“Finish What You've Started”
Haggai 1:1-11; King
James Version (KJV)
1 In the second year
of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the
word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus speaketh the
Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the
Lord's house should be built.
3 Then came the word
of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
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.
9 Ye looked for much,
and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it.
Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run
every man unto his own house.
10 Therefore the
heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a
drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the
new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and
upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
The Jews had some
unfinished business, and God had a man, Haggai, in place to make sure they had
the motivation they needed to complete the job.
In this text, we find
that the Jews have started rebuilding the temple to worship God. Somehow, their
attention was refocused towards other things, for about 17 years after
returning from captivity, until Haggai shows up. In verse 2, the people are
saying, “It’s not time to rebuild the temple…”
Haggai had the burden
of preaching for the people to continue working on the temple. God was looking
for a place where He and Him people could reunite and have fellowship, as He
has always expected from His people, in a sanctified place. Instead, we find
that the people became distracted and “caught up” into building their natural
homes, neglecting to really turn their hearts’ desires towards those things
that would please God.
Side Note: Have you ever set out on a journey to complete a task and became
completely side-tracked? This means that you lost focus and the REAL why, of
why you began the journey in the first place. Music artist, Larnell Harris beautifully sings this
song:
“There He was just waiting, In our old familiar place
An empty spot beside
Him, Where once I used to wait
To be filled with
strength and wisdom, For the battles of the day
I would have passed
Him by again, If I didn't hear Him say
I miss my time with
you, Those moments together
I need to be with you
each day, And it hurts Me when you say
You're too busy, Busy trying to serve Me
But how can you serve
Me, When your spirits empty
There's a longing in
My heart, Wanting more than just a part of you
It seems silly to
image someone too busy “working” for God, to serve Him. But, unfortunately,
there are some who work on an empty spirit.
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.
And, in case they
needed the motivation, Haggai runs through all of the unfortunate things that
will be the peoples’ punishment, if they failed to do the will of God,
concerning rebuilding the temple.
Side Note: When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we know that
we’re supposed to be living to live again. Laboring and building a kingdom on
this Earth, should not be our priority (1 John 2:15 - Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.) Why did God have to warn the Saints against
this spiritual pitfall? Because we are human! He made each of us intellectual,
and put inside of us a drive to create, build, plan, and project towards our
future. All of this is GREAT, so long as we remember that our spiritual
investments and building with Christ FIRST is the key to being blessed. Answering
God’s call will always have to take priority, with no exceptions. When He gives
a directive, there is always a choice to answer. In speaking with a man who has
been wrestling with signs from God, he said, “I finally accept my calling to
preach!” 3 times, God showed him that he was supposed to be a preacher. The
first 2 times were apparent, but not enough to provoke the right response. So,
he said God showed up in his dreams and showed him that he could carry out the
gospel as a handicap man, with no arms. The next day, he was at a restaurant
and sitting next to him was a man, with no arms, operating an iPad with his
nose and lips. Would that finally get your attention? RIGHT!
So, Haggai goes
through all of the unpleasant things that the Jews would experience (they were
already feeling a lot of these things in their everyday lives) if they didn’t
say, “Yes!” to God’s will.
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