Haggai 2:20-23
Consider My Ways
Woodlawn Baptist Church
October 23, 2005
Introduction
The world is full of pessimists isn’t it? Of course you all know what a pessimist is; it is the man or woman who always sees the negative side of things. Nothing’s ever good. The pessimist says “If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we’ve solved it!”
I read a story about a young paratrooper who was learning to jump. He was given the following instructions: First, jump when you are told; second, count to 10 and pull the ripcord; third, in the unlikely event that it doesn’t open, pull the second chute open; and fourth, when you get down, a truck will take you back to base. The plane ascended up to the proper height, the men started peeling out, and the young paratrooper jumped when told. He counted to 10 seconds and pulled the cord, but the chute failed to open. He proceeded to the backup plan. The second chute failed to open. “Oh boy” he said. “When I get down, I suppose the truck won’t be there either.”
There are plenty of times in our lives and even in our church life when nothing seems to be going our way, and in those times it can be easy for even the most optimistic of us to become pessimistic and down in the mouth. Life has a way of beating us down doesn’t it? We can give the church answer and say that Satan is attacking us, and there’s certainly plenty of truth to that, but day in and day out Satan looks a lot more like a bad marriage or job than a pitchfork carrying red-man with a pointed tail.
If you’re in a leadership position, and particularly a church leadership position, you have discovered that these positions come with their own unique challenges. Perhaps a primary one is to maintain a healthy outlook when your view of the ins and outs of ministry can so easily get you down. You see things that others may not. Your emotions range from the highs of seeing spiritual transformation to the lows that come with grumbling and griping.
In our study of Haggai I have tried to introduce you to a people who had become extremely discouraged. For 70 years the people of Israel had been slaves to the people of Babylon. The Medo-Persian Empire had allowed them to return home so they could rebuild their country which lie in ruin. They had begun rebuilding God’s temple, but had quit due to opposition from their neighbors. Their homes and farms were in disarray, so they quit building the temple and began rebuilding their lives. Their lack of balance and misplaced priorities led them to forsake God’s work altogether, so much so that God punished them for it. He withheld rain from them, allowed them no satisfaction from their labors and kept His blessings from them as He tried to gain their attention.
Fourteen years or so went by before God got that attention back through the preaching of Haggai, after which time the people returned to the temple to begin building, but once again God withheld His blessings from them. Although they had gone to work, they were an unclean people. In other words, their lives were dirty with sin: sinful attitudes, sinful speech, and sinful actions. Even though they had gone to work, they were unfit. God had to once again send Haggai to tell them what was wrong: they were separated from Him because in their sinful, wicked state He would not bless them.
It must have seemed very bleak to Zerubbabel. He might have said, “The people are down, God is working against us, our crops won’t produce, our situation borders desperation. I’d like to just give up right now!”
You know how he feels, don’t you? Some of you feel that way today: wanting to give up. If not right now, we’ve all been in those shoes where we’ve wanted to give up and run away, and many do. This morning I will not have time to deal with all the places a man or woman might turn to when they run or give you a lot of reasons why people might run, but I will tell you that as children of God we are especially equipped to deal with these times of severe discouragement and hopelessness. In the passage we’re going to read today, God told Zerubbabel some things that gave him hope. The message still inspires hope among believers today. But our hope lies far beyond the message. You see, it is what we learn about the Messenger Himself that gives us great cause for optimism and faith in the most disparaging of times. It is in having a better understanding of the ways of God that inspires us to continue on. Let’s read Haggai 2:20-23 as we consider some of these ways.
“And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.”
God Is In Control
How much of your life are you in control of? You can eat right and exercise daily, but you don’t control the number of your days. You can live a healthy lifestyle and see your doctor regularly, but when an illness comes you can’t prevent it. How many people, who by the power of their own will kept cancer away or prevented some sickness? We cling to our jobs as though they provide us security, but anyone who has ever lost a job can tell you the loss of control that is felt in that moment. There is much of life you cannot and will not control, but you can be sure that God is in absolute control of everything: including your life.
