Haggai 2
McGeeCHAPTER 2THEME: Discouragement of the people; encouragement of the Lord; appeal to the Law; explanation of the principle; revelation of God’s program; expectation for the futureIn the second chapter we see the discouragement of the people and the encouragement of the Lord. The obvious inferiority of the second temple to the temple of Solomon became a cause of discouragement, but God responded to it.
Haggai 2:1
DISCOURAGEMENT OF THE PEOPLENotice that this took place in the seventh monththe previous time they heard God’s message of encouragement was in the sixth month. So now they had been working for a month. They had spent about twenty-four days getting organized, and now the temple is beginning to go up. There is great enthusiasm as they see their progress. And they remember God’s encouraging, “I am with you.” Now we come to the second item of discouragement.
Haggai 2:2
This message is directed to the same group of people whom God had encouraged in the previous chapter, the same leaders and the same people. Now here is the second hurdle which Haggai had to clear as he prophesied to these folk
Haggai 2:3
Many of these who had returned from the Babylonian captivity could rememberalthough they had been very young at the timethe beauty and the richness of Solomon’s temple. This little temple which they were putting up looked like a tenant farmer’s barn in Georgia in comparison to the richness and glory of Solomon’s temple. Although Solomon’s temple had not been a large temple, as temples go, they could remember its ornate richness, the jewels, the gold, and the silver which had been put into it. Before inflation the estimated value of the materials that went into Solomon’s temple varied between five million and twenty million dollarsthat is quite a difference, of course, but in that day either five or twenty million dollars was quite a sum of wealth. That temple had been like a beautiful little jewel box. Now let me draw your attention again to the dating of this third message from God: “the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month.” If you check this date in Leviticus 23, you will find that it was the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the final feast of ingathering for the Jews. I am of the opinion that the builders had really pushed and speeded up their building in order to get the temple as far along as possible in order to use it for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. So when some of the old-timers came into it and saw the lack of beauty and richness which had characterized Solomon’s temple, they were disappointed. As you know, any kind of structure, whether it is a home or a great office building, doesn’t look very impressive before it is completed. You have to wait until the building is finished to really appreciate it. But this little temple in Haggai’s day, even when it was finished, was no comparison to Solomon’s temple. And there was a mixed reaction to it. The Book of Ezra, chapter Eze_3:8-13, gives us more background as to what went on at this time: “Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his son, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.” It may have been just the foundation and a few uprights, but they had to celebrate it. Ezra’s record continues"But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off." You see, amid all of the shouts of joy there was another sounda weeping and howling by those who were making a comparison between the two. They were saying, “Look, this little temple that you are putting up here doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. In comparison to Solomon’s temple, it doesn’t amount to anything.” This internal criticism was like a wet blanket on the celebration of the construction of the new temple. It dulled the edge of the zeal to rebuild the temple. It poured cold water on the enthusiasm generated by the prodding of Haggai. If you want to dampen a project, all you have to say is, “You think this is great, but you should have seen the original back in the good old days.” When I was a boy, I remember some of the adults talking about the good old days. Well, I don’t remember any good old days when I was a boythose days when I was growing up were hard. I remember the first little church I served in Georgia. It was a little white building sitting on a red clay hill. During my first year there as a student pastor I preached a series of evangelistic messages on the Book of Revelation. I haven’t been able to do that again in my ministry, but I did it then, and God blessed.
Many young people were saved. On the Sunday night of the final message some of us sat on the steps of the church because it was a warm Georgia eveningmost of us were young peopleand we were talking about what a wonderful meeting it had been. There was one old man there with whiskers like Methuselah. He said, “You’ve had some good meetings, young man, but I remember….” When someone starts that, you are headed for the toboggan, and soon you’re on the downhill run. He took us for quite a ride down the hill. He told us, “When I was a young man, we really had a meeting here!” As he told us about the meeting, ours seemed pretty small compared to his, although I learned later that he exaggerated a little.
