Haggai – Pocketbooks and Priorities

You know you are getting old when…

You and your teeth don’t sleep together anymore.
Your try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks only to discover that you aren’t wearing any.
Your back goes out but you stay home.
It takes two tries to get up from the sofa.
When your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
It takes longer to rest up than it did to get tired.
You sit down in a rocking chair and you can’t get it going.
The twinkle in your eye is merely a reflection from the sun on your bifocals.
It takes twice as long to look half as good.
Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.
You sink your teeth into a steak - and they stay there.
You finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.
You wonder how you could be over the hill when you don’t even remember being on top of it.

Getting old can be tough! Today we want to look at a prophet who was an old man when God called him into service – he was a senior citizen. He lived 2,500 years ago, but he had a young message – a message that is still relevant for us today. This man wrote the second shortest book in the OT, and his name was Haggai.

There are two remarkable things that this old man did…

He did something that few people ever manage to do successfully – he took a situation that was headed down the tubes and he turned it around and got things going in the right direction again. The prophet Haggai had a “turn-around” ministry.
He managed to talk to people about how they were spending their money without alienating them. In fact, they listened to him and changed their ways! And what he said to them about their priorities and about their pocketbooks, I believe we need to hear today.

Let’s get some background so that we can get a picture of what life was like in Haggai’s world.

586 BC – Babylon invades Judah, captures Jerusalem, destroys the Temple that Solomon had built 400 years earlier.

Spiritually and psychologically devastating to the Jewish people. The Temple was the center of their religious life – it was the symbol of God’s presence with them. Without the Temple, it was as if God were saying “I don’t want to be with you anymore.”
A large portion of the population were forcibly taken into exile in Babylon; they were pulled right out of the Promised Land.
These catastrophes were intended by God to serve as a wake up call to the Jews.

For the next 47 years, the Jews lived in Babylon. And God assured them that he hadn’t abandoned them – God sent them prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel to tell them that all was not lost.

539 BC – The Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the Persians.

King Cyrus decreed that all the exiled peoples living in Babylon could return to their homeland.
In 538, 50,000 Jews under the leadership of Zerubbabel made the trek back to the Promised Land. (Must have been like a Second Exodus!)
When they got back to Jerusalem, they found devastation and destruction – Jerusalem had been pretty much empty for the past 48 years. And, of course, there was no Temple.
Once they got themselves established, got their homes built, and their crops planted, etc., the next order of business was to rebuild the Temple.

536 BC – they laid the foundations for a new Temple. We read about it in Ezra 3:8-12…

Ezra 3:8 In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house OF the Lord.

Ezra 3:9 Jeshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers — all Levites — joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

Ezra 3:10 When the builders laid the foundation of the templE OF the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to prAISE the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.

Ezra 3:11 With praise and thanksgiving they sanG TO the Lord: “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praisE TO the Lord, because the foundation of the housE OF the Lord was laid.

Ezra 3:12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

Ezra 3:13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

The older priests wept because they had seen the old Temple that Solomon had built, and the new one wasn’t going to be as big, or as fancy, or as good! (isn’t it just like older folks to reminisce about the “good old days”?)

But the younger people shouted for joy because they had never seen a Temple at all! This for them was a victory – a tremendous spiritual accomplishment.

Well, it was great that the building project was underway, but they soon ran into obstacles. The people who were living around them – a people known as the Samaritans – at first wanted to join in the building project. But the Jews said “No way – this is our Temple to our God and we’re going to be the ones to build it.”

So the Samaritans, rebuffed, began to make life miserable for the Jews.

Ezra 4:4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.

Ezra 4:5 They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

And they were successful. Gradually the work stopped. That initial burst of enthusiasm petered out and after the first year of the building project, nothing was done for the next 16 years. There was a foundation but nothing else.

The people of Judah lost their vision; they lost their zeal. They became content to live without a Temple; without a focal point for their worship; without a visible symbol of the presence of God in their midst; without a concrete expression of their devotion to God; without a witness to the nations of who they were as the people of God.

Q. What were they doing all those sixteen years? Well, they were just doing their thing. They were building houses, starting businesses, pursuing careers, making money, trying to find the good life. But at the very center, there was something missing: they were not honoring God.

And when they stopped to think about it – perhaps when they walked past that empty foundation where the Temple was supposed to be – they made excuses. They said “Well, the timing isn’t right. We’re not at the place in our lives where we can really go ahead and do this. And remember, there was some opposition when we tried it before – and we don’t want go through all that again. So let’s just live with the status quo.”

And they talked themselves into believing that it wasn’t important; that it didn’t matter

And that is the way things were when God tapped that old man Haggai on the shoulder and said “I’ve got a message for these people, and your going to give it to them.” Let’s see what he said:

Haggai 1:1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

Haggai 1:2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’”

Haggai 1:3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:

Haggai 1:4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

The people were taking care of themselves, and they were not taking care of God’s work. They were living in paneled houses, while God’s house was lying in ruins. They were focusing on making themselves comfortable and prosperous while ignoring God. Their neglect of the Temple – God’s house – was indicative of their neglect of God.

