Consider Your Priorities: Haggai 1 (Sermon)
WELCOME
Thank you, worship team. We have finished Mission Month. We are headed back to the post-exilic prophets. We have covered books in the Bible like Obadiah, Joel, and Malachi, and now we will wrap up our series with a small book named Haggai. It is only two chapters; the events occurred 2500 years ago, 6000 miles away in the land of Israel. For centuries, God’s people rebelled. He punished them by allowing the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, to destroy their capital and enslave the people. The prophet Isaiah predicted that this oppressive regime would fall and that King Cyrus would rise up and let God’s people go back. The prophet Jeremiah predicted when that would occur. And like clockwork, it happened. Babylon’s power declined, and Persia’s rose. And when it did,
The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom …‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ” (2 Chronicles 36:22b–23, ESV)
Cyrus, the Gentile, decreed rebuilding Yahweh’s home, the temple. The book of Ezra repeats this proclamation. He recounts the particulars and namedrops the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and some other familiar characters. The people began the construction of the temple; however, the project stalled after the altar and foundation were established. Picture I-94 construction sitting for decades, mounds of dirt evolving into hills of weeds and bushes, and the work crews wandering away. God had an issue with this delay, which is the occasion and prompt for Haggai.
TEXT
If you have your Bibles, open to Haggai, Chapter 1, starting at verse 1. I am going to have P.H. read for us. Would you also please stand with me in honor of God’s Word?
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. (Haggai 1, ESV)
PRAYER
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. It is light and true. We love you, Lord. Thanks for this piece of history. Teach us today, in Jesus’s name, amen. You may be seated.
DIRECT CONTEXT
God was asking his people to reorient their priorities. His people had time to work on their own house projects, yet his home was left in disrepair. Why? I was talking with Pastor Mike about this, and he reminded me about what the people recently went through in the Great Depression.
GREAT DEPRESSION
In the Great Depression, Americans had nothing. My grandmother, for example, had dresses made out of feed cloth. And she grew up in a converted chicken coop in South Dakota, with boiling hot summers and brutally cold winters. She would hide this fact from her friends in school because of embarrassment. My grandfather in Indiana survived on rotten peaches. His mom made peach pancakes and peach cobbler, and I bet peach jam, syrup, pie, cake, and you name it. I recall him telling me decades later that he couldn’t stand peaches or pancakes. The thought of them was revolting.
SCARCITY MINDSET
The economic catastrophe led to a scarcity mindset in both. My grandfather amassed so much canned goods, plastic bags, and extra things he didn’t need. At his passing, we needed multiple dumpsters to clean out his home. This same scarcity mindset in my grandmother was a driving force behind frugality. She would reuse plastic ziplock bags until they stopped working, make things from scratch, and work a job longer than her husband. She contributed to a large nest egg for her children when she passed. I think the dearth of food, shelter, and clothing could have been one of the reasons that led to the neglect of the temple. It could have also been a desire for comfort, accomplishment, peer pressure, or busyness. We read in Ezra Chapter 4 that non-Jewish Samaritans complained to King Artaxerxes about the rebuilding efforts. They warned that Israel had a history of rebellion. Artaxerxes took that warning to heart and ordered a “cease and desist” on all temple reconstruction. That could also have been an excuse.
17 The king sent an answer: “To Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River, greeting. And now 18 the letter that you sent to us has been plainly read before me. 19 And I made a decree, and search has been made, and it has been found that this city from of old has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it. 20 And mighty kings have been over Jerusalem, who ruled over the whole province Beyond the River, to whom tribute, custom, and toll were paid. 21 Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me. 22 And take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?” 23 Then, when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease. 24 Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:17–24, ESV)
Whether internal or external pressure, the bottom line was that God called his children to work on his house, and they didn’t. He gave them a green light, but they were content to sit back and do nothing. This morning, we want to learn from their mistakes.