Yet what he said was discouraging. And in Haggai’s day the folk, who had been so enthusiastic about the temple they were building, became discouraged. How is God going to meet this situation? Well, I’ll tell you how we in the church would handle it. We would appoint a committee to see what could be done. As someone has said, a committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing and who collectively decide that nothing can be done. Or, as another has said, a committee is a group of incompetents, appointed by the indifferent, to do the unnecessary. Having been a pastor for many years, I am confident that we would use the committee approach to handle this problem. But that is not the way God solved it. He faced the problem squarely and came up with a very simple solution.
Haggai 2:4
God’s challenge is twofold here. First, He says, “Be strong,” three times. He says be strong to the civil ruler. He says be strong to the religious ruler. Then when He speaks to the people, does He have something new for them? No, it’s the same thingbe strong. Now that is very simple, but it is very important. My friend, you and I live in a big, bad world today. What is our encouragement? God’s work in many places is small and doesn’t seem to amount to very much. What is the solution? Well, here is God’s answer to us: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Eph_6:10). We need to recognize that we can’t do anything but that God can do a great deal. Be strong in the Lord. How wonderful that is. Also in Heb_11:34 it says that believers “Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong …” (italics mine). Doesn’t God say that He chooses the weak things of the world? God does not choose these big, ornate buildings. He doesn’t choose these beautiful mausoleums that have steeples on top of them. Nothing very great is happening in places like that, but things are really jumping in some suburban areas, and many of the smaller churches are packed. I know what I am talking about because I have had the privilege of going across this country several times since I have retired, and this is what I have seen.
I have also been abroad several times. I visited one of the great churches in London, England. At one time that church was filled with several thousand people three times a week on a regular basis. When I visited the church on a Sunday night, there were not more than two hundred people in attendance. That great imposing building with its impressive name was not very formidable any more. This same thing is true in my own nation.
I have been in some of our great churches, and, my, the amount of lumber I can see in the pewsbut nobody is sitting in them. Yet when I go out to some of our small churches, I find that they are packed to the doors and are having two and three morning services. Today we are to be strong in the Lord. This is repeated many times in the Word of God. Paul, writing to a young preacher, said, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2Ti_2:1, italics mine). The Epistle of 2 Timothy is Paul’s swan song, and in his final message to this son in the faith, he is saying, “You are a son of God. Be strong now.” What a word of encouragement that should be. Somebody says, “My ministry is so insignificant and my group is so small that I don’t think it amounts to very much.” My friend, if that is what you are thinking, it is the Devil who is talking to you. Don’t listen to him. It is God who is going to put the measuring rod down on it and determine who is great and who is not. There are a whole lot of straw stacks being built today, and they look impressive. I myself have always been fearful that I was building a straw stack. Oh, I know there is some gold in it, but have you ever tried to find a needle in a straw stack? How will you find a little piece of gold that is the same color as the straw? God makes it clear that size is not the important thing. God is saying to you and me, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1Co_16:13). Paul wrote this to a bunch of baby Christians over in Corinth. He was urging them to get out of the crib, get out of their high chairs, and grow up. Be strong in the Lord. Oh, how we need that sort of thing in God’s work, my friend. Paul wasn’t through with the Corinthianshe wrote a second letter to them in which he said, “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” (2Co_10:4, italics mine). It was my privilege to pastor a downtown church in Los Angeles and to have succeeded some great men. Although I may not have approved of everything they had done, I certainly had great respect for them. They were great preachers. Dr. R. A. Torrey had been the founder of that church. I never walked into that pulpit without first looking to God and saying, “Lord, I am unable, I am insufficient for this task. I call upon You today.” I say to you that I am thanking God that out of weakness He can make us strong. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. And I told God many times, “Lord, if anything happens here today, You will have to do it because You and I know that this poor boy can’t do it at all.” In 2Co_10:5-6, Paul goes on to say, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” In other words, make very sure you are being obedient to God. It doesn’t make any difference how large or how small the work is. We need to remember, “Be strong.” God said to Israel, “Sure, this temple is not as impressive as the other temple was. I know that, but be strong. That is my challenge to you.” He said three times, “Be strong!” God’s second word of challenge was “and work.” Just keep at the job. Let God be the One to determine who is doing the greatest work. When we get to heaven and stand in the presence of Christ, I suspect that we will find out that there were people who were greater than Luther in Luther’s day, greater than Wesley in Wesley’s day, greater than Billy Sunday in his day, and greater than Billy Graham in his day. I used to tell the pastoral staff at the Church of the Open Door, “Someday when we stand before God, He may call some woman to come forward and say, ‘This woman was a member of the Church of the Open Door while Vernon McGee was pastor, and she is the most honored one. I am going to reward her.’ I’ll nudge you fellows and ask if you knew her. You all will say, ‘No, we never heard of her.’ She is one of the unknown members.
