Haggai 1:1-15 (Prioritizing Heavenly Treasures)

Introduction

I watched a brief explanation video this last week – a kind of “tell me about this thing” for dummies – and it was all about the American Dream or what the guy called the “Success Machine.”

In the first few minutes, he described the “Success Machine” as it functioned for those in the Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) – you go to college, get a good job, get married, buy a house, have some kids, and eventually retire to live off of your investments and social security checks. If you jump into the “Success Machine,” and ride it as instructed, then you will be successful.

He went on to explain that Gen-X-ers (born between 1965 and 1980) have also largely benefitted from participating in the “Success Machine,” and those Gen-X-ers (now in their 40’s and 50’s) are likely far better off than the Millennials and Gen-Z-ers coming up behind them.

Due to wild economic inflation, multiple tsunamis of immigration, and the overwhelming effort to advantage minorities and women (over young white men), a college degree doesn’t work like it used to, the job market doesn’t work like it used to, and housing prices and availability don’t work like they used to.

This situation has caused something of a rift between many older and younger Americans. A lot of Boomers wonder why their grandkids complain so much, and a lot of 20-somethings wonder how their parents and grandparents can be so blind to the reality that the America they once knew is now gone.

As I was thinking about my sermon today, I wondered, “What’s a preacher to do with the book of Haggai, when there is such a difference of perspective between those who might hear him preach?”

Of course, there is always a pretty wide range of economic and social situations among any church, but Haggai confronts a people who are chiefly concerned about their own affluence or wealth or luxury. And there are some pretty big economic differences among us (and probably perspective differences as well)

But I think the point is not really how much you have… No, we can be all-too-concerned about our own wealth or prosperity whether we have a lot or a little.

In fact, I think Haggai’s message is absolutely relevant – to both Boomers and Gen-Zers… and to Gen-Xers and Millennials in between. It’s relevant to those with very little financial means and those with quite a lot.

How should we prioritize our worldly gain or progress in comparison to our spiritual growth? How should we treat our investments in assets of eternal value as compared with those investments we make in temporal things? Or How should we prioritize our devotion of time and treasure to evangelism, discipling, hospitality, and benevolence in comparison to our time and treasure dedicated to earning and spending our money on our homes or cars or clothes or pleasures?

I don’t know of anywhere that the Bible gives us easy answers (like clear percentages or cookie-cutter instructions) for this stuff, but the Bible does give us principles that we ought to regularly consider and apply to the practical and nitty-gritty decisions of our everyday lives.

May God help us to know and understand these principles, and may God help us to respond… with Spirit-empowered repentance and obedience.

Scripture Reading

Haggai 1:1–15 (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.”

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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.

13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”

14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Main Idea:

God’s people enjoy God’s blessing only when they, empowered by God’s Spirit, prioritize heavenly treasures over fleeting ones.

Sermon

1. A Little Backstory

As many of you know, the people of Israel were created and established by God when He first chose Abram (later Abraham) to receive His gracious blessing. From Abraham, came Isaac and then Jacob (who was later named Israel), and Jacob’s sons are the namesakes of the 12 tribes of Israel.

After Jacob’s sons all came to Egypt (under the care of Joseph), the people of Israel became enslaved and afflicted. Four-hundred years passed, and then God brought Moses as a prophet and deliverer. Through Moses, God brought the people of Israel out of slavery. And through Moses, God gave them a covenant of blessings and laws, shaping them into a distinct people and kingdom in the world.

Joshua led the newly formed nation into the promised land (an unimaginable success and blessing from God), and Joshua was able to say (before he died), “I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you” (Joshua 23:14).

Yet again, several hundred years passed, and the people of Israel began to want an earthly king, like every other nation around them. So, Israel became an earthly monarchy – first King Saul, then King David, and then King Solomon.

Despite his unrivaled wisdom, Solomon increasingly led Israel into further and more flagrant idolatry. And after he died, the nation split over politics and religion. They became two – “Israel” in the north, and “Judah” in the south.

