6 Big Messages From Haggai

It’s No Small Message—Big Messages from Short Bible Books

By Jim Hammond

In the original Star Wars movie there is a scene where Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo, Princess Leah, and Chewy are trapped in a garbage chamber of a spaceship.  If you have seen this episode you will remember as they are sloshing around in the garbage, Chewy, a big hairy animal like man creature, is making a lot of noise because it stinks in there.  But that is the least of their concerns.  There appears to be some underwater garbage creature, some serpent of sorts, ready to destroy them.  Just when things look their worst, an engine noise starts up and the serpent creature disappears.  The reason it leaves soon becomes apparent.  The chamber walls are moving in, the chamber is a giant trash compactor.  The search for an escape grows frantic while the walls come crushing in.  They try to wedge the walls open with a huge steel post.  The walls bend and crush the post.  The only way of escape is help from the outside.  They attempt to make contact with C3PO, a man-like robot, by radio.

It is a tense scene, a vivid picture of pressure.  Can you identify?  You find yourself wading around in garbage.  It might be your garbage or someone else’s.  You discover a serpent hidden in the swampy garbage is attempting to destroy you.  You also become aware of the walls closing in to crush you.  There are these walls of pressure, demands, expectations, and tasks pushing from all sides.  They are assaulting your schedule, do this, do that, be here, be there, finish that, call him, call her, call them, it seems everybody wants something.  The machinery cannot be stopped and the walls are crushing in!  We find ourselves rushing around trying to solve this problem or that.  We soon come to the place that we realize we need help.  We need help from the outside! 

This scene isn’t just a scene of a movie.  It happens in our lives.  It has happened to people throughout history.  It happened, as we will see, to the Old Testament people of God 520 B.C. twenty-five centuries ago.  Fortunately, at that time, there was a prophet of God pointing the people back to the answer outside of themselves.  We are going to hear his message and learn that his message is an important message to us. 

The prophet’s name was Haggai. You like that name?  We name our boys, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  We name our boys, Paul, and Levi, and Philip.  Somehow I doubt we will name our boys Haggai.  Chances are too great the name will be shortened to Hag.  But it’s a good name, meaning “my feast”, and he was a good prophet with a good message.  This is the second shortest book in the Old Testament with only 2 chapters.

The time is 520 B.C.  This is one of the 3 Old Testament prophets that wrote after the Babylonian exile was over.

Background

In 586 b.c., the armies of Babylon had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem—God’s house, the symbol of his presence. In 538 b.c. King Cyrus decreed that Jews could return to their beloved city and rebuild the Temple. So they traveled to Jerusalem and began the work. But then they forgot their purpose and lost their priorities, as opposition and apathy brought the work to a standstill (Ezra 4:4, 5). Then Haggai spoke, calling them back to God’s values. “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” (1:4). The people were more concerned with their own needs than with doing God’s will, and, as a result, they suffered. Then Haggai called them to action: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: Consider how things are going for you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord” (1:7, 8). And God’s message, through his servant Haggai, became the catalyst for finishing the work.

Although Haggai is a small book, it is filled with challenge and promise, reminding us of God’s claim on our life and our priorities. As you read Haggai, imagine him walking the streets and alleys of Jerusalem, urging the people to get back to doing God’s work. And listen to Haggai speaking to you, urging you to reorder your priorities in accordance with God’s will. What has God told you to do? Put all else aside and obey him.[i]

Focus:  (The Big Message) Discouraged believers need to put God first through prioritized action and joy will return as God's glory begins to fill small endeavors.

6 Big Messages From Haggai:

1.  He Who Is Good At Making Excuses Is Seldom Good For Anything Else. (1:2)

{2} This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’S house to be built.’”

Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.

2.  Give God What's Right, Not What's Left! (1:3-6)

{3} Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: {4} “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” {5} Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. {6} You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

God asked his people how they could live in luxury when his house was lying in ruins. The Temple was the focal point of Judah’s relationship with God, but it was still demolished. Instead of rebuilding the Temple, the people put their energies into beautifying their own homes. However, the harder the people worked for themselves, the less they had, because they ignored their spiritual lives. The same happens to us. If we put God first, he will provide for our deepest needs. If we put him in any other place, all our efforts will be futile. Caring only for your physical needs while ignoring your relationship with God will lead to ruin.