Six times in this little paragraph God tells you He is in control. He says,
• “I will shake the heavens and the earth;”
• “I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms,”
• “I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms…”
• “I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them…”
• “I will take thee…”
• “I will make thee a signet…”
These are not foolish statements given by a braggart, but promises made by the Sovereign God of the universe. “I will,” without a doubt, you can take it to the bank, write it down and date it – I will do this and that. I am in control.”
Why did Zerubbabel need to hear that? Because when things got so bleak in the nation of Israel there may have been some cause for the faint of heart and weak of faith to doubt God’s control over their physical circumstances. God in essence says to these people, “You know it was bad yesterday, and you see it is bad today, and you have grown to believe that things are never going to get any better, but I want to remind you that I’m in charge around here!”
The people could not control whether or not it rained. They could not control how much their crops and vineyards and orchards produced. They could not control many things about their lives, but they could control the one thing that mattered most in all of that – they could control their responses.
Sometimes bad things happen because we invite them. Sometimes we simply live recklessly with our relationships, our possessions, with our time and talents and we bring them home with us. Other times bad things happen because we are being disciplined, and then they may just happen for no apparent reason. Regardless of why we go through trying circumstances that are beyond our ability to control, the one thing we do control is our response to God in the midst of those circumstances.
We can blame God, attack God, accuse Him and abuse Him and slander His holy name; or we can simply trust that He alone is the sovereign God of creation who knows what He’s doing and why He’s doing it.
God is in control. That is the response I absolutely must give when things in my life are falling apart. Do you remember the old westerns where we’d see an enclosed buggy being pulled along by a team of horses? There would be passengers inside the buggy being led along by the driver on his seat perched atop the buggy. Imagine if the ride got pretty bumpy and the riders inside the buggy insisted that the driver hand them the reigns. Can you imagine the outcome if some idiot thought that he could effectively drive that coach from inside with such limited vision and sense of direction? Well isn’t that exactly what we are when we try to take the reigns from God? From where God sits He can see everything! He knows exactly where we’re headed and knows the way that is best for us – but too often when the ride gets bumpy we, with our limited vision and sense of direction, try to take over and drive ourselves.
No matter how down and discouraged you get; no matter how much you want to quit and give up; don’t ever forget that God is in control.
God Keeps His Promises
The promises God makes in this passage take us back to verses 6-9 of this same chapter. God said,
“Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory…The silver is mine, and the gold is mine…The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former…and in this place will I give peace.”
It may have sounded like a far fetch to these people when God said that the temple being built in their day would eclipse the glory of Solomon’s temple. This was a group of people who could remember the glory, and from all outward appearances this one fell far short. The only reason it seemed so far fetched was because of their nearsightedness. God wasn’t talking about the temple they were building. He was talking about a glorious temple that still has yet to come. God made some great promises here, but the promises have to do with what still lies in our future.
In verses 20-23, I want to lump all of these statements into two broad promises. The first has to do with God establishing His kingdom here on earth. I wish we had more time to explore this, but we don’t. I gave you six statements earlier where God said, “I will…” The first four of these have to do with the events surrounding His setting up His kingdom. There is coming a day in the not to distant future when all hell is going to break loose on earth. Jesus spoke about how the end times will be characterized by constant fighting and war; by one natural disaster after the other; by incurable diseases and famine and hatred and more. In the last days religion will be going strong, but true faith will experience a great apostasy, or a great falling away. The world’s governments will have moved away from monarchies and dictatorships to democracies, and nations will begin aligning themselves with one another to position themselves for global domination. Daniel prophesied that in that day…“the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…” Revelation 19:11ff describes the events this way:
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
God promised a flood: and it happened. God promised a land flowing with milk and honey: and He gave it. God promised a Savior: and He delivered. Over and over God made promises in the Bible that He fulfilled with perfect accuracy, and the promises He made to Zerubbabel will be no different. If God promised to shake the heavens and earth He’ll do it in the Tribulation. When God promised to overthrow the throne of the kingdoms you can be sure that Jesus is going to do it when He smites the nations with His sharp sword. God promised to destroy the strength of the kingdoms; to overthrow their chariots and the horses and riders. When Jesus shows up on the scene and smites the nations and rules over them with a rod of iron and treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God there won’t be a doubt in the world about who is in control.