From that point on, Israel never had a good king, and only about half of Judah’s kings led the people toward honoring and obeying God.

After long decades of scandalous disobedience (in both the north and the south), God sent pagan nations to devastate the divided kingdoms – Israel was ruined by Assyria in 722 BC, and Judah (where Jerusalem was the capital) was sacked in 586 BC by Babylon, under king Nebuchadnezzar.

Israel was God’s covenant people (under the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants), but they had chosen to persistently rebel, and thus they suffered the consequences of God’s covenantal curse.

This ought to be a sober warning to any nation that would choose overt hostility toward the God of the Bible over a general posture of honoring Him. God has judged nations before (both ignorant-pagan-ones and those who knew His word and commands), and God is not mocked forever – He will vindicate Himself.

However, God is always doing a trillion things at once (in His governing of every molecule of the universe and in His special unfolding of His plan of redemption), and it was God’s intention to bless some sinners despite their complete lack of deserving anything but His wrath.

God promised that there would be a return of a remnant to Jerusalem and a rebuilding of His temple. And so it was that about 40 years after the destruction of the southern kingdom, and the exile of all the most influential and significant people there, God put it in the heart of a new king (named Cyrus) to send the exiled people back with all the resources they could carry.

Can you imagine it?! A generation later (after all the older folks had died, and the young ones had become old), God turned the heart of the pagan king to bless His people beyond their wildest dreams – they were going back home, and they got to raid the king’s treasury before they departed!

You can read about this in the book of Ezra (chapters 1-3).

Under the leadership of “Zerubbabel” (a descendent of King David) and “Joshua, the high priest,” the returning Jewish exiles laid the foundation of the temple back in Jerusalem, and they re-started the sacrifices as God commanded.

But various hardships and delays were enough of an excuse for the people to drop the priority of rebuilding the temple (see Ezra 3). And after about 15 years, God made a new Persian king (Darius) repeat Cyrus’s original mandate – “rebuild the temple, and use the pagan Persian resources if you need” – and God sent the prophet Haggai to rebuke the people for their worldliness and indifference.

And that’s where we pick up the story here. Haggai received four words from the Lord, and we are going to consider the first one today.

2. The Rebuke (v1-4)

This first “word of the LORD” that “came by the hand of Haggai the prophet” is a stern rebuke – first a rebuke aimed at the civil and religious leaders, and then a rebuke aimed at the people under their leadership.

See the first targets of God’s and Haggai’s rebuke there in v1, “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” (Haggai 1:1).

These were the men in charge. “Zerubbabel” was the “governor” (or civil ruler) “of Judah,” and “Joshua” was “the high priest” (which is the foremost religious leader).

Remember also that they (both Zerubbabel and Joshua) had been among those Jews in Persian exile… they received the decree from king Cyrus to return and rebuild, they plundered the wealth of Persia on their way out, and they took back all the materials that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Solomon’s temple.

In other words, they had every reason to be confident to lead. They had mandate from the LORD and also from the highest earthly king known to them… to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

And though they had started well, they had not stayed the course.

The people under their charge decided that because the task became difficult and costly, and because some of their own countrymen even began to oppose them, “the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord” (v2). It seems they supposed some future opportunity would arise when it would be easier or better.

But according to “the LORD of hosts” (or “Lord Sabaoth”), this was no excuse to neglect their duty to lead.

Brothers and sisters, we regularly sing an old song that was penned by Martin Luther about 500 years ago – A Mighty Fortress is Our God. In the second verse, we sing, “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same; and he must win the battle.”

It’s passages like this one (in Haggai 1) that we ought to remember when we sing those words. Zerubbabel and Joshua seem to have forgotten that it was not their own strength or ingenuity moving this project along. They were merely pawns on the chessboard of Lord Sabaoth or Yahweh, King of armies.

We too should keep in mind that our God is a mighty fortress. Our God is the Lord or King or Sovereign over all the armies of heaven and earth. If we confide or trust in our own strength or resourcefulness… if we only look for the right conditions or the time of convenience… then we will not get very far.