All she had was only one little boy. Her husband deserted her, and she raised that boy alone. Then she sent him to the mission field and, my, what a work he did! She was faithful. She didn’t have the opportunity to speak to thousands, but she had the opportunity of speaking to one, and that is all God asked her to do.” My friend, I think we are going to get our eyes opened in that day when we stand in His presence. He says, “Be strong and work.” We are to be faithful at the task which God has given us to do. Now here is God’s glorious word of encouragement: “For I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts.” The fact of the matter is that the Shekinah glory had departed from the temple of Solomon long before the temple was destroyed. I have always taken the position that the Shekinah glory departed in the days of King Manasseh. He was a ruler who sinned so wickedly that the nation of Israel sank lower than it ever had gone before. If the Shekinah glory did not leave during his reign, I can’t figure out any other time afterward that it would have been more inclined to leave. If I am correct in this, the Shekinah glory, which was the visible presence of God Himself, had left the temple about one hundred twenty-five years before the temple was destroyed by Babylon. Therefore, in Haggai’s day, the old men, the ancients, who had seen Solomon’s temple, had seen only its outward glory. The Shekinah glory had long since gone. There is no doubt that the outward glory of Solomon’s temple was tremendous. As you know, the Mosque of Omar stands on that temple site now, and its dome is gold. I have been told that it is gold leaf. Whether that is true or not, it is really a thing of beauty. I have looked at that dome from the Mount of Olives, and I could have looked at it from Zion. I have looked at it from the tower of a Lutheran church, and I have looked at it from hotel windowsmy, how it shines!
As I looked at that pagan mosque, I thought of how Solomon’s temple must have looked in the bright sunlight of that semidesert air. We know that it was a very ornate, rich temple and that the boards were covered with real gold. How beautiful it must have been! Of course there was no comparison between it and the temple which was then under construction, but God considered Zerubbabel’s temple in the different stages of its constructionSolomon’s temple, Zerubbabel’s temple, and later Herod’s templeas one house, not three houses. Therefore it is in the same line as the house (called Herod’s temple) into which the Lord Jesus Christ would come. Christ was the Shekinah glory.
He was God manifest in the flesh. The apostle John said, “…we beheld his glory …” (Joh_1:14)but it was veiled in human flesh. And the Lord Jesus walked into that temple not one time but many times. So God says to these discouraged builders in the days of Haggai, “Yes, this little temple you are building is not much, but I am with you.” My friend, that is a great deal better than having a magnificent temple without God being there. This is the same contrast between that contemporary big church with empty pewscold, indifferent, and deadand the little church around the corner packed with people and with a faithful pastor teaching the Word of God. We need to get a correct perspective of what is real and what is not real, what God is blessing and what He is not blessing.
Haggai 2:5
Though this new building was not impressive, God says, “My spirit remaineth among you.” That was a great deal better than a very ornate temple which was devoid of the presence of God. This reveals the difference between the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament and New Testament times. In that day He was among the people. In our day He is in believers. He has certainly changed positions. This is one of the great benefits we have as believers in Christ. “Fear ye not.” If they had no reason to fear, certainly the child of God today should not fear.
