Where's My House? (2)

Haggai 1:1–15 ESV

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: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 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? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 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. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 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. 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. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 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.” 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. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 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, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Scripture: Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon: Where’s My House?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let me start off by promising that I am not being bribed by the Renovation and Expansion Committee to preach on this passage. What we find here is God reprimanding his people for not completing his house when they have already built and live in their own as well as a promise of faithfulness. While God’s clear aim for Israel is on the structure I think this chapter also sends a message much bigger than any structure, that is the character of God in charging and calling for repentance.

As we begin this passage, we have a history and character lesson.  If we were to have a timeline, the first and last verses give us our end point, set between the first and the twenty-fourth days of the sixth month of 520BC. Putting this in historical perspective, Israel fell in 722BC to Assyria, Babylon rose up and overthrew Assyria in the late 600s with Nebuchadnezzar coming to the throne around 605BC, around that time, Judah began to pay tribute to them and the slope was downhill from there until 586 when Jerusalem fell and was taken over completely. In 538, around 70 years after the fall of Judah began, Persia took over Babylon, Cyrus was ruler, and a remnant was sent back. Within two years, the people settled, built an altar upon the old foundations and began with sacrifices and celebrations. Quickly opposition from enemies arose, some enemies attempted to crack in to this system by supplying their services, however they were turned away. When this ploy did not work, they stuck around to be a thorn in the side of the remnant and by 530 the work on the temple stopped completely due to this opposition as well as Cambyses, the new ruler of Persia hardening up on religious freedom that work completely stopped. 8 years of inactivity passed by before Darius became king in Persia, and graciously allowed the people to continue their work, however as we can see, 2 years into his reign, the Jews had still not taken up their task. It is at this point that God sends his prophet Haggai, to meet with the political governor Zerubbabel and high priest Joshua. 

The body of this passage begins in verse 2 and goes through verse 6, it is here that the first main point jumps out, that is the Charge of God (pause). Rather than asking what is going on, the message we have given is the excuse of the people. God’s people allegedly do not believe that it is time to rebuild the temple, God’s house, the place which stood as the center of society in that time. God elaborates further through Haggai and while it’s not time for God’s house to be built, they are living in houses, not just any houses either, but paneled houses, an expression intended to mean places of luxury and the good life. God hits the people with the emphasis of you yourselves in our translation and ends the question in verse 4 addressing that his house is still a ruin or as the King James translates, in waste. God’s house that had been so gloriously built and decorated under Solomon, destroyed by enemies God had sent, but now was to be rebuilt by God’s softening of the heart of the Persian kings did not even have walls after almost 15 years. I think the gap between what God desired and the people had was so great that the closest thing I can picture for us today is if our whole lot here was a broken parking lot with a pulpit in the middle and all of us had beautiful beach houses on Lake Michigan that we lived in year-round. 

When God gives a charge, that is an opening to address a fault among His people, he puts a mirror before them. He addresses the remnant who would have been at the end of the agricultural harvest season and he asks wasn’t your harvest low, aren’t you hungry and thirsty, your clothes are worn thin, your wages seemingly disappear? God needs his people to look at themselves and their lives. He puts a mirror before them and says give careful thought to your ways, notice what is going on, is it coincidence. 

People of God, when we talk about human repentance, we typically talk about it as 2-fold. First, we recognize and ask for forgiveness, then we change our ways. The first part of asking for forgiveness can only come about when we acknowledge God’s conviction, when we recognize his charge that our ways are evil. As God speaks through Haggai that the priorities of Judah are wrong and these have led to a curse on their land and lifestyle, there is to be a humbling response by the people to a God who is sovereign over all things as well as who calls his people to participate in the building and honoring of him. 

The second section, verses 7-11, contain the second point, which is God’s call (pause). Give careful thought to your ways is the word of the Lord Almighty. Go and get the wood and bring it back to build the house. The conviction given by the Lord is followed by a call to action. Much like after David fasted, prayed, and mourned for the lovechild of Bathsheba and his adultery while the child was alive and then when he died he rose and went about life knowing God’s hand was merciful and faithful, so too the time of conviction is short and requires recognizing the clear call of God. In verses 9-11, God speaks directly into the work that he did: it was he who blew away the good, he who withheld dew, he who called drought on all things because his house was still a ruin.  