But if we will rely upon God in Christ… if we will remember that our Master and Savior is Lord Sabaoth… then we will succeed in all that God intends for us… because He must win the battle… And though this whole world were filled with devils, and all of them should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness is grim, indeed, but we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; and one little word shall fell him.

The civil and religious leaders of Judah had forgotten who ultimately sent them to their task, and they failed to lead the trembling people under their charge. So, “the LORD of hosts” rebuked them for their negligence… and He also rebuked the people for their foolish indifference toward the greater priority.

See it there in v3 and 4. “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?’” (Haggai 1:3-4).

In short, the people were prioritizing their own comforts and personal gain, and they were neglecting the greater priority of serving, honoring, and obeying the Lord who had given them all they had to begin with.

Friends, this is a temptation and danger for God’s people of every age and every place. It is so easy to look around and weigh gains and losses, victories and defeats, goods and bads based on the same scales used by sinners in the world.

I’ll serve the Lord after I get things in order (job, home, bank account, etc).

I’ll devote more time to the things of God when I have more time to give.

I’ll budget more money to heavenly investments when I get a raise, when my expenses go down, or when I have more saved up for a rainy day.

I’ll give more attention to spiritual disciplines, evangelism, discipleship, hospitality, and benevolence when I’m not spread so thin.

Sometimes we live so much for the future… that we forget to do anything of real value in the present. Sometimes we imagine so vividly… the person we will one day be, the time we will one day have, and the opportunities we will one day enjoy… that we forget… that person, time, and opportunity only exist in our mind.

Didn’t Josh Hayward recently remind us (a few Sundays ago) of those words from the book of James. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:13-14).

May God teach us to number our days, and make us remember the shortness of our lives, and help us spend the time, treasure, and talent we have in His service.

3. The Rationale (v5-11)

Now, we will miss the main thrust of this whole prophetic book if we think that what God wanted His people to do was to stop pursuing earthly wealth. As a matter of fact, one major feature of God’s blessing for His people was earthly wealth – the return of the land (and all its produce) and their stores full of the “treasures of all the nations” (Haggai 2:7).

Friends, it is not money or wealth or affluence itself that is the root of all kinds of evil… it is the LOVE of money… the unregulated craving for it. The Scripture says, “godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

Thus, God does not rebuke the people of Judah for planting seed or for clothing themselves or for investing their wages so as to get a good return. In fact, twice in these verses (v5-11), God invites them to “Consider your ways” (v5, 7).

The phrase here is literally, “arrange” or “order” your “path” or “conduct.”

It is as though God was telling them, “Let’s put all your numbers on the board, and let’s do the math… How is what you’re doing working out?”

See v6. “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” (v6). And God continues on in v9. “You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away…” (v9).

This is a description of the worst kind of national economy – productivity is low, and inflation is high. “Your harvest doesn’t produce what it should, your food doesn’t satisfy, your clothes don’t warm and protect you, and your wages don’t keep up with the price of things.”

Now, let’s all be honest… Sometimes we feel like this, even when it’s not real. Sometimes we feel like our family or town or state or national economy is bad just because we aren’t keeping up with others the way we’d like. We bemoan our supposed economic hardship… even if we are personally far better off today than we were 5 or 10 years ago.

But that’s not where most of the people of Judah were. Their math really wasn’t adding up. And God revealed that the bad numbers were not a typo or miscalculation. He said, “the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce” (v10). There really was “a drought [a “dryness” a “devastation”] on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, [and] the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors” (v11).

And “why” was there a cloud of devastation over Judah (v9)? “Because,” said Lord Sabaoth or “the Lord of hosts” (v9)… “Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house” (v9).

Once again, it wasn’t bad that they were giving attention to worldly gain… It was bad that they were giving all their attention to worldly gain… especially in light of the explicit command they’d received to rebuild the temple… and in light of the fact that they’d already been supernaturally given so much material wealth to carry out God’s command.

