Wouldn’t it be great if good health was contagious? All a well person would have to do is breathe on a sick person and he would get better. A person without AIDS could give a blood transfusion to a person with AIDS and they would be healed. The contagion of meningitis would work the opposite way, instead of the well person getting a life threatening disease, the endangered person would be made safe.
Unfortunately that isn’t the way it works. It is easier to catch a cold than it is to catch good health.
That was then, this is now
Turning points are important. Just as important as the turning points are the demonstrations that you are continuing in the direction you have turned.
Decisions are great, but follow through is better.
• The whole building project started in September
• By October, some were getting discouraged and were ready to quit
• But two months after that, the enterprise is moving forward
So God is going to address the way things are, based on the past
And then He is going to address the way things will be, based upon the present
That was then ...
observe:
A good thing does not improve what it touches
This message from Haggai is a build up. The point is delayed. He begins with a discussion about how corruption and consecration works:
Consecration is hard to catch
Corruption is easy to catch
It is like sickness and health. You can catch a cold, just being in the same building with someone. It is much harder to catch health.
In the Law of Moses, consecration could be transferred to one degree. If a consecrated offering touched something, say, your clothes while you were handling the offering, your clothes would be made holy. However, your clothes could not then pass that holiness on to anything else.
When a sacrifice was prepared, it went through a great deal of care and attention. The holiness of that consecrated item came intentionally. A recognition of the intention and purpose of the owner toward that item had to be declared and cultivated.
For example, a lamb chosen for an offering was
• inspected
• separated from the flock for many days
• watched
• re-inspected
• butchered a certain way
• roasted a certain way
• handled a certain way
All that consecration was not easily transferred.
However, a bad thing corrupts what it touches
On the other hand. If something was unclean, say a dead animal in your yard, and you touched it, just as with the offering, you would take on the ceremonial property of the thing you touched. Through your carelessness, you became unclean. However, unlike consecration, corruption continues to another degree. If you, having become unclean by touching the corpse, touch something else, say your daughter when she needs her shoes tied, also becomes unclean. You have passed on the corruption.
Here is Haggai’s point. The corruption has dominated the ceremonial condition of the people. All this time, they have been bringing offerings to the altar, but their offerings have been corrupted.
How?
They were corrupted by the attitudes of the people.
It is ironic that the first thing they built was the altar, while their attitudes kept the offerings from being effective.
Haggai is telling them, in the form of this little conversation, that their attitudes have slowed their spiritual progress. And their spiritual condition has affected everything else. But now, something has been changing.
That was then ...
Economically, things were bad
God reminds them, though I doubt they needed reminding, that their economy had been in a pit. Actually, I don’t think that God is reminding them of the bad economy so much as He is reminding them of the essential cause and effect.
Remember Haggai’s first message. You would put two coins in your pocket, but when you took them out there would only be one. Your trees didn’t bear fruit. Your crops rotted on the vine.
Essentially, God was indicating that they were working hard, but their hard work was not bringing the expected results. This "invest 2, withdraw 1" system should have made them look for a reason, but the one direction they did not look was at their own spiritual condition. It did not even occur to them to examine the spiritual facets of their lives to figure out what was wrong in other areas.
It wasn’t about the activity surrounding a building project, or not surrounding the building project. It was more about the attitudes that kept the building from being attempted.
From this day on ...
Haggai is a master of fine oratory. In this short message, he is building the suspense of his hearers by tagging them along on stuff they already know. He is essentially repeating his first message.
That was then ...
Your sin of apathy and procrastination has kept your economy in a slump
This is now ...
From this day on ...
From Kislev 24, exactly three months after the first time God spoke through Haggai
From this day on ...
God intends for His people to measure something, but in verse 15, He does not yet say what. It is a foreshadow of verse 19. This is a turning point, remember Kislev 24. We would say, "remember December 18".
Remember the way it was before December 18
• There was a foundation
• There was an altar
• And there was a weird economic phenomenon
• Your crops did not yield
• They died of blight and bad weather
• And I did this
But from this day on ...
From December 18
There are stones laid on the foundation ... in two tiers.
One tier of stones is a beginning, but two tiers is a project. It is a promise of continuance. On December 18, they were able to observe not just a slow, discouraging beginning to the work. They were able to observe an encouraging, continuing work in progress. So God says, "remember that on December 18, everything changed."
This is now ...
The early reaping time has just ended, and it has been a sorry harvest. The pomegranates, grapes, figs, and olives have not borne.
The late grain planting season has just begun. So God asks a question:"Is there yet any seed left in the barn?" To His hearers, the obvious answer is, "No, there is no seed left."
The harvests of last year’s grain was so bad that they emptied out their store of seed in record time. They may have even eaten some of it.
• Last year they had a bad grain harvest
• Then they had a bad fruit harvest
• Now they had a weak grain planting
• But God says: "But from this day on ...
• I will bless you.
• This message of Haggai’s is very negative in tone, for the most part.
• He talks about how easily corruption comes and how hard it is to pass on holiness
• In that light he says that their offerings have been corrupt
• He talks about the poor harvests and the economic hard times
• He alludes to the weak planting season
But then Haggai comes to the resounding and hopeful point of his message,
• It is the very last word
• From this day on I will bless you
They have reached a turning point. They were given work to do, and they responded positively they overcame their discouragement and they moved forward.
And now, two months later, the stones are being laid. Work has visibly progressed.
• The work is firmly underway
• No more procrastination
• No more self-indulgence
• No more drawing back from discouragement
• It is a turning point
• From this day on I will bless you
• The seed you have just planted will bear an amazing harvest
• The lean years are over
That was then, this is now
God is not looking for a single decision. It is a hard thing for us to hear, but God’s kingdom is not built on a flash in the pan. There is more to salvation and being a Christian than "getting saved." That decision, made once when you were a kid does not define the whole process.
Being a follower of Jesus requires commitment to an ongoing process of holiness, that makes us more like him as the days and years move by. It isn’t about just offering ourselves to Him once and being done, we have to do it every day, all the time, in a variety of ways.
Jesus makes the point that the wrong attitude inhibits the consecration of an offering.
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 NIV)
But once the heart problem is solved, the offering is clean and worship can thrive.
God is not content to receive your devotion in an emotion stirred moment, when you are consumed with the illusion that everything is going to be ok. God wants your devotion when everything is not ok. He wants your heart when
• things get hard
• and the work is boring
• and the task is overwhelming
• and it is slower than you would like it to be
The work of God’s kingdom will not be done in ecstatic moments of mountain top joy. It will be done in the day to day work and dedication we embrace to see the work continue and complete.
The excitement of beginning is a great day
But the project in progress is the greater thing
From this day on I will bless you
The joy of discovering purpose and the dream of a vision are their own rewards. The blessing of God comes when the work is underway.
• You may have thought that becoming a Christian would make everything easier
• You may have thought that reading the Bible all the way through this year would fuel its own progress
• You may have thought that you already knew much of the chapter you intended to memorize, and the rest would be easy
• You may have thought that sharing your life with your neighbors would not involve much effort
But now that you are into it, you see. There is much to be done. And you have been called to do it. Your commitment was not about an experience, it was about a life choice.
Haggai’s first message was to encourage restarting of the work
Haggai’s last message was to overcome the discouragement that comes with looking back to the past
• This one is about moving forward
• The problems of the past came with embracing inaction
• The blessings of the future come with continuing the work
Through Moses, God had told His people that neglect of His guidance would cause the kinds of problems they were facing
But now
From this day forward
Now that the work is continuing and moving ahead
The curse is over
and blessings will come
