The Command to Rebuild the Temple (Hag 1:1-11)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Haggai 1:1-11.

While you turn there, let me inform you of where we’re at in the text.

Last week, we were introduced to both Haggai and what I referred to as the temple motif—both ideas are vitally important for us as we continue in the text, so let me remind you about them:

Haggai is a prophet who prophesies after the exile, during the early Persian period, as the Israelites are returning from Babylon.

As part of their return, the idea was that they would rebuild the city of Jerusalem as Assyria had destroyed the city when they had conquered Israel and took the people as slaves.

And what had happened as they returned to rebuild the city of Jerusalem was that they spent a ton of time, money, and resources rebuilding their own homes with luxury materials imported from countries like Lebanon and they didn’t even bother to rebuild the temple that laid desolate.

They spent a lot of time, money, and resources on their own personal lives, but then didn’t bother to restart the sacrifices, go back to the temple to worship the Lord, or even consider doing so.

Last week, I explained how the NT church is the modern-day temple and much like the people during Haggai’s time period in 540BC, many people who profess to be Christians aren’t even bothering with the body of Christ, which is the modern-day temple.

While we’re taking a significant amount of time, money, and resources building up our own homes, kingdoms, and temples, we aren’t really bothering to build up the modern-day temple—the church.

And so, we’ll focus on our own hobbies, our own jobs, our own homes, and whatever else it might be and essentially only bother with the church when it suits us or just on Sunday mornings—and then we wonder why the church struggles, why others treat it as optional, why it’s dying.

Friends, it ought not be that way.

And Haggai provides us both an example of what needs confronted and how things really ought to be—complacency towards the things of the LORD has never really been an option in a believer’s life; and yet, many professed Christians seem to think that God would be perfectly accepting of their complacency.

Of course, God is never complacent towards our complacency and so He responds to the Israelites’ lack of response.

Let’s read Haggai 1:1-11 together:

Haggai 1:1–11 ESV

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: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have 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. 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 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. 9 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. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 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.”

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) God’s Call to Reflect (1-6) and (2) God’s Call to Rebuild (7-11). The first section really sets the stage—and we’ve already worked through part of it in last week’s introduction, so we’ll make our way through that section rather quickly, what will be different between last week and this week is God’s call for the Israelites to reflect. The second section is God’s command or call for them to rebuild the temple. Essentially, we have God calling them out for their wrong thinking while telling them what needs to happen to right the situation.

Our application for today ties into this idea, the call to focus on and prioritize the temple—what we know of as the church today—is still a call we need to heed. And I’ll give you some practical steps to consider how you can be a part of the building up of our local church (recognizing, of course, that ultimately God gives the growth).

Prayer for Illumination

God’s Call to Reflect (1-6)

The Setting (1-4)—remember, the first four verses really sets the stage for us.

Leadership-wise:

Darius is the king (this isn’t the same Darius from Daniel)—and Darius hasn’t been king for long.

We’re told that Zerubabbel is the governor for the region; Jehozadak is the high priest

And Haggai was given a word from the LORD concerning Israel to confront the people.

The basis for that confrontation starts in v. 4, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house [meaning the temple] lies in ruins?”

Again, the idea is that they returned to the city of Jerusalem under the providence and sovereignty of God; and yet, instead of rebuilding the temple, restarting the sacrifices, and worshiping the LORD as they were commanded to before, they focused on their own homes, their own little kingdoms, really their own little temples.

And God is calling them out for it by means of reflection in vv. 5-6.

The Reflection (5-6)—he calls them to consider their ways.

In particular, the fact that they’re in this constant push for more; and yet, always feel like they never have enough.

God states that they have sown much, but harvest little—they work a lot, but don’t reap much reward.

They eat, but they never have enough.

They drink, but are never full.

They clothe themselves, but everyone is still cold.

In fact, He uses a great illustration to show what it’s like, “he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”

The implication (at least according to some commentators) is that as they keep pushing for more, there’s actually a divine discipline happening that they have yet to notice.

Duane Lindsey, “The implication is strong that these economic conditions were divine chastening for disobedience (cf. Lev. 26:18–20; Deut. 28:38–40). All their efforts at farming and wage-earning availed nothing because they had not put the Lord first. Their ancestors who had gone into captivity had experienced the same retribution (cf. Deut. 28:41), but God wanted better things of the returned exiles.” Duane F. Lindsey. “Haggai.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1439.

Or, in other words, they could be experiencing discipline for their idolatrous sin and the discipline is coming in the form of economic distress.

