Haggai 1
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Well, good morning again. Wow. Thank you, whoever saw my scowl. It is good to be here with you. A few weeks ago, my family was on vacation. We were actually here last Sunday, but it's funny how being out even just one Sunday makes the heart long to be here. So I'm happy to be here again with you this morning, church. This morning, we're going to be in the book of Haggai, which is on page 791 in these red pew Bibles, if you've got one of those in front of you, or maybe under the seat in front of you.
If you don't know where Haggai is, I'm just going to assume you don't know where Haggai is. Yeah, you should look in the index and find it. It's going to be near the end of the Old Testament, or again on page 791 here in these red pew Bibles. So we live in a time when everyone's busy, right? schedules are packed, calendars are filled, you've got a whole list of things to do, and that list never seems to stop. So in order to kind of deal with that, there are productivity apps, there's different reminders, you've got a whole list of tasks, maybe if you're like certain people who shall remain nameless in my family, you've got sticky notes all over your house reminding you of things to do. And if you're honest, you probably actually feel the most competent or the most comfortable with your life whenever you're kind of knocking out those tasks, right, when you can start checking them off. And you're feeling good about scratching that one off and that one off.
When you're being efficient, when you're being productive, you think then, aha, you're being successful, finally. You know what it's like. You know, you've been in a meeting, your phone buzzes, and you're so tempted to check it. Ah, is this the next thing I need to go to? Am I missing a meeting? Am I missing an appointment? Or is this just a text about some meaningless thing? I should check it, right? Or maybe you're on your computer working on a project. Maybe this was me this week, and all of a sudden your email notification pops up. Ah, I need to read this email. I need to see, is this the next big important thing? Am I missing something? Oh, no, it's not. It's just an email from Alex about another event. Love you, brother. Or maybe if it's not work-related, then it's one event after the other, right? It's driving the kids to and fro all over the place. It's paying the bills. It's doing one errand after the other. It's going to the grocery store and trying to make it home in time before the rain so you can actually grill out.
that was us yesterday. Our lives are busy. One of the greatest tragedies that the Bible sets forth is that you can spend your whole life being busy and even being successful in some ways and still miss, though, what God cares about. You can build a perfectly comfortable life and still be completely out of step with what matters most to God. Well, that's the problem the Lord addresses here in the prophet Haggai, the people weren't idle. They were working. They were building. They were settling in. They were active people knocking out one thing after the other on their checklist.
But they'd stopped building the one thing that God had told them to do when he sent them back. And so Haggai steps in with a word that still echoes all the way down to today, to us. So since it's a new book that we're going to be studying, we've got to set a little bit of the background. And, you know, excuse me, pardon me, last week I told you we're going to tackle the whole thing. We're not. We're going to tackle chapter one today. So, Lord willing, in a future sermon we'll finish out the book of Haggai, but we're only tackling chapter one today. There's just so much in here for us. That's right. Yes, so we're just doing chapter one today.
As I said earlier, I'm guessing that some of you may not even know where it's at, and that's fine, that's understandable. It's a very small book at the very end or near the very end of the Old Testament. And maybe that's why you don't know where it is, or maybe you just don't know where it is because you don't know what to do with the prophets. You get to them and you just kind of don't know what to do with them. It seems obscure. It seems, you know, there's lots of different imagery. How do I read them? How do I understand them? It's just not one that pops up on people's all-time, all-favorite Bible passages. So we need to do a little bit of work to help us understand what's going on here. Well, Haggai himself was a prophet whose ministry took place in the year 520 BC. And we know that exactly because of these different date markers that he gives throughout.
