“Show Them Some More Love!”
LESSON AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will; know God's
promises to the Israelites linked to His command to rebuild the Temple; trust
that God pledges assistance and prosperity in response to obedience and how we
can demonstrate it.
BIBLE TRUTH: God promises to bless is linked to our
promises to obey.
Haggai 1:12 | King
James Version (KJV)
12 Then Zerubbabel the
son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the
remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of
Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear
before the Lord.
Haggai 2:1-9 | King
James Version (KJV)
1 In the seventh
month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by
the prophet Haggai, saying,
2 Speak now to
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of
Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying,
3 Who is left among
you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not
in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
4 Yet now be strong, O
Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high
priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for
I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts:
5 According to the
word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit
remaineth among you: fear ye not.
6 For thus saith the
Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens,
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
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.
We’re yet studying the
Jews and their process of rebuilding the temple. God has laid it upon Haggai’s
heart to encourage them to good works agin.
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.
Haggai is speaking to
what 1:12 refers to as the “remnant” of the Jews. These Jews are the children
of their parents who were delivered from Egypt. He reminds them of God’s
promises to their forefathers. These Jews could relate to everything that their
own parents went through because, remember, they have recently been released
from captivity in Babylon. They are being asked to “trust” the Lord wholeheartedly!
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