Haggai: Rebuilding the Temple
Part 1
15th March 2014
The archeologists tell us that in 605 BC, the Chaldean dynasty that ruled Babylon invaded Judea. In 597 BC they returned and captured Jerusalem. Then in 586 BC they destroyed the temple and forcibly deported most of the Jews to Babylon. Thus began what we call "The Exile".
Around 539 BC, the Chaldean empire was destroyed by the Medo-Persian empire. About three years later, King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple. Some went back, and some didn't. The land had been allowed to grow wild while the people had been in captivity. When they returned, the people needed food and shelter. They began to rebuild their houses and farms. But 15 years later, around 520 BC, work on the temple had still hardly started.
Enter the prophet Haggai.
Haggai 1v2-4
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be
built.'"
Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:
"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
Good question, isn't it? When they'd returned, they'd built houses for themselves. And when they'd done so, they proceeded to fix panels to the walls of those houses, to make them more comfortable. But they neglected rebuilding God's temple. Even the foundations weren't finished yet.
All of us have to make a judgement about how much to invest in our own homes, and our own comforts, and all the other aspects of our lives, and how much to invest in God's house. God was displeased because they were giving their own homes higher priority than His house, which amounts to giving themselves a higher priority than God.
And for Christians, the parallel and the lesson are obvious. God's temple now is the church (1 Corinthians 3:16) the people not the building, and it's being neglected. Many Christians are putting a higher priority on their own lives, their own well-being, their own careers, their own holidays, their own leisure pursuits, their own families, than on building the church. God is not impressed.
God's word through Haggai continues:
Haggai 1v5-11
Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
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."
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be
honoured," says the LORD.
"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.
Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.
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 labour of your hands."
They wanted food, drink, clothes and successful farms. All those are good things, of course. The people weren't pursuing sin; they were pursuing the things they needed to survive. None of what they are being accused of here is bad. Their error was neglecting to build God's house because they thought they were too busy with everything else. Instead of dedicating their lives to the glory of God, His people gave themselves to the pursuit of their own well-being, money and comfort.
And, sadly, I see so much of that in today's churches. So many "nice" Christians choose not to get involved in the work of building the church, because we think we're too busy, or too tired, or we find another excuse. Surely the truth, for many of us, is just that we like doing what pleases us, rather than serving our God.
Serving God can be hard work. Maybe we should get involved in children's or youth work. Maybe we should reach out to the elderly, or hold all-night prayer meetings, or actually, physically, build a new place of worship. Maybe we should visit the sick or the lonely.
Serving God can be costly. God may call us to give more than our tithes for His work. Maybe he wants us to spend less time with our families in order to have more time for His mission to save the lost. But sometimes we don't want to give much at all. Couldn't we have fewer holidays and maybe miss the occasional football match or episode of a soap opera to pray or to reach out to someone who needs to find Jesus?
The message of Haggai seems a simple one to me: God's mission to the world is important, more important than my little luxuries, and my preferences, or what is now called my "comfort zone". Isn't it? In fact, it's more important then my need for food and shelter, or even my life.
We can get so good at justifying our selfishnesses.
God said through Haggai that all the time His people were pursuing food, and clothes and warmth, they never found them. He said that because His house lay in ruins, he had sent a drought on the land, so the people would remain poor. What do you think your God is like? Would your God really behave like that? Yes He does.
Although most English Christians are rather well provided for in terms of food, clothes and shelter, as well as luxuries like televisions and holidays, we still want more. But doesn't God's house lie in ruins in England? Isn't the church in England shrinking? Isn't the Name of Jesus Christ increasingly insulted? Isn't the Law of God increasingly ignored?
I think the moral for us, who have so much material well-being and so much leisure time, is that God will ensure that all our possessions and sports and hobbies never truly satisfy us. The only true satisfaction comes in dedicating our lives, our time and our money to God's service.
Romans 12v1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.