STRUCTURE
Chapter 1 has three sections. The first two verses introduce the book. Verses 3 through 13 are God’s call to his people to consider their neglect and its effects. It documents their repentance and God’s blessing. The last two verses, 14 and 15, summarize their response. The chapter’s point describes the Lord’s confrontation about construction. It sets the reader up to consider the future glory of God being revealed in his presence and their messianic hope of a ruler in the land of David. God wants us to identify with these people who sincerely thought they were doing the right thing when they weren’t.
SECTION 1
Look at verse 1:
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” (Haggai 1:1–2, ESV)
THE TIMING
The timing puts it at 520 BC in the sixth month, not June, but Elul, which was the month of repentance, our August. Historical records show that Cyrus passed away in 530 BC. Cambyses II, Cyrus’ son, took the throne and passed away in 522 BC. Darius ascended to the throne, and two years later, God’s people lived in Jerusalem with this decree to rebuild the temple, but didn’t.
THE PEOPLE
These two verses mention Haggai, Darius, and Governor Zerubbabel (we can call him Mr. Z). He was related to the kings of Israel. His ancestor, David, was significant because God promised to raise up a king from him who would reign forever. The people in Haggai’s day could have wondered, “Is Mr. Z the Messiah?” The verses also mentioned a high priest named Joshua. In Hebrew, his name meant “God is Salvation.” The Greek translation is Jesus. He was in charge of the temple.
THE OFFENSE
In verse 2, God repeats the people's message to these leaders. The people were saying it was not the time to rebuild.
What do you think of that?
How do you think that made God feel?
How do you think the governor or high priest felt hearing this?
What does it say about who was in charge?
You would think that the king or the high priest were in charge, yet, in practical terms, the people determined what was happening with the temple.
BASEBALL ANALOGY
I envision coaching baseball, and the players decide they don’t want to play. “Why?” The coach asks. “We are playing DragonVale, collecting and breeding dragons. We want to get more gems. Coach, we need more time. Sorry.” How should a coach react to kids who would rather play a two-dimensional video game than hit and field a ball? What about the parents? They should be livid if their kids said that to them. In the same way, the LORD’s people were telling him they were too busy. Can you believe it?
SECTION 2
God circles back in verse 3:
“Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?’ ” (Haggai 1:3–4, ESV).
Is it time? No. It is not! The temple was in disrepair.
Maybe, as we have said, the scarcity mindset. One of the wealthiest men in the twentieth century, John D. Rockefeller, was asked by a reporter, “How much money is enough?” And he jokingly replied, “A little bit more.” He had what would be equivalent to thirty billion dollars today. He just needed a little bit more. To his credit, he gave away much of his wealth.
Maybe they didn’t work on the temple construction because they were keeping score with other people.
Or, maybe they were trying to keep up with the Joneses.
They may have wanted more time spent on things that benefited them.
Maybe they said to themselves, “It is not our problem.”
Maybe they thought, “Someone else will do it.”
Or, “If my neighbor won’t, why should I?”
Or, “If I do all the work, then I am working for others to sit around and do nothing. It is not fair. Who will hold them accountable?”
Or, “What is in it for me?”
Or, “Why isn’t an altar enough?”
Whatever their reasoning, they put their time, energy, and resources towards themselves and not God. What part of us resists obeying God? Why do we not make God the priority in our lives?
ALTERNATIVE
(The Bible gives many examples of people recognizing that God deserves better. Before the first temple, an Israelite felt horrible about God’s house being a tent. He had a fantastic castle and thought God should have something greater than North Face camping gear. He made plans to fix this. He consulted the prophet Nathan and built up the funds, resources, and manpower. But God rejected his proposal because he had shed too much blood. The Lord wanted David’s son to do it. And he did. It was magnificent. But that was then; this was five hundred years later. God was not their priority.)
VERSE 5
God sent Haggai for a course correction. And through this prophet, he gave them a command. Verse 5,
“Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:5, ESV).
