Pilgrim Traveller

Bad lives don’t produce good results – they spoil the things we’re trying to do.

Read: Haggai 2: 10-19

The bit in this passage about holy objects touching things but not making the touched thing holy may be a bit obscure to us. When I was younger I heard it said, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.” Or another way we might think about it is that holiness isn’t like a virus you can catch from another person…it doesn’t matter how much time you spend with a holy person like Mother Theresa, that won’t by itself make you holy….

On the other hand, if I have a virus, then everything I breathe on and everything I touch is likely to be contaminated…I can be a danger to others as bad stuff can be passed on.

Haggai says that if the people are sinful, their motivations and the results of everything they do will be contaminated and spoiled by their evil. It didn’t matter how much work the people carried out on the Temple, how much outward show they made of their service and worship of God, if their lives were not right with God, their service and worship of God were a sham, and the Temple was being built on dodgy foundations.

Jesus once said, in Matthew 7:20 NLT “Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”

He also said, in John 15:16 NLT “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.”

Back in the time of the rebuilding of the Temple, God promised the people that if they will faithfully turn back to him he will bless them, from the richness of the harvest they will bring into the renewed relationship they have with him through the Temple.

Today we know that having a relationship with God is only possible through trusting in Jesus, which transforms us from the inside out. Then we have a hope of producing good fruit that lasts, or to put it another way, our actions and our lives will be part of God’s good plans to demonstrate his love for all of humanity; we’ll cease to be part of the problem and become part of God’s solution.

How might we sometimes serve God out of wrong motives, potentially spoiling what we do for him? When the church goes through barren and fruitless times, what lessons might we learn from Haggai to encourage us?

Instead of moving forwards, the people are stuck in the past and making comparisons with the way things used to be.

Read: Haggai 2: 1-9

A month has passed since the people have begun to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem following the first message of the prophet Haggai. Now it seems that the people are once again dragging their feet despite their initial enthusiasm. You can read the story of what happened when the foundations were completed in Ezra 3: 10-13. There was a marked difference between the reactions of the older and younger people present. The young ones were excited and shouting praises to God, whilst the older ones wept aloud. It seems that those who were old enough to remember the first Temple were disappointed that the new Temple wasn’t a bit like the Temple in the good old days, while the younger ones were just thankful to have a Temple, the physical reminder of God’s presence among them.

The reason for the slow down in the building work reflected the tension between having a functional Temple now versus waiting a long time to get the building just like it was in the glory days. It’s a good example of what happens when faith is fossilised, when followers of Jesus spend time looking back and living in the past at times when God has moved on and wants his people to move on too. Sometimes we make the way we’ve always done things a bit of a sacred cow and are in danger of worshipping the way we do things rather than God himself.

So God makes a promise to the people. He says, “Be strong and work  BECAUSE I am with you. This is what I want today. Trust me and do what I say. The building may not look as good as it used to, but it will be more glorious. I believe this is a reference to the coming of Jesus and the birth of the church. God will no longer live in a Temple building, but in men and women who are the temple of the Holy Spirit, no longer confined to a building and a place, but God present in the whole world.

At this time, the Coronavirus pandemic has impacted and changed the way Christians do things. Some commentators are suggesting that God is giving us the opportunity to start to rebuild the way we do things from the foundations up, to be engaged in the replanting of the church. It’s so important that we don’t get stuck in the past but move forward wherever God is leading us.

Compare the early church and the church now (remember, church = people, not a building). Might we sometimes treat the New Testament church as a nostalgic “good old days” instead of living out our faith in a very different culture and time and seeing God at work in different ways today. We need to learn from the early church but not necessarily copy their ways of doing things.

God’s people have forgotten who comes first and been diverted onto wrong priorities.

Read: Haggai 1: 3-11

In the year 537 BC, Zerubbabel, a direct descendent of King David, led the people of Israel back to Jerusalem. He was empowered by the Persian King Cyrus and given the task of rebuilding the city and, more importantly, the Temple. They consecrated the altar first, so that worship could begin, but the Temple itself remained a heap of rubble.

In 520 BC God sent the prophet Haggai to challenge and motivate the people to get on with the building. Apparently, they were making the excuse that, “It’s not the right time yet!”.

So through Haggai, God issues a rebuke and a challenge. He says, you say you are the people of God, so how come your own agenda is more important than God’s? You’ve rebuilt your own homes, and made them pretty comfortable, but God’s house is still in ruins.

What’s more, even though they are putting their material gains first…food and drink, clothes and money…they are not prospering at all. Why? Because they were neglecting God, and their problems were his way of getting their attention.

Jesus reminds us, in Matthew 6: 33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Getting side-tracked and having our priorities hijacked can be disastrous.

Fortunately, it seems that with strong leadership, open ears and willing hearts, the people listened and got on with the job. Haggai 1: 13-15 tells us,

[13] Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave the people this message from the LORD: “I am with you, says the LORD!” [14] So the LORD sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God’s people. They began to work on the house of their God, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, [15] on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign.”

That’s just three weeks after Haggai delivered God’s message!

What excuses do I use to attempt to delay God’s will for my life? What happens when the church, local or national, ignores God’s instructions?