Haggai 2:6
First of all, we need to recognize what God is doing here. He is attempting to get their minds and hearts and eyes off that which is local, that which is very limited, and get their eyes fixed upon God’s program for the people of Israel. He wants them to see what is out yonder in the futureextending all the way into the Millennium. My friend, for us today it is so easy to get the wrong perspective of the Christian life. We get our nose pressed right up to the window of the present, and we don’t see anything else. As you know, you can put a dime so close to your eye that it blots out the sun. Well, a dime is like the present that blots out God’s plan and purpose for our life. Don’t be discouraged because present circumstances are not working out for you. Recognize that for the child of God, “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom_8:28). That is, “the good” is out yonder in the distance. “I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.” In other words, God intends to move in judgment. We are going to see, before we finish this little Book of Haggai, that God is looking forward and speaking of the Great Tribulation, which is the Day of the Lord, and later of the coming of Christ to the earth and the setting up of the millennial temple, events which are also included in the Day of the Lord. “I will fill this house with glory.” Although it was a series of housesSolomon’s temple, Zerubbabel’s temple (which was torn down by Herod), and Herod’s templeGod saw it as one house. And into that temple came the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory was there, although in human flesh. Then Herod’s temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the forces of Rome under Titus. On that temple site no other temple has been built from that time to this. Actually, the Mosque of Omar stands there today, and the Islamic world would never permit it to be removed because it is either the second or third holiest spot in the world of Islam.
However, later there will be built the temple which will be designated as the Great Tribulation temple. And after that, the millennial temple will be built on that site. Therefore, seeing it as one house, God says that the day is coming when “this house” will be filled with glory. I believe that the shekinah glory will come with Christ when He returns to the earth. In Mat_24:30 we read, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” This verse speaks of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, then immediately speaks of the glory of the Lord. I believe that His glory, the shekinah glory, will be seen in the temple which we designate as the great tribulation temple.
But when He comes to occupy it, it won’t be a Great Tribulation temple that is in rebellion against Him. There won’t be in it the image of Antichrist, but Christ Himself will be present there. “I will shake all nations.” Today it is difficult to believe that there will be more shaking than there has been in the past century. This century was practically ushered in by World War I. That was rather world-shaking. And there have been earthshaking events since then. There was a worldwide depression. There was World War II. Also, oil crises and energy shortages have shaken all nations, but all of these things are nothing compared to the shaking that will come in the future. “The desire of all nations shall come.” The commentators from the very beginning, in fact, the early church fathers, interpreted “the desire of all nations” to be Christ. Frankly, that has disturbed me from the time I was a younger preacher, because I never could believe that Christ was the desire of all nations. There are those who interpret the desire of all nations to be the longing of all nations for the Deliverer, whether or not they realize that the Deliverer is Christ. This may be true, but whom are they going to accept when he comes? They will accept Antichrist. Antichrist is the world’s messiah, the world’s savior, and they will accept him. I do not think that the nations have any desire for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my feeling that the meaning of this passage becomes clear if we continue reading. Now, let’s put verses Hag_2:7-8 together:
Haggai 2:7
What is the desire of all nations? It is silver and gold. In our day many nations have had to go off the gold standard. When they did this, the economic foundation of the entire world was rocked. Why? Because there still is a desire for gold and silver.
When Solomon’s temple was built, from five to twenty million dollars worth of precious metals and jewels were used in its construction. It was very valuable. As you read the historical record in Kings and Chronicles, it seems as if Solomon had cornered the gold market in his day. When Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, all that wealth was taken away. You may remember that in 2Ki_20:12-17 the record tells of ambassadors who came from the king of Babylon to the king of Judah (which was Hezekiah at that time), and the king of Judah showed them all his treasures, all the wealth of Jerusalem. They made note of it, and in due time they captured Jerusalem and moved all that gold to Babylon.
Certainly gold was the desire of the nation of Babylon, and it is still the desire of the nations of the world. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.” All the silver and gold in the world belong to God, and there will be plenty of it to adorn God’s house in the future. The future millennial temple will be, I am confident, a thing of beauty.
