A call to work
Haggai 1
The symptom
Zerubbabel the governor was facing an economic crisis. He was watching the decline as surely as politicians and leaders are watching it today.
The reasons were different. Today we have a crisis in banking and high financial institutions. Zerubbabel’s crisis was one of diminishing profits. His land had fallen on agricultural hard times.
In these hard times, a prophet came on the scene and brought a message to interpret the problem.
Several sentences reveal the symptoms:
You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." (Haggai 1:6 TNIV)
Again later in the message:
"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away ... because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands." (From Haggai 1:9-11 TNIV)
It did not seem to matter how hard they worked, how responsibly they spent, they were always putting two coins in their bag and pulling only one back out.
The problem
God is clear, this crisis is of His making. The natural question to ask is, "why is God doing this?" God answers with a thought provoking command:
Consider your ways
or in the words of a more contemporary translation
Give careful thought to your ways
Ask yourself what you are doing and why.
In other words, there is a divine cause and effect going on. God is doing something in response to what they were doing. What is it?
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, ’The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house.’" Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" (Haggai 1:2-4 TNIV)
Remember, their temple had been demolished nearly a century before, and they themselves were in exile. They came back with the particular goal in mind of rebuilding the Temple. Then they were thwarted by jealous and petty local rivals, and stopped by the king.
You can almost hear the people,
Well it isn’t our fault. The king made us stop. The local people were against us. We tried, but it just didn’t work out. It is too early to try again.
It was 16 years since that command. It has been 11 years since that king died. Another king has come and gone, and they now have a brand new king. The rule of law was not the same then as now. The word of the king meant everything.
It is important to note that God does not scold them for building their own houses, or for obeying the law of the land. There are three negative factors at work:
• Work on His house is unnecessarily delayed
• Work on their own houses has progressed to the point of luxury
• The people’s motivation has gone to sleep
It is significant that Haggai is not calling only the governor to task, but also the High Priest. This is a social problem and a spiritual one. The governor might easily become distracted, but the Temple was Joshua’s responsibility. He needed to give it attention.
A story is told of a Native American boy who is being initiated into manhood. He is released into an unfamiliar forest to live for a time on his own wits.
As he begins scouting the area, he sees a white wolf, and he imagines the status of the prize. To return not only successful, but with the pelt of a white wolf across his shoulders would surely bring him great respect and acclaim. He begins tracking the wolf.
As the sun begins to set, the wolf has eluded him and he sees the folly of his ways. A real warrior would have taken care of fundamental needs on his first day. He would have found water, built a simple hut and killed a simple rabbit for his meal. But he had wasted his day pursuing a prize and has to spend the next day catching up.
This is the dilemma of the newly returned Jews. They are decking their houses with luxury even as they neglect their basic spiritual needs. Their need for worship goes lacking, while their desire for status is fed.
The solution
We might wish to protest. How could God expect people who were already struggling to get by to give to this huge, expensive project?
But that wasn’t God’s solution
His solution was work.
Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. (Haggai 1:8 TNIV)
The central point of this message of Haggai’s is repentance. God says,
You have been giving attention to yourselves and attempting to build up your luxurious possessions. But I have taken measures to get your attention. Your finances have not been everything you would like them to be. You stand on the brink of disaster. You need to think about this and change your focus. Work on My house of worship.
He says:
• Stop giving attention to the extras in your material life
• Begin giving attention to the basic spiritual necessities
And God isn’t asking for money, He is asking for attention, time and energy.
The response
Haggai must have been a compelling spokesman. Here are two statements of the effect he had on them:
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. (Haggai 1:12 TNIV)
and
So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, (Haggai 1:14 TNIV)
In the space of about three weeks, the work started again.
• They recognized the voice of God
• The leaders were moved
• The hearts of the people were stirred
• And they obeyed
In the center of this response was a promise of God:
Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. (Haggai 1:13 TNIV)
What does this have to do with us?
It is the challenge of every preacher that he must read ancient texts and ask himself and the LORD what significance they have so many centuries later.
• We have no deteriorated Temple
• We are not all facing famine
Really?
Here is how Paul describes our conception of the Temple as the church:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21 TNIV)
Just as in Haggai’s day, the foundation has been laid. The Apostles and prophets have done their work. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. His work on the cross has taken the place of the altar that stood in Ezra’s temple. Peter builds on the same image:
As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5 TNIV)
The new temple is not made of dressed and quarried stone. It is made of people, living stones, laid on the foundation aligned with the chief cornerstone.
It is an ongoing project. Peter says we "are being built into a spiritual house."
Along with Haggai I would like to stand and say, it is time to work on this spiritual house. It is time to give attention to worship and to the gathering of the living stones. It is time to dedicate ourselves to the collective identity of being the place where God lives. It is time to give focus, priority, attention and energy to seeing this Temple built and adorned.
In these days of expensive gas and time crunched schedules, it is easy to give attention to other things, closer to home. It is easy to neglect the very important work to which God has called us, the work of making His Temple glorious.
Add stones to the structure
Your relationships with others should be redemptive, just as Hosea’s influence changed the governor the high priest and, consequently, the whole nation, calling them to a closer walk with God. You are not called to change their minds or their hearts, only to make sure that their awareness of God is active. We do this by taking every opportunity to behave and speak like believers in Jesus. We need not quote scripture or exert an opportunity to reveal a plan of salvation to do this. All we need to do is make sure that our speech and our behavior are consistent with the values of God.
Give attention to worship
• Pray
• Immerse yourself in Scripture
• Sing
• Praise God for His goodness
• Give
• Come to corporate worship
• Partake of communion
The vehicles of worship are not merely ritual or exercises in spiritual discipline. They may be both, but they are so much more. Coming to church is more than a weekly habit. All these are the paths that open our communication with God. They are the ways we let God into our lives to influence us.
Work and God will be with you
The promise of Haggai is yours. When we determine in our hearts to make the Temple of God a priority, He promises to be with us. What more could we want?
