Reflections on Haggai

(A) The Spirit of God takes the Word of God to accomplish the work of God

PART I

n the book of Haggai, the people of God after returning from the exile, set about to rebuild the temple of God, but they soon encountered opposition from the people around them who complained to the king of Persia, and they were made to stop the rebuilding by a letter from king Artaxerxes. The work of the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. At this point, the prophet Haggai prophesied to the people and exhorted them to start again the rebuilding, and establish God’s temple. The prophet rebuked the people for putting their own interests first (like rebuilding their own houses) and leaving the temple in ruin.

The implied application for us today is to build the ‘temple’ (the church of God) so that worship of God and the presence of God can be prominent among His people.

As I reflect on putting God and building His church as a priority, I reflect on what this means in outworking today. The following is my personal reflection:

Building the church may include certain organisational, structural or presentational aspects but these will not be the most significant areas. As we look at the Scripture, the Apostles did not ignore issues of church order and governance, but what rings out again and again is their appeal for growth to godly maturity (Eph. 4:13-15; Heb. 6:1). The spiritual growth of the individual, and the sum of all in the congregation (the church) until maturity is the change that matters most when we embark on building God’s church.

The means for this is described as making ‘the word of God fully known’ (Col. 1:28).

We need to be hearing God’s Word, clearly explained, faithfully taught, and engagingly applied every time we come together as the people of God – this is what will change the church, and the church in turn will change the world. The culture of the world is constantly seeking to conform us with its many varied messages, subtly undermining God’s revealed truth in the Scripture. Unless we hear God’s word clearly expounded and obeyed, then the world’s insistent messages will win out and win us over to a compromised Christianity.

Now it comes to a sensitive subject: The sort of preaching and teaching the Word that changes the church is essentially expository.
It allows the Bible to be in the driving seat and to dictate the content of the preaching and teaching.
It pays proper and careful attention to the text in its context. An expository ministry will over time produce a Bible-loving, Bible-reading and, with prayer, BIble-obeying church.

As we look at a passage or text, it is important to work on the immediate literary context of what precedes (comes before) and what follows the passage or text under consideration. For instance, when looking at Haggai chapter 1, the preceding context is the return from the exile to Babylon, and the many years the rebuilding of the temple came to a standstill; what follows is the exhortation of the prophets and the rebuke of the people for not putting God and His temple first in their lives after returning from the exile.

It is also needful to realise that 520 BC is in the epoch under the Mosaic Covenant where God clearly stipulated that obedience to the Law would bring blessings whilst disobedience would bring curses. The physical and material hardship the people underwent was clearly related to their disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant; God always keeps His covenant.

As we study the contexts of the text (passage), it may be helpful to consider how this relates to the major themes of the book (eg. failures in keeping the Mosaic Covenant, temple-worship; sacrifices of deformed animals as in Malachi, and the breaking of the marriage covenant, also in Malachi).

If the whole Bible is God preaching God to us, what is He saying about Himself in this context and what was that designed to achieve from the original recipients of the text? If we can discover why this inspired word was given to “them then”, that will be of great help in building the bridge to “us now”. It is only at this point that we can consider the applications to us today.

Remember, context gives application. This is what enables the expositor or teacher to connect with his hearers so that the nourishment of the text is brought home to the life situation of the congregation and hearers.

The appeal is to the mind to understand the truth, the promises and encouragement as well as the commands and rebukes in order that the heart may receive it and be softened by it.

The desire is for the Word to travel through the mind to the heart in order to activate and energise the will, as it is put into practices in life.
It is the Holy Spirit’s gracious work to open blind eyes, to unstop deaf ears and to soften hard hearts. But it is the preacher or teacher who is to be faithful, to do the best job possible – i.e. to study and expound in an expository manner, prayerfully.

It is the preaching and teaching of the Word that builds the church as nothing else can. The Word does the work. It has a power that is located nowhere else, simply because it is God’s Word.

For the past 53 years of my life as a Christian, the Lord has impressed upon me the importance of the proper exposition and teaching of His Word in His church and in His work. This ‘burden’ has grown over the years; there has been no shortage of ideas or movements the past 50 years or so to change the church; but what is lacking, in my learning, is accurate and rightly dividing of God’s Word, in other words – proper, authoritative, and powerful preaching and teaching of God’s Word – and that implies good exegesis, wholesome exposition of God’s Word in preaching and teaching. The people of God would not benefit from this if they do not know the Word of God and are not inclined to study and appreciate what God has revealed to the church in the Scripture. The reception of preaching and teaching is often superficial – making observations and applications based on wrong understanding – and worse still – led astray by false preachers and teachers who apply ‘anything they desire’ from any text without regard to the context.

PART 2

“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor 2:1-5).

It is helpful to know that in the historical context of the above passage, the Apostle Paul was seeking to help the Corinthian Christians to realise what is true spirituality – the Corinthian believers were taken up with ‘preachers’ who were ‘orators; they excelled in the ‘how’ in presenting their message, but Paul was concerned with the ‘what’ (the content) of their message. The ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of the message should not be manifested by loud shouting, pulpit-beating for emphasis, or any other display of animal energy; instead the way pleasing to God is to link the ministry of the Holy Spirit with the ministry of the Word, so that the preached or taught message pierces hearers’ hearts.

God, our Maker and Redeemer, is constantly speaking His word to the human race, and within it particularly to His own believing people. That word is the message of grace to sinners, which He spoke definitively in and through the Christ-centered revelation and redemption that the Bible records.
God makes Himself known by telling us specific things about Himself, and about ourselves in relation to Him, and thus He invites and draws us into repentance, faith, love, and new life in restored friendly fellowship with Himself.

The message has a crucified Messiah, risen from the dead, at its very heart; hence Paul sought to correct the Coritnthians’ rejection of the centrality of the cross in Christian life. Hence Paul’s approach in preaching and teaching the message was in dependence on the Holy Spirit and with the ‘cross’ at the centre of his communication.

In other words, Paul reminded preachers and teachers not to put themselves in front of the text (from Scripture) but rather behind the text, as messengers of God, putting forth the total message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, crucified, risen, ascended, reigning and returning in the focal centre of God’s communication, the new covenant relationship between God and ourselves through Christ as its immediate objective, and the sanctifying of all life under Christ to the glory of God and the blessing of humanity as its ultimate goal.

Preachers and teachers must understand these things, keep them in sight and make them the staple substance of their own messages and teaching. Those who deliver anything different or anything less are failing to communicate God’s message; they may intend to be faithful preachers and teachers, but they do not succeed in reality.

Someone rightly said that if the preacher or teacher is great, then God is not great; the messenger has put himself in front of the text, displaying his oratory, sense of humour, his ‘charismatic’ personality rather than the Christ-centred message and the glory of God. In doing this, some have even resorted to use illustrations to draw forth ‘laughter’ and the tone and presence of their voice to ‘amuse’ the hearers; what it amounts to finally is ‘entertainment’ rather than the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word in its context by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Scriptural texts may be quoted, but they are used to put forward the messenger’s own ‘pet ideas’ and ‘beliefs’ which may be far off from the truth as revealed in Scripture. The focus is on the messenger – his ability to preach and teach effectively (not necessarily of the Spirit), his spiritual gifts of ‘healing’, his commanding posture and personality – this is precisely what the Apostle Paul was seeking to avoid in his own ministry.

Preaching on ‘topics’, even reading too much into individual words or singular verse, without much consideration for the texts in their contexts may be dangerous when doctrines are elicited from them without checking Scripture with Scripture. We need to look at the meanings of the words in their written context. Let the texts speak without importing the messengers’ prejudices into the texts.

We must be committed to understanding both the content and the context of every biblical text! The words of the man who preaches or teaches must carry the word of the God who speaks!

PART 3

As we seek to handle God’s Word rightly, there are certain aspects in our approach and understanding that need to be emphasised:

The Bible is canonical

The Bible sets forth for all time God’s unchanging standards of truth, right, love and goodness, wisdom and worship, doctrine and devotion.
The resource in the Bible will enable people to see what they should think and do, what ideals they should form, what goals they should set, what limits they should observe, and what the life strategies they should follow. These foundations are being claimed for the Bible when it is called “canonical”. A “canon” is a rule or a standard. The BIble is to be read, studied, taught and preached as a God-given rule of belief and behaviour – that is, of faith and life for the believers.

The way into the mind of God is through the expressed mind of human writers; so the readers need to look for that characteristic forest. The text must be read and studied as God’s self-revelatory instruction, given in the form of the human testimony. In this way, God tells the truth about iHimself; HIs work past, present and future and Hil will for His people’slives.

The first thing one needs to do before we read and study the Bible is prayer for the illumination and help of the Holy Spirit.

Language is God’s gift for personal communication between humans and between God and humans.But when God speaks of Himself – or when people speak to Him or about Him – the reception and understanding must be adjusted in light of differences between Him and HIs creation. God is infinite and flawless; people are both finite and flawed, no matter who we are and no matter what our learning, intellect and wisdom are.

(B) The Call to Build the House of God

Haggai was prophesying to the Jews who had just returned to Jerusalem following their exile to Babylon.The Jews first began to rebuild in 538 B.C. under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the new governor of Judah. They laid the foundation for the new temple within two years (Ezra 3:8-10). However, because of local opposition, the work was interrupted for sixteen years. (Eze 5:1-2; 6:14).

Haggai’s influence, together with Zechariah, in their messages to the people, caused the work to be resumed and within five years the work was completed.

It is important to realise that the people were guilty of putting their own interests before the Lord’s, and they were building their own houses instead of the House of the Lord. It is also relevant to note that the building of God’s house was interrupted because of significant opposition which went right up to the king of Persia, and an edict from king Artaxerxes was used by those who were opposing to stop the work. The fear of this edict and the passive acceptance of the situation possibly caused the people to conclude that since God allowed the opposition and the edict, it might be alright to just concentrate on their own needs.

A parallel situation happened in the book of Acts:
“The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. ‘We give you strict orders not to teach in this name (the name of Jesus)’,he said.’Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of the man’s blood” (Acts 5:27-28),
“…They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (vs 40-41).

Earlier on, their response to the threat of the high priest:
“We must obey God rather than human beings!” (v 28).

In both situations, the people of God were opposed and threatened to stop whatever they were doing in the name of their God. But the responses were opposite in both cases. Why so?

It is understandable to be fearful in the face of threat and opposition. But the response must be related to the issue at hand.
In the situation of the people during Haggai’s ministry, the Lord God ordered the people to build the house, His temple, so that He can take pleasure in it and be honoured. Why would God care so much about an earthly temple?

The Lord’s temple represented His earthly dwelling place. It symbolised His rule on earth, and also His presence among His people.

In Acts and today’s context, we are building a spiritual house for God. We ourselves are God’s temple, God’s dwelling among His people, and He is ‘honoured’ when we build a “house or temple” for Him. God lives in us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:23). The apostles were preaching the gospel that was meant to build the ‘house’ or ‘kingdom of God’. As we labour to build God’s church, we are labouring to build lives of believers toward maturity in Christ.

Notice that in both situations, the issue concerns loyalty to God and obedience to God versus fear and ‘obedience’ to human authority. The Bible does teach us to obey authority in general, for all authority is established by God. However, when the orders from authority seek to cause us to disobey God and to be unfaithful to Him, the situation becomes very different.

The apostles’ response was outstanding; the response of God’s people during Haggai’s ministry initially was fuelled by fear and the wrong perspective and understanding of what it meant to honour God. But thankfully, they subsequently responded to God’s call to rebuild.

In the last days, there will be many occasions for us to make a stand in similar kind of situations, particularly in the days of antiChrist. How would we respond?

(C) Reflections on Haggai 2:1-9

The foundation of the temple that had been laid was smaller than Solomon’s original temple, and the people felt that this new temple was nothing in comparison with the old one (2:3). Although they had begun work, they remained discouraged, thinking that God had abandoned His covenant with them.

It is relevant to note that the comparison was made between the physical aspects of the two temples; but God was not so much looking at the physical aspects like the outward splendour of the temple buildings, but rather, He was concerned with the glory that would fill the temple – and the glory is the presence of God Himself in the temple. Even after Herod rebuilt the temple and beautify it, the temple was destroyed in 70 AD; and certainly Herod was not someone approved by God, even though the temple he ‘rebuilt’ was in some ways magnificent, as described by various ones. The presence of this ‘present temple’ will not be by a cloud of fire, but by His Son (Heb.1:3). The physical temple, though important in its time, will give way to a spiritual temple, a spiritual body made up of Jesus and His followers (1 Cor. 12:12-13,27; Eph. 2:19-22).

The original temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians sixty-six years earlier (2 Kings 25:8-9); before that, God left the temple and the glory departed. The people of God then thought that Jerusalem and the temple would not fall to the enemy as God was in their midst. How mistaken they were!

God was, and, is not pleased to dwell in a temple that is polluted and desecrated. It does not depend on the outward splendour and ‘beauty’ of the temple; the holy God always seeks to dwell in a holy temple.

So when God told the people through Haggai to be strong and to work (v4), we are reminded of what God told Joshua when he took over the leadership from Moses:”Be strong and be very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep the Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (Josh. 1:7-9a).

