Haggai Week 6, September 30, 2021
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Introduction
Introduction
One month later.....
Evaporated Zeal.
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?
Imagine the mixed feelings that many might have felt at this moment.
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,
Do you think one of the problems with the temple worship was that it externalized religion?
Didn’t God throughout the Old Testament demonstrate that He was looking for lives of faith more than monuments?
Remember what Jesus said:
1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”
2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Jesus didn’t revere the temple....but He was passionate about the use of the temple space.
16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Remember what Stephen preached:
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
Stephen preached at a time when the temple stood and yet the religious leaders refused to obey God.
We need to remember that God is far more interested in people living out lives of faithful obedience to Him than he is in any monuments or churches built in His name.
Glorifying the past
Were the Israelites guilty of glorifying the past over simply praising God for what He had done?
Opening Up Haggai Glorifying the Past
The same is true in the life of the individual Christian. There are some who are always talking about what God has done for them in the past, and relating yesterday’s experience. But the question must be: Is God using them and blessing them today? Are they moving on with God in Christ, and is their experience of God’s salvation richer now than it was twenty or thirty years ago?
False Comparison
Was it right to compare what they could do currently with what Solomon had been able to do?
Remember:
27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.
The Israelites needed to praise God for what He had done and focus on what He had called them to do in that day.
Encouragement
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.
…be Strong…!!!
Why should the leaders of the Israelites be strong?
How can this encourage us today?
How does this passage challenge us seek God’s will/wisdom?