Haggai 2:9
“The glory of this latter house” is, rather, “the latter glory of this house.” Remember that God views the series of temples as one house, and He is saying that the latter glory of this house, which will be that of the millennial temple, will be greater than the former. It will be even greater than Solomon’s and certainly greater than the temple they were then building. “In this place” designates the temple area as the site of the house in all of its stages. “In this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.” I never visit Jerusalem without going to the temple area. Although I have seen it at least a dozen times, I still like to go there. Do you know why? It is because at that spot there will be accomplished what the United Nations and the League of Nations failed to do, which is to bring peace to the earth. When Jesus Christ comes to this earth, His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives, and when He enters that temple area, peace will come to this earth, for He is the Prince of Peace. He will bring world peace at that time. The “peace” to which He refers in the verse before us means finally that. This peace, however, could also include the peace which He brought at His first coming. At that time He brought peace to men of good will; that is, to men who were rightly related to God. As the apostle Paul put it, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom_5:1). He also brought the peace that passes all understanding, which is for the Christian heart today. He came the first time to bring that kind of peace. In a day which is yet future He will bring world peace, the kind of peace which this world wants and needs. So the “desire of all nations” is not Christ. I believe that the proper word is treasurethe treasure of all nations. He said, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,” speaking of material treasure. The thought seems to be that the lack of adornment in Zerubbabel’s temple would be more than compensated for by the rich treasures which are going to be brought in the day when the millennial temple will be built. Therefore, this passage looks forward to the final days when the millennial Kingdom will be established here on earth. God was encouraging the discouraged builders of Haggai’s day to see their temple in the perspective of the ultimate purpose of God. Oh, that you and I might see our present circumstances in that same way! We need to look at them in the light of eternity and to look at them in the light of God’s purpose for us. If God be for us, who can be against us? Hallelujah! Let’s not be overcome nor overwhelmed by the circumstances of the moment. I think of that preacher in Scotland who turned in his resignation at the end of the year. When the elders asked him why, he said, “Because we haven’t had any conversions this year except wee Bobbie Moffat.” Well, my friend, that discouraged preacher couldn’t see that “wee Bobbie Moffat” would become Robert Moffat, the great missionary to Africa, who probably did as much if not more than David Livingstone in opening Africa to Christian missions. That year, which the preacher considered a failure, was probably the greatest year of his ministry. All of us need to see things in light of God’s plan and purpose for our lives.
Haggai 2:10
APPEAL TO THE LAWThis now, is the fourth message that God gives to Haggai. Notice again how the dating is geared into the reign of Darius, a gentile ruler, because there was no king on the throne of either Israel of Judah. The date is December 24, 520 B.C. The previous message was given in the seventh month; this message was given in the ninth month.
Haggai 2:11
You see, on December 24, 520 B.C., Haggai went to the priests and asked them two questions. Putting it very simply, these are the questions: (1) If that which is holy touches that which is unholy, will it make the unholy holy? The answer is no. (2) If that which is unclean touches that which is clean (holy), will the unclean make it unclean (unholy)? The answer is yes, that is what it will do. Now these questions are important; so let’s get the background before us. There were many facets of everyday life in Israel which were not covered in detail by the Mosaic Law. There were involved situations and there were knotty and thorny problems which arose in their daily lives, and there was nothing specific given in the Law which would adequately cover them. Then how did Israel function under the Law when there was no specific law to govern certain situations? Well, there is a case in point in Numbers 27 regarding the inheritance of Zelophehad’s daughters. The Mosaic Law had made no inheritance provision when a man had daughters but no sons.
Zelophehad didn’t have any sons, but he had a house full of girls. When their father died, the girls went to Moses and said, “Look here, what about our father’s property? The Law says that sons are to inherit, but our father had not sons; he had only girls. So we should have the property.” Maybe Moses was not too enthusiastic about this women’s lib movement; so he took the matter to the Lord. Well, it is quite interesting to see that the Lord was on the side of the girls. He said, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right; thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren.” So this took care of that particular question. God made adequate provision for justice under the Law. This is the way it worked: When a matter arose that was not covered by the Law, they were to appeal to the priests. Deu_17:8-11 says: “If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD they God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.” When a certain situation arose that was not covered by the Law, the people were to appeal to the priest; he would make a decision, and his decision became the law for cases which dealt with the same issue. That was God’s method, and it seems to me that we follow this same method today. I once took a course in commercial law, and although I don’t remember much of what was taught, I do recall the difference between what is known as statute law and what is known as common law. Statute law is that which is passed by the legislature.
