Haggai Study Week 3 - Chapter 1

To listen to the teaching click here.  Otherwise, read on!

This week we begun to dive specifically in the book.  Hopefully this bit of an overview will answer any outstanding questions you have and help us push deeper into what application might look like for us today.

Haggai 1:1-3 THESE PEOPLE SAY

For 16 years the returned exiles have gone about their business while the temple lies in ruins.  Somehow they’ve decided “it’s not the time” to rebuild.  We know from Ezra 1 that the rebuilding of the temple was their purpose in returning to Jerusalem, but more importantly the temple always stood as a symbol of their purpose as a people.  But things got hard!  After the first two years building the altar and starting the foundation, they couldn’t handle the opposition from neighbouring nations who were not so keen on the perceived threat of Jerusalem growing in power and influence once again.

Here is the first wall we come up against in studying this historical book, because if there is one thing we know little about and have a hard time relating to in our modern day christianity…it’s the temple.  What significance does this have for us?  To answer that, we first have to understand what significance the temple had for our original audience.

THE TEMPLE

The idea of temple is central to the entire biblical story.  The moment Adam and Eve rebelled against God and had to leave the garden, God began working to restore his presence with man(and woman!).  This is the focus of the rest of the biblical story and the entire biblical narrative.  The first time God returns to dwell or live with his people after The Garden is at Mount Sinai.  After freeing Israel from slavery, God brings them to Mount Sinai and makes them “a people.”  His people.  He gives them shared identity, culture and “rule of life” through the law and he repeats the age old promise to Abraham that He is going to dwell among his people.   Now for this to happen, they are going to have to build Him a sanctuary.  A tent to be exact and they are going to have to build it precisely as He outlines it. 

By the way, isn’t this mind blowing?  The Almighty God who made Heaven and Earth living in a tent in the middle of the desert!?  Because He so loves His people He draws that near to them.

So from the beginning, the tabernacle (and later on as it became a fixed structure, called the temple) functioned as two things.  First it was the place of God’s presence.  But for that to happen it also had to be the place of God’s sacrifice.  

Here’s where we need to back up a bit further.  Man was created to dwell with God, but there was a big problem complicating this purpose and it’s called sin.  All people have this problem, simply by virtue of being human.  It’s the nature we are born into.  And a Holy God cannot dwell with a sinful people.  

So the temple - and its system of sacrifices and rules for holy living created this “clean space” among a sinful people by atoning or paying for their sin.  And in that “clean” temple space - The presence of a Holy God could now dwell with his people. Problem solved!

Except not…but that’s a whole other rabbit trail.  It does however help us to see the problem here in Haggai: God’s people had been freed to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple in order that God may once again dwell with his people, but they hadn’t done the work!

Haggai 1:4 - PANELLED HOUSES

Hence the problem that required God to speak through his prophet Haggai.  It had been 16 years since they returned, and the temple still lay in ruins…but out around the edges of the city, things were looking pretty good.  You see once they stopped building the temple, the people had turned their attention to building their own homes.  And it seems as though they had a bit of a Chip and Jo flair for fixer-uppers.  

That word “panelled” carries with it the sense of “wood” but also something done to the “interior.”  And what’s interesting is that if you’ve ever been to Jerusalem you know what buildings there are made of.  Limestone!   The entire area is known for this readily available resource.  (I’ve never been to Jerusalem, but you know…wikipedia).  For their houses to contain wood paneling, they would have had to go to extreme lengths to import it in from “the hills.”  Do you know where wood panels had been used in Jerusalem building?  In Solomon’s temple, and the royal palace! 

Considering the context it’s safe to say the primary concern here is not that the people had built houses for themselves (don’t hear the Bible say it’s wrong to have a new house!)  It’s just that their priorities were misplaced.  While their focus lie exclusively on hanging their own shiplap, they gave no thought to the fact that God’s house lay in ruins.

Here were God’s people, freed from exile to return to their purpose in life - to live with the presence of God among them.  This was their greatest need and what made them a people in the first place; setting them apart from all other nations. 

But they forgot.  Somehow they had lost sight of their purpose and immediately, as humans have been doing since the beginning of time, their priority became the next obvious thing: comfort.  Living for self.  Making their own lives as comfortable and luxurious as possible. 