Consider your ways. There is value in consideration. The NIV interprets this as “give careful thought,” the New Living Translation says, “Look at what’s happened.” God wanted the people to think long and hard about their ways.
CONSIDERATION
Do you have space in your life to consider your ways? Do you have time to ruminate, to chew on an idea? What does it look like? Personally, I can do this easily at the beach or on a jog. But I am not always good at considering. All too often, I fill my days with the noise and frenetic busyness of tasks, podcasts, music, books, phone calls, conversations, and hobbies. God gets the leftovers. Just this week, I was driving to work thinking, “Great, I can squeeze in a podcast. It has been a while.” But then the thought came to me, “I haven’t prayed for my kids this morning. I should really pray for them.” Then, like lightning, the pull of the podcast called to me like a siren. I fought it, praying for my kids won that morning. But it often doesn’t. Now, listening to a podcast is not wrong. God wasn’t saying paneling was bad, either. God was saying that people needed to consider their ways and prioritize him.
Appetites, desires, and passions can budge in front of what should be first in line.
The world can distract us and market what it thinks is the most important when it is not.
The Devil wants to ruin us, not usually with demonic witchcraft, but with good things supplanting God.
We should pause and consider how we spend our time, energy, and resources. Last week, Tre said our culture invests little time in contemplating and concentrating. What did God want the people to consider?
VERSE 6
Look at verse 6:
“You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6, ESV).
God wanted them to reflect not only on their misplaced priorities but also on the negative ramifications of selfishness. Their efforts to get ahead, make life easier, or seek joy were a waste, like going to work for fifty hours but not getting paid or receiving a check that bounced. Instead of having financial freedom, it was as if they acquired fees and obligations and were imprisoned in a feudal system. Things were going in reverse.
CONSIDER
Why? God allowed this to show them that their priorities were backward. He wanted his people to trust him and put him first. Seeing futility can motivate. God repeated himself in verse 7,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:7, ESV).
Do you consider your ways? Let’s note this: poor results are not necessarily God’s way of saying people have misplaced priorities. Yet, in this case, they were, and God wanted their attention.
REBUILD
That was the first thing God wanted. Verse 8 adds:
“Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house” (Haggai 1:8a, ESV).
God commanded his people to build his temple. It was not enough to know the right thing, but also to do the right thing. Why? Well, they didn’t want anything bad to happen. But that is not all.
GOD’S PLEASURE AND GLORY
God gave them another reason. Keep reading.
“Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord” (Haggai 1:8, ESV).
God wanted a house for his pleasure. I was thinking about how that can be motivating. Did you ever want to make your parents proud? Have you tried to please your spouse or child? Have you given a gift hoping that the person grins from ear to ear or sparkles in the eye? We want to please (at least some of the time). Connecting obedience to God’s pleasure can motivate. If they build this house, God will be pleased and glorified.
VERSE 9
In verse 9, God pointed back to the fruit of disobedience. Jump to verse 9:
You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors. (Haggai 1:9–11, ESV)
What was going on? God was clearly pointing out their misguided priorities and the negative consequences. Do they want that? No. They wanted more but were getting less. They were reaping national disasters—not because of global warming or volcanoes, but because of God. He made it hard for them to get their attention. He was behind the pain. He wanted them to do what he asked. He commanded them to go back and build the temple. All they needed to do was show up and work.