Friends, it would be easy (and childish) to think that what we have here is evidence that the Prosperity Gospel is true.

Doesn’t this passage seem to indicate that if the people of God will prioritize godly service and obedience that God will most definitely open up the heavens and give them all the material blessings they’d ever need or want?

Well, as I said… that’s one way of reading this passage… a childish and biblically illiterate way of doing it… but certainly one that many happily receive.

A better and more biblically comprehensive way to read our passage today is to see that it was a kindness of God to withhold material blessings from them in order to shake them from their foolish indifference toward God.

Didn’t they have so much in the way of worldly wealth?

Hadn’t they been given so much in the way of worldly resources – land, produce, precious metals, numerous people, and a writ of protection from the most powerful earthly king in the world?

If God had not supernaturally brought a “drought” or “devastation” upon all of Judah’s resources (v11), then they would have been able to continue on with business as usual… and they would have appeared to everyone (looking on from the outside) to have a strong god who gives his people worldly blessings.

But this was not at all what God wanted. The God of the Bible doesn’t care in the least what sinners in the world think about Him or His people… not when it comes to evaluating whether His people are weak or strong, poor or wealthy, foolish or wise, failing or successful.

God does not measure strength or wealth or wisdom or success the way the world does, and He is far more interested in whether His people are believing His word, obeying His commands, and rightly reflecting His character in the world.

Friends, it is a blessing to us when we believe God’s word, when we obey His commands, and when we reflect His character… even if our material wealth or physical strength or political influence is not as great as we’d like it to be.

And it is an overall detriment to us if we have all those worldly benefits but lack the heavenly priorities.

It is fine to strive for both heavenly treasures and worldly progress, but we must not let our priorities get out of line.

In the case of OT Judah (in Haggai’s day), God wanted His people to rebuild the temple so that they’d be able to realign themselves with the way of life He prescribed to them – making sacrifices at the altar, ordering their lives around the priestly nature of their nation, and displaying the holiness God described and illustrated for them at Sinai.

In the case of NT Christians (in our day), we do not have a literal temple to rebuild, since Christ Himself is the fulfillment of that OT imagery… Jesus is the true temple wherein God came to dwell among us, Jesus is the true priest who mediates forever between God and His people, Jesus is the true sacrifice that actually perfects or sanctifies sinners who believe or trust in Him… And Christ’s people are themselves the new temple… which is being “built” up as a “dwelling place for God” (Eph. 2:19-22).

In other words, we should feel something of Haggai’s rebuke and rationale in our day if we (personally, or in our own families, or as a church body) are giving all of our attention to our worldly gain or advance or affluence… rather than attending to or participating in or giving consideration to the building up of the body of Christ, of which we are a part.

Brothers and sisters, do you sometimes feel that God’s blessing is being withheld from you?

If so, do you know what the Bible means by God’s “blessing”?

And are you prioritizing heavenly treasures over the fleeting riches of this world?

Borrowing from the language of Ephesians 4…

How much time and attention do you give to “walking in a manner worthy” of the gospel (Eph. 4:1)?

How are you prioritizing the unity of faith and practice and fellowship with your fellow church members (Eph. 4:2-3)?

How much interest does your action show that you have in your own spiritual growth and maturity (Eph. 4:13)? And what about your interest in helping others grow?

And how much effort are you devoting to growth in holiness and Christ-likeness (Eph. 4:20-24)?

Brothers and sisters, I’m not saying that we should all quit our day-job and live like a Medieval monk. As I’ve been trying to emphasize several times already, we should not leave off entirely the pursuit of worldly goods, gain, and growth. Indeed, I think it would be unbiblical and anti-Christian to do that!

But what we have here is a reminder that God has a priority list, and it is to our benefit if we will strive to align ourselves with it.

Sometimes God’s blessings will match up with our temporal or earthly pursuits, and sometimes they won’t… but we will enjoy God’s blessing (as He defines them) only if we will prioritize heavenly treasures over fleeting ones.