When God calls His people, that is when he reveals the new direction or reorients their priorities, he expects and provides the ability to change. This change is not something done with a forgotten past, but rather involves continued education. God charges His people with where they messed up and then calls them to a new life in regard to where they messed up. The old line “forgive and forget” is not how God reveals himself in this passage. There’s a call to move, start doing what will bring pleasure and honor to God, but as you go I will explain what happened was exactly my doing. Give careful thought, what you have been doing is the selfishness that brought about exile in the first place. While God’s charge is conviction, God’s call is pleading hope. Change because I know what’s best for you, abide in me and you will find blessing for your crops and your lives.

Like I said earlier, repentance is 2 fold, the asking for forgiveness and then the change in lifestyle. This change is not always, if ever, easy. It’s easy to be Calvinist and claim total depravity, that all parts of creation and ourselves are tainted by sin. It’s easy in our self-help culture which thrives on making sure everyone’s self-esteem is top-notch to say it’s okay, you’ll do better tomorrow. Brothers and sisters, I hope you see past those lies, I hope you have come or will ocme to the realization that we can’t live like that. We can’t just say we’ll do better tomorrow; that’s not what striving for excellence and chasing glory for the sake of God looks like. Changing our ways from sin to good means settling into the conviction and call through discernment. It means going forward with knowledge of our past and seeing God’s education of our souls as constructive and of utmost need for sanctification. The best athletes, musicians, and actors do not look at the fundamentals in their fields as irrelevant, no, rather they see them as formative. The best role models for the Christian life are those that can look back on where they’ve been, back when times weren’t so good, when relationships were failing, when finances looked like they could be on the street at any time, when secrets lead to destruction. Change brothers and sisters requires honesty when called upon by God and others. True evidence of change is not viewing things as if they didn’t happen, but rather recognizing they did happen, lessons were learned, and that in fact God did guide you from darkness to light. (hope)

The third section of this chapter and our final point tonight comes from verses 12-15, and the point is God’s commitment (pause). Here we find starting off Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the whole remnant obeying and fearing, of their own accord? I would say not, and commend because the Lord their God had sent them. True obedience and fear can only come about when God is the author, when God is the start. The people could only come through on their end because God was the one behind this. The essential sign of God’s commitment is in the words “I am with you.” Those words given directly to the masses, the declaration of the Lord to be their provider, sustainer, and guide now and going forth. 

God’s commitment, that is his unfailing love by which he disciplines, directs, and mercifully gathers in His people, has the power to stir his servants. The revelation of his commitment in the form of the statement I am with you is the most comforting thing that God’s people can receive. In Exodus, we see the statement, I am who I am, as God pronouncing who he is for Moses to tell Israel and Pharaoh. In the Gospel of John we find the I am statements giving revelation to the character of Jesus, but here God pronounces the same words which would be uttered by Christ hundreds of years later found in the Great Commission of Matt. 28:20. The commitment as always is not a static event, it is not for only the temple building period, it is a covenant promise that God will remain with his people forever, and that is how they would have understood it. The prophet Haggai experiences a Moses-like experience in being the one who gave this message, a special privilege which upon reception by Israel ushered in a stirring of the spirits of all the remnant, that brought about returning to work.

People of God, while it was vital for the remnant to dutifully build the new temple, it was perhaps even more vital that they get in touch again with the prophetic connection coming from God. This people, many of whom had experiences in the foreign land of exile, were coming into something special, they were getting a glimpse of God’s redemptive work, they were getting an opportunity to see God dwelling among his people. However, they were like children that needed guidance in this land, like rebels who need rehabilitation. Rehabilitation only comes from conviction and hope, the trademarks of discipline, which need to be compounded by commitment. In all these we receive the same vision. We desire that the spirit rise up in us, but yet at times may live in fear of what this might mean. Brothers and sisters, I urge you to open yourselves to the charge and call that the Lord may be placing on your lives. Check to see how you might actively be working against the building of the temple. Notice how your emptiness might be the Spirit holding back because you do not desire to open yourself to what God wants to do in you. Allow God’s promise to be with you to consume your work, your family, your lifestyle, that his temple may continue to be built and filled with his glory today.   Amen.