Because the people had not given God first place in their lives, their work was not fruitful or productive, and their material possessions did not satisfy. While they concentrated on building and beautifying their own homes, God’s blessing was withheld because they no longer put him first. Moses had predicted that this would be the result if the people neglected God.

For many years, the grain had only given 50 percent of the expected yield, and wine had done even worse. 

Haggai 2:16 (NIV) ¹⁶When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.

Deuteronomy 28:38-45 (NIV) ³⁸You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. ³⁹You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. ⁴¹You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. ⁴²Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.  ⁴³The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.  ⁴⁵All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.

Judah’s problem was confused priorities. Like Judah, our priorities involving occupation, family, and God’s work are often confused. Jobs, homes, vacations, and leisure activities may rank higher on our list of importance than God. What is most important to you? Where is God on your list of priorities?

3.  God Doesn't Want Shares Of Your Life; He Wants Controlling Interest! (1:7-11)

Helmut Thielicke said, “The Word of God is demanding. It demands a stretch of time in our day--even though it be a very modest one--in which it is our only companion. ... God will not put up with being fobbed off with prayers in telegram style and cut short like a troublesome visitor for whom we open the door just a crack to get rid of him as quickly as possible.” [ii] 

If Helmut would have written this today, he may have used email as a metaphor rather than the telegram.  Today people give God a nod with the one line email type prayer message or repeated forwarded prayer messages that in say effect I know you are there.  You can have a share, but we never give him controlling interest.  We don’t stop and have heart to heart relational connectedness with him.

{7} This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. {8} Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. {9} “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. {10} Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. {11} I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

If God doesn’t have a controlling interest in your life, He is willing to call for drastic measures in order to bring you to your senses.  When you go through hardship, maybe it is time to consider what is God’s purpose for the hardship.  Is he trying to get your attention?  Is he trying to get you to depend on him? 

4.  God Doesn't Call The Qualified, He Qualifies The Called. (1:12-15)

When God ordains, He sustains.  He is the one who will fill the temple with his Glory, a greater Glory than was present before.  Be strong, do not be discouraged.  Discouraged believers need to put God first through prioritized action and joy will return as God's glory begins to fill small endeavors. 

{12} Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.  {13} Then Haggai, the LORD’S messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. {14} So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, {15} on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.

A.  God Qualifies The Called By His Empowering Presence.  (2:1-9)

Discouraged believers need to put God first through prioritized action and joy will return as God's glory begins to fill small endeavors.   “Small endeavors!?”, you say,  “What God wants me to do doesn’t seem small at all, it seems overwhelming.”  Does it seem to you that what God is asking of you right now is overwhelming?  Be encouraged by what God said through Haggai next:

Haggai 2:1-9 (NIV) ¹On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ²“Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ³‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? ⁴But 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, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ⁵‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

⁶“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. ⁷I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ⁸‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ⁹‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

The thoughts I want us to stop and ponder a while now are found in 2:4-5:  “Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ ⁵‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

Here lies the secret of success even if you are discouraged.  Before I state simply what that secret is, I want you to hear the typical ideas about success.

MOTHER’S VIEW OF SUCCESS

Richard H. Finan, State Senator from Ohio, spoke about a study done in 1986.  A group of researchers published a study of Japanese mothers and mothers in Minneapolis. The mothers were asked to rank the most important things that a child needs to succeed academically. The answers tell a lot about the difference in our two cultures today. The mothers in Minneapolis chose "ability." The mothers in Japan said "effort."  