In fact, you can actually go a little bit more precise than that. It seems like what we're going to be looking at here in chapter 1 was probably, according to ancient texts and then lunar calendars and everything else that you would do to figure out when exactly this happened, it probably was August 29th of 520 BC. So we can be that precise. We know the exact day, it seems, when this prophecy was happening. It was happening in the second year of the reign of Darius, who was a Persian king. He was ruling over that entire part of the world at that time. So Haggai, though, was prophesying then to the returned exiles in the city of Jerusalem. Well, they'd begun returning out of exile several years earlier in 538. So we're in 520, and in 538 BC, prior to that, these Israelites had started going back into the land. So remember how they got there in the first place. How did they get into exile? Well, for centuries, they'd been warned that if they continued to sin against the Lord, if they continued to break the covenant that God had established with them, that curses would fall on them. And a part of the curses that would fall on
them was that they'd have the land destroyed, that they would be taken out of the land, and that the temple would finally be crushed to pieces. The very place where God's presence dwelt among them was now devastated. And it symbolized that God's presence was taken away from them. The glory had been removed from the temple, and this was a part of the punishment for their persistent sin against God. But God also promised that he'd save a remnant. He said that he would bring a remnant back into the land and back to himself. And after 70 years, they would return. And that's what happened here in the book of Haggai. The book of Ezra, we studied that last year, you might remember, highlights that incredible return. It was this kind of tumultuous journey filled with so many different trials and difficulties. And they finally made their way back into the city of Jerusalem, only to find the city in shambles. And according to Ezra and even Nehemiah that we studied earlier this year, they started rebuilding the city. They set about rebuilding that city,
little by little, stone by stone. And after a few years, they even laid the foundation for a new temple. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction, but they ran into opposition not too long after that, and the work stopped. And it didn't just stop for a little bit. It didn't just stopped for even a year or two years, five years. No, it stopped at this point for 16 years. And for that entire length of time, nothing was happening on the temple. Not a single bit of work, but it becomes painfully obvious that other structures, that other works were happening without any problem whatsoever. Life was seemingly moving along as normal for these returned exiles. And that's where we pick up our story. Haggai steps onto the picture, and he begins preaching this message from the Lord to the returned exiles, who are apparently building a life for themselves and learning to live in their new home, but they're not pushing ahead with the rebuilding
of the temple. And that turns out to be a horrible, tragic, massive misstep on their part. So this structure for the book, and again, we're just doing chapter one today, but the structure for the entire book is really kind of fascinating. When we do chapter two, whenever that time comes, we'll see the other part of this. But you can see that Haggai's put it together in a really unique way. He's done some incredible literary things to show and highlight different things and a few that we need to see. And you can see this as you follow along with me right here.
So the very first thing is that the book begins with a pair of oracles on a very specific date. Remember, we know what date that is. So you'll see that that's chapter one, verses one and two, and then three to 11. that's the second oracle. And then there's an address to Zerubbabel. Well, at the very end of the book, it's the same thing. There's a pair of oracles on the same date. So that's chapter 2, verse 10, and then chapter 2, verse 20. So there's two more oracles on the same date. He calls them out at the same date. And then an address to Zerubbabel again. So he's book-ending the entire message with that. And then in the middle, he's got these two sections. So chapter 1, verses 12 to 15, And then chapter 2, verses 1 to 9, where the Lord says, I am with you, and that serves to move along what's happening here in the story, this statement of encouragement, of assurance of God's presence with his people.
So kind of at a big, broad picture, big, broad level, you've got these oracles, and you've got two I am with you statements, and then you've got oracles again. So chapter 1 is like that first half. It's some oracles, and it's I am with you, and that's what we're going to be looking at today. it breaks that entire book into two that, you know, Greg loves to pick on the fact that sometimes these are not, well, never have they been divinely inspired, the chapter and verse breakdowns. This one seems to have been handled well. I think this breaks down very, very nicely for us. So the first of the two sections that we're going to look at this morning, verses 1 through 11 there in your Bible, that's a series of oracles directed to the leaders and to the people. The Lord's chastising them for not building the temple, and then he's detailing what consequences have fallen on them for that reason. And then chapter 1, verses 12 through the very end, through verse 15, that's what happens as a result of these oracles being preached, right? So that's verses 12 through 15.
Now, we're going to read the whole chapter. We're not going to read it all in one sitting right here. We're going to read it in chunks as we go through the sermon, but taken as a whole, if we look at the entire chapter, what Haggai's trying to press on his readers and what then we need to understand this morning as the main idea of this chapter is this, above all else you must prioritize what God prioritizes. Above all else in life you must prioritize what God prioritizes. And we'll see that in two different points here through the sermon. It's just those two chunks of chapter one verses 1 through 11 first, and then verses 12 through 15 after that. The first point, a ruinous refusal, a ruinous refusal, and then the second point, a repentant response.
