“From This Day Forward…” Happy Father’s Day!
This review is brought
to you by the Kentucky
First Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ Sunday School Department.
LESSON AIM: By the end of the lesson, we will; grasp
Haggai's message of encouragement to press forward in rebuilding the Temple;
realize that reneging on promises to God yields catastrophic results; and
develop ways to commit to doing God's work on behalf of the community.
BIBLE TRUTH: Live honorably.
Haggai 2:10-19 | King
James Version (KJV)
10 In the four and
twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word
of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
11 Thus saith the Lord
of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
12 If one bear holy
flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or
pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests
answered and said, No.
13 Then said Haggai,
If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean?
And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
14 Then answered
Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the
Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is
unclean.
15 And now, I pray
you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a
stone in the temple of the Lord:
16 Since those days
were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one
came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were
but twenty.
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.
We’re continuing to
study the Jews and their process of rebuilding the temple. God has laid it upon
Haggai’s heart to encourage them to good works again.
Some of the people
felt intimidated while they were building, because they had seen the past
buildings…Solomon’s Temple was glorious in size and definitely fit for the God
of Wonders! Maybe this work would be laughable, because only a few hundred Jews
were remaining to complete this task, which is a far cry from the 6,000 of them
who existed before captivity. Nonetheless, Haggai encouraged them to understand
the urgency, so they could resume life in obedience to the Mosaic Law. At this
point in the scripture, the Jews have yet missed the point of what God has
asked them to do.
Side Note: If God has given you a task, He always tells you the “what”, the
“how”, and the “when”. All three of these components MUST be carried out to a “t”.
The God we serve is precise and amazing! He gives us what we need to complete
the task. However, with all of this instruction comes a warning; If you decide
to deviate from the planned plan, consequences will follow. This is what the
Jews experienced. Has this ever happened to you? God never changes!
So, the Jews actually
listened to Haggai and began to rebuild the Temple. There was some doubt, there
was some discouragement, but they DID began rebuilding, so that should have
been good enough, right? WRONG!
Take a look into verses
12-14, and pay close attention to the answers of two questions.
If a person carries
blessed food in his clothing, and touches unblessed food with the blessed food,
does the unblessed food become blessed? Or, for simplification purposes… The priest said, “no”. And flipping
this question: If a living person
touches a dead body, and then touches any sort of food, does the food become
unclean? The priest answered, “yes”.
The Mosaic Law was
very clear is upholding the fact that moral uncleanliness can be transmitted,
but moral cleanliness cannot.
Side Note: Let’s look deeper into this. Doctors, nurses, and health care
professionals could relate to this scripture. If a person who is well, walks
into a room of sick people, the sick people do not gain wellness. However, if a
sick person walks into a room with well people, they can cause the well people
to become sick. This is exactly what is being illustrated in Haggai.
God gave instructions
on how His temple was to be repaired and erected. The Jews began bringing
stones, jewels, gifts, and other embellishments from pagans gods and adding
them to the architecture of the temple. The people assumed that since they were
working on a holy temple, they would in turn, become holy. Not so.
Side Note: A ministry worker of the 21st century, be care not to
adopt the mindset of these Jews. Don’t think you’re heaven bound because you
preach from a Bible or conduct ministry classes each week. If you hold a
leadership position in the church, you must still pray, fast, and subject your
will to God’s each day (sometimes even more that someone who does have the
responsibility to lead others). Living a holy life comes first. Titles and
positions have never mattered to God. He demands a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable always!
So, all this time,
while the Jews were rebuilding, their efforts added up to NOTHING. Haggai
brought them the unfortunate news that their work was considered uselessly
unclean to God in verse 14. Haggai challenged them to really think about who
they were serving and why. He opened their eyes and revealed to them what was
happening to their crops. “Look around, God has decreased your crops by 50%
[Math folks, look in verse 16 they received 10/20 of their usual shares] ; they
only yielded 60% of their grapes [Math folks, again, they lost 20/50]. So,
there was not a lot of new wine to go around.
At that point, the Jews
understood and the prophet had their attention. But, Haggai said, “FROM THIS
DAY FORWARD…” I will begin to restore you. The Jews of today celebrate this
particular patch of scripture during a time we know as Chanukah, or Hanukkah (click to learn more).
Two lessons ago,
Haggai came to these Jews and encouraged them to rebuild God’s temple. They did
begin working, but because of their disobedience and failure to do things
right, they were YET experiencing this decrement of their crops and prosperity.
Even as they were building, they weren’t seeing God making their situation any
better, instead, they became bitter. The words, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD were like
music to their ears. God lifted the curse from their heads and began blessing
them, just like He said.
Side Note: Sometimes, we can fall into exactly where the Jews are. We fall
and fail, hear the voice of God though His word and through His prophet’s
voice. We actually straighten up and fly right! After we take that step to
become whole again, it seems that our situation is still suffering. Well, just
like the Jews, sometimes, God’s punishment has to be carried out, even after we
are restored. Once the punishment has taken its full course, we can experience
the “FROM THIS DAY FORWARD” that He will always have for the faithful.
No comments:
Post a Comment