“ Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “ Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.”
“ Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”
—Haggai 1:4–11
Haggai - II
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“ The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” This was the saying of the people that the LORD quoted, beginning His message to the children of Israel, and was in the text we looked at last week. We looked at the state of His House ( both literally, and figuratively, as embodied in His Church ), and pointed out that the building of the temple, as well as the House of God, has slowly but surely, receded in priority - trumped by the cares and concerns of our lives in this millennium.
Religion is for extremists, and the bulk of the human race is either concerned with just surviving, or distracted by the digital universe of social media, and global communications that have sprung up, aided by the computer, over the last few years.
It was just in 1984, that the personal computer graced Time magazine’s cover, as Person of the Year! Fast forward 4 decades and we are already seeing AI, robots, self driving cars, autonomous killing drones, biometric chip readers in our laptops and customs booths, and digital ids in our digital wallets that let us tap our phones to buy goods and services ! Business has been booming despite pandemics and recessions, as a look at 100 years of the Dow Jones Industrial Average will tell you.
Yet, the wages of the working man have not kept pace with the wealth being generated, while conversely, the rise in goods and service costs has been passed on to the common man. We are no better off than we were 50 years ago, we just have more distractions !!!
Yes, we should be well advised to “Consider our ways”.
You may well ask, how can we rebuild Gods House in an environment where the focus is on hostage negotiations ! How can a temple stand in Israel, or the Church have peace and unity in this environment??
A. We are closer to prophecy being fulfilled than anyone realizes …. there are types and shadows of egoistic rulers that are a law unto themselves, that use violence and intimidation to achieve their ends, who yet enjoy broad support from a deluded people. There are hints of deals being struck behind closed doors between former enemies, and a situation where anyone bringing a peaceful resolution to conflict will be hailed a hero. There is a focus on the problem of Israel which has been swept under the worlds rug for almost a hundred years. And the technology predicted by the Bible is moving into place to support all that…. but while we wait for fulfillment of THAT prophecy, ( hinted at by Jesus Himself, and echoed by the Apostle Paul ) … let us look at the past, and see if there is a message for us in the exhortation given by Haggai to the Israelites living under the rule of Babylon.
B. Notice the materials with which this temple is to be constructed. WOOD!
The Wilderness tabernacle was clothed in leather ( badger, ram, goat skins ) linen fabric, and gold-covered wooden staves. Solomon’s temple was built with stone, wood ( from Tyre ) overlaid with gold, and featured two large bronze pillars.
This temple is much more modest, and was to be constructed by people of modest means, not a ruler that could tax people to bring their wealth in its building! And we see that the LORD is actually upset at the people for not rebuilding the temple, saying that He had withheld His blessing from them !!
This is strange…. why would He do that? That was not His track record…. from His very first Words after He gave the 10 commandments….
Exodus 20:22–26 (NASB95): Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. You shall make an —-altar of earth—- for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; ——in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.——-.
If you make an altar of —-stone— for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’
The LORD requires a place for HIS NAME to be remembered, but He is content with MULTIPLE altars of earth or stone ( echoes of Adam ) as being wholly adequate to do so!! Wherever HE causes His name to be remembered, He will come and bless!
We come all the way through the Law post these passages in Exodus, to the first worship of the LORD by Moses, Exodus 24:3–5 (NASB95): Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and —-built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. —— He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord.
The elders are invited to lunch with LORD, then Moses is commanded to come up to receive the stone tablets and the design of a sanctuary ….
Exodus 24:15–Exodus 25 (NASB95): Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. “
It is AFTER this, that we see the LORD request a sanctuary to be built…. Exodus 25:8 (NASB95): “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may —-dwell among them. “
The purpose of the temple was to provide a place for the LORD to dwell with His chosen people!…. and He was perfectly happy with what they had built, though David would not be, many years later, and would desire to build Him a splendid house !
The point being, there are temples to other gods all over this planet, but not a single one for the LORD of Hosts, and building it, is not a priority, especially for His people!
Now we know why He is upset!!!
But why would He want a temple to be built if He KNEW Antiochus Epimanes would desecrate it by slaughtering a pig on the altar many years later?
He wanted to bless them before then, create a picture that validated Daniel’s prophecy, prepare the way for His Son, validate His Sons prophecy, and finally validate the Word He has spoken.
Even if a temple is constructed in modern day Israel, it will be a fulfilment of an end-time prophecy, that also predicts its destruction during the apocalyptic events preceding the return of Jesus Christ. A millennial temple will next be constructed where the children of Israel will once again celebrate the feast of Tabernacles…. yet even this structure will give way to the New Jerusalem a 1000 years later, which will NEVER be destroyed!
We long for His Name to not just be in our hearts, but in physical manifestation… every year the children in exile pray at Passover …”next year in Jerusalem”…. and as long as that problem is not resolved, the world will continue to suffer.
These are given to us in the very last words Haggai speaks to the people..
Haggai 2:10–19 (NASB95): On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Ask now the priests for a ruling: ‘If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy?’ ” And the priests answered, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean?” And the priests answered, “It will become unclean.”
Then Haggai said, “ ‘So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
But now, do consider from this day onward: —-before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord—-, —-from that time—- when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty. I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the Lord.
‘Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider: Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit.
Yet from this day on I will bless you.’ ”
Then the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,
“Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.’
—-On that day——,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ ” declares the Lord of hosts. “
The LORD sees into the distant future, beyond a pitiful structure of wood, to a glory that is yet to be revealed !!
Hallelujah!!