In the passage today we take a second look at the people of Israel during the ministry of Haggai the prophet. As we learned last week, 70 years earlier, in the year 586 BC, the Babylonians invaded the Southern Kingdom, destroyed Solomon's beautiful temple in Jerusalem and had taken the people away to Babylon as captives. After 50 years, some of the people were allowed to return to Israel. When they arrived, they began the process of rebuilding their Temple, but the work stopped after just a short time because of opposition from the Samaritans. For 16 years the Temple remained unfinished. Then, God raised up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call the people back to their task of rebuilding the Temple. The people responded and they began to build again. But after only a month, they became discouraged and again they wanted to quit. They were disappointed by the Temple they were building and they were discouraged in the work they were doing. God tells Haggai to speak to the Governor Zerubbabel and the High Priest Joshua to encourage them to carry on. This morning we will speak to the Provision, the Past and the Promise!
I. v. 2 The Provision – As we consider The Provision, let’s talk for a moment about the politic. God told the Prophet Haggai to speak to the spiritual and civil leaders, speak to the governor of Judah and also the High-Priest, the religious leader of Jerusalem. There are some in the Christian community that suggest that politics and religion should never work together for a common good. There are some in the public square that suggest that religious leaders ought to stay out of politics and concern themselves with only spiritual matters of the local church. But God has the final say on this matter; He has consistently used throughout the ages people in government to do his will. He has often used the ungodly, the heathen, to exact judgement on the children of God. God even uses heathen rulers to make changes in government that not only benefit the children of God but also promote the Kingdom of God! Did not God use Abimelech to prove His sovereign plan to Abraham; did not God use Potiphar to elevate Joseph; did not God use the Philistines to exact judgement? Romans 13:1 clearly states that, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” 1 Peter 2:13 says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” In Romans 9:17 Paul teaches, For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My Name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Our text today in verse 5 reminds us that before God brought Pharaoh down, He made a promise that the Hebrews will be rich! Exodus 3:21 God said, “I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor… for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians."
In today’s lesson it happens again! Ezra 6 gives us the background; King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon. A scroll was found and in it was this record: In the first year of the former King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the temple at Jerusalem: “Let the house be rebuilt, the place where they offered sacrifices; and let the foundations of it be firmly laid, its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, with three rows of heavy stones and one row of new timber. Let the expenses be paid from the king’s treasury.” A heathen king commanded that the funding for the temple be paid from his own treasury! Do you see the significance here? Many years before the temple was to be rebuilt God had spoken to King Cyrus about funding the project, and then He reminded King Darius that he will provide the financial resources that the Jews needed in reconstructing the temple even before they set out to rebuild! We need to trust that God has a plan and that He will provide for our needs. In verse 8 God says, The silver is Mine. And the gold is Mine. When we commit ourselves to do God’s will, the Lord will provide!
II. v. 3a The Past – God tells Haggai to ask the question, “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?” Haggai prophesied in 520 BC. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BC. Thus, it had been 66 years since Solomon's Temple had been destroyed. Certainly, there were some people among the Jews who had seen the Temple built by Solomon. They remembered its glory, it's gold covered walls, its splendor, its size, and its breathtaking beauty. They recalled the glory days, when the Shekinah glory of God filled the temple and the house of God reverberated with his praises. They looked at the Temple that they were building now, and it was an embarrassment to them. It was small and so basic compared to the wonderful Temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Ezra chapter 3 describes the people remembering the past. All they could consider with how things used to be, and they had no interest in how things were now. When we hold so tenaciously to the past that we refuse to serve God in the present, we are not honoring God! God said, “I am with you”, just like I have always been!” Far too often we get caught up in the same trap. We look at how things used to be, forgetting that the God of yesterday is still here and still able. Our duty is to learn from the past but reach forth into the future.
Philippians 3:13 but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
God then asks the people: “how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” If we are not careful, we too will get caught up in the comparison game. We want to compare our failed marriage with the new spouse, our failed spiritual leaders with the new pastor, our failed relationships with the new friend, our failed businesses with the new partner. We compare the way things are with the way they used to be. Someone once said, We remember the past as being better than it was so the present seems worse than it is. When we live in the past and downgrade the present, the inevitable result will be disappointment and discouragement. If we are not careful, we might just fail to see that the greatest days of our lives, the greatest days of our church, the greatest days of our ministry, are in front of us, not the days behind us! Learn from the past but don’t live there!
