“An Affirming Corroborative God”
Notes
Transcript
Intro: The beginning of the school year versus the end of the school year
Sometimes we need motivation, don't we? Sometimes it is as simple as needing a nudge in the right direction, a word of encouragement, or a reminder of what lies ahead if we stay on task.
The last couple of weeks we have been looking at this book of Haggai and what we discovered about the Israelites has direct implications in our own lives.
God did not ransom, free, and liberate us so we could build ourselves up. He did it so we would be a people who will praise His name.
It's not wrong to live our lives and enjoy this life, no, but spending our lives focused on ourselves so much that we forget to worship God will weaken us.
When we lack worshiping the One Who took away the penalty of death in our lives and making much of Him, well, we are missing the point and the opportunity to find true fulfillment.
If you remember the people had been planting, drinking, dressing, and earning and yet were never satisfied; they never had enough.
So, God sends Haggai along to encourage them, “Get back to work. God’s not done yet. He has so much in store for you so get back to work!
Haggai told them such an incredible word from God last week. "You are not alone. He has never left you. He is with you in this. You are not forsaken!"
And if you remember they responded in the best way, they get fired up, repent, and get after it again, chasing after the Lord in obedience and working for Him and His glory.
They were not just a people of words if you remember. They repented and followed through with their hands. They got back to work.
Over the next few weeks, we find the people finish the foundation, walls are going up, and then it appears something starts to stop them again, and this is where we will pick up today.
We are going to be in Haggai 2:1-9 today and we will begin where Haggai comes back into the picture to spur them on and affirm that God is very much present. Read and Pray: Haggai 2:1-9
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
We are just a few weeks post the first time Haggai has spoken to the people. While the people had seemingly begun to get back at it and following through with the work on the temple, they were still struggling to follow through.
You ever do that in your own faith? You get motivated by a service, or sermon, or maybe the Bible is just really moving in your life?
But as life does from time to time, you deal with push back or maybe a little bit of chaos. Maybe you were fired up, but quickly, your joy starts to crumble once again.
In this section, what God is going to say through Haggai is this: My spirit is with you, and my presence is very real.
God affirmed His presence to the people of Israel along the way, and continues to do so for us, through various means.
We will look at a couple of those ways today. The first way we see God affirm His presence is through ...
1. God affirms His presence through motivation
1. God affirms His presence through motivation
Now we begin with taking note the Feast of the Tabernacles is taking place. This is a big feast. God instituted this feast after their freedom from Egypt.
This is a commemoration feast of God leading through the wilderness all those years and into the Promised Land. This would be a time that many are traveling into Jerusalem.
This should be a time of great celebration, and yet again it seems like they are starting to lose a little bit of steam again. So once again God sends Haggai.
What has robbed their joy so quickly again? What has taken them back again? They were so pumped. They were so excited.
Now it’s easy to focus in on the Israelites and their failures, but let's take a moment to put the focus back on us. Let's think through this.
Can that happen to us? Have you ever found yourselves amid a great God season and He is doing some amazing things in your life?
Your obedience to God and His promises seems so real and right in front of you, but somehow discouragement can find a way in?
You ever find yourself amid what should be an exciting time in your life, but you can’t shake being down?
Maybe in this time you begin to question if pursuing God is even worth it. Has that ever happened to you before? Can that happen? Does that happen? You bet it does. Illus:
In these first five verses, God motivated the nation of Israel by defining their problem, encouraging hope, so they can transform and then really experience His presence in their lives.
So, he defines the problem first. Read: Haggai 2:3
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
Here we are, just weeks into building the Temple, but have slowed down once again. What is going on is seen more clearly in Ezra chapter 3 and we will take a peak ourselves.
In verses 10-13 you find what the discord was all about. Read: Ezra 3:10-13
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
You have one generation who is celebrating the rebuilding process, and the other weeping because it looks nothing like it used to falling short to what they once saw before their very eyes.
One group is shouting for joy, and one is weeping. No one around them could tell if they were happy or sad. It is kind of a chaotic mess.
This is why God sends Haggai back in to lift their spirits. He shows them their problem. They are allowing too much to be dictated by what they cannot see.