This idea is confirmed as we continue in the text—in fact, God clarifies that He is the one who has caused drought and economic distress due to their sin.

Transition: so God calls them to consider, to reflect on what they’ve done and the surrounding situations—they’re experiencing significant economic hardship; and, again, the implication is that this is a result of their idolatry. God has called them out for sin and in vv. 7-11, he then provides an idea of what repentance would look like. Let’s read vv. 7-11.

God’s Call to Rebuild (7-11)

Haggai 1:7–11 ESV

7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 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. 9 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. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 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.”

God’s Command (7-8)—God gives a command that relies—essentially—on the Israelites repenting of their idolatry and their righting their wrongs.

We see two familiar phrases in v. 7:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts” reminds us that this is indeed God speaking through Haggai—it’s the prophetic formula or messenger formula reminding us that God is speaking; and thus, His people should listen.

“Consider your ways.” — again, a call to reflect on what has happened, what they’re doing, and what needs to be done.

v. 8 then gives us a call to action for the Israelites, “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house.”

Get the material and rebuild the house—that’s what repentance would look like for the Israelites in this moment.

God says that if they do this, “that [He] may take pleasure in it and that [He] may be glorified.”

It gives us a rather clear view that if they simply obeyed what God had already told them, that He would be pleased—it sounds like a simple idea; and yet, I think we all need that reminder on occasion.

I think it’s also worth considering the truth that despite the fact that they’ve been disobeying, God still considers them His people and He’s still giving them the opportunity to repent and make things right.

The Consequences of Disobedience (9-11)—on the flip side of things, it is clear that there are very real consequences for their disobedience that tie back into the economic issues that they’ve been facing, because they’ve busied themselves with their own homes while the temple was in ruins, “the heavens above [them] have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And [God had] 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.”

The reality is that there are almost always consequences for disobeying the LORD—and by consequences I don’t necessarily mean judgment for disobeying God; and I definitely don’t mean condemnation for our sins.

We tend to conflate those ideas—judgment, consequences, and condemnation but the reality is in Scripture the ideas are different.

Judgment deals with God’s verdict of our righteousness, which in Christ, we’ve been made righteous; this means, the judgment that we experience isn’t quite what we often think of when we think of judgment (which is usually condemnation).

In fact, Romans 8:1 “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Christians don’t experience condemnation for sin as Jesus handled our condemnation for us.

However, if we’re talking punishment or consequences for sin—we’re actually told that we should expect those—in fact, the author of Hebrews states Hebrews 12:6 “6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.””

Occasionally, God will discipline us as His children—in the case of Haggai, the discipline includes an economic component. I can’t necessarily tell you what discipline you might be facing for sins today; however, God disciplines those whom He loves.

On the other side, usually, sins have consequences that we have to deal with—e.g., if you lie, you might get found out and people won’t trust you (that’s a consequence for your sin). If you attack someone (verbally or physically), you might find yourself in legal problems. If you murder, steal, or whatever else it might be, you may have to deal with the consequences of those sins.

And yet, the concept is that they’re experiencing discipline for their sin of idolatry—elevating themselves, their personal desire, their wants above God.

And God, through Haggai wants them to consider themselves.

To recognize what they’re doing, to repent, and to make things right by rebuilding the temple and elevating God to the place that He deserves to be.

Consider God’s Glory—now, before assuming that this is simply all about obedience, I want to point out a phrase that you might have noticed that we haven’t really unpacked yet. In v. 8, we read: “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.”

So, while there is an element of this text that deals with the Israelites disobeying and need to obey, there’s something more significant—God’s glory.

In other words, the idea isn’t that the Israelites just need to obey to obey, but rather as part of their obedience, God is glorified.

And that glorification through the Israelites obeying Him is a key element of what matters most—in their disobedience, they essentially glorified themselves and God wasn’t glorified. If they obey, God receives all the glory—and that’s the whole point.

WSC, “What is the chief aim of man?” — The chief aim of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

The Israelites were created and chosen for the all-encompassing goal of glorifying God—and in glorifying Him, they would enjoy Him.

We were created for the all-encompassing goal of glorifying God—and in doing so, we enjoy Him.

In disobedience, the Israelites didn’t glorify God; in their obedience, if they obey, they glorify Him.

And that concept of bringing glory to God—is the point.

