Haggai 1:1-15
About 600 years before Christ, Judah was taken captive to Babylon. Jerusalem with its temple was plundered and burned. Seventy years later, the Jews were allowed to return. It was the Lord's intention that the Jews rebuild the temple. He stirred up Cyrus of Persia to let them do this - Ezr 1:1-5. But once the people returned to Jerusalem, other things began to take precedence. God then sent Haggai to the Jews with a simple message. The message was “Build the temple!” This same message has an application for the church today.
Turning in our Bibles to Hag 1:1, let's take a closer look at Haggai’s message and the attitude of the Jews. “The time has not come for the Lord's house to be built” - Hag 1:2. Their reasoning can be inferred from Hag 1:3-4 “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?” They were too busy building their own homes! They put building their own homes before the Lord’s house! Their attitude is made clear in Hag 1:9b “Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” While the Lord’s house lay in ruins every one was concerned with their own home!
The message of Haggai is, “Is it time to dwell in paneled homes while the temple lies in ruins?” - Hag 1:4. The Lord’s challenge: “Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways!” - Hag 1:5. Things had not been going well - Hag 1:6 “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.” They should have been building the temple - Hag 1:7-8 ‘"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.” Because they had put building their homes before the Lord’s house they prospered little; what little they had the Lord blew away - Hag 1:9 “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.” The Lord even called for a drought in judgment upon them - Hag 1:10-11 “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."’ The preaching of Haggai proved successful; in reverence the people obeyed and completed the construction of the temple (Hag 1:12-15).
Since this was written for our admonition (1 Co 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”), let’s now consider Haggai’s message and make a similar application to the church. We face a similar task, although not the building of a physical structure. For God does not dwell in temples made with hands - Ac 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,”. The temple of God is now the church - 1 Co 1:2 “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:”; 3:16-17 “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Though a spiritual structure, God’s temple is still undergoing construction. The foundation is the work of Jesus, apostles and prophets - Ep 2:19-22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” It grows as people are converted by the preaching of the gospel - 1 Co 3:5-9 “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.” It grows internally as those converted do their part - Ep 4:15-16 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” -- So we have a similar task to “Build the temple!” (a never-ending task).
Haggai’s message is very applicable today. Does the Lord’s house lie in ruins, while we run to our own homes? The Lord’s house (the church) does lie in ruins if we allow other things to keep us from doing our part to evangelize the lost. Or if we neglect to do our part in edifying the body of Christ. Whatever our abilities and opportunities, we have a responsibility in the building of the Lord’s house today. It may involve teaching or serving - Ro 12:3-8 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”; 1 Pe 4:10-11 “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” It may involve going or sending - Ro 10:14-15 “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"’ Through exercising our abilities we can build the temple of God today; otherwise the Lord’s house will lie in ruins!
