Haggai 1 & 2

July 8, 2007

Neglect - distress and barrenness of the land!

Indifference - lukewarmness - apathy -

Rev. 3:14-22 - Church of Laodicea

v. 1 - normally - the prophets dated their tenure

during native kings but now they put the

name or names of foreign or heathen leaders.

v. 2 - "this people say" - not called the Lord's people

"this people" - needed rousing from their laziness & neglect-

rebuke for their unbelief - comfort in their sadness -

help in their weakness.

They preferred the material and temporal to the spiritual

and religious.

God is the author of the spirit in man - religion and

spirituality!

They were well housed, well fed and well clothed!

So the work for God's glory was put on the back burner!

THERE WAS NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR LIBERAL CONDUCT!

This led to spiritual blindness, to cowardice and the

deplorable mistake of worldliness!

They lost their spiritual insight, their moral courage,

and their heavenly mindedness.

Haggai - thought to be around 80 yrs old - had seen the first

temple - nearing eternity he understood the vanity

of earthly greatness and the need for inward

spirituality towards God!

The Seventy Years of Captivity had rolled by -

II Chron. 36:14-16,21

v. 4 - the Lord's answer - you have time and means to

expend on your own private interests but you look upon

my work with indifference.

Lake Barkley - big pick up truck - big boat - man

wiping it with great diligence -

DISCLAIMER - (these people could be devout Christians)

Entirely absorbed in worldly interests - eager to adorn

own private dwellings

vs. 5-7 - their labor for years had lacked God's blessing!

ch. 2:16-17 - compare Deut. 28:15-48

"Consider your ways" v. 7-

"I communed with mine own heart: and my spirit made

diligent search" - Ps. 77:6

"I thought on my ways" - Ps. 119:59

We need to stop and ponder where our steps are taking us.

Look before us and behind us! Where it is leading us -

where it will terminate!

"Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own

heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah" - Ps. 4:4

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith" -

II Cor. 13:5a

The soul can become very sensitive to right and wrong -

as an aneroid barometer to atmospheric pressure or

it can become hard and fossilized as petrified wood!

v. 9 - they blamed it on nature and did not see the judicial

nature of the infliction.

GOD IS BEHIND NATURE AND SOCIETY!

Were modern nations to reflect more deeply, they might

discover the relationship between character and conditions,

their sins and their sufferings!

This is something America, in her apostasy, does not

understand - that the best defense against hard times

is religion in the individual heart and nation!

Repentance and prayer is our best resort!

vs. 10-11 - Deut. 28:23

v. 12 - "the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their

God.....and the people did fear before the Lord"

v. 13 - "I am with you saith the Lord" - God's presence,

protection and blessing as he promised Jacob -

Gen. 28:15 Joshua 23:14

v. 14 - "they came and did work in the house of the Lord

of hosts, their God"

Each individual doing what he or she can - Eph. 4:16

Some may cower because of their physical constitution

but God says "my strength is made perfect in weakness".

Some may underestimate their ability but "I can do all

things through Christ who strengtheneth me".

Some may not know their own gifts but we are encouraged

to "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"

But with most of us it is from a depressed condition

of our spiritual relationship with God in our souls

but our prayer should be "quicken us, and we will

call upon thy name"! "Revive thy work in the

midst of the years"

Perseverance is a characteristic of a sincere Christian!

Jesus went about doing good in His service of glorifying

God and blessing man! - "I must work the works of Him

that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no

man can work" - John 9:4

ch. 2

v. 4 - In Zeph. 3:2-4 we saw a breakdown - here political

leadership, religious leadership and the general

populace are encouraged - "be strong....and work:

for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts"

v. 5 - God holds to His covenant

Zeph. 2:3 - Even in the most degenerate of times God

has a people to show forth His praise!

They remain true to Him, no matter how degenerate

the age may be in which their lot is cast!

God gives them strength and boldness!

They understand the design of God of the superiority

of things spiritual to things earthly and secular - they

are not ashamed to espouse the cause of truth and

righteousness on earth.

They do not become alarmed at every menace uttered

against them by the people of the land nor do they

throw down their tools when encountering the

smallest resistance.

They serve the will of God in their day and generation

like David - Acts 13:26 thus: the value of great men to

their own age and to the world!

vs. 6-7, 21-22a

v. 7 - "the desire/Desire of all nations" - the Messiah for

whom all nations consciously or unconsciously

yearn - containing in His Person the nature of

God and man and combining the three offices -

Prophet, Priest and King!

v. 8 - The habitual attitude of men towards their silver

and their gold is that of the rich farmer in the

Gospel of Luke 12:17-18, 20 - "my fruits...my barns

.....my goods" God said unto him, "thou fool, this

night shall thy soul be required of thee: then whose

shall those things be, which thou has provided.

v. 9 - "the latter glory of this house" - to be not of gold and

silver but a spiritual house - constructed of lively stones,

or believing souls - I Peter 2:5 - "an holy temple"

erected in quickened and renewed hearts - "for an

habitation of God through the Spirit" - Eph. 2:21

v. 12 - unholiness - idea connected with death coming as

the result of sin.

v. 13 - uncleanness - their pollution was their disobedience!

v. 14 - the people unholy and unclean

vs. 15-17 - "consider....yet ye returned not unto me, saith the

Lord" - spiritual neglect had led to scanty harvests.

It was God who inflicted these calamities upon them

judicially - (Deut. 28:22) - Amos 4:9 - same thing 250 yrs.

earlier.

The people never seemed to make the connection - the

blindness of the human heart

v. 18 - "Consider now from this day and upward"

v. 19 - Happy prospect - Has the seed begun to grow?

Is there any sign of abundance? Yet the harvest

shall be prolific!

Though there was no sign of leaf or fruit on the trees, nothing

by which to judge the future produce, yet the prophet predicts

an abundant crop, dating from the people's obedience.

Compare Lev. 26:1-6 and Deut. 28:1-6

vs. 20-23 - Promise of the restoration and establishment of

the House of David - temporal blessings had been

promised - now spiritual blessings are announced.

v. 22 - The heathen powers shall annihilate one another.

Ezek. 38:21,23 Zech. 14:12-13

v. 23 - "in that day" - Israel shall be safe and exalted by

the Divine favor and protection.

Desire of all nations - Luke 1:32-33

We read in Matthew 1 that Zerubbabel was an earthly

ancestor of the Messiah - Jesus Christ.