Point number one, a ruinous refusal. Let's begin by reading Haggai chapter 1. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You've sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus, says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it,
and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. and when you brought it home I blew it away. Why declares the Lord of hosts? Because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce and I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and on all their labors. Well, this is a stark kind of heavy passage, but it's not terribly complex to pull apart. On a certain day, this prophet Haggai shows up and begins preaching to Zerubbabel and to Joshua and to the people. And he gives a charge from the Lord telling them why the things are going the way they're going. Look at verse 2, speaking to Zerubbabel and Joshua. First, he says, these people say that the time has not yet come to
rebuild the temple. Well, who's he talking about with these people? That's an interesting phrase. Well, it's the returned exiles. But clearly, those returned exiles are distant from the Lord relationally in some sort of way. That's just not how you talk about people nicely, right? I don't imagine that you walk around in the grocery store, and if you've got maybe your children with you and someone goes, who are the, you know, who's this? And you go, well, these people are my kids. That's just not what you say. That's not how we talk about people when there's a sweet relationship between us, right? So here, clearly, there's not a sweet relationship between the people of God and their Lord. But it's not just them saying that it's not yet time, as though they were looking at some sort of calendar and waiting for the right time to build the temple. No, this situation is actually far worse. Look in verse 4. The very next thing that the Lord says through Haggai is to point out that in the meantime, they've built and maintained their own houses.
Well, implicit in all of that is that they actually knew, that they actually knew and maybe even openly said to one another, perhaps, that the temple was to be rebuilt. It's not that they didn't know. They knew that the temple was to be rebuilt. They just hadn't found the right time. That situation's stunning, isn't it? I mean, here's God's people. They live in actual houses, not booths in the wilderness, houses. Maybe they're not fancy houses, but they're houses. And the temple is in ruins for 16 years, all because they supposedly haven't found the right time to obey God.
That's something for us to consider as well, isn't it? Do you often wait for the right time to obey God? Even when you know he's commanded something of you, but you're just not willing to do it yet. Look, that can take so many different forms, and we're very, very good at concealing that and giving excuses for that. So perhaps maybe here today you're a Christian. You've actually trusted in Jesus, you've been converted, you are a Christian, but you've not been baptized or joined a church yet, because after all, it's just not the right time for that yet.
Or maybe you're busy in your career, and you very much intend to be faithfully involved in the church. You have every desire to be a faithful member and to give yourself in service to the Lord through the ministries of the church, but just not yet. That time hasn't come. Or maybe, even more so for all of us, that secret sin that you coddle, that you know needs to be killed, but surely this isn't the right time just quite yet.
Look, one commentator says about this dynamic that's happening here, that there's a sort of truce between conscience and covetousness going on between the people of God. The people knew that those two things were working against one another and they just couldn't let God's commands finally win the day, though. Is that true of your heart? Have you somehow let an uneasy, unstable, untenable truce develop between your conscience and what God has commanded of you?
My brothers and sisters, that ought not to be. That can't be. God will not be an equal party in your truce with your sin. You don't need to wait on the right time to prioritize what God has commanded of you. Now is that right time. But it took time for a disparity like this to be created. This wasn't something that happened overnight. This situation wasn't accidental. It wasn't unnoticed.
took many, many choices made one right after the other for the people to get to this point. But notice how the situation hasn't really resulted in blessing for them. It's not like they're being fruitful, right? Even if they don't see the reality for what it is, look at what Haggai says in verse 5. He calls them to consider their ways. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means, quite frankly, just to set your heart on your ways. That's what the translation is behind that. It's to set your heart on your ways. It's as though they were mindlessly kind of going about their lives. That maybe they'd gotten so used to doing this that it just didn't bother them anymore.
You can imagine that they would pass by the temple ruins on their way to go do the work of the day and maybe then make their way right back by the temple ruins on the way to their houses at the end of the day. And it just didn't matter to them that the temple sat there in ruins. They no longer even thought about it. Otherwise, how in the world would this be happening? I mean, from our perspective, we look at this and go, what are you doing? How, people, are you letting this temple not be rebuilt while you continue to build up your lives? This is a wake-up call, right? But interestingly, and this is important for us, it's not a wake-up call to stop doing pagan things, right? What are they doing? What does Haggai give here as rapid-fire examples in verse 6? He's saying that they're sowing, they're eating, they're drinking, they're getting dressed, they're even going about making money. These are not pagan, wicked things, right?
These are things that they should be doing. These are things that we all have to do, but they don't satisfy them. Look, we're probably not talking about destitute people here. Some of commentators are split on this, but it seems most likely that we're just not talking about destitute people. After all, they're living in houses, right? They've got some type of house that would have been appropriate for their culture and their context of the day, and they're living in them, all of them. They've got seed to sow, they've got food to eat, they've got drink to be drunk, they've got clothes to wear, they've got money to be made. They're not poor necessarily. It's not that Haggai's saying, look at how poor you are because you simply won't follow the Lord. No, that's not the case. The problem, though, is that they're finding out when they put their focus and their energy and their hearts on pursuing those things, instead of pursuing what the Lord has commanded of them, that they don't satisfy. And Haggai doesn't stop there. Look at verse 9.
The Lord, through Haggai, doubles down on this logic with the people. He tells them, look, you went out expecting much, but it didn't work out like that. Even if you could have, in every other circumstance, expected there to be a certain return back for your efforts, look at what it came to. Nothing. And why? Why is that? Who caused that? The Lord takes all credit for their lack. Look, Haggai's prophecy here is blowing up the worldview of our day that wants to remove God and his providence and his activity in our world.
He says the reason you don't have what you expected to have, it's because the Lord blew it away. Not because you don't know the right farming techniques. Not because you're gluttonous. Not because you squandered your assets. No, and he did so for one very specific reason. Look at the end of verse 9. The Lord says, my house lies in ruins, and each of you busies himself with his own house. That's to say, each of you is running wholeheartedly, completely with a singular focus after your own comforts, after your own gain, after your own well-being, while the temple sits in ruins.
On the next two verses, the Lord then explains how he intervened. The heavens withheld the dew, that would have been vital for the growth of the crops through the summer. And then the earth finally, because of that, withheld its produce. The Lord of hosts, as he's been called up to this point, the ruler over all creation, who created the heavens and the earth and told his people to subdue it all and to have dominion over it, he now says that he's going to cause the very creation to cease its normal function so that God's people would see that he's in control.
And here's the final kicker. We're not even done yet. Here's the final kicker of it all. In verse 11, the Lord says he calls for a drought. Do you see that? And I've called for a drought on the land, the hills. He goes on through that whole list. Well, this word drought sounds almost exactly like the word ruins in Hebrew from verses 4 and 9. So where it says there that the temple is in ruins, verse 4, and then again, the temple is in ruins, verse 9, it lies in ruins. It's almost the exact same word. It's as if the Lord is saying, look, you've left the temple in ruins, and so I'm calling for a ruining on the land and on the produce and even on the people.
It's a precise, perfect response on the Lord's part. It's like he says, look, if you'll refuse to build my temple but will leave it in ruins, I'll refuse to let creation yield what it should and what you want from it, but will leave it in ruins. And furthermore, I will bring the ruining on you. That's a hard word. That's a desperate situation that the people find themselves in.
So what are they supposed to do? What's the solution? What do they do in this moment? Well, the Lord tells them through Haggai to build the temple. Verse 8, go get the supplies. and build it. And not just so that there would be a structure, right? So there would be some place where sacrifices could happen or so that they could point to something and have some sort of national pride. That's not it. It's way more than that. What does the Lord say in verse 8 about his temple, about his house? That he'll take pleasure in the rebuilding of the temple and that he'd be glorified in it.
God's people must set about rebuilding the temple. They must prioritize what God has told them to prioritize. All right, so what do we do with this? How are we to understand this and to kind of move forward with this at this point? Well, a few things I think we need to understand. First, this. Clearly, there's a financial aspect to this whole matter. it's not all that, it's not only that, but it's at least that. The exiles were very, very comfortable to give up their own resources, including their finances, to their own comforts and possessions, and yes, even their own needs. But it's obvious that they were doing so at the expense of devoting themselves rightly to ensuring that God's glory was known among them and among the nations around them. Look, they may have been known as Jews whose God was Yahweh. The nations may have been able to point to them and say that, but their God didn't even have a temple, right? The nations would look at them and go, where was their God? Where does He live? We don't even know where their God is.
Maybe it didn't even matter. Maybe He didn't exist after all. He certainly didn't seem to be a high priority for these Jews at any rate. Friends, I wonder if it's possible that your life and your way of spending and your way of thinking, your entire worldview and lifestyle matches up perfectly with these exiles. That you'll happily say that the Lord is God and mean it in your heart. You'll come here on a Sunday morning when it's relatively easy to sing and to hear God's word.