Haggai 1:5-11 CONSIDER YOUR WAYS

So the Lord knows they need to be rescued from themselves once again, and so He breaks through and speaks to the leaders of Israel through Haggai and says, “Consider your ways!”

And then he paints them a picture, because they are so blinded by their own love of self and comfort that they haven’t put together what was happening: their misplaced priorities had resulted in fruitlessness.  All their striving and sowing and TRYING had resulted in very little.  And what we need to understand here is that by not building the temple, the people had turned from their purpose, and from God himself.  They were living in disobedience by living for their agenda above God’s agenda and because of this they were experiencing curses outlined in the covenant.

And that meant that this people made for abundance and fruitfulness and fullness…were experiencing the exact opposite: lack, drought and emptiness.

Haggai 1:12  THE PEOPLE OBEY

Something beautiful happens in the book of Haggai that is worth pausing and reflecting on.  Haggai 1:12 says, “And the people feared the LORD.”  This is a STUNNING moment in Israel’s history!  Did you know that for 150 years God sent prophets to warn Israel that their idolatry would lead to exile and destruction and they closed their ears to those messages?  For 150 years!!  But here in Haggai, the people hear the voice of the Lord and they turn to him in reverent fear.

Equally stunning is the Lord’s response to their obedience!  In Haggai 1:13 He reminds them of HIS PRESENCE among them as what distinguishes them as a people.  He doesn’t chastise them or say, “well it’s about time!”  He doesn’t warn them that this time they better do better.  The return to God is not met with a demand for the people to demonstrate faithfulness, but with a beautiful reminder of God’s enduring faithfulness.  God does not greet the repentant prodigal on the porch with a club or a list of things to improve, but rather…with a celebration; a party!  In effect he says, “Yes, you can obey because “I am with you.”  And He breathes out His powerful breath and stirs up their spirits, and motivation.  And By His Spirit, His very PRESENCE among them, they are able to obey and begin work on the temple.

APPLICATION FOR US

This is a good place to stop and consider what application we should draw from this passage.  You and I haven’t been called to build the temple so it's possible one might think there's not much application here for us.  Maybe there’s not a linear foot of shiplap in your house so right now you're thinking you dodged a bullet by avoiding that trend.   Here's a good example of how difficult it can be to draw right application from Scripture.  Or better said, an example of how we might easily draw wrong application.  We need to understand that this isn’t about our own homes per se, but it is definitely about our life and choices as children of God.

Let’s think in big picture themes here: God is calling His people to prioritize His presence in their lives.  He is asking them to take inventory, to consider where His Presence, His Kingdom, His glory has been pushed to the margins to let allegiance to Self and its priorities take up central space.

To us are the words, “Consider your ways!”  Think carefully about God’s place in your life.  Think carefully about what you are spending your time and money on.  Think carefully about who it is you are living for.

The Prophecy of Haggai was an invitation to the people of God to put the presence and sacrifice of God at the centre of their life by rebuilding the temple.  All these years later it is still an invitation to us.  An invitation to fill our greatest need.  

You see, your greatest need is the presence of God.  It is not better relationships, a more rewarding job, more money, well behaved children, a comfortable retirement, better health, recognition of your efforts, or even a weekend away or well-deserved “me-time.”

I think JT English says it best here;

 “Your greatest need is the presence of God. The greatest need of a human is to be in the presence of God because that’s what you were created for and that’s primarily what we lost in Genesis 3 in the garden of Eden.  And this is what God has been working throughout history to restore.  The biblical narrative is the story of God re-establishing his presence among his people.  He does this through the tabernacle in the wilderness, the temple in Jerusalem, in his body on the cross and where we live now in the biblical storyline, God has re-established his presence among his people through the Holy Spirit whom He has sent to live in and among His followers.  But the story is not over!  We still await the day when the presence of God will come and rule and reign visibly among us forever.”

Until then, it is worth considering this invitation to put the presence of God at the centre of our life.  What does that mean and how do we even do it?  What might it look like for you to build God’s house? 

What is it that has pushed the presence of God - his house- to the margins of your life?  What will it look like for you to turn from that and begin to build the house of the Lord?

Friend, this week I am praying for you; that the mighty Lord of Hosts will stir your spirit unto obedience as He did in the days of Haggai. 

Much Love,
KaraLyn