Haggai's oracle in today's passage, chapter 2:10-19, comes roughly two months after his last one-- and three months after the people have begun rebuilding God's house. Here, again, Yahweh speaks through his prophet to encourage the people. So this is another message, I'm hoping, that will encourage you. I say that, but let me give you a heads-up-- this may not feel very encouraging at first.
Verse 10-12:
(10) On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the Word/word of Yahweh came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
(11) "Thus has said Yahweh of Armies:
Ask, please, the priests, [for] an instruction, saying,
(12) "LOOK! A man is carrying holy/consecrated/dedicated meat in the hem of his cloak,
and he touches with his cloak to the bread and to the stew and to the wine and to the olive oil and
to all that he eats.
Does it become holy/dedicated/consecrated?",
When we think about priests in the OT-- who they are, what they do-- we maybe think that they are basically there for two reasons-- to offer sacrifices on behalf of the nation to Yahweh, and to help others offer their own sacrifices. But one of the main jobs of the priests was to teach the people what God wanted from them-- what God expected of his own people, for their own half of the covenant (Deuteronomy 17:9ff).
Now, when you read through the OT torah/instruction/law, you'll realize quickly that it doesn't address every possible situation. There are lots of specific questions we could bring to the OT, and these specific questions, aren't specifically addressed. Like the Sabbath, for example. What exactly is it, that people can and can't do on the Sabbath in the OT? Can I circumcise my son on the Sabbath, since God expects my obedience? If my wife is pregnant, and in labor, on a Sabbath, can I help her? Or is the Sabbath my day of rest, and she just needs to hang on until sunset?
Sometimes, God's instruction doesn't cover your specific question. And sometimes, it maybe does, but you just don't know what He's said. If you're an OT Israelite, you probably can't read. You certainly don't have a Bible on your bookcase. Maybe your parents don't know God's instruction very well, and/or didn't do a good job teaching you what God wants. Maybe you just have honest questions (Luke 2:46).
If this is you, and you're not sure what God wants from you, your next step would be to go the priest. He is the one who can help you make sure you are living in a way that pleases God.
Here, in Haggai 2, we get a picture of what this all looks like. How exactly do the rules about cleanliness, and holiness, work? Say that you have meat that is "holy" to God. Actually, let's pause. What is "holy meat?" "Holy" meat isn't meat that is "morally upright"-- meat that's lived ethically. It's not meat that is "separate," or "other." The basic idea of holiness, is of dedication, or commitment, or consecration (cf. Peter Gentry's article, and Andrew Case's).
The temple is holy, because it's the house dedicated to and for God. In the temple, you'd have vessels that are "holy"-- they are dedicated to sacrifice to God. "Holy meat" is meat that is dedicated to God-- it's meat that you will offer to God, as a sacrifice. "Holiness" is about "dedication to God."
So let's say you have this holy/dedicated meat, and you are bringing it to the temple. Now, you don't have tupperware, or a cooler. There's no ziplock bags. How do you carry it, to keep it from getting dirty and a little nasty on the way? You put it in the hem-- the inside-- of your cloak. And, let's say, as you're walking to the temple, that the outside of your cloak touches all kinds of other things along the way. Do all these other things that your cloak touches become holy-- do they become dedicated to God?
It's an honest question. How does "holiness" work? Is "holiness" contagious? Does it spread?
But it's at this point that we should stop, and notice who is asking. Who wants this instruction from the priests?
Yahweh.
I assume that Yahweh knows how holiness works. Right?
What, exactly, is going on here?
Haggai 2:12 continues:
and the priests answered,
and they said,
"No,"
So, holiness is not something that naturally spreads through direct, or indirect, contact.
Verse 13:
(13) and Haggai said,
"If an unclean person touches all these, does it become unclean?,"
and the priests answered,
and they said,
"It will be unclean,"
So, Yahweh had a second question. Is uncleanness something that spreads? If you have a person who is temporarily unclean-- someone with a skin disease, or who touched a dead person, or who did husband-wife things-- and that unclean person touches all of these things, do those things become unclean? Is "uncleanliness" something that spreads?
And the priests say, "yes." And even though we maybe don't understand anything about Levitical law, this makes sense to us. If a little boy uses the bathroom, and doesn't wash his hands, does everything he touches become unclean? If I'm working with raw hamburger, and then touch everything in the kitchen, does the entire kitchen become unclean?
The priests' answer makes sense, intuitively.
But why does Yahweh want an answer to this? I assume that Yahweh knows how all of this works. He's not confused about cleanliness, and uncleanliness, and holiness.
Somewhere in this question and answer, deep theological and spiritual truths are hiding. There is something about holiness that Yahweh wants his people to understand. What is it about holiness that you have to know?
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Wolff, A Continental Commentary, Haggai, 90-91:
The priest was responsible for ritual matters, and had also to distinguish above all between “sacred” and “profane,” and between “clean” and “unclean” (Ezek. 44:23*); he interpreted (written) edicts orally (Lev. 10:10f.*). Instruction of this kind was sought, applied for, or obtained by the laity (Mal. 2:7*; Zech. 7:2–4*; Deut. 17:9*, 11*; here the word used is ????, “entreat”). The obtaining of the torah takes the form of a conversation. First of all the case in question is laid before the priest, the exposition coming to a point in a question, which the priest then answers. The layman’s question merely permits a choice between two possible answers, and the priest’s answer is accordingly simply a straight yes or no.
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Verse 14:
(14) and Haggai answered,
and he said,
"Thus this people [is],
and thus this nation [is] before me. --utterance of Yahweh,
and thus is every work of their hands,
and what they offer there , unclean, it is,
God's people, up until now, haven't been holy-- dedicated-- to Him. And, as a result, the entire land is unclean. The people are unclean. Every single work of their hands is unclean. And, most shockingly, every sacrifice they've offered is unclean.
Even though there has been no temple, God's people have still been able to offer sacrifices. When they returned from exiles, they built an open altar to God (Ezra 3:1-3).
But God says, every sacrifice they've offered there is unclean.
This is horrifying. How could this happen? One of the priests' jobs was to make sure that the sacrifices were all acceptable-- you couldn't offer lame, or blind animals to God. They had to be healthy/whole. Yahweh is not the kind of God who settles for people's second-best.
How could every sacrifice be unclean?
To LOOK at the sacrifices, I'm pretty sure they would've passed inspection. The problem here is more basic.
The people are unclean, and so everything that the people touch, becomes unclean. Uncleanliness is something that spreads, and it's contaminated the entire country. Nothing that they do is going to please God-- it can't.
And why have the people been unclean? Because they haven't been "holy." They haven't been truly dedicated to God. And this was obviously the case, because they live in paneled houses, while Yahweh's house is in ruins.
What will Yahweh do about this? Verse 15:
(15) and so then, set, please, your hearts, from this day and forward/beyond.
From before the placing of stone upon stone in the temple of Yahweh,
(16) from their being, he came to a heap of twenty measures,
and it was ten.
He came to a vat to draw out 50 measures of wine,
and there were 20.
(17) I struck you with blight and with mildew and with the hail-- all the work of your hands--,
and you didn't return to me. --utterance of Yahweh.
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DBL, on "blight": 8730 ?????????? (šid•da•p¯ôn): n.masc.; = Str 7711; TWOT 2335a—LN 79.78–79.83 blight, i.e., a plant disease which cause the injuring and shriveling of plants (without rotting) as a figurative extension of scorching, shriveling heat (Dt 28:22; 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Am 4:9; Hag 2:17+), note: some sources translate “scorching,” and so relate to intense heat and not organic disease
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What Yahweh most wants, is to bless his people. He wants to shower kindness, and grace, and favor, on them, and be good to them. But He will only do this for a people who are dedicated to him. And what He's been doing instead, is striking all of their works with some of humans' worst enemies. When your crops become diseased, what can you do? When your house gets mold and mildew, how do you fight it? And hail? A few years ago, farmers had started harvesting their crops, and we had a terrible storm. There was a 5 mile stretch of crops just south of 94, where the corn was snapped off just below the ear. Entire fields looked great. They were ready for the combine. And just like that, they were gone.