Transition: So again, we see the primary issue happening in Israel during the time of Haggai—the people, despite knowing better, have placed themselves in a higher position than God—instead of caring for Him, His temple, the sacrifices, and the worship owed to Him; they’ve only cared for themselves, their own kingdoms, their own homes, and the worship they give themselves.

Now last week we dealt with some preliminary ideas concerning application of this text, I want to build on that application this week, but I need to remind you of how exactly Haggai’s work applies to us today.

Application

Remember the temple motif and how it applies in Haggai

Last week right before the application, I explained that there’s something significant with the idea of the temple throughout Scripture that’s worth considering when dealing with Haggai.

From creation, there’s an idea of the temple that permeates throughout Scripture—so Eden is the first temple or the proto-temple.

As time progresses, we see the tabernacle and then the physical temple.

When we get to the NT, we see Jesus, who calls Himself the temple in the Gospels and we see with the Samaritan woman, Jesus expanding the idea of the temple from a purely physical temple to a spiritual temple.

That idea is expounded on throughout the epistles until in Revelation, we see the concept of temple expanded to include all of the new heavens and new earth.

I mention this again because it’s in the NT that we’re given the understanding of the temple that points at the universal church as God’s temple.

And the local church is a smaller, localized expression of the universal temple.

Now, consider our application from last week.

That despite claiming to love the LORD many of us today are acting towards the local church, the universal church, similarly to how the OT Israelites acted toward the physical temple.

Many today have the resources, energy, and skill to maintain and improve their own lives—remodeling homes, advancing careers, pursuing hobbies, building up retirement funds—but are unwilling to put that same effort toward the life and ministry of the local church.

We’ll sacrifice time and sleep for work, sports, and entertainment, but we won’t adjust our schedules for corporate worship.

We’ll spend hundreds or thousands on vacations or hobbies but then treat giving generously and regularly to the church an optional extra.

We’ll dedicate our talents and skills to personal projects but rarely offer them in service to God in the body of Christ.

And then we wonder why we struggle to reach our community—while our actions tell them God and His church don’t matter.

The pattern is the same—lavish attention on self while neglecting God’s dwelling place (now the gathered people of God).

It’s really revealing of our hearts—we’re more concerned with our own comfort, our own enjoyment, our own lives than we are about God’s temple, His dwelling place, and even worshiping Him.

Despite knowing that God is sovereign and providential, that God is using all things in our lives for His glory and our good, we neither give Him thanks nor trust Him to do so.

Even though we know that God is good, that He cares for us, loves us and wants us to follow and obey Him, the moment we get into our own homes, we forget about Him.

While we owe everything to God, we act as if we’ve earned everything all by ourselves.

We couldn’t care less about serving one another through the local church—so much so, that being a part of the local body of Christ isn’t really that important to us.

And yet, like the Israelites in Haggai, God has called us out, we have the opportunity to repent and make things right.

The question is, how do we build up the local church? — and truthfully, the reality is that that’s a really bad question because we can’t build up our local church.

How do we glorify God in our local church? While still recognizing that the church is the LORD’s and there is no human formula to build up a local church. Let me give some suggestions:

Be here for the preaching and teaching of the Word

One of the realities of the local church is that God has given the local church as the primary means to disciple and equip His people; however, this doesn’t actually work if you aren’t regularly here for the preaching and teaching of the Word.

We know this for sure because several passages point to the local church for this express purpose:

Ephesians 4:11–12 “11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;”

Of course, it isn’t just enough to hear the Word of God—but part of the building up of the local church and glorifying God through this means is by showing up.

And just to prove that it isn’t sufficient just to hear the Word of God—consider James 1:22–24 “22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” (NASB)

One way that God builds up our local church and glorifies Himself is by us regularly gathering to hear His Word preached and taught and then do it.

When we gather to hear and do God’s Word together, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Labor in prayer regularly—and be specific with your prayers. For instance:

For your elders—that we rightly lead, that we care for your souls and make the effort to be a part of your lives.

Pray that God continues to work mightily in our hearts to mature us to help us grow so that we can help you in your Christian walk as well.

Pray that God keeps us from sin and error and that we love you well.

Pray that we’re bold and courageous in the proclamation of the truth.

And just pray for us in general and for our families.

For fellow members and attendees—we all have different things going on in our lives and we all ought to be regularly praying for one another by name.

Pray that God continues to work mightily in all our hearts to mature us to help us all grow spiritually and in truth.

Pray that God keeps us from sin and error and that we love each other and our community well.

Pray that we’re bold and courageous in the proclamation of the truth.

