Introduction

In the book of Haