Haggai 1:9-15 – Simplicity in Our Spiritual Journey

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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.

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In Matthew 6.33, Jesus says, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. I’m Steve Schwetz, and in this study on Through the Bible, we discovered the Old Testament prophet Haggai basically delivered the same message when he spoke these words in chapter 1, verse 8. Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. Do you see the similarities? Well, if not, you aren’t alone. Stay with us, because our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, makes it clear as we travel together through God’s Word. Before we get started, let’s listen to another introduction from Dr. McGee about future judgments, including the nation of Israel.

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And we come today to the fifth judgment, We’ve mentioned now four great judgments. And the fifth one is the judgment of the nation Israel. And to me, the key passage is found over in the 12th chapter of the book of Daniel. And it says, and at that time shall Michael stand up. the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as was never since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time, thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Now, this is given directly to the nation Israel. And there’s to be a judgment of the nation Israel. And we believe that judgment takes place right after the tribulation. It says after this time of trouble. then he will judge the nation. Some will be raised to everlasting life. And that is the great judgment, by the way, of the nation Israel. Now, we have so many other passages that deal with this. I go over to Ezekiel, the 20th chapter, verse 33. God says, as I live, saith the Lord, God, surely with a mighty hand and with stretched out arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you and I’ll bring you out from the people and I’ll gather you out of the countries wherein you’re scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm. and with fury poured out. And I’ll bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. and I’ll cause you to pass under the rod. I’ll bring you into the bond of the covenant. I’ll purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me. I’ll bring them forth. out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Then he says, As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, Go ye, serve ye every one his idols. For in mine own holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, so the Lord God there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me. God intends to judge them, bring them back into the land, and make them a nation. And that is all found in this judgment.

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Next time, Dr. McGee continues this message and tells us what Isaiah, Malachi, and Matthew had to say about the judgment of Israel. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, would you speak to our hearts as we study your word? And as we go about our day, Lord, help us to hear the message of Haggai and to put our faith into action. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now open your Bibles to Haggai 1 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