You may even have a heart that desires to do what he says, to actually serve him faithfully. But if someone were to look at how you organize your life, at how you spend your time throughout the week and certainly how you spend your money, it becomes crystal clear that the Lord is not the highest priority in your life. Oh, sure, he's not last on your list, but he's most certainly not first on your list. Maybe you're just like the exiles here in verse two, knowing that the temple needs to be rebuilt but refusing to do it because you're waiting for the right time.
You're waiting for the right time. to start obeying the Lord. Friends, to be sure, we're not rebuilding the temple as Christians today. That's not what this sermon is about. That's not what we're to take away from this. We're not rebuilding a temple anywhere. But we are about the work of ensuring that the world sees who our God is and then remembering that our God is pleased with our work to make Him known and that He's actually glorified in that work. Look, that means, that means many things, but absolutely with 100% confidence means this, that you give financially, sacrificially to the ministries of a local church. So if you're a member of Third Avenue, that means you give to the ministries of this church. That's one of the things that means. It also means that you devote yourselves to the ministries of the local church. You don't write a check and call it good and kind of let everyone else do the thing, do the active work of ministry. No, you devote yourselves to the ministries of the church as well. That means finally that your time is not your own.
It's just not your own to spend as you see fit. No, your ultimate and first priority is to serve the Lord and to do the work of building up his body here, especially if you're a member of this church, so that his presence among us is known to all. But it also means another thing here, number two, that you should take some time to consider your ways, as Haggai says. When was the last time you took an honest assessment of your life, of kind of how you live? Do you have others in this church who know your patterns of life, who know how you spend your time, what you love, what you adore, what your work is like? And I don't mean your profession, but like what your spiritual work, what your activity is like? Do others know here what makes you tick on the inside?
Do you know what makes you tick on the inside? Are you so, as Greg talked about last week, amused to death? You know, you've got your phone in front of you or a screen in front of you all the time that you don't even know what makes you tick any longer. Like, so often we just get going in life, and we don't take stock of why we're doing certain things or how we're doing certain things and how we could be doing them better. And Haggai here isn't really calling for some sort of weekend-long retreat to go analyze our lives, right? That's not what he's saying, though he might not be opposed to that very thing if you were so inclined. But more so, the passage is telling us to be honest about sizing up what we're looking to for fulfillment and then how we go about seeking that fulfillment in this life. So in different stages of life, that's going to mean different things. I imagine even here in our church, that means different things. For those of you who are just starting out in your career or you're just about to. Maybe your mind is on all the massive choices that you've got in front of you, right? I have to get the right degree, the right job, the right spouse, the right house in the right neighborhood. And you think all of those things
when met correctly are going to bring some sort of fulfillment. Or maybe a little bit further down the road, those of you with young families, perhaps your mind is just literally on making it to the next day, right? You're just so exhausted, so tired. You just want to get through today, so tomorrow can come, whatever that means. Or maybe it's getting the kids into the right schools, or maybe it's taking the next big leap in your career so you can climb the ladder or even get over onto a different ladder that you can begin climbing. You'll find fulfillment in those things.
And then finally, maybe on the back end of all that, the back end of the middle years, it's possible that you're winding down and you're trying to figure out, How am I going to spend these next years and settle into comfort? You've put in decades of hard work, and praise God for that. So now your focus then is going to be on how to best enjoy time with family, time with others, just time for yourself. You'll find, you think, fulfillment in those things. Look, in all of those, the assumption here is that you're just kind of doing that without realizing it.
It's like the operating system of your life. you don't really think about it, but it's driving everything that you do behind the scenes. But if you take an assessment of it all, do you see any misplaced priorities? Are there segments or perhaps massive chunks of your life that aren't just a few degrees off from the priorities of God, but they're actually working head-on against what God has told you to do? Brothers and sisters, if that's true, don't wait for the right time to change those things.
Now is the right time. But the warning here in this first chapter and kind of at this moment is that if you don't stop letting the Lord's priorities fall into ruin around you, then you shouldn't be surprised to find that your efforts at other comforts, at other goals, as good as they may seem on the face in this life, that they'll be met with ruin as well. To refuse to prioritize what God prioritizes will always lead to ruin.
Point number two, a repentant response. So years ago, there was a TV show called 24. I'm sure most in this room have no clue what I'm talking about, knowing how young we are as a church. So there was a thing called cable, and there was a thing called TV shows, and you actually had to wait to watch one TV show until like the next week when the episode was released. You couldn't binge watch. It's a really foreign concept. Talk to me afterwards. I'll explain more. But in this particular show, the premise was very simple and straightforward.