Listen to me: God keeps His promises. If He said that He’s going to set up His kingdom here on earth then there’s nothing that can be done to stop it. Now, that’s the first set of promises that have to do with Jesus establishing His kingdom. The second set has to do with God keeping His promise to David.
When David was the king of Israel God made a promise to him that the throne would never depart from his family. Zerubbabel is the great-great-great (etc.) grandson of King David and is mentioned in both genealogies of Christ found in Matthew and Luke.
When God said to Zerubbabel that He had chosen him and would make him as a signet, He was saying that he had God’s word that he would rule the people and be close to the heart of God. That may not sound like all that big a deal to you, but just a few years earlier listen to what God said to Zerubbabel’s grandfather, “As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah were the signet ring upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence...”
You see, the signet ring was a very precious thing to the king. He never parted with it, except when he allowed one of his royal secretaries to use it to stamp some important records or such. The king wore it on his hand or on a chain around his neck. When God said that he was plucking Zerubbabel’s grandfather thence, He meant that He was disowning him or distancing Himself from the man. However, God said that He was going to make Zerubbabel as a signet because He had chosen him.
Had God chosen Zerubbabel? Certainly! But that’s really not who the statement is about. It’s really about who Zerubbabel represented – and that’s the One who would later occupy David’s throne. John said that this one “will have on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Do you believe that? Do you really believe that one of these days Jesus is going to return to earth and establish His kingdom and sit on His throne and rule and reign? You can because God keeps His promises!
God Is For His People
Listen to me: I want you to hear this: God is for you. Did you know that God is for you? He is for His people. He is on your side. I think there are too many of you who really have difficulty believing that sometimes; but it’s true. God loves you and is for you.
How do I know God is for His people in the book of Haggai? Because He bothered to send a prophet to get their attention. Because He didn’t just kill them to begin with. When they put down their tools and went home and forgot about Him He didn’t kill them: He punished them. He disciplined them. That’s what the Bible says God does when He loves us. If God didn’t discipline them its because He didn’t love them and they didn’t belong to Him. But God did punish them because He did love them because they were His people. I know that God loved them because He said that He wanted to bless Israel; and now because He has made some really wonderful promises to them.
Sometimes I think we really do begin to look around us and wonder whether God is on our side or not. We force God to prove His love for us by demanding good circumstances or lots of stuff. We make Him prove His love when we require an easy, trouble free life. When we look and wonder like that we are questioning the goodness of God. God is good to you beyond measure, and while we like to have an abundance of stuff and good circumstances God doesn’t have to give you those things to prove His love for you. He might do it, but then again He might not.
If God had to give you those things to demonstrate that He’s on your side, then Paul’s writings reveal that God must have hated him. God must have hated John the Baptist and Peter and the others. Every one of those men lived lives of great trial and hardship and want, but every one of them was sold out on the fact of God’s love for them. In fact, the apostle Paul said that one of the greatest things we could do with our time is to think on these things. “Set your mind on things above!”
The book of Haggai has demonstrated that the question you need to ask this morning is not whether God is on your side, but whether you have made up your mind to be on God’s side. “As for me and my house…” Will you choose to attend to the things of God and will you do it with clean hands and a pure heart? Will you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might? Will you love Him who first loved you?
Conclusion
When the people of Israel got down, the got way down. They had hit bottom, and they were right where God wanted them to be. The good news is that that’s not where God wanted them to stay. After considering their ways God wanted them to consider His ways. He is in control. He keeps His promises, and He was on their side.
I don’t know what your circumstances might be today, but I want you to know that God is still in control of them. You can work and work and try to take those reigns from God, but there’s nothing you can do to drive this thing called life except to trust the One who sits in the driver’s seat. He knows where He’s going with your life and He’s promised that its going to be glorious – will you trust Him with it?