What a certain bill comes before that body of lawmakers and is passed, it becomes statute law. That law is written down and stands as law. There are so many statute laws that I am sure no one person knows all of them. There is also that which is known as common law. For example, a matter is brought into court. Let’s say it is the case of John Doe versus Mary Roe. The lawyer for each side of the case looks for a similar case in the books, one that has already been tried, because there is nothing on the statute books that covers that specific issue. So finally they find a similar case that was decided years ago by Judge Know-It-All in Washington. Such decisions which were handed down by courts are known as common law. Therefore, we have two kinds of law: statute law and common law. And this is the provision God made for Israel. Not every specific case was covered by the Mosaic Law, although great principles were laid down. The priests were to know the Old Testament, and when a case arose which was not covered specifically by the Law, the people were to bring the matter before the priests for a decision. And the priests would interpret the Mosaic Law for the people according to the great principles found in the Word of God.
Haggai 2:14
EXPLANATION OF THE PRINCIPLEKeep in mind that in the Book of Haggai we have come to the post-Captivity period. God’s people had already spent seventy years in captivity in Babylon. Only a small remnant had returned to the land, and those people were discouraged. God raised up three prophets to encourage them; and, since Haggai was the very practical prophet, God sent him to the priests to ask the two questions which were not specifically covered by the Mosaic Law. Remember that when the captives first returned to Jerusalem, they had the enthusiasm to build, but after fifteen years in the debris of Jerusalem and with their enemies outside, they had done nothing about building the temple. They consoled themselves because they had lost their esprit de corps; and sinking into complacency, they were saying, “It’s not time to build the Lord’s house,” and so they did nothing about building it. Haggai spoke into this situation. He encouraged the people; they began to build, and then some of the old-timers, who had seen the first temple, began to weep and say, “This little temple isn’t worth anything.” However, for three months the people worked. Then a mercenary spirit entered in, and the people said, “You told us to go to work and build the temple, and if we did, God would bless us. We have obeyed, but God is not blessing us.” It was at this juncture that God sent Haggai to the priests with a twofold inquiry.
It is actually one question with two facets. Here are the questions and the answers he received: Is holiness communicated by contact? “No,” is the answer. The holy cannot make the unholy holy by contact. Holiness is noncommunicable. Is unholiness communicated by contact? “Yes,” is the answer. Uncleaness is communicated to the clean by contact.
When holy and unholy come in contact, both are unholy. In therapeutics, measles is communicated by contact. In the physical realm, dirty water will discolor clean waternot the opposite. In the moral realm, the evil heart of man cannot perform good deeds. In the religious realm, a ceremony cannot cleanse a sinner. For God’s application of this principle to Israel, we’ll have to move ahead to pick up verse Hag_2:17: “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” God says that when the remnant returned to the land, they didn’t turn to Him. They went through the rituals, and they brought sacrifices, and they expected God to bless them, but He did not. Religion, you see, is not a salve you can rub on the outside. Friend, you can swim in holy water, and it won’t make you holy. You can go through a ritual, you can be baptized in water and be held under until you drown, but that won’t make you a child of God. We sometimes put too much emphasis on a rite.
Don’t misunderstand me, I think baptism is very important, but it does not impart holiness. It will not change a man’s heart. Now let’s look at the second inquiry again: “If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean?” And the priests gave this answer: “It shall be unclean.” Perhaps the key passage that deals with this matter is Lev_22:4-6. The Word of God is quite specific. Uncleanness is communicable; unholiness is transferable. An evil heart cannot perform good deeds. A bitter fountain cannot give forth sweet water. Grapes are not gathered from thorns. Figs do not come from thistles. There is a syllogism in philosophy where you state a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. In the Book of Haggai the major premise is this: holiness is not communicated. The minor premise is this: unholiness is communicated. The conclusion is that when the holy and unholy come into contact, both are unholy. The Lord Jesus Christ asked the question, “…Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Mat_7:16). As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. An act or a ritual cannot change the heart. A good deed is actually tarnished when an evil heart performs it. This is ceremonial law, friend, but it is applicable to every phase of lifejust like the law of gravitation, it is universal. Let’s go into a chemistry lab. I fill two large beakers with water. One container I fill with good, clear, clean water, and the other one I fill with the dirtiest water possible. I begin to pour the clean water into the unclean water. How long will I have to pour the clean water into the dirty water before it becomes clear? I will never make the dirty water clean by pouring clean water into it. What happens when I put one drop of the dirty, black water into the clean water? The clean