And just pray in general as we all go through various aspects of our respective lives.

For the advancement of the Gospel through our congregation and community.

There’s often a misconception that the Gospel is really just for evangelism; however, the Gospel isn’t just for unbelievers, it’s for believers too.

And often, the misunderstandings that we have concerning life, the world, family, whatever else it might be are solved with a right understanding of the Gospel itself.

The more we are taught and reminded of the Gospel and how it encompasses all of our lives, the more God matures our own worldview and conforms us to the image of His Son.

The issue is that this process takes time and it’s something that we regularly need to be praying for—that the Gospel is understood and saturates our congregation, that the Gospel spreads into the surrounding community, that our church becomes the epitome of a Gospel-centered church—these are all things that we need to be praying for.

As we pray, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Love your fellow members and church attendees in tangible ways—consider James statement that true religion results in action—not just speech. Do things together that visibly show love.

Share meals—or at the very least, go out together for meals and intentionally have conversations that go beyond the surface. Get to know each other well.

Check in on one another—call them, text them, email them. Check in to make sure they’re ok—after getting to know them, you might realize that you have a lot in common and you might want to talk at length about them.

Bear burdens—actually listen when others are facing hardships in life. Don’t be like Job’s friends. Cry, mourn, and grieve with those who are crying, mourning, and grieving. Practice a ministry of presence.

Rejoice together—on the flip side, when good things happen, celebrate with each other.

In loving one another, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Use your gifts to serve—in particular, I’m thinking of spiritual gifts, but I’m not limiting this to spiritual gifts.

Teaching—children, Discipleship Groups, possibly preaching, etc.

Caring for children/mercy ministries

Setup and tear down/hospitality ministries

Encouraging/ministries of presence

In serving, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Be committed to our covenant with one another

Not going to read in its entirety, but it’s readily available.

In following through with our covenant, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Support the work of the church financially and with your time

The reality is that every local church depends on financial giving to pay bills and to succeed in ministry endeavors. Our church, in particular, is completely faith based concerning giving—so without the willful giving of those who attend and support our church, our church wouldn’t exist.

On the flip side, I know that not everyone can give financially; and that’s alright. My encouragement has always been for those who struggle to give financially, for them to give their time—we always have a lot of volunteer opportunities and we rarely have enough volunteers.

In giving—both financially and of our other resources, including time, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Proclaim the Gospel to those around you and invite others into the life of our church family.

One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways we glorify God is by opening our mouths to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t mean you have to be a street preacher or theological expert—it means you speak of Christ where you are, with the people you know. Share what the gospel means in your life. Invite people into your home. Invite them to worship with you on Sundays. Invite them into the life of the church—not just to attend a service, but to experience the presence of God among His people.

The church grows when the Gospel goes out. The church becomes more healthy when it’s made up of people who have been gripped by the grace of God in Christ. And the church glorifies God when it is a people proclaiming His goodness, not hiding it under a basket.

In proclaiming the Gospel, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Obey Christ as our church’s head.

Christ is not just our Savior—He is also our Lord. And that includes being Lord over the church. He is the Head, we are the body. That means we don’t get to decide what the church is or does—Christ does.

To obey Christ as our Head means we submit to His Word, we uphold His commands, we walk in His ways, and we depend on His wisdom—not the world’s. We don’t adapt the church to suit our preferences or blend it into culture to make it more acceptable. We follow the voice of our Shepherd, because He knows what’s best for His flock.

Obeying Christ also means we reflect His character. We love what He loves. We hate what He hates. We serve as He served. We forgive as He forgave.

This is a lifelong submission—and it’s a joyful one. Because our King is good, and His rule is for our joy and His glory.

In obeying, we glorify God and He builds up our church.

Friends, the call of Haggai is clear: God will not be treated as optional. He will not be given our leftovers. He is worthy of our first and our best.

The Israelites returned from exile and got busy building their own homes, while God’s house lay in ruins. Today, we face the same temptation—to build our lives around ourselves and treat the church, the body of Christ, as an accessory rather than a priority.

But the Lord has called us out. He has invited us to repent, to return, and to rebuild—not with bricks and wood, but with faithful obedience, sacrificial love, earnest prayer, and unwavering commitment to His glory.

So let us glorify God in our gathering. Glorify Him in your serving. Glorify Him in your giving. Glorify Him in your love for one another. And trust that as we glorify Him, He will build up His church.

May we be found faithful—not complacent. And may the glory of God dwell richly among us.

Pastoral Prayer