So when God, through Haggai, told the people to be strong and work, He added, “For I am with you”…”And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear” (vs 4-5); it goes with the qualifications that the people would obey Him and ensure that God’s work is done in God’s way, by the enabling of the Spirit of God, and in a manner that honours and glorifies Him. Only then is God pleased to be with His people.

We are reminded of what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (vs 3e1-32). If God declares that He is with us and for us, then we can be truly strong and courageous; no one can ultimately be against us, and we can be confident that as He manifested His love to us in the giving of His Son, He will also give us all things, along with Him, and He would finish the work and fulfil His promise by His power perfectly.

When we consider the temple to be the body of Christ and the members of the body are the people of God, it follows that the building of God’s people toward spiritual maturity must be done in God’s way and by God’s direction and Spirit.

Notice how the Law took prominence in God’s exhortation to Joshua when he took over from Moses; the same principle applies today as we do God’s work, fight the ‘battles’ to defend God’s honour, and build the ‘temple’ of God, the church of God (the body of Christ).

God’s Law and Word takes center stage as we do God’s work in God’s way; let the Word of God do the work of God by His Spirit and enabling.

When God says: “I will once more shake the heavens and the earth” (v6), He ‘shook the earth’ at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16-18), and He will shake it again when He comes to judge the nations at the end of the world (Heb. 12:28-29). It may also refer to the ‘nations of the world’ being repeatedly shaken – one kingdom after another has risen and then fallen (recall the book of Daniel).

In verses 6-7, the Lord is looking ahead to the Messianic age and to the final Judgment – the final “shaking” – of the nations. The shaking at Mount Sinai and the shaking of various kingdoms is but a foreshadowing of the final shaking that will take place when Jesus comes again (see Joel 1:15; 2:28-32).

(D) More thoughts on building the temple

In our study of ‘Haggai’, the implied application for our context is the call to build the church.

It is essential to note that for the church, its life springs from its union with Christ, crucified and risen. In Ephesians, the church is pictured as Christ’s building, now growing “into a holy temple to the Lord (Eph. 2:21); His body, now growing toward a state of full edification (Eph.4:1-16); and HIs bride (5:25); now being sanctified and cleansed in readiness for “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).

If we bear the above in mind, we would see the emphasis on building God’s church revealed: the church, the body of believers, united to Christ and under Christ the head, are to be ‘built’ into a holy temple – holiness is essential for the members and growth toward holiness should be the priority if the temple is to be ‘fit for God’s dwelling’.

Edification of members towards maturity in Christ is another ‘essential’: it means the necessity of doing this by investing in “understanding and upholding” the Word of God (Scripture) in preaching, teaching, and applying God’s Word in the lives of believers; it also requires dependence on the Spirit of God and using His spiritual gifts among the members to edify the body.

Preparing God’s people to be an unblemished, holy and pure “bride of Christ” is the other “essential”; looking forward to the second coming of the “bridegroom” and the glorification of the church means the need for sanctification of the believers, disciplining of those who go astray, the upholding and defending of the truth and teachings of the Lord Jesus and crystallising the “HOPE” we have in Him, even in the midst of ‘spiritual battles’, opposition, persecution and deceptions.

If believers forget these emphasis and priorities, and allow the church to be inundated by “tares”, “babes in Christ”, “uncommitted or half-hearted believers”, then the church will not be truly built in God’s ways such that she may be approved by Him on the final day of judgment. If ‘members’ are busy in pursuing activities and so-called ‘service and ministry’ which do not bear the ‘stamp’ and ‘approval’ of God’s Spirit, then we cannot expect real growth of God’s church.

We cannot expect babes and uncommitted believers to grow by just simply exposing them to ‘training’, ‘methods’, and such, which evidently are not ‘received or assimilated’ primarily because they cannot. Just imagine teaching further mathematics to young children who have not yet mastered ‘addition’ and ‘subtraction’ in simple mathematics. You can sit them through such classes on how to master further maths, but it is simply asking too much to expect them to understand and apply what they receive from the classes.

In the same manner, we cannot expect young children to carry heavy loads and embark on building a huge building when they are not in a position to do it; and in fact they may suffer ‘damage’ and trauma if they think they are capable to do so.

Christ’s building of the church is a matter of His so changing people on the inside – in their hearts – that repentance, faith, and obedience become more and more the pattern of their lives. Thus increasingly, they exhibit the humility, purity, love, and zeal for God that we see in Jesus, and fulfil Jesus’ call to worship, work, and witness in His name.