Jack Bauer was the lead character's name. He was a counter-terrorism agent. He was a good guy who fought the bad guys. That was it, right? Good guy tried to find the bad guys, just like every other show out there. In this particular show, though, what made it interesting was that there were 24 shows in a season, and each show was, you know, an hour of TV time, so 40-ish minutes or whatever with commercials, was supposedly in real time. So the first show happened from midnight till 1 a.m. of that day of the season, and then show two was from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m., and all 24 shows went like that. So you're kind of watching supposedly one day unfold, though no human could ever do what Jack Bauer did in those 24 hours.
But each and every episode led up to, it didn't matter what happened, right? There was just the same arc always. It led up to this cliffhanger. You'd get to the very end, and you're going, no no don't stop there right and then it would it would cut to a black scene of a ticking clock of just took took took and it was 11 59 or 1 59 12 12 whatever the show was whatever it's that first hour let's say it was now 12 59 and it went to one and then it blacked out and that that was the show for the day and you're right there going ah what's happened what's gonna happen right it was the perfect cliffhanger. Well, that's a little bit of where we are here at the end of verse 11, going, what is going to happen? The Lord of hosts has just said that He brought a drought, and not a drought. Don't read right over that. Go back and look at verse 11. He brought a drought, not just on the land. He brought it on the people. It seems that He brought a ruining
on them, that he ruined them. What is going to happen? That's the tension you should be feeling by the end of verse 11. That scene just cut to the clock, and it's ticking away, and now we go to commercial break. Oof, man. All right, so let's cut the tension. Let's pick up with the text. Let's see what happens. Haggai chapter 1, verse 12. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, 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. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, 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, on the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Almost immediately things are different in this section. And how do we see it from the very beginning? Well, for starters, just look at who's listed in verse 12. You still have Zerubbabel. You still have Joshua. But now who else pops up here? You've got the remnant, right? Remember, they're the ones who've returned back to the land. But at the very beginning, they were called what? They were called these people.
They're just oozing with scorn as you read that earlier up in the chapter. But now they're the remnant. They're the ones whom the Lord had promised would finally remain, even though the curses would fall, even though it would look like Israel would be all but utterly destroyed and taken away in captivity. In fact, just reading that word as you're moving through the chapter should spark hope in us. Wait, as readers, we should pause and say, this is the people that the Lord had spoken about centuries ago when he said he was going to keep a people for himself?
these are the people? Yes, this is it. It's happening right now in the story. Though all had looked lost for Israel, though they were carried away into exile and their city had been destroyed, they remained alive. They weren't snuffed out entirely, it turns out. No, he, the Lord, had kept them. He'd promised to keep them, and he'd done so. But that's not all. When Haggai leveled his charge in verse 2 that these people weren't rebuilding the temple, it sort of just seemed like they were uninterested, right?
Thus the charge to consider your ways. It's almost as if they were mindlessly going about not obeying the Lord. But here in verse 12, how does the remnant respond? Well, they respond in obedience. They respond in actually going to do what the Lord has told them to do. They go begin rebuilding the temple. Well, it turns out then that the remnant, it's not just those who came back physically out of exile. We're also to see here, even in this, that they are those who returned spiritually, that they're those who repented. They obeyed the voice of the Lord, their God, which even that is interesting. It's the first time here in the narrative that they're claiming God as their own. They're his remnant, and he's their God. And when he speaks to them, they obey his words. Here in just one verse, it's an astounding turn of events.
That's a huge, crucial element for us to understand. It may have been quick and small, but it's so important. Look again at verse 12. When they hear Haggai, what are they hearing? They're hearing the voice of God, not because he's God, but because God sent him with his message. So the Lord didn't audibly speak to the people, Haggai did. But Haggai's words, as the Lord's messenger sent with the Lord's message, are the very word of God. And so the people obey and fear, not Haggai, they obey and fear the Lord when Haggai speaks to them.
like that's what's happening here like right now in this act of preaching every time someone stands up here to read scripture or someone stands up here to preach usually greg sometimes me what whichever other man stands up here to preach to us that's very much the same thing that's happening god's word is being proclaimed and you should be able to recognize behind our voice whoever's standing up here, the actual voice of God coming to you. And when you do recognize it, you should obey the voice of the Lord your God and fear Him, just like they did. That's why we preach. That's why we stand up here and spend so much time opening up God's Word to one another.
