What Can God Do With A Broken Heart?
Haggai 1:12-15
12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, 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. And the people feared the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, "I am with you, declares the LORD." 14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
In the 1st 11 verses of this chapter the setting is rather grim for those who had returned from exile and now where being held accountable by God for what they had NOT accomplished in the 16 years since their return. God condemned their apathy and inaction and commanded Haggai and Zechariah to prophesy until the people complied with God’s calling!
In these verses we can see that the people hear the message of God through the words of the prophet Haggai and they are moved. There is genuine repentance by the leaders and the people and God then begins the process of healing their relationship with Him and helping them to be obedient to His calling.
Let’s look at these verses one by one and see what Scripture can teach us and how we can take what it teaches and apply it to our own lives!
12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, 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. And the people feared the LORD.
After the admonishment from God that was delivered through the prophet Haggai, the nation was trembling in fear. They knew that what God was saying was true… They knew that they had placed God on a shelf and had begun to seek after their own selfish desires and wants rather than do what God had sent them to do…
But when Haggai delivers this harsh message from God it strikes a cord with the leaders and with the people and a switch goes off in their head. Look at what the verse says…
Then Zerubbabel AND Joshua with ALL the… people!
This message touched all who heard it and even those who did not hear Haggai preach this word… it got to them one way or another and they believed the word and feared God because of His word to them!
What does this teach us? First it teaches us that when God sees sin in the camp, He is going to send a messenger to preach repentance! This happened time and time again in the OT and we see it happen in the NT as well, but for us this is important because this is something we ALL can relate to…
Now I understand we were never in exile and we have never been sent back to our hometown to build a church or temple for God, but this applies to today’s believers in a much broader way. If you are a professing believer, your profession of faith had brought you into a relationship with Christ.
That relationship is based on His grace and mercy and our submission and obedience. We are called to submit to Him and His calling on our lives! Like the Jews tho… many times we get sidetracked and lose sight of what God desires for us!
How many times has this happened to you and God sent someone into your life to remind you of your calling? I know it happens to me quite frequently! This doesn’t mean you have lost your salvation… what it means is that you have lost your focus and God wants to REFOCUS you onto His plan and purpose.
Has God called you into a specific ministry and you have refused to surrender to Him… because you don’t believe you can handle it! Here the people could NOT handle what had been laid before them, but God was calling them to it anyway! They were afraid… we are afraid when God calls us into ministry and we don’t know a lot about it…
But God has promised that those He calls will be those He equips and helps. We can NOT lose sight of God’s calling and far too often we do as these Jews did… we get sidetracked and focused on our own things… and because of that we don’t do what God has called us to do…
What else can we learn from this verse? Well we can learn about repentance. Humility before God and repentance! The people were afraid because they knew God’s message was true… but instead of making excuses or trying to blame others for their situation, they decided to be obedient to God’s calling.
Look at the verse where it tells us, “…obeyed the voice of the LORD their God…” This reveals a heart that is broken and willing to submit to God’s calling. There can be no repentance without a broken heart and broken spirit. This is why God hates a prideful spirit. These people could have gotten all defensive, but they didn’t… they had done wrong and they admitted it!
When there is sin in the camp God is going to send a messenger to reveal that sin… in our world today God sends us his Holy Spirit… to convict of sin and reveal all truth… the Holy Spirit is our prophet… revealing our sin to our heart! Also when sin is revealed, how is our heart going to respond… with humility and submission OR with pride and resistance to the Spirit?
These people responded with humility and submission and when that happens God responds… let’s look at what God says, when He sees the submissive hearts of the people…
13Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, "I am with you, declares the LORD."
Now the people were fearful and the leaders were afraid of what God would do… after all they had JUST come out of exile and that exile had been put upon them because of the disobedience of their ancestors. I can imagine them thinking that this was it… God would surely send them into slavery this time and forget about them.
But God’s response to their repentance was a loving response that tells them, “I am with you!” This was God’s way of telling the people that He was not going to send them off to exile, but would be with them and help them…
Likewise, when we come to God in humility and submission and with a truly repentant heart… He caresses us in His forgiving arms and tells us, “I’ll never leave you NOR forsake you and if you confess your sin I am faithful to forgive it and clean you up…” God loves the humble heart… God loves the repentant heart… God will comfort those who seek His mercy.
Now when God convicts us of sin… and when we come to Him with a repentant heart and He tells us He loves us and will be with us… that encourages us… that strengthens us… that emboldens us! And it had the same effect on the Jews as well.
14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
The heart of the leaders and the spirit of the people were stirred because of God’s faithfulness to His promises. They had come to accept God’s plan and were embracing it and were excited to be a part of it… The Bible tells us that they came to work on the house of the Lord!
What they had seen as troublesome and not something they had wanted to do for over 16 years, was now something they were excited about! And 3 weeks after Haggai’s initial message from God… work started back on the Temple!
Now have you ever experienced such a turn around in your own personal life? I have… I can remember when speaking in front of people would terrify me and make me physically sick. But today, because I surrendered to God… He has emboldened my heart and now it excites me to teach… it excites me to preach… I am pumped doing what I used to down play and say I could not do…
When we submit to God, he is faithful and He will instill in our hearts, HIS ways, HIS will and HIS purposes… We will desire what He desires! When we come to Him in humility and repentance, our heart is malleable and we can be shaped as He sees fit… This is what God wants from us all the time.
Let’s remember that when God sends His Holy Spirit into our lives to reveal sin, it is for a purpose! God wants to clean us up, God wants to reveal truth to our lives and God wants to forgive us!
Submit to Him today… allow Him full reign and rule in your heart!
