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Haggai: Rebuilding the Temple

Part 6

19th April 2014

Last time, we read about a question-and-answer session between God and the Jews living around Jerusalem. God was showing them then that no worship is acceptable to Him unless it comes from a humble and repentant heart.

For 15 years, they'd left His temple in ruins while they got on with sorting out their own lives but, recently, they'd repented and begun to work in earnest rebuilding the temple. In response to their repentance, God reminded them of how tough their lives had been in those years, and then gave them a wonderful promise about the future. First He said:

Haggai 2v15-17
"'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. When 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. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,' declares the LORD.

Then He said:

Haggai 2v18-19
"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: Is 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."

So they were struggling financially until they repented and put that repentance into action, and then they were blessed financially. But God doesn't always work like that. The Old Testament and the New both contain examples of good poor people and of evil rich people. It's just not true that all repentant Christians have lots of money and easy lives and all backslidden (now there's a word that's gone out of fashion) Christians are hard up and beset with difficulties.

Sometimes, for an individual Christian, it works exactly as Haggai describes it. Sometimes, when we turn our back on God, we find that our career, or our finances, or some aspect of our life on earth gets damaged. And sometimes, God speaks into our lives just as He spoke through Haggai, and explains that our hardship is His discipline, bringing us to a realisation that life with God is better than life without Him, that:

Obedience must be more blessed than disobedience

But for other Christians at other times, it may well be that God's discipline doesn't come so much in the area of material well-being, as in the areas of emotional and spiritual well-being.

Many Christians who have distanced themselves from God live in nice houses and drive nice cars, but are deeply unhappy. Sometimes, that's because of events such as bereavement, or abuse from other people. But sometimes it's entirely internal. That can be God's discipline for us.

Some of us can look at our lives and wonder why we're unhappy. Some of us lack no good thing except a close relationship with God. Christians can be so busy providing for themselves (as the Jews were in Haggai's day) that we forget to serve and worship God. We, too, can be so busy building our own lives that we forget to build His temple - the church. And sometimes God in His mercy makes us miserable, so that we realise what we're missing.

The most precious thing in our lives is our relationship with God.

God promised His people then that because they'd repented and started again to put Him and His work first, He would bless them. And God promises us the same today. If we will put Him and His work first, then we will know true peace and happiness.

Some Christians find that as they give less attention to material things, they actually receive more of those things from God. It just shows how merciful and generous He is. Other good Christians experience financial and material hardship on earth. We might not get a promotion at work because we've stopped working all hours and begun to serve the people around our local church in the name of Jesus. We might not earn so much. We might have fewer holidays and drive older cars. But we won't mind, because we'll have our joy and peace back. We'll know God's blessing upon us. Paul said:

2 Timothy 6v6-8
...godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

The point of all this is: money and houses cars and holidays are all good things but a close relationship with God is the best thing. And if we put God and His work first, He will ensure we get enough of everything else. Jesus said:

Matthew 6v33
...seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Some Christians make the mistake of thinking that they can't (or won't) serve God wholeheartedly because they're unhappy. The truth may well be exactly the opposite - they're unhappy because they don't serve God wholeheartedly.