It's because we believe this is the Word of God, and it's coming to you. And you need to hear it and obey it. Okay, great. We've got that, and we see some of the other things happening here, but you'll notice, I'm sure there's a lot of you wondering, what about this temple thing, right? Why are they so intent, or why is the Lord so intent on telling them to rebuild the temple? Why is that something that needed to be done? Why do we keep coming back to that? Okay, you've got houses, but the temple's in ruins. What is so important about the temple? Well, it wasn't just to have a beautiful structure, right? It wasn't just to be a source of national pride, and even though the nations around them think the very building of it was then going to be some sort of threat, right? That this was going to be a symbol that the exiles were a threat. It wasn't just that either, and it wasn't even about the sacrifices. The temple's the ultimate places where the sacrifices would be, of course, and that was important, but we see from Ezra chapter 3 that sacrifices
were already happening. There was an altar that was built, and they were already offering sacrifices. So to some extent, they could do sacrifices without this temple. So what is it about the temple that figures in so largely? Why does this keep coming back up? Well, that's been a question that's been looming, hopefully, in your mind from the very beginning of this text. Think with me back to the very beginning of creation, all the way back to the very beginning, and in God's relationship with mankind.
In Eden, what does God do? He walks with Adam and Eve. He's with them. Skip ahead several years. In the desert wilderness, the Lord's glory filled the tabernacle. He's with his people there. And at the time of Haggai, the presence of God among the people that had been most vividly revealed in the temple that Solomon built. So when that temple was completed and dedicated, if you read 1 Kings chapter 8, the glory of the Lord filled the temple in such a way that the priests couldn't even stand to minister in that place.
The glory of the Lord was so obviously present. God was dwelling with his people. But when the exiles returned, when Haggai happens, right, when he steps onto the scene, That temple had already been destroyed. The place where God's presence dwelt among them was no longer in existence. So their refusal to rebuild it didn't just mean that they didn't care about a building. No, it meant that they didn't care about having God's presence among them.
They needed to repent from hearts and attitudes that said, look, it's more important to have the things of this world than to have God's presence among us. They needed to see that the curse that had fallen on them was because they neglected to keep the covenant with God, the covenant that he'd made with them. And their failure to rebuild the temple showed their failure to love the Lord their God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength. To rebuild the temple was to say, we desire God's presence among us, and they hadn't done it.
And on top of all this, they'd lost sight of the fact that God actually desires to dwell among his people. Look again back at verse 8. They're to build the temple. Why? For the pleasure and glory of God. But God dwelling among his people is something that he takes delight in. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that? That God takes delight in dwelling among his people. He takes delight in dwelling among them because of what it demonstrates about his people, that they love him and that they trust him and that they know that they need him when his presence is among them. And he's glorified in that because then everyone else can see that his people are taken care of. He provides for his people. Look, that temple no longer stands. Even this temple here that got rebuilt. But God still dwells among his people.
The promise of verse 13 that where the Lord says, I am with you to the remnant, that's still true for us, right? The temple that these exiles built was torn down, but the New Testament shows us that a greater temple was yet to come. Jesus says in John chapter 2 that you can destroy this temple, and then three days later I'm going to put it back up. And by that he's meaning his own body, right? He is the greater temple. And then further, in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul expounds on that by saying, look, those of us who are united to Christ by faith, we are the holy temple in the Lord. We are the dwelling place for God by His Spirit. Like, you want to know where God's presence is? Do you want to know where the Lord of the universe right now resides. It's among his people. It's here as local churches.
It's as we gather. That's why this is a holy moment. When we as God's people gather together, God's presence dwells among us. When the nations want to know where God is, they should be able to look in on this and see what's happening and see our love and our devotion both for one another and more importantly for the Lord and say, that's where God dwells. When you in your moments of weakness or despair or sadness need to be reminded, where is God?
You should be able to look around at your brothers and sisters and say, that's where God is. That brother and that sister who love one another and who love the Lord, that is where God dwells. Brothers, sisters, God is not far off. He's not far off in your circumstances. Take heart. He's here with us, even now. But for some of you, that's actually not true in your own heart.
You sit among us as not one of God's people, maybe wondering how you can be a part of God's people. Well, the way that happens is very much the same mechanism as it was for these returned exiles. So what did they do? They heard God's word being preached to them about their sin. They repented of their sin. And then they obeyed God's word by seeking him in faith.
