A Glorious Promise- Haggai 2

It seems that every one, at one point in their lives, refers to “the good old days.” We think back to times when life was simpler, perhaps calling to mind life on the homestead, where days were spent working the fields and helping around the home. For others, expending energy on the old playground equipment that would be a million degrees during the hot, summer months.

We remember when values were consistent, when morality was the rule of the land and not the exception. Perhaps some of you remember when the Lord’s Day was honored, when businesses were closed. You may remember times where men held the doors for ladies, where curse words were never heard, and when watching TV did not require constant supervision.

Thinking about our church, you may remember the days when the choir loft was full, when Sunday school was well-attended, and when we had the pews filled. You may remember all of those good things about the good old days, and you may find yourself like the people in Haggai’s day.

You see, the people in Haggai’s day faced the same problem, the age-old problem of always looking back. This problem plagues us all. The Israelites offer us the most absurd example of this in Exodus 16. Shortly after being delivered from the terrible Egyptian slavery, they complained as said, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we say by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Last week we looked at the Goaded People, people that became complacent with the Word of the LORD, the God who covenanted with His people. They failed to live in accordance with that Word, and try as they might, they would never have enough of what they needed.

They forgot that to fail to live in accordance with the Law of God meant that God’s curses, rather than His blessings, would be upon them. Through the preaching of God’s Word through Haggai the prophet, they received encouragement and began to rebuild the Temple of the LORD. But, as with all, time decreased their intensity, and they slowly stopped constructing the Temple. We read about it in the book of Ezra, too.

Then the Lord sends Haggai again, only this time the messages are different. It involves a glorious promise which is indeed glorious. What we will see in Haggai chapter two, comprised of three sermons, is that...

Rather than focusing on the “glory days,” believers must press on in the Work by remembering God’s presence, avoiding sin, and knowing the end.

I. Rather than focusing on the “glory days,” believers must remember God’s Presence- 2:1-5

We must remember that this passage is under the Covenant, the old covenant, or the Mosaic Covenant (see Ex. 19-20). We noted last week how Israel failed to live up to their end of the Covenant, and according to Deut. 28:15-68 they would experience the curses, terrible curses.

As a result, the people were exiled. They were taken from their lands, their homes, their people. Their beloved Temple, the location of the presence of the Lord, was destroyed. They had lost hope, until the LORD brought a promise restoration. They began rebuilding the Temple, but after some discouraging set backs, the people began reminiscing.

They thought about the glory days. They remembered the Temple of Solomon (see 1 Kings 6-8). It was a magnificent building. The amount of money and labor that went into it is unbelievable. Beautiful, costly, unrivaled. But that Temple had been destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians.

Though they were rebuilding the Temple, it was nothing compared to Solomon’s. We face a similar obstacle. We face the danger of looking back to the old days. But Haggai reminds us of an incredible truth, perhaps one that you need to be reminded of this morning. Do you find yourself looking back on a time when you felt closer to God? When the church was thriving? When...

God is present. He is with us. Do you feel the weight of that? Was the former Temple glorious? Was our church packed? God is with us. The God of all power, all knowledge, the God who is not bound by time, is with us.

Petrus Van Mastricht says it like this,

“The practical force of God’s immensity and omnipresence is, first, in the consolation, in any dangers and troubles, whether impending or currently pressing, that God is present with his people, not only by his essence, but also by his grace. Therefore, even if they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there is no evil that they fear, ‘For you,’ they say, ‘are with me, and your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’” The glory days, as glorious as they were, are nothing compared to the God who is present. Rather than focusing on the glory days, remember God’s presence.

II. Rather than focusing on the “glory days,” believers must avoid sin- 2:10-19

Two hypothetical situations are presented: first, can a holy object make another object holy? Second, if something unclean touches what is clean (i.e., holy), does that make the clean unclean?

The holy object cannot make clean what is unclean, and what is unclean makes what is clean unclean. The people had not avoided sin, a point we addressed last week. Because of that they had curses. But now that they began reconstructing the Temple, they would be blessed (2:19).

As New Covenant believers, we do not undergo the same curses as the Israelites did. But how often, and Haggai calls us to consider yet again, do we sin and forfeit the joy, the peace, the contentment, the purity, all the fruit of the Spirit? Stop focusing on the glory days and avoid sin.

III. Rather than focusing on the “glory days,” believers must know the end- 2:6-9, 20-23

The Lord encourages His people by encouraging them to look to the future. Now, there are two parts to this, one that has already taken place, and one that is yet to come. This is where the glorious promise is located.

The one that already took place is referred to in 2:7-9. That is when Jesus, God in the flesh, came into the Temple. God’s presence shown on the Temple of Solomon, but God the Son walked in this Temple being rebuilt. Listen to Simeon’s words, feel the hope and joy of what he spoke in Luke 2:25-35.

It was Jesus that gave His life so that we could have salvation, the blood of the New Covenant, a better covenant, as the author of Hebrews tells us. The just for the unjust, as we learned from Peter’s epistle.

The Israelites needed encouragement, and though they could not understand (1 Pet. 1:10), the glory of this new Temple, though certainly not as physically impressive, will be more than they could ever imagine.

The one to come, though, is for us. It points to the last days, those days when the LORD will set everything aright, judge all sin, and take complete control over His Kingdom. We read that passage from Hebrews, and it would do us well to read it again,

Hebrews 12:25–29 ESV

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

There are two groups to whom this applies. To believers, it is an encouragement to work on, stop dwelling on the past, embrace the mind-blowing wonders of the New Covenant!

For unbelievers, it serves as a terrifying warning.

Rather than focusing on the “glory days,” believers must press on in the Work by remembering God’s presence, avoiding sin, and knowing the end.