When these things happen to you, you maybe feel snake bit. Unlucky. Even today, with 2,000 years of science and technology, there are no good or easy solutions for these things. But it's not that the people here have been unlucky. God says, "I did this."
And if the people knew how the covenant worked, they should've realized that these bad things were a sign of God's curses. Let's read just part of them, in Deut. 28:15-48 (read them).
So God says, "When these bad things started happening to you, you should've realized that this was Me." Blight, and mildew, and hail are signs of God's punishment. Of his curse. And these things are designed to call you to repentance, and to renewed dedication/holiness toward God."
And when they didn't realize it, and they didn't "return" to Yahweh, what did God do? He sent Haggai.
Now, nothing so far this more has been very encouraging, right? God expects obedience, and when He doesn't get it, what does He do? Bad things.
But there is a larger point that Yahweh/Haggai is working toward. And we know that God's people have been working hard on his house for three months now. The encouragement starts here, in verse 18:
(18) Set, please, your hearts from this day and beyond.
From the 24th day of the ninth month,
from the day that the foundation of Yahweh's temple was laid,
set your hearts.
(19) Still/yet, is there seed in the storage room?,
and still, the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate tree and the olive tree, have they not born [fruit]?
From this day, I shall bless."
Up until now, Yahweh hasn't blessed his people. He's punished them. Disciplined them. All of their hard work has come to nothing. All they've done, is scrape by. But now, all of that is going to change. And so God calls them to stop, now, and look one last time at their lives. Open up the seed bins, and look at their emptiness. Walk through your orchards, and count what few figs and olives you find. Look at your bank statement. Look at your credit card bill.
It's important that you see these things, and remember them, because God is going to change all of this. "From this day, I will bless."
And why will He bless them now? What's changed?
The people have become holy.
And how have they become holy?
For three months, they've been dedicated to God, and to building God's house.
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Haggai 2 is a passage, where if we work at it, and think about the questions God asks, should challenge us to rethink every aspect of who we are, and what God wants from us.
If we are truly dedicated to God-- holy-- all of our good deeds done toward God will be holy. Acceptable to Him.
If we are unclean, everything we do will be unclean. Our farming, and box delivering. Our giving. Our worship. Our service. Everything. All of the things we do toward God, that we think please God-- He will view as unclean.
And this is true for us as individuals, and us as a church. Imagine, God looking at this church, and everything it does toward Him, and for Him, and God rejecting all of it. Imagine that nothing that we do, and nothing that we are, actually pleases God. Instead, God ignores us. Rejects us. Calls us "this people," and not "my people."
Sacrifices in the OT are something that God usually enjoys. He likes the smell. It pleases him. He appreciates people's worship, and service, and sacrifice. But if we are unclean, it's like it makes everything we offer rancid.
If we are unclean, nothing we do will please God. God won't receive our work like we hope. And God won't bless, like we hope.
So the question is, what would make us unclean?
[Let's not cheat immediately to the NT.]
Based on places like Leviticus, the obvious answer is things like touching a dead person, touching an unclean animal. Getting a weird skin rash.
But none of that is the problem here, right? Here, the issue is more fundamental. The people haven't "turned" to Yahweh. They aren't holy/dedicated/committed.
Holiness isn't a matter, really, of external things. Holiness is a matter of the heart/mind. And so when Jesus says, it's what comes out of a person that makes them unclean, in some ways, he's not really teaching anything new. He's teaching the same thing as Haggai-- holiness is fundamentally a matter of who you are, and how you live. It's a matter of whether or not you are truly committed to God. It's a matter of your basic orientation in life.
