How Does It Look To You?
How Does It Look To You?
SCRIPTURE: Haggai 1:1–2:9
INTRODUCTION: Lillian Dickson, a missionary in Formosa, served a village that needed a church building. She asked every Christian in the village to make a commitment to carry a certain number of stones each day from the river. As each person sacrificed time and effort to select appropriate stones and carry them to the building site, the church was built. All it took was interest, will, commitment, and love for the Lord to build the church.
I. In our text, the people of God seem to have taken the attitude that if God wanted the temple rebuilt, He would build it (Hag. 1:2–15). They laid the foundation and then stopped work on the temple, went home and began building fine homes for themselves. This was serious because the Lord’s promise of His presence was that He would be present in the temple. Therefore, if there were no temple, there would be no presence of God.
II. The Lord waited sixteen years for them to restart the work, to no avail. Consequently He anointed Haggai the prophet to deliver a message to the Zerrubabel, son of the governor Joshua, son of the high priest, concerning the rebuilding of the temple. Upon closer examination as to the reason for stopping the work, we discover that some of the older ones, who had seen the first temple, became discouraged because this temple did not have the beauty and splendor of the first temple. Therefore, they discouraged the younger people and all of them, including Zerrubabel and Joshua, stopped building and went home to build beautiful homes for themselves.
III. After sixteen years, God responded by sending Haggai, the prophet, with to express His displeasure. The people’s neglect had already caused God to withdraw many blessings from them.
God’s rebuke was, “Consider your ways! “You have planted a lot, but you do not gain much from it, you eat, but there is not enough to satisfy you; you drink, but there is not enough to make you drunk; you put on clothing, but you are not warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes in it.”
God’s instruction to them was, “Consider your ways! “Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple that I may be pleased with it and be glorified.” “You look for much, but it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” “Because of My house lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. “Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. “I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”" (Haggai 1:5-11, NASB95) God was bringing hardships upon the people because they had stopped building the temple.
Like the post-captivity Israelites, Christians today sometimes lose focus on the importance of the church as a special place that God has chosen to meet His people, so they lose any commitment to build the best house of worship possible. They continue to improve their personal houses, but they let God’s house go desolate. These people do not understand that the blessings they seek from God are dependent upon how much or how little they value the things that are important to God. His patience wearing thin, God anoints the prophet Haggai to speak a Word of warning to His people. The Lord’s response comes in the form of a question, “Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while my house lies desolate?”
God anoints the prophet to speak His heart to His people by way of the prophetic word. “It is a truth that without a prophetic word, the people will perish.”
In today’s church, there are people who have great ideas for the church but are not willing to participate consistently in the work that builds up and brings these ideas into fruition. They partake of the church’s ministry, but are not satisfied with the church’s vision. They drink of the Holy Spirit, but are never full of the Spirit. They clothe themselves in the name of the Lord, but they do not accept Christ as Lord; and although God gives them good wages, they will not give freely to further the work of the Lord’s church. They earn good wages put them into purses with holes in them”
IV. The people now remembered that it was not the splendor of the building that made the first temple so beautiful. It was the presenced of the Lord. The gold and silver ornamentation were missing from this second temple, but more importantly, the Shekinah Glory of the Lord was missing. They were looking at the foundation of a building while what they were really missing was
1. The Sacred Fire, the altar of incense, representing the prayers of the saints going up to God
2. The Shekinah Glory, representing the presence of the Lord dwelling among His people in worship.
3. The ark, representing The Presence of the Lord
4. The Cherubim – The ministering angels guarding the Holy Habitation of God
5. The Urim, denoting Light and Truth; and The Thummim, denoting Pefection, Completeness, and Truth.
6. The spirit of prophecy – The Word of God, giving vision, direction, and comfort to God’s people
God solves the problem by reminding the people of how He had blessed them when He brought them out of Egypt, and how magnificent Solomon’s temple had been before it was destroyed. Then God promises them that if they will be faithful and rebuild the temple, He will cause people from all the nations to bring gold, silver, and all the precious materials that are needed to restore the temple to a more beautiful state than the first temple. You see, we need to remember that it is not the wood, stones, and mortar that makes the temple beautiful; The presence of God is the beauty of the temple.