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Now, friends, as we come back to the little book of Haggai, it’s not a profound book. It’s a very simple book, but it’s a book of action. Things take place in this little book for the very simple reason that life has become complicated and complex to us because, very frankly, we don’t really face up to the issues. We don’t really face the facts. And we’re trying to live, many of us, in a hothouse of affluence and indulgence. And we have come through that period. And it might be good for us to be tested in these days to get us down out of the ivory tower in which many of us have been living. And this little book brings us right down to the ground. This prophet Haggai carried around with him a measuring stick, a ruler, a yardstick. He measured off everything because they’re going to rebuild a temple and you need to measure things off. And you need to get right down to the earth, right where the rubber meets the road, friends. And so this man has a hammer in one hand and a saw in the other. He’s ready to go to work. And my friend, if you’re not ready to go to work, Bible study really is not going to help you very much. And if you’re not willing to do what God wants you to do, whatever that might be, and God believes in work, this is the gospel of work. Now, we saw in this marvelous little book here, first of all, God’s challenge to his people in the first 11 verses. They were kidding themselves that they were doing God’s will, that the reason they hadn’t built the temple, it wasn’t because it would cost them something. The reason was that they were just plain lazy. And they covered all of that over, though, with the very pious… platitude of saying, well, the time that the Lord’s house should be built has not come. It’s just not the Lord’s will. And God told them to get up off of their haunches and go to work. And he said, haven’t you stopped to think of the fact that I’m judging you, the fact that you’ve had bad crops? and that things are difficult for you, and you can’t save anything, you’ve been blaming all your circumstances. God says, why don’t you blame me? I’m the one that sent this to you. I’m trying to wake you up. As we said before, that this man Haggai was an alarm clock, and alarm clock is not popular. It’s not a loving cup by any means. He’s waking the people up and he’s asked them, consider your ways, set your heart on this. And now he tells them that they are actually to get busy. And we have them responding to the challenge. It’s very wonderful to see their response here. They do get busy. We are going to see that. There was a charge of conflict of interest. And that was a call to consider their ways. And now there’s a command to construct the temple. And it is very simple. Nothing complicated about it. He said, go on up to the mountain. and bring wood. You don’t expect it to come down to you. The logs won’t roll down the mountain to you. You’re going to have to go up and go to work. There are so many people today, they’re being encouraged by certain ones to look for a miracle in your life. Oh, God’s going to deal with you by miracles. No, he’s not. I’m here to tell you, he’s not. It’d be very easy for someone to have come along at this time and said to them, expect a miracle. God says, go up there and bring down the wood. That’s the thing that you’re to do. Go to work. There’s no easy shortcut to any of this business today. Very frankly, laziness is the reason Sunday school teachers don’t succeed. Laziness is the reason preachers don’t succeed. Laziness is the reason that people fail in the Christian life. You got to work at it. And I do not think that the Holy Spirit will ever bless laziness. I just don’t believe he’ll do it. I remember that a fellow in seminary said to the professor one day, he says, doctor, that book you gave us to read, it is dry. And the professor looked up at him and smiled, and he says, well, the thing you’re to do is to dampen it with a little perspiration from your brow. That’s the way. You don’t expect the Christian life to be handed to you on a silver platter. The miracle comes, my friend, in the work that you do. Go up, bring wood, and build the house. How important that was. And so there was first a charge of conflict of interest, putting God’s house second, and theirs was first. Someone has asked me, said, you say that the house of God or God’s work should come first and not a man’s own home. Isn’t that home important? Yes, it is. And how would you measure? Well, if you’re living in a finer house than your church is, you ought to be embarrassed by that. My feeling is that we need to have a place that the unsaved can come to and a place you’re not be ashamed of. And therefore, it ought to be on the same plane and par with their own home that you live in. And so God called them to consider. Then he gave them a command. He said to them, I want you to go to work. And you have here what Dr. Frank Morgan has called, first, that was the appeal to the mind. He told them there at the very beginning. He says, you say it’s not time to build God’s house? Well, I want you to think about this. How is it you’re living in fine houses? And that was appeal to the mind. The second was a call to consider. And that was an appeal to the heart. He says, set your heart or lay your heart to this. This was the challenge that God was giving to these people. Set your heart to this. And they were actually not doing that. Now he gives them a command. And that command is an appeal to the will. Go up, bring wood. And Bill, so simple, so important. Roll up your sleeve. Let’s go to work for God today. So many people sitting on the sideline. This is a day of spectator sports. But frankly, it’s a day of spectator Christian. They like to sit on the sidelines and see somebody else do it. Many are preachers being worked to death today. He’s called upon to visit all the sick. He does all the administration. He’s to see about everything. What about you deacons? Why don’t you go to work? What about you members of the church? Are you visiting the… sick. He’s not the one to be. He’s to train you to do the work of the ministry. That is the way that it should be done today. And instead of all the burden falling on just a few folk, may I say to you, if you’re going to do God’s work in a local church, you need to go to work there. It’s something that’s desperately needed today. May I give this little illustration? In the first pastorate I had after I was ordained, before that I was just a student pastor, and you never feel like you’re really a preacher then. But after I was ordained and put hands on my head, I felt like I really, you know, it arrived. And in this first pastorate, I had a deacon in that church. He came to me, made a special trip out to the study one morning. He said, now, Vernon, I was pastor of the church. I was raised in there. All knew me. That was a good thing and a bad thing, too, by the way. Some of them knew me when, and others knew me and loved me. And some of the best friends I have today are those that were just young people in the church when I was a young person in the church in our teens. And so this deacon came out and he said, Vernon, he said, now I can’t pray in public. I don’t know why, but I can. In fact, the matter is, he says, I can’t speak in public. And he says, don’t call on me ever to speak or pray in public. He said, I’ll embarrass you and I’ll embarrass myself. I just can’t do it. I can’t overcome it. And actually tears were in his eyes. But he said, look, Anytime anything about this church needs to be done, whether it’s to put in a light bulb that is burnt out, or to put a new roof on the church, or to do anything around this place, you call me. And so, You know, all I’d have to do after that, I’d call him about something needed repairing or remodeling around the church. And friends, sometimes in less than an hour, a whole crew of men would be out there to do it. And he’d be right there with them. You know, I learned very early that he was one of the most, I should say, valuable members I ever had in a church. He was Haggai. He believed in getting down and doing the work. And do you know that speakers I’d have in and different visitors would say, my, this church is sure kept up. What a lovely place to come and worship. My friend, you know why? I had a man who couldn’t pray in public, and thank God he couldn’t, because most churches have too many that do. We need somebody to