Haggai part 1
Haggai 1:1-15
Introduction: The book of Haggai is the second shortest book of the Old Testament and the first of the writings where the people had come back to Israel from their captivity in Babylon. 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. In 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 stopped. It was during this pause that God raised the prophet Haggai, along with Zechariah to encourage the people to finish building the temple. You see 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 by God to spur the people on, to keep them focused and to help them set their priorities straight. Haggai’s theme was “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
II. Consider Why Their Plans Had Been ridiculed
III. Consider how their traditions had been corrupted
I. Consider Why Their Progress Had Been Delayed
There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.
David Lloyd George
1863-1945, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Haggai 1:3-7
Ezra tells how that when the people first arrived at Jerusalem there was an excitement and enthusiasm for the work.
It wasn’t long until they had cleared the ground and laid the foundation for the temple.
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.
And cease it did, with almost fatalistic resignation the Jews downed tools and for fourteen years or so nothing happened.
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,
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, ’The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ v2
“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.”
It is interesting how nothing really changes… you see we hear a lot of that same reasoning today. I will practice some hospitality next week, i will mentor the young people next week, i will talk to the older people next week, i will read my bible next week, i will pray next week, i will share my faith with others next week.
And the consequence of that kind of thinking is that we are demotivated to serve the Lord as we should, which a pity, because faith in Jesus is supposed to inspire us to always be improving.
The bible should be a stimulant, not a sedative, and we need to busy ourselves about God’s business.
Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. Simone De Beauvoir (French 20th century philosopher)
B. Now notice how God rebuked these people.
1. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. v9
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 dollar 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?
The truth is our “reasons for not praying, reading the bible and practicing hospitality” aren’t reasons at all – they are excuses
These Jewish people of Haggai’s time said, “The time is not come”
But they seemed to have plenty of time to work on their own houses.
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?”
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.”
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
But wait a minute, in Ezra’s account the wood for the Lord’s house was already on site!
Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia. Ezra 3:7
It is most likely 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!
How typical of humanity. 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?
41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." Mark 12: 41 - 43
True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.
Emanuel Swedenborg
Swedish, Scientist Quotes
To their credit the people saw their own hypocrisy for what it was – a wake up call – and they started to build the temple again.
But do you know how long their new found enthusiasm lasted? One month.
How come? They began to think they were wasting their time. They had listen to the ‘negative people’ who criticised the work.
II. Consider Why Their Plans Had Been ridiculed
Haggai 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.
They started to make comparisons between the new temple, and the old.
“But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” Ezra 3:12
Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.
Oliver Goldsmith
1728-1774, Anglo-Irish Author
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!
They were making good progress until some old men came down to watch the work.
The Lord quotes their words,
“Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” Haggai 2:3
[While] Ridicule often checks what is absurd, [it also] fully as often smothers that which is noble.
Sir Walter Scott
1771-1832, British Novelist [brackets my words]
They probably said something like, "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?"
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.
That’s the way it is with a lot of people we are tempted to live in the past, always wanting the young to do things our way, live up to our ideals, always pouring cold water over new ideas and a fresh vision – and there is a real danger in that.
For all of us there is a temptation to become resistant to change. As we approach middle age you become often more selfish. Criticizing what others may be trying do, suggesting that nothing is ever good enough.
Do you remember what happened when they first laid the foundation for the temple?
But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. Ezra 3:12
Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool.
Charles Simmons
Author Nationalities, Composer Quotes
The older men wept and the younger men rejoiced. Why? Because the some hankered after the past, while some looked to the future.
Nothing really changes – does it? Even now some people complain against answering machines and modern technology. Some people are so caught up in the past that they cannot get excited about what God is doing in the present! They do not allow the joy of what God is doing to enter into their hearts. My wife and I make sure we are not negative when talking about anyone, with the common phrase ‘we are positive people’.
Human nature is the same now as when Adam hid from the presence of God; the consciousness of wrong makes us unwilling to meet those whom we have offended.
Matthew Simpson
American, Clergyman
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, they have no awareness of the history and traditions they are a part of.
The truth of the matter is this: The past is gone forever and we live in the present.
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.
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.
That said, the bible is full of learning from the past and not forgetting the traditions that keep us going. To the older people of the church when was the last time you took some time out for the younger ones and organised a meal with them. To the younger people of the church, when was the last time you deliberately sat next to an older person in the church instead of just hanging with your friends.
When you have older people only inviting each other around for dinner and you have younger people forming a circle after church, it is easy to develop prejudice and negativity.
What did God have to say to those who discouraged the work with their criticisms?
First of all He reminded them of His presence –
4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ’Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ’and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
Haggai 2:4
God’s in His Heaven-- All’s right with the world!
Author: Robert Browning (19th Century English Poet)
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.
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.
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 be better."
2. Then He reminded them of His provision – 8
’The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. Haggai 2:8
God is not so poverty stricken that He relies on human resources – the whole earth is the Lord’s.
He also reminded them of His purposes – see
"This is what the LORD Almighty says: ’In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty.
Haggai 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.
So the people picked up their tools and they began working again.
III. Consider how their traditions had been corrupted
Movies are one of the bad habits that corrupted our century. Of their many sins, I offer as the worst their effect on the intellectual side of the nation. It is chiefly from that viewpoint I write of them -- as an eruption of trash that has lamed the American mind and retarded Americans from becoming a cultured people.
Ben Hecht
1894-1964, American Newspaperman
Haggai 2:11-14
A. Now Haggai has a third message for the people.
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.. Sin is easily transferable – holiness is not so easy to transfere.
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 correct the wrongs in their lives.
In other words the good never outweighs the bad. And God wanted the people to do something beyond a physical work, and to look deeper and to have hearts that are right with God.
If your heart is not right, it only contaminates every other thing that you do, that includes our worship, our evangelism, our bible reading and our work for the Lord.
Isn’t that a great lesson for us this morning? To do what’s right because our heart is right! Because our hearts are clean and our lives are pure, because of what God has done and is doing within us.
B. Let us think about this.
If you are here worshipping the Lord, and your still angry with someone, you’re wasting your time. Because God will not accept your worship.
If you are giving money to church to make up for a sin you’re wasting your money; your offering is unacceptable.
If you are sharing Jesus to win an argument, rather than to win a soul, motivated by religious pride rather than the glory of the Lord, you’re wasting your breath. God will never honour that.
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.
Practical Christianity is not just about what we do, it’s about why we do it. God is always looking on the heart.
I. Consider Why Their Progress Had Been Delayed
II. Consider Why Their Plans Had Been ridiculed
III. Consider how their traditions had been corrupted
Summary: 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 jobs all press upon us and fill up 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 Australians, 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. As you leave here today, does the way you spend your resources of time and possessions, reflect your devotion to Christ?