In verse 4, God tells the people to “be strong” and “work”. When we get discouraged and disappointed, there is a tendency for us to want to quit on God. God says, “Get up and get to work! Don't let anyone side track you, derail you, or stop you.” We all find ourselves discouraged and disappointed from time to time, but we should never allow that to distract us from the work God has given us to do.
ILLS: There is a true story of a little girl in 1884 named Hattie May Wiatt who was almost turned away from Sunday School because of overcrowding at Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia. That day Hattie May Wiatt started saving her pennies to help the church make more room in their children’s ministry. Two years later, Hattie May tragically died. Wrapped in a handkerchief next to her bed her parents found 57 pennies and a piece of paper with a note saying that the money was to help the church build a bigger children’s ministry. At Hattie May’s funeral, her mother gave that 57 cents and the note to the Pastor. That Sunday, Pastor Russell Conwell shared Hattie May’s story with his congregation. People’s hearts were touched; a realtor give the church a piece of land to expand the children’s ministry, asking for 57 cents for a down payment. A local newspaper carried the story, and soon news about Hattie May Wiatt’s 57 cents spread across the country. The people started to give and Grace Baptist Church not only built a new children’s ministry wing, but also a new ministry center, today seating over 3,000 people. Out of that movement of generosity from Hattie May’s example, the church built Temple University in Philadelphia, and Good Samaritan Hospital. In fact, you can visit Temple University today and find a picture on the wall of Hattie May Wiatt, a little girl who’s 57 pennies were used by God far beyond the limits of her life.
God said, “Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord; 'and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,' says the Lord, 'and work; for I am with you,' says the Lord of hosts.”
Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
III. v. 6 The Promise – I Will Shake Heaven And Earth! I Will Shake The Sea And The Dry Land! I Will Shake All Nations! And I Will Fill This Temple With Glory! – This passage is quoted in Hebrews 12:26 and taken together it tells us that God shook the earth when He gave His Law and He will shake it again when the Messiah comes. One day, this world with its false teachers, it dead works and it ever increasing iniquity will be shaken to pieces and it will fall at the feet of the Messiah! Right now, the world is in turmoil. This has been the way of the world for thousands of years. Assyria conquered Israel. The Babylonians captured Judah. The Persians toppled the Babylonians. The Greeks defeated the Persians. The Romans conquered the Greeks, and so on. The nations are in a constant state of agitation. But the day will come when the Lord will shake this world system to its foundation! He will topple every king and kingdom and He will rule this world that mocks and rejects Him today!
What will be left in that day? The things that cannot be shaken! Hebrews 12:28 says that our God is an all-consuming fire but His Kingdom cannot be shaken and will stand even in the last day. God promised that there is a latter temple that is greater than the former temple and He will fill this temple with Glory! His Promise is that the Latter Glory will be Greater than the Former Glory! – “I Will Fill this Temple with Glory.” How could this be possible? How could this puny, pathetic building ever possess a greater glory than the Temple build by Solomon? God knew what these discouraged workers did not know. He knew that 500 years later He would send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the very glory of Heaven itself! They did not know it, but they were building the Temple that would behold Jesus one day! Luke 4:18 And Jesus stood at the desk and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” And He read from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
But the Promise does not end there! When they crucified my Jesus and He rose from the dead on the third day just like He said He would and ascended on High to the Right Hand of the Father in Heaven! The Apostle Paul asks us a question that must be answered! 1 Corinthians 3:16 – “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” And again he asked in 1 Corinthians 6:19 – “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
You might not want to admit that you don’t know how to honor God in your body. But don’t you worry because God has a Promise and a Plan for that! God said, “I will fill this temple with glory” and you are going to know it because “in this place I will give peace!”
In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
For Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
I want you to know today that according to Colossians 1:27 “Christ in You is the Hope of Glory!” Place Your Trust in Jesus Christ today and He will fill you with peace!