They are obsessively focused on the past, and they are returning to their old behavior. This is the same thing that happened before.
A little bit of push back or opposition and they are already tossing in the towel. They are moving back to the place of disobedience and the place of not worshipping God again.
God is telling them, "Look, what you see is the immediate. Get excited about this. Is all you can see a heap of nothing? Is all you can do is bicker among yourselves about what is better?
Do you not trust that I can do much with this?" Their problem was in their failure to honor God with their actions. Then God tells them through Haggai…Read: Haggai: 2:4-5
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
He pours hope into their situation before it gets out of control. Before it becomes another 16 years of no progress.
He reminds them, "I am with you! So let my grace carry you. Keep pushing and working. Repent, be obedient, and in the process, you will feel the presence of me in your midst."
Their bitterness was keeping them from seeing Him and feeling His presence even though it was in their midst.
He reminds them of the covenant He made with them coming out of Egypt and tells them there is nothing to fear. Nothing. The freedom from slavery of the Jews from Egypt was no work of mankind.
It was clearly miraculous. No man parts the Red Sea and allows people to walk through it. No man can do that. Only the Maker of heaven and earth can control that kind of environment.
Now I don't know about any of you, but it really is hard to not think about the good ole days.
I do it a lot. I'm about vinyl records, and old math.
I spent my 44th birthday going to see Loverboy in concert land reminiscing about my old 8-track of them that I used to play all summer long. It's hard to let some of that Go.
I find myself listening to music today and saying, "That's not music." Come on, all of us do it on some level, but we don't want it to stop us from moving forward either.
God has plans, and many times, more than I can count, they tend to stretch me when I really go after them. This is what is taking place in Haggai.
The people are facing the temptation to neglect the promises of God again. They are neglecting the worship of God.
One group believes their way is the best and the other group believes their way is the best, and all the while God is not being honored or worshipped.
But ... I love that word when it pertains to God. But God does not just say "Trust Me" and then walk away and have them wait, He gives them more hope.
He affirms His presence even more. The last way we see God affirm His presence in this passage is through ...
2. God affirms His presence through provision
2. God affirms His presence through provision
If it's not enough God telling them that He has their back. If it's not enough He reminds them of the Egypt covenant He made with them and there should be nothing to fear, if that is not enough, He tells them this ... Read: Haggai 2:6-9
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
He just told them, "This temple that you’re building, though it seems like nothing to you, I have plans for this thing that will make Solomon’s temple seem insignificant compared to what I’m about to make happen.
You don’t need to trust in your own physical circumstances. You need to trust in the promises of God who is doing a work among you that you just can’t see.”
The shaking that is mentioned here is a rather colorful way of describing the fact that God is over every created thing. It was a reminder to the nation of Israel that His word was to be obeyed.
But it was also a reminder that He would provide them with all that they would ever need to accomplish this. This is a big lesson they needed to learn.
God has told them already that their lack of having is centered in their lack of obedience. God tells them in verses 7-8 they will have more than enough because it’s all His anyway. I would say that is more than enough.
What do we take away 2600 years later? One thing that is inevitable is discouragement will happen, and we are not exempt from it.
When those days come, how will we deal with discouragement? Will we look to the promises of God in those days?
Will we hold tightly to them and take our eyes off our physical circumstances and look to Him to keep us going? Or will we simply give in and allow discouragement to go where it doesn’t need to go?
He has not saved us so that we would live a life building into our own kingdom, and He has not saved us so that we allow discouragement to just put us in neutral for the rest of our lives.
He has saved us for the hope of the glory that is His. And He is calling us forward now as His church to move forward in obedience, trusting in Him and the promises that He will fulfill.
You want to know how that went down? Look how He provides for them. We need to go over to Ezra again to 6:8-9 where King Darius makes this decree. Read: Ezra:6:8-9
8 Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River.
9 And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail,
Not only would God provide the necessary resources, but He would do it without costing the Israelites anything at all. They were simply called to be obedient, and God would provide the means.
This is an important lesson for us today, as we often struggle and resist God’s call to obedience due to our lack of faith in His provision. God is always enough.
How are we going to grow? How is the church going to grow? Obedience is your answer. We have to be obedient and He will provide the rest.