GOD’S VIEW OF SUCCESS

That alone is a fascinating study in the differences between the two cultures.  But according to Haggai, the secret to lasting success is neither “ability” nor “effort”.  Haggai 2:4-5 indicates to us that the secret of success is to make sure we have the covenant blessing of God so that God can say of us “Be strong, . . . ‘and work. For I am with you,’ ‘This is what I covenanted with you . . . And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

Ø      When You’re Discouraged and Overwhelmed Remember the task in front of you is never as great as the Power behind you or the Glory ahead of you.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you. 

There is another pre-condition for God’s blessing to be operative besides just being in a covenant relationship, and that is being in right relationship through repentance and the covering of atonement.  When repentance protects you under the atonement, that is when the statement is true and God’s presence is with you--“Be strong, . . . ‘and work. For I am with you.’

This is seen and amplified in the next section of Haggai. 

5.  Holiness Does Not Rub Off Onto Others Like Contamination Does (2:10-14)

Haggai 2:10-14 (NIV) ¹⁰On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: ¹¹“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: ¹²If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’”

The priests answered, “No.”

¹³Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”

“Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”

¹⁴Then Haggai said, “‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.

Not too long ago, we read in the local paper about a restaurant worker who spit in the salsa and served it up to some police officers.  He was caught when he told others about it.  Though he was fired, I couldn’t go to that restaurant again till it changed management and menus.  I can’t imagine putting one of my chips in their defiled salsa!  Even if I put a stainless steel purified spoon in defiled salsa to dish it out, the salsa is defiled.  The clean spoon does not cleanse the salsa; the salsa defiles the spoon.

1.  God Will Not Reinforce Defilement By Blessing It (2:15-19)

¹⁵“‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’S temple. ¹⁶When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. ¹⁷I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the LORD. ¹⁸‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’S temple was laid. Give careful thought: ¹⁹Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.

“‘From this day on I will bless you.’”

But once we humble ourselves, repent, and turn from our ways to seek God and his ways, God responds.  God blesses us when we begin to seek him, he does not wait till we deserve it or finish the work.  He simply waits till our hearts have turned back in his direction.

6.  Atonement Allows God to Bless His Covenant People (2:19-23)

{19} . . . “‘From this day on I will bless you.’”

{20}  The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: {21} “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the earth. {22} I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

{23} “‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

We need to understand that church activities will not clean up our sin; only repentance and connecting us to the atonement can do that.  Then it happens from the inside out.  Once the heart of the people were turned back to God, and the Temple, the means of atonement in the Old Covenant was being reestablished.  God was able once again to dwell with his manifest presence with his people, and promise them his blessing.

“From this day on . . .”  The Temple was not complete, but their repentance was.  They began the work.  When we begin to be serious with God, God blesses.  We don’t have to have everything finished.  He is the one who empowers the work.  He doesn’t empower it till we are repentant.

We take the position of  Zerubbabel.  He was chosen.  He was called.  The line of the Messiah would be through him.  He would be like a signet ring authenticating God’s authority.  That’s what all the chosen become like, they become like God’s signet ring.  I become a sign authenticating God’s authority.  My life authenticates his reality.  Ephesians 1:4 says God chose us in Christ.  He made me a like a signet ring when he did that, authenticating his authority!

{21} “Tell [Jim Hammond] . . . that I will shake the heavens and the earth. {22} I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

{23} “‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant [Jim Hammond] son of [Al Hammond],’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Let’s review the 6 big messages of Haggai with some introspective questions:

1)      Are you giving God excuses? (What has he been urging you to do?)

2)      Are you giving God what’s right, or what’s left? (Have you only been giving him “what’s left” of your time, money, devotional life, service, after all your best efforts have been spent elsewhere?)

3)      Are you giving God shares of your life or controlling interest?

4)      Do you feel overwhelmed by what God is asking of you?  (Remember this:  He qualifies the called with his empowering presence.)

5)      Have you cleansed yourself the way God directed, or are you still contaminated and defiled?  God will not reinforce defilement by blessing it. 

6)      Have your sins been atoned for in Christ?  (Make sure you come before God on the basis of Christ’s shed blood on the cross.  There is no other way to peace with God.  You can’t earn it by being good, or being religious, or serving God.  You must be cleansed by the righteousness of Christ).