Every time a Samaritan walked past that empty construction site it told him something about how the Jews regarded their God.

I wonder if this message doesn’t have some application to our congregation today? This building in which we sit is our place of worship. It’s where we come together to honor God and worship him, and for that reason it’s special. There’s nothing sacred about the brick and mortar and steel of this place – what’s sacred about it is the purpose. It’s a building that has been set aside for a special purpose – to honor God, to teach people about God, and to be a Gospel lighthouse in our community.

Q. How does it look? What kind of shape is it in? What kind of message does it convey to people going by or to people entering in about what we think of our God?

Perhaps more to the point: how does it compare with the homes that we have provided for ourselves? I’m not trying to say that this is God’s house the way that the Temple in the OT was God’s house. But this Chapel is God’s building.

How are we keeping it? How are we providing for it? Is it in need of any upgrading so that we can do a better job of ministering to people? Are the spaces and the rooms in this building congenial to people, welcoming to people, attractive to people, and conducive to us being able to minister to those people?

I’ve noticed that when we renovate our homes, when we spruce up our property, we generally go first class – and the result is attractive. Is that how we do it for the church? How we treat our place of worship is indicative of what we think of God. And how we allocate our resources is also indicative of what we think of God.

Remember how Mary anointed Jesus with a jar or priceless perfume? She wasn’t thinking of how to economize ,or how to just get by, or what would be good enough. She gave her very best and she didn’t care what it cost.

Haggai 1:5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.

Haggai 1:6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

God says “You people need to think twice: you need to examine your ways. You are putting all your resources into planting and eating and drinking and clothing yourselves – but you never have enough. It never seems to satisfy you. Your money isn’t buying you happiness – in fact, your pockets have holes in them. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

“That’s because you are not honoring Me with your finances.”

Look at verse 9ff…

Haggai 1:9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Haggai 1:10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.

Haggai 1:11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

A lot of Christians today are having financial problems – they’re in debt, they have no savings, they just can’t seem to get ahead. There’s always too much month left at the end of the money. And why? Because they are not honoring God with their finances. They’re looking at all their own needs and wants first and then if there’s anything left over, they’ll give it to God. God gets the leftovers.

But what does God say about this? He says “Honor me with your firstfruits and I’ll honor you.”

Malachi 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:9 You are under a curse — the whole nation of you — because you are robbing me.

Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Malachi 2:2 If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.

If you are struggling with your finances right now, I want you to ask yourself an honest question: “Have I been honoring the Lord with my finances? Have I been giving to my local church – my place of worship? Have I been giving my firstfruits – my best to the Lord?”

Well, when you talk about money and priorities, some people get offended. They don’t want to hear it. But look at the response of the people to Haggai’s ministry:

Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

Haggai 1:13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord.

Haggai 1:14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,

And they competed the Temple four years later in the year 516 BC. It wasn’t as big and it wasn’t as fancy as the Temple that Solomon built. But the Lord assures them that there was something about this new Temple that was really exciting. Haggai tells us about it in chapter 2…

Haggai 2:1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:

Haggai 2:2 “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them,

Haggai 2:3 ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?

Haggai 2:4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

Haggai 2:5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

Whenever we determine to obey God; to start over; to turn around and walk in his way, he blesses us. He blesses us with his presence in our lives, and he gives us hope for the future. It may be that, because of our disobedience and our sin, our lives and our testimony is diminished from what it was before – just as this new Temple was smaller and less magnificent than the one that Solomon built. But God can take our new beginnings and use them in a mighty way…

Haggai 2:6 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.

Haggai 2:7 I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Haggai 2:8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

Haggai 2:9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

This Temple that they completed in 516 BC was the same Temple that stood in Jerusalem when Jesus was born. This was the Temple in which…

Jesus was dedicated as a baby
He sat and talked to the teachers as a boy of twelve
He taught and healed as a man

The coming of the Son of God was an event that shook the heavens and the earth. He was the desired of all nations; the Prince of Peace – even though he was rejected and crucified.

But Jesus, the Son of God, walked the courts of this very Temple that they had built. And because of that, the glory of that present house was greater than the glory of the former house.

It may be that the same can be said of you. Remember, the NT says that our lives are like the Temple of God. He lives in us.

But if you have failed, if you have sinned, if you have let the Lord down in some way, you may be feeling that there is no way that you can ever be as useful to God, or experience the blessing of God in your life as you formerly did. You may think that your life is lying in ruins.

But the message of Haggai is that God can take us where we are and fill our lives with glory and blessing if we just yield ourselves to him and honor him by giving him first place.