Haggai “was a man of one paramount idea — build the Temple!” (Homer Hailey).
His primary focus and heart’s desire was to see the temple restored, as well as the worship of God to return. I thought about this so much when I was going over this small set of verses. There are so many parts we read of about broken temples in the bible, and when I read those, I think of MY temple; not the one which was built by hand, but the one that my soul lives in.
I begin to think about how that as we come to God and we are saved, he cleans up and wipes away our sins and we are forgiven, which is wonderful and without it, where would we be? Let’s take this further though. Think about how each and every day that we walk around our houses and see all of these things that need to be taken care of outside, and yet with our lack of energy and willpower, those things continually get put off time after time until the effects of the neglect begin to show in a way that we can see.
With my spiritual temple, it’s all in the same. I walk around each and every day of my life with the power and ability to clean up my own little messes in prayer, and yet with no willpower do nothing. I know that sometimes it’s hard to find that motivation to get up off of our couch and get to work on cleaning house, but it’s double the difficulty when you begin to talk about what dwells inside the hearts of you and I. The pains and sufferings that we face are by no means easy, and it takes a lot of work and upkeep to prevail on the maintenance of that, and yet, we continue to neglect. So wherein lies that motivation when we cannot find it? To me, I have found that we can encourage ourselves, yes. I can get down in prayer and get a hold of God to the point where it feels like that angels are all around me. It’s wonderful. But when your life is to the point where you can’t get the first word out, what then?
A lot of Christians today are standing there in their non-spiritual perspectives, looking at their ruined spiritual temple, and just walking away from it.
Let’s read some now.
[4] Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
[5] Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
[6] Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
[7] Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
[8] Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
The people had become discouraged, and as a result of that, forgetful and neglectful of God. And truthfully, this behavior is quite common with the people of today; nothing has really changed with that. Their priorities were skewed; they were only considering themselves and not God in the grand scheme, building their own houses, and not His. People are out in the world trying to just take care of themselves and be of no help to others. But when we reach that point of no return in our discouragement, it takes that lending loving hand of a neighbor to lift us up. You see, the message of Haggai was very well received and effective.
And wouldn’t you know that one of the reasons that it was effective was Haggai’s dependency on the Word of God! Man, if we can but only grasp this. We can pick ourselves up sometimes, but it takes more than one person to build a house, let alone repair a broken one. Being able to depend on each other more will allow the body of Christ to grow more and more, and our inner spiritual temples will flourish along with the Temple of the church.
A lot of people might cringe at this idea, and that’s okay, but sometimes I sit in the most elaborate beautiful churches that I can see with my eyes and yet see the spiritual discernment in ruin. People need help. They need led, and they need the truth. I have came short so many times in my life, but what I do know that the only thing that has got be back on the path for God was the word of truth.
Haggai appeals to God as his authority over 26 times in the course of 38 verses! Let’s read some more:
[7] And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
[8] The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
[9] The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.
[17] I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.
[18] Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it.
[19] Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.
Haggai was teaching that faithfulness and material blessings are directly connected, and that when a good work is awaiting its accomplishment, the time to do is now. Discouragement, however profound, is not an adequate reason for neglecting duties, even when they seem to be encompassed with difficulty. So just remember to build yourself up with the foundation of God, and you will not be moved by every little thing that comes by. And more than that, the spiritual temple that you begin to build within will be less about you and more about God. And as that begins to happen, you will see a wonderful transition in your life take place!
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