Haggai 1
While hunting in the Canadian wilderness a vice president of the Canadian Pacific Railroad became separated from his group. Soon he was lost with no idea how to return to their camp. His anxiety was relieved when he found a track belonging to his company. He reasoned that if he followed the track, it would eventually lead to civilization.
The sun had disappeared behind the trees and darkness had fallen as the railroad executive walked along the track. After several hours walking, he was encouraged to see a small railroad station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Being chilled to the bone, he hustled to the station, and let himself in. He saw a stove and sidled up near it to warm himself up. To his disappointment, he discovered the stove was stone cold, there was no fire within it! He stomped over to the desk where a lone telegrapher was busy gossiping with other stations on the line.
“Why is there no fire in the waiting room?” he demanded.
The telegrapher gestured to his equipment and replied, “Look mister! I’m too busy sending telegrams to build fires!”
That response didn’t please the cold and exhausted railroad executive at all. He took a pad from the counter and scribbled a message to the home office demanding the telegrapher, a railroad employee, be fired.
“Send this message immediately,” he ordered. As he read the message, all the color drained from the telegrapher’s face. He jumped up, ran outside, returning with a bucket of coal and an armful of kindling. He headed straight for the stove and began assembling a fire.
“Did you send my telegram?” the vice president demanded to know.
The employee turned to him and said, “Look mister, I’m too busy building fires to send telegrams!”
It’s amazing how quickly a person’s priorities can change, isn’t it? This little story also illustrates an important truth about human nature: how easily we get distracted by the trivial and neglect the truly important things of life. Our priorities can pretty easily be turned around backwards. We occasionally need a reminder to put God back in first place, the only place He belongs.
The Jews who returned from Babylon put their own comfort in priority before obeying the Lord’s command.
1. The people had disordered priorities. (1-4)
Verse one details the historical setting of this event. In 536 B.C., seventy years after the first of three groups of Jews were deported from their homeland to Babylon (the home of their conquerors), about 50,000 Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem. Theirs was a religious pilgrimage, as their mission was to rebuild the temple and then the city walls. The people began the reconstruction effort with great enthusiasm, but opposition by the Samaritans and other pagan kingdoms had caused the people to lose heart and devote themselves entirely to strengthening their own situations.
Verse two details the people’s excuse, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” How did they justify that?
- Mathematically: They remembered that the prophet Jeremiah had foreseen their captivity would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). With some careful manipulation of calendars, they attempted to prove that even though they’d returned home, the 70 years had not yet elapsed.
- Militarily: Neighboring kingdoms sponsored raiding parties that made the people fearful, leading to a frustrating lack of volunteer laborers.
- Politically: Those same kingdoms were pressuring the Persian king to change his mind and not allow the Jews to complete either the wall or temple.
If this excuse sounds ridiculous, it should. But we’re all guilty of making excuses or in other ways covering up our pet sins and bad attitudes. If we’re honest, our excuses are just as poor as theirs.
In verses three and four we’re told that God sent Haggai to expose their disordered priorities. The evidence was obvious: while the wall and the temple remained in ruins, their homes were LUXURIOUS (“paneled”). This means they’d devoted exclusive attention to their own situation to the point that their accommodations were much more than adequate, they were full of luxuries for their own selfish comfort and pride. On the other hand, God’s house (the temple) had received so little of their time and resources, that it lay in the same ruined state the Babylonians had left it 70 years ago!
This is a graphic example of the problem of misplaced priorities. When the Jewish captives left Babylon, they were awarded a lot of assistance from the empire and from the people. They left with great excitement and with their priorities in order: the temple and the wall were to be restored first. After they’d returned to the ruins of Jerusalem, they began the task with that same enthusiasm, but the enormity of the task, the persecutions of the pagans, and other factors worked to discourage them.
The worst thing a person can do when the going get rough is to turn from God. But they did that very thing. The stopped working for their God and their community and started working for themselves. This kind of thing happens all the time. The process of disordering our priorities can be so subtle we ourselves often can’t see it’s happened. The result of all this was that their homes were LUXURIOUS and God’s house was unusable.
2. God commanded the people to reorder their priorities. (5-11)
In verses seven and eight, God commanded them to get busy rebuilding the temple. Invoking the name of the Divine Warrior to motivate them, Haggai commanded, “LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING TO YOU.” It was time for them to reconsider their decision to put self first, to put God first instead. He urges them to consider the specific things he will mention in vs. 5-6 and 9-11.
The result of their deliberations is to make obedience to God’s will their priority (8). Then they were to get a move on:
- GO INTO THE HILLS = they couldn’t sit in their LUXURIOUS houses and obey God; they had to get to work.
- BRING DOWN TIMBER = make all the preparations necessary to obey God.
- REBUILD MY HOUSE = follow through: be completely obedient.
When they chose to leave the temple in ruins, they disobeyed and dishonored God. The only way to fix the situation was to fix the temple, the place where He resided among His people.
Haggai referred to God as THE LORD OF HEAVEN’S ARMIES four times in this chapter. This was a reference to God as the Divine Warrior, the One who normally goes to war with His people, but who will now go to war against them. He opposed their disordered priorities.
As proof that God is displeased with them, Haggai referenced their frustrated plans in vs. 6 and 9.
- PLANTED MUCH...HARVESTED LITTLE.
- EAT...NOT SATISFIED.
- DRINK...STILL THIRSTY.
- Wear CLOTHES...NOT WARM.
- Money earned...$ DISAPPEAR. (This is a proverbial expression for money foolishly spent (see Zechariah 8:10, Isaiah 55:2; Jeremiah 2:13).)
- He BLEW AWAY their HARVEST.
- He brought on a drought to destroy their agricultural production, ruining EVERYTHING YOU WORKED SO HARD TO GET.
If all this sounds cruel to your ears, consider three things.
- One, it was their fault. God frustrated their efforts in response to their sinful selfishness and disobedience. In v. 10, the LORD pointedly said, “IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU.”
- Two, while they were apparently trying to make a life for themselves around the ruins of the city, that was the opposite of what they were commanded to do: “BECAUSE MY HOUSE LIES IN RUINS WHILE ALL OF YOU ARE BUSY BUILDING YOUR OWN HOUSES.”
- Three, while the text does not address this, history is full of instances where people resettling a ruined city took stones from the ruins as construction material for their own homes. It’s likely that these folks had built their luxurious homes with stones that were supposed to be used to rebuild the temple and the city wall!
Their excuses and their plan to put self first resulted in frustration and failure because God spoiled it for them. He did this to cause them to trust in Him instead, to be obedient to His expressed will, completing the wall and the temple first.
The irony of their disobedience was they had high hopes for themselves as they worked for themselves. Those hopes were frustrated by God. They needed to learn to obey and had to learn it the hard way.
3. The people responded with obedience. (12-15)
Look at verse 12. The people obeyed the LORD because they feared the LORD = THE WHOLE REMNANT OF GOD’S PEOPLE BEGAN TO OBEY...they FEARED THE LORD. The Bible teaches that fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
In verse 13 the LORD encouraged their obedience with an additional message: “I AM WITH YOU.” God’s presence and approval is what makes the difference in anything we put our hand to do. God is present with and approves of the people who obey His will. It really is that simple.
We see in verses 14-15 that the people enthusiastically got to work rebuilding the temple. Notice THE LORD SPARKED THE ENTHUSIASM of the leaders and of all the people. They brought their tools out of their homes because they needed them to get to work rebuilding the temple.
The Jews who returned from Babylon put their own comfort in priority before obeying the Lord’s command.
This account of an important moment in the history of God’s people is instructive to us on this Sunday where we make a plea for folks to remember to put God’s house first. Put God’s work first. Put God first in your life and stop spinning your wheels without getting anywhere. In all areas of life, when we put God first, we will experience a flow of blessings that we did not think possible when we were putting self first.
I am not a fundraiser. In my ministry, I have always opposed fundraising efforts to pay the bills. Our members and friends need to support our ministry. Fund raising should only be used to support auxiliary groups or supply needs not covered by our General Fund.
I am not a financier. Kary handles 98% of the bookkeeping in our house. I only get involved at tax time and to write one or two checks a year.
I am a pastor and student of Scripture. I will not use precious time in worship to make an appeal for money and I certainly won’t tell you how to spend yours.
What I can do is what Haggai did, and that is telling you what God wants. Based on the Bible, here is the kind of giving God wants from you and me.
PRIMARY: Give God your best and your first, not your leftovers. When receiving income, set aside God’s portion first. You can trust Him to supply your needs.
PERCENTAGE: It’s called “tithing” or “proportional giving.” Pick a number. People often cite 10%, but pick a number you can afford. God knows your needs better than you do and He doesn’t need you to take food out of your family’s mouth to support His ministries. Every new year, pray about challenging yourself to make it a bigger percentage. This discipline actually makes it easier for you because you’re making the decision before the check arrives.
PERIODICALLY: Decide beforehand how often you can give. The easiest way is to decide to give whenever you receive. Remember the church’s expenses don’t take a holiday, so please make it as frequently as possible.
PERSONAL = The Apostle Paul wrote that God loves a CHEERFUL GIVER (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). If you’re giving ‘til it hurts, grin and bear it! God doesn’t honor a grumpy giver because its an act of hypocrisy.
Use of our money is, like our use of every other resource, an accurate indicator of where our priorities lie. If our priorities and practices were aligned with Him, there would never need to be an appeal for renewed funding. For both the giver and receiver, God’s provision would be there in abundance.
RESOURCES:
Telegrapher story taken from the 1988 Minister’s Manual, p. 118ff.)
Message #80
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