul, motivated by religious pride rather than the glory of the Lord, your wasting your breath. God will never honour that.
5. You see it comes down to this, either everything we do is honourable because it is done with a right heart for God’s glory, or all that we do is infected with the sin that dwells with in us.
6. Practical Christianity is not just about what we do, it’s about why we do it. God is always looking on the heart.
Conclusion: Well, in time the people re-laid the foundation and the temple was built with God’s blessing. But what a powerful book Haggai is, and what a challenge to our ways and to us.
Pressures, demands, expectations and tasks all press upon us and assault our schedules. Do this! Do that! Phone him! Answer her! Finish this. Visit them. It seems that everyone wants a piece of us – family, workplace, church, school, and clubs. It seems like we have so little left to give in terms of time, and talent and money. We find ourselves rushing through life, ticking off our lists, attending to the necessary, the immediate and the urgent. But too often we miss out on the important. And Haggai reminds us of why that is. It’s not about time management, or because we have so many demands placed upon us, it’s about values, and priorities. It’s about what is truly important to us. And the truth is, that for some of you, Jesus isn’t that important.
You say, “How do you know that?” Because it tells. It tells in the ways we use our time, money, strength and talent. Haggai calls us to rethink our priorities. To know the difference between what’s urgent and what’s important. To set things straight, to get right and to live right. To consider our ways.