work, friends. We need somebody to roll up their sleeves and go to work. Actually, this book is too simple to be in God’s Word. It ought to be a little bit more complicated. He gave me a sermon here. Go up to the mountain. That’s point number one. Bring wood. That’s point number two. And build a house. And friends, what can I say about that other than do it? That’s all. Now, will you notice as we move on down in verse 9, he says, “…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. You’ve been so busy building your own, taking care of the things of yourself, and you’ve neglected God’s. Now you’ve wondered why you These things have happened to you. Now, again, they’ve been too pious to blame God. That was the circumstances. It was a bad year. We had a drought, you know. and that sort of thing. God says, I’d like for you to know that I’m the one that did it. I saw to it that everything you did came to little and that you were not successful. Why? Well, God says, I’ll tell you why. Because of mine house that is waste and you run every man unto his own house. I’ll tell you why. The Lord Jesus stated this great principle, and it’s a principle for people anytime, anyplace, in any age. And that is simply this, that when God is put first, then these other things will take care of themselves. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Righteousness that’s in Christ. And all these things shall be added unto you. What a message there is here. And yet it’s so simple, I’m afraid we’ll miss it. Now, verse 10. Therefore, he says, the heavens over you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds their fruit. Actually, when there wasn’t any rain, there was not any crops. The wheat and the barley would not grow, and the vines would not produce. God says, I turned off this spigot. I didn’t give you any water. You see, today, we don’t interpret life like that because we live in a mechanical society. We live in an electronic age. And the problem today is that a machine didn’t work somewhere, or it was because somebody didn’t push a button. Or maybe somebody did push a button. They pushed the wrong one. And we say these are the things. And we put up so many things between where we are in God that we’re blaming things today and conditions and systems. These are the things that don’t work. I think God would like to get through to America today and said, look, had it ever occurred to you that I may be back of all of this problem that you’re having today? Don’t you know that I’m the one that is trying to get your attention off of things and get them on me today, that that’s all important? Now, will you notice what he says? The Lord takes the blame for all of this. And since he takes the blame, I’m not going to blame anybody else. Verse 11, And I call for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon man, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. Now, God says, all of these things that have come to you, material blessings, have been withheld because I withheld them. I’m responsible. I did this. I’m the one. And frankly, today, our tendency is we blame first the mayor. First, I guess, we blame the police, don’t we? They should have been on the job. We blame the mayor. We blame the governor and the legislature. And I sometimes think they’re to blame, too. And we blame Washington. And may I say to you that I think all of them are guilty, every one of them. But my friend, had it ever occurred to you that maybe we are to blame? We are blaming man and machines for the conditions that are in the world. Do you know why the conditions that are in the world right now are such as they are? It is simply because God brought it to pass. Now, let’s blame him. All right, you want to blame him? Go ahead. He says he’s responsible. He says it here, but he’s going to tell you why. He says, you have neglected me. You see, the solution to our problem is so simple, and yet it’s so complicated. We think that if we put in a new method or a new machine or a new man, Things are going to work out that we can solve our problems. Friends, why don’t we recognize what our problem is, who caused it, and how it can be solved? It’s very simple, but it’s very complex, by the way. In fact, it’s so simple here, I’m just almost embarrassed to pass all this on to you. Now, let’s read verse 12. Now, when we come to verse 12, we come to the response to the challenge that God has given to them. And you have here in verse 12, the construction of the temple, the people obeyed, and the confirmation from God in verses 13 and 14. Again, very simple, but very important here. Now, will you notice verse 12, then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Josedek, 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. Now, what is needed, of course, actually today, are Christians in places of leadership. We’ve had men that have been Like Gladstone said when he was asked, what’s the mark of a great statesman? Said a man who knows the direction God is going for the next 50 years. Now, we don’t seem to have men that know the direction God is going for the next 50 minutes. And we haven’t had in my day any man that I felt in either the Congress or are the presidency, our governor, that I felt was a man who really knew God and was being led of God. We need that in this country. That’s very important. Did you notice here that Zerubbabel, he’s the governor, And Joshua was the high priest. And then the people, the remnant of the people that returned, they all obeyed God. And when they obeyed God, why, a blessing came. And I mean blessing came in great abundance. Now, will you notice here, he says, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Now, this is a message that was given After the first message, in fact, now we’ve come to the second message, as we said that there are five dated messages in this book. Now, if you look at verse 15, the last verse of this chapter, you’ll see the date here. In the fourth and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. So what we have here is a message given on September the 24th, 520 B.C. The first one was given September the 1st. So 24 days later, this second message was given. You see, during that time, the people responded. They have now a will to obey God. The plans are drawn up. They have the program outlined to bring wood down from the mountains. And they’re getting ready to build a temple. That is the thing that has taken place in 24 days. Haggai is a man of actions. And he’s a man that could inspire the people to action also. That’s very important. This is a great book, by the way. And we’ll leave off there today, but pick right up there next time. Until then, may God bless you, my beloved.

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Well, there are many more ways that you can be a man or woman of action and inspire others to action too. As Dr. McGee mentioned, you don’t have to be a pastor, evangelist, or missionary. Every believer plays an important role in God’s plan, no matter how each of us contributes. And if you’re looking for a role, I’d love to have you join me and thousands of other Through the Bible listeners on our world prayer team. If you have a heart to take God’s whole word to the whole world and you’re ready to pray alongside us as we travel the globe on our knees, then you need to sign up over at ttb.org. And if you’d like to share God’s Word in your community, well, call us and request a pack of free Bible bus passes. Each one features a QR code that links directly to Dr. McGee’s teaching, making them a simple and meaningful way to invite others to discover God’s Word. You can slip one into a note or share it with a friend or someone else that you meet as you go about your day. I always keep a couple in my wallet. If you have any questions about the many Bible resources that we make available that will help deepen your own personal study of the Word, just call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. Now be sure to join me next time for a word of encouragement straight out of the Old Testament book of Haggai. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll be here saving a seat on the Bible bus just for you.

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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.

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Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire Word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know Him yet?