4. The Repentance (v12-15)

The last bit of our passage today is a rare one in the OT, and it’s an encouraging conclusion. When the prophet Haggai came to the people of Judah with a word of rebuke from the Lord, they repented! They responded with humility, and they immediately changed their ways.

Let’s notice three things about what repentance looks like here, and let’s consider how we might aim for this kind of repentance in our own lives.

I’m drawing out these features of repentance as I understand them logically, not necessarily in the order as they appear in the passage.

First, Haggai says, “the people feared the Lord” (v12).

Friends, the Bible teaches us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7, 9:10), and this is the place we must all begin if we are to respond rightly to God.

His word must carry more weight than all other words. His warning of judgment and His promise of blessing must pierce through the distractions and alternative theories that all flash on the billboards along the highway of life.

If ever we are going to approach God with hope… hope in His love and forgiveness and grace… then we must first turn to God in fear or reverence or awe.

If God should so condescend as to bend His mouth toward us for the purpose of rebuke and instruction, then we ought to stop our own mouths and attune our ears to hear Him as well as we may.

Second, Haggai says, “the Lord stirred up the spirit” of the leaders and the people (v14).

Even as I’ve just now called for a response of fear and reverence, I know that it is only the work of God’s Spirit on the hard hearts of sinful people that can bring about such a response.

So many other times (in the OT and the NT) people heard a word from the Lord, and they rejected it… they laughed at it… or they despised it.

Why did these folks we’re reading about this morning respond with fear and repentance?

Or as we sometimes sing, “Why was I made to hear Thy voice, And enter while there's room, When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?”

And the answer comes in the next verse of the song, which says, “'Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly drew us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin.”

Friends, repentance is certainly our responsibility and obligation. When God rebukes and commands us, we must repent! But so too, we must understand that repentance is a gift from the Lord.

This is true at the beginning of the Christian life, when we turn from our sin and begin to trust and follow Jesus. And it is also true throughout the Christian life, when we continue turning from sin and keep on trusting and following Jesus.

Third, Haggai says that the people “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God” (v12), and they “came and worked” (v14).

This third feature of repentance is just as important as the other two. Not only should we fear God (give ourselves to hearing and heeding His word)… and not only should we depend upon His power to bring about the change He is commanding for us… but repentance includes action!

Friends, so many people seem to think repentance is something like a feeling or a statement. They believe they are repentant when they feel bad, or they believe they’ve repented when they’ve confessed their sin as sin.

But this is not the way the Bible speaks of repentance.

Unbelieving and unrepenting sinners feel bad or guilty lots of times, and many a drunk or liar or adulterer or thief will admit or confess that they’ve done wrong… but biblical repentance is actually turning away from sin and turning toward obedience.

This is exactly what the people of Judah did when they repented of their indifference toward God and His command… they stopped behaving as they had been, and they took action to remedy their behavior.

Conclusion

Friends, what an encouragement to see this passage unfold before us today.

First, we see God’s gracious approach toward His people… He doesn’t let them stay in sin, nor does He destroy them where they stand… but instead He sends them His word through the prophet Haggai.

Second, we see God’s gracious work in and through His people… Not only did He grant them repentance (stirring them up by His power), but He also blessed and rewarded them when they did… The Lord’s message to His people through Haggai was “I am with you” (v13)… and this is the greatest blessing of all!

Brothers and sisters, when we prioritize heavenly treasures over fleeting earthly ones (as God’s Spirit empowers us to do), then… and only then… will we enjoy God’s blessings – His presence, His gracious favor, His supernatural peace and contentment.

This is not a call to worldly irresponsibility, nor is it a call to abandon all worldly pursuits… but it is a call to make an honest assessment of our priorities… and to ensure that our service to God, our growth in Christ, our humble stewardship of our resources, and the spiritual good we might do for others does not take a back seat to our fleeting pleasures or earthly luxuries.