water becomes unclean. So it is in the material world. In the world of medicine, how do you cure the measles, and how do you get the measles? Do you take a well boy and have him rub up against the sick boy to make him well? Will that cure the boy with the measles? Of course it won’t. What happens? The boy who was well will probably have a good case of the measles. This principle is also true in the moral realm. The liquor industry gives money to charity, and the race track has a day in which they give all their proceeds to charity. Hollywood produces biblical stories, and we are supposed to applaud themwell, you might applaud, but I won’t. The liquor industry can never cover up the awful thing it is doing to human lives by giving a few dollars to charity. Why? Because, when a clean thing and an unclean thing come together, the unclean always makes the clean unclean. May I say to you, young man and young woman, you cannot run with the wrong crowd and stay clean. If you are running with an unclean crowd, one of these days you are going to find out it has rubbed off on you. If you are going to play in the mud, you are going to get dirty. And this great principle certainly holds true in the religious realm. Most of the religions in the world teach that if you go through their prescribed rituals and ceremonies, you are acceptable to God. However, the Word of God is clear on the fact that going through a ceremonybaptism or any other riteor doing anything externally will not meet the conditions which God has put down for man. After all, man’s condition is a sad one. We read in Jer_17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” What a picture this is of the human heart! No one but God can know how bad it is. If we could see ourselves as God sees us, we could not stand ourselves. We don’t realize how bad we really are. The Lord Jesus made this abundantly clear in Mat_15:18-20, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the ear. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.” Just because you wash your hands, have been through a ceremony, or have performed a ritual does not make you right with God, you see. I often think of a man I played golf with several years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He told me, “I was a church hypocrite for years. I was a member of a big downtown liberal church. I had been through the ceremonies and had served on every committee. To tell the truth, I was not a Christian, and during the week I was practicing things which no Christian should do. I was a typical hypocrite.
Then one day I found out that I was a sinner and needed a Savior. That is the thing that transformed my life.” You see, the heart must be changed. Listen to the Lord Jesus as He talks along this line: “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit [this is the principle at work]. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Mat_7:16-20). Out of the heart proceed the issues of life. The heart must be changed. Shakespeare had it right when he portrayed Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep, rubbing her little hand, and exclaiming, “Out, damned spot! out, I say! …Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” How true! Neither can all the perfumes of Arabia make the heart right with God. Trying to make yourself acceptable with God through ceremonies and all of that sort of thing is like pouring a gallon of Chanel No. 5 on a pile of fertilizer out in the barnyard in an effort to make it clean and fragrant. My friend, it won’t work. The apostle Peter said to Simon the sorcerer, “…thy heart is not right in the sight of God” (Act_8:21). God demands a clean heart. In Eph_6:6 God speaks of “… doing the will of God from the heart.” And in Heb_10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart….” How can a man’s heart be made clean when his heart by nature is unclean? Is there something man can do to make his heart clean?
No! This is rather like the sign I saw in a dry cleaner’s shop in a certain city back East which read: “We clean everything but the reputation.” Believe me, that is something you can’t get cleaned on earth. The writer of the Book of Proverbs asks the question, “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Pro_20:9). Well, God has the prescription: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa_1:18). Peter wrote, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Pe_1:18-19). One song asks the question, “What can wash away my sin?” That same song answers the question"Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” That is one of the greatest principles ever stated. God says to the people through the prophet Haggai, “The reason you haven’t been blessed is because you have been coming to Me with unclean hands and unclean hearts.” Their unclean hearts made their service for God unclean. This is the reason that an unsaved person can do nothing that is acceptable to God. Now, you will find a difference of opinion among Bible expositors on verses Hag_2:15-19. Some hold that the verses review the condition of the returned remnant when they were indifferent to the Lord’s house before they obeyed the Lord and began to build the temple. Other expositors hold that they refer to the people’s discouragement after they had built the temple because it had not turned the tide of their misfortunes. Haggai tells them that there has not been time for the change to work, that evil has an infectious power greater than that of holiness and that its effects are more lasting. However, it is my understanding that God is applying to Israel the great principle of the unclean defiling the clean to illustrate to them that although they had rebuilt the temple, their hearts were still far from Him, and He was not able to bless them.