You can do many of the things that Christians know they should do, without being truly dedicated to God. You can tithe. You can worship God on Sunday morning. You can pray. You can work hard in farming and box delivering. You can be a good employee, or friend, or spouse, or parent, or child.
It's not that in doing these things, you're just going through the motions. A lack of holiness is usually more subtle than this. You just aren't fully committed to God. You've given God some of your life, and some of yourself, but not all.
And if this is you, you probably know it. Maybe, there's some area of your life that you've just refused to dedicate to God. And that area, as I've talked, has popped into your head. Maybe you're compromising yourself in some way. Maybe you're resisting God in some area. Maybe you've claimed something for yourself, and told God "no."
You've done this, and at the same time, when you pray, and worship, and serve, you still think God is pleased with you, right? You lift your hands, and assume God is seeing something clean. You assume He appreciates your service-- that He welcomes it.
But what God wants, is you. You, in your entirety.
He wants everything in your life to flow out of your commitment to God your Father, and Jesus your Lord. You wake up, and you decide, today, that you will live a life consecrated to God. You dedicate your life, today, again, to God.
Romans 12:1-2:
So then, I encourage you, brothers, through God's mercies/compassion, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice--
holy/dedicated, pleasing to God,
your reasonable service--
and don't be conformed to this age,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
so that you may test and approve what is God's will-- the good, and pleasing, and perfect.
If you haven't been living this way, decide, today, that you will repent. Choose to live a life dedicated to God. This shouldn't scare you. You serve a GOOD God.
And when you do this, because you serve a GOOD God, I think you will be blown away by what God will do for you.
What God wants, is to bless his people, and work for them, and through them. But He will only really, fully, do this, for a people who are dedicated to him. So stop, and look at your life. Look at how hard it's been for you. See your struggle to thrive, and prosper. And, a month from now (or 3, in the case of Haggai), after you've really committed to God, take a second look. See how, in Paul's words (2 Cor. 9:8-15, ESV mostly),
"God is able to make all grace/favor abound to you, so that having all sufficiency[e] in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they[f] will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!"
God is good. And God will richly bless you, if you dedicate yourselves to Him, and to his house-- the church.
Translation:
(10) On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the Word/word of Yahweh came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
(11) "Thus has said Yahweh of Armies:
Ask, please, the priests, concerning the Torah, saying,
(12) "LOOK! A man is carrying holy/consecrated meat in the hem of his cloak,
and he touches with his cloak to the bread and to the stew and to the wine and to the olive oil and
to all that he eats.
Does it become holy/dedicated/consecrated?",
and the priests answered,
and they said,
"No,"
(13) and Haggai said,
"If an unclean person touches all these, does it become unclean?,"
and they priests answered,
and they said,
"It is unclean,"
(14) and Haggai answered,
and he said,
"Thus this people [is],
and thus this nation [is] before me. --utterance of Yahweh,
and thus is every work of their hands,
and that they offer there.
Unclean, it is, ["Unclean" is focused in Hebrew]
(15) and so then, set, please, your hearts, from this day and beyond.
From before the placing of stone upon stone in the temple of Yahweh,
(16) from their being, he came to a heap of twenty measures,
and it was ten.
He came to a vat to draw out 50 measures of wine,
and there was 20.
(17) I struck you with blight and with mildew and with the hail-- all the work of your hands,
and you didn't return to me. --utterance of Yahweh.
(18) Set, please, your hearts from this day and beyond.
From the 24th day of the ninth month,
from the day that the foundation of Yahweh's temple was laid,
set your hearts.
(19) Still/yet, is there seed in the storage room?,
and still, the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate tree and the olive tree, have they not born [fruit]?
From this day, I shall bless."