And this they do, not as isolated individuals (or lone-rangers) but as fellow siblings in God’s family, helping and encouraging each other in the openness and mutual care that are the hallmarks of “brotherly love” (Heb.13:1).

Hereby they enter increasingly into the life that constitute authentic Christianity, the life of fellowship with their heavenly Father, their risen Saviour, and each other, and in so doing they are “being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

Let us not ignore what God reveals in the Bible as principles to be adhered to in the quest of building God’s church. If we miss these marks, there can be no real growth towards maturity in Christ and the ‘building’ will not stand the test of fire and judgment.

(E) Holiness and defilement: Haggai 2:10-19

In verses 10-14, the Lord directs Haggai to ask the priests among the people two questions. The first: Can holiness be transmitted twice? That is, when consecrated (holy) meat consecrates a garment by direct contact (see Leviticus 6:17), can the garment consecrate (made holy) something else. The answer: ‘No’ (verse 12).
The second question: Can defilement be transmitted twice? That is, when a person is defiled by contact with a defiled object – a dead body, for example (verse 13) – does that person then defile something else he touches? The answer: “Yes” (see Numbers 19:11-12, 22).
The meaning behind the Lord’s two questions is this: holiness is not easily transmitted; defilement is. It is much easier to fall into sin than it is to “fall into” holiness. Therefore we must be diligent to guard against all sin ( see Matt. 5:29-30).
Applying the truth to the people in Haggai: The people had defiled themselves by putting their own interests before God’s interests; they had disobeyed Him by neglecting His house. Therefore, everything else they ‘touched’ – everything they did, everything they offered – was also “defiled’ in God’s sight.
In other words, service to God is not acceptable to Him if this service comes from defiled lives; if our motives and desires are powered by self-interests and ‘self idolatry’, then our service is defiled in God’s sight. In the case of God’s people in Haggai’s time, their ‘suffering’ was the result of their own self-centredness and their own disobedience to God, and God allowed these ‘sufferings’ to get the people to turn back to Him. We cannot build God’s temple for self-glory, for self-idolatry, and for our own kingdom!

But what about holiness? Holiness, like prayer (which is indeed part of it), is something that though believers have an instinct for it through their new birth, they have to learn in and through experience. As Jesus “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb. 5:8 NIV) – learned what obedience requires, costs, and involves through the experience of actually doing His Father’s will up to and in His passion – so Christians must, and do, learn prayer from their struggles to pray, and learn holiness from their battles for purity of heart and righteousness of life (This includes a life of continual repentance; mortification of sin i.e. dealing with sin ruthlessly; saying ‘no’ to sin and the devil, and saying ‘yes’ to God, even though it may cost us a great deal (remember Jesus saying, “Not my will but thy will be done” in Gethsemane)).

If we consider a sport like table-tennis, for instance, those who desire to excel in this sport have to spend many hours practising serving and strokes, thus forming new habits and reflexes, so as to iron out weakness of style. Talking about tactics alone would not help when the player is deficient in the actual game. The training may be grueling, doing the same prescribed things over and over again, against a real opponent, in order to get them really right.

Prayer and holiness are learned in a similar way as commitments are made, habits are formed, and battles are fought against a real opponent (Satan, in this case), who with great cunning plays constantly on our weak spots. Someone said that Satan is as good at judo throws as he is at frontal attacks, and we have to be on our guard against him all the time. Holiness is not easily nurtured and not easily transmitted.

Growth in holiness cannot continue when repenting from the heart has stopped. It is in repentance that we restore a right relationship and fellowship with God, and return from darkness to light. If we choose to remain in darkness and if we love darkness more than light, ‘holiness’ would dissipate from our lives. And whatever we do for God would then come from defiled lives which in turn effect defilement in the work and service undertaken (the lesson from Haggai 2:10-19). John Calvin, who in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, set forth a concept of conversion as the practice of lifelong active repentance, the fruit of faith, springing from a renewed heart.

In the case of the people in Haggai’s time, their suffering was due to their defilement of their lives and their disobedience to God: but let us not forget that suffering as a Christian is an integral aspect of biblical holiness, and a regular part of business as usual for the believer. If we suffer as a Christian, we need not be ashamed but we can commit ourselves to God and His justice. “For it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God… But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this end you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:19,,20b). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we ought to die to sins and live for righteousness” (vs 24a).