Haggai 2:15
He is saying that from this day on He is going to bless them because now they have turned to Him.
Haggai 2:16
God says, “Now that your hearts are right before Me, I’ll bless you.” You see, they had rebuilt the temple and had been performing the services of the temple, yet that alone was not enough. In fact, when God had sent them into captivity, they had been going through the temple services. The problem was that their hearts were not right. My friend, one of the ways that you can make your church a good churchthat is, if you have a Bible-teaching preacheris to go there all prayed up and confessed up and repented up and cleaned up. Then you won’t block any blessing that might come to the church that day. Remember that when the unclean touches the clean, what happens is that the clean becomes unclean. Your heart has to be right with God before there is blessing. This is a tremendous principle. I know of nothing more practical.
Haggai 2:20
REVELATION OF GOD’S PROGRAM"The four and twentieth day of the month" is the same day on which the previous message was givenDecember 24. On one occasion I was asked why Haggai gave two messages on the same day, and I replied that probably it was because Haggai wanted to go home for Christmasso he gave both messages before he left. Well, some folk took me seriously, and I received a ten-page letter explaining that in Haggai’s day they weren’t celebrating Christmas yet! Another letter informed me that no one should ever celebrate Christmas! Well, the fact is that when I don’t have the answer to a question, I generally give some facetious answer. And if you won’t let this word get out, I’ll confess to you that I don’t know why Haggai gave two messages on a particular daybut here they are.
Haggai 2:21
“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah.” This message is to the civil ruler, the man in the kingly line of David, and it is God’s promise to him.
Haggai 2:22
“I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen [the nations].” When God says that He will shake the heavens and the earth and will overthrow the ruling governments, He is speaking of the Great Tribulation period, as He did in verses Hag_2:6 and Hag_2:7 of this chapter. He says that He “will overthrow the chariots,” because it was that in which the people trusted; in our day it is nuclear weapons. God says, “I am going to remove all of that.”
Haggai 2:23
EXPECTATION FOR THE FUTURE"In that day"notice it is not “in this day.” It looks forward to the end times. “I …will make thee as a signet.” The signet was the mark and identification of royalty. A man used it to sign letters and documents. Since it represented him, he guarded it very carefully and usually wore it. It came to represent a most prized possession. “I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.” As we have seen, Zerubbabel is in the line of David. God’s promise is that not only will the Messiah come through David, He will also come through Zerubbabel. Although the name Zerubbabel (Zorobabel) appears in the genealogy of both Matthew and Luke, the one in Matthew is, of course, an entirely different man. God made good His promise to Zerubbabel. The Lord Jesus Christ is just as much the Son of Zerubbabel as He is the Son of David. The prophecy looks forward to the day when the Lord Jesus will come at the end of the Great Tribulation period. And God intends to put this line of Zerubbabel, this line of David, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon the throne of the universe. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He will come to the earth to rule. This little Book of Haggai puts Christ in His proper position as the moral ruler, the civil ruler, and the King to rule over this earth in that day, which makes this an important book. Now it is true that the little temple built in Haggai’s day, which became known as Zerubbabel’s temple, was not very impressive. But it is very important because it is in the line of temples into which the Messiah Himself will come some day. Someone has poetically summarized the message of this little Book of Haggai. I regret that I do not know the author, but I shall quote it as we conclude this study ‘Mid blended shouts of joy and grief were laid The stones whereon the exile’s hopes were based. Then foes conspired. The king his course retraced, His throne against the enterprise arrayed. And now self-seeking, apathy, invade All hearts. The pulse grows faint, the will unbraced. They rear their houses, let God’s house lie waste. So heaven from dew and earth from fruit are stayed. There comes swift messenger from higher court, With rugged message, of divine import: “Your ways consider; be ye strong and build; With greater glory shall this house be filled.” He touched their conscience, and their spirit stirred To nerve their hands for work, their loins regird. Author unknown My friend, again let me say this: Who in our day is going to determine who is doing the great work and who is doing the small work? Your Sunday school class or other seemingly insignificant ministry may be far more important than an impressive work that is well known in our day. Only God can know the importance of it. Let’s be found faithful, and then let’s work. This is the message of the little Book of Haggai.