Look, it's the same now, but we know even more clearly how God chooses to dwell among his people. We know that it's by faith in his son Jesus who lived, who died, who was raised for his people that his spirit now would indwell his people. Friends, if that's you, if you're on the outside kind of looking in on that, do like the exiles. Repent. Turn from your sin and trust God. Trust his word when he says that he will dwell among his people. He'll come and he'll save you in this very moment.
There's one more thing I want us to see from this passage as we finish up. There's a fear in preaching a text like this and a sermon like this that if you're not careful, you're going to end up saying or hearing, maybe even believing a few different false things. And the first of which is something I hope we've implicitly destroyed. But just to be clear, I'm going to say it and make it explicit. This text does not preach or does not teach a prosperity gospel at all. In other words, it doesn't teach that the people here didn't have enough food or, you know, drink or clothing or money just because they didn't have enough faith. And if they had enough faith, then they would have enough food and drink and money, and God would be bound to give it to them. No, specific curses were falling on these people because of their disobedience, and their hearts didn't desire God's presence among them. That's what's happening here. So, if they were to obey, maybe they would have gotten some of those material blessings. Okay, fine. But far more important, infinitely more important,
they would get God's presence among them. That was the end, to have God's presence, not material things. But the other thing we need to point out is this. The people, notice, didn't pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They just did not do that. Their obedience to the Lord's voice was just not their own doing. Look back at verse 14. What does verse 14 say? Verse 14, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the remnant of the people to do this work. Look, this is like a well-written novel, right, where there's readers, where as readers we have an insight into different things going on at the exact same time. So from one perspective, from the people's perspective, they hear and they obey. But from the Lord's perspective, there's this entirely different action that's kind of running in parallel to that. The Lord had stirred up the people so that they would obey. He's changed their affections, and He's strengthened
them to obey His Word. Friends, that's incredible. That should encourage our hearts because of this. look, you need to recognize that your obedience is not simply your own doing. The Lord is also stirring you up. Every, behind every act of obedience, behind every act of faithfulness to our Lord, His Spirit is stirring us up to follow Him and to love Him, to proclaim the salvation of sinners and the cross of Jesus, and to announce to the world that Jesus is King.
Brothers and sisters, you're not alone in your obedience. And it's not even that you're just trying to obey with the help of brothers and sisters here pushing you on to do that. No, the Lord himself is with you by his spirit giving you grace to do this work of being a faithful follower of his. So if that's you this morning, if you're feeling heavy burdened, if you're feeling like I know I need to consider my ways, I know I need to repent, I know I need to make some changes, and this fills heart.
Oh, brother, oh, sister, the Lord is with you. Your obedience is not your own to do. The Lord is stirring you up and will strengthen you to then go be obedient to him. Set your eyes on him, ask him for help, and then trust that he's with you. So let me ask, what are you building? what are you building? You may be busy. You might even be super successful and thriving by the world's standards. If others were to look at you, they would say, this person has it all together.
But with your life, are you building what matters to God? That was a failure here in Haggai's day, right? The people weren't idle. They were working. They were very active. They were doing something constantly. They were filled with activity. All the while, the temple sat in ruins among them. They had stopped building what had mattered most, the place of God's presence, the visible sign of their obedience. And so God called out, consider your ways. Those people needed that reminder then, and so do we today.
Because rebuilding for them and for us is more than just doing more things. No, it's a reorienting of our life around God himself and his presence among us, our obedience to His Word. Look, the good news is this. Like we just said, God doesn't just call us to that. He enables us to do that as well. By His Spirit, He dwells with us, and through the gospel, we are being changed into a people who treasure Him above all else.
So friends, consider your ways. And then, once you've done that, obey the voice of your Lord. Not with busyness, but with a heart aimed at what matters to him. A heart that's aimed at his presence and obedience to his word and a desire to see him glorified among the nations. That's a life worth building. That's something worth building. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you as we have already this morning that you are a God who chooses to dwell among your people.
God, we give you praise that you, as Lord of hosts, ruler of all of creation, would choose to come and indwell us by your Spirit because you desire to, because you are glorified by that, not because anyone could possibly make you want to do that. You simply love us and want to be with us. Oh God, at the same time, we know that we're not worthy of that. We know that our sin is still before us. God, we pray that you would help us to walk in holiness in light of this word we've heard from you this morning. God, help us to remember what you've said to us and help us to obey it.
We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.