FAMILY SINS
I had a friend post about their wildlife as a teenager on social media recently. And my mind went to the word “Wild.” It sparkled in my mind. It sounded attractive. It had a gravitational pull for a moment. Then, like lightning, I thought of the decades of hurt, loss, and tragedy it resulted in. Walking away from the Lord, drug addiction, divorce, job loss, and severed relationships were the fruit of this little word. “Wild.” It led to an ocean of pain, and I am sure this friend would exchange vast wealth to replace that for the word “godly” if possible. For those of us who have lived long enough, we see the cost of living for teenage thrills. It is not worth it. The Israelites gave in to whatever fears or cravings they had at the expense of following God. And God used natural and supernatural consequences to win them back. Pain supercharged his intervention. God sent someone filled with the Spirit to write to them and talk to them about their behavior. He did what their governor and high priest didn’t. He warned them, and vicariously, reading Haggai, God is warning us, too. God, by the power of the Spirit, has given us his Word, his Spirit, and our conscience. We have the church Body to exhort, provoke, correct, and encourage. Although we don’t have a temple that God wants us to build, we have a life he wants us to live. He wants us to steward our bodies and energies for his glory. Do we consider our ways and rightly give God the priority he deserves? What would it look like to re-order our time according to God’s way? How did the Israelites respond to this Spirit-inspired correction?
VERSE 12
Go to verse 12:
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. (Haggai 1:12, ESV)
They all obeyed, and all feared. They began work on the temple. Guess what that meant? God found pleasure in his house. He got glory. The temple would become a flashing neon sign highlighting how great he is. But that was not all. Look at verse 13:
“Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, ‘I am with you, declares the Lord’ ” (Haggai 1:13, ESV).
God was with them.
The Bible says that wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I am in their midst (Matthew 18:20). That promise means God is here at Converge.
God says that his Spirit dwells among his people. That means that God is here at Converge.
God describes the local gathering of his people as the Body of Christ. Friends, that means God is here at Converge right now. He is here with us. Isn’t that marvelous? And he was there 2500 years ago with his people.
What difference does it make? It meant God was on their side. He was for them, combating loneliness, abandonment, a lack of love, and insecurity. God was with them by his Spirit even after their dilly-dallying for years.
BLESSING
In Ezra 6, the heathen King Darius said,
Let the governor [Mr. Z] of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” (Ezra 6:7b–12, ESV)
Isn’t it ironic that God blessed his people through this gentile king like that? He acknowledged who God was and protected his people and provisions to fulfill God’s request. God was with them and for them even when internal and external pressures would threaten them. Incredible.
SECTION 3
Verses 14 and 15 recap when and what was happening. God stirred up the people to obey. According to Ezra, it took four years, and the temple was complete at the end of those years.
MODERN TEMPLES
So what do we do? Does Jesus want us to build him another temple? No.
The Lord redefined the temple as himself. (John, Jesus’s youngest apostle, had a vision of heaven and said there was no temple because Jesus is the temple.)
Apostle Paul taught that our bodies were temples because God’s Spirit resides in believers.
Apostles Paul and Peter wrote elsewhere that, in a sense, collectively, God’s people are the temple, the Body of Christ, with Christ as the cornerstone. (For example, in Ephesians 2:19–22 it states,
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.)
That said,
If you have not been walking with the Lord and this is new to you, God calls you to consider your ways if you have been living for yourself, not God. Life has been about you, what you want, what you love, and what you enjoy. You have neglected God without even knowing it. Turn to the living temple, Jesus. And he will get the glory and pleasure and be with you. Believe in him and be saved from the consequences of living selfish lives.
Suppose you have neglected the things of God. If you have forsaken God’s priorities, you know better. You have made excuses. God calls you to re-prioritize your priorities. Turn to him. Live for him. Trust him. He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He spoke these challenging words in love to his people. Today is an opportunity for another swing at the bat. We can recalibrate this next week to follow Jesus. Let’s go.
Finally, let us all praise God, who is with us through his Spirit and Word. He is here. Let us not miss Christ in our midst. After I pray, the ushers will come forward for the offering. Many of us give online or in other ways, but giving, too, is a way of worship. In giving, we tell God we trust him with our finances. He deserves our worship. He doesn’t need it. He will accomplish all the spiritual work he wants, with or without us. But he invites us to join him in it. Again, this would be when you can turn in your mission-giving pledge cards.
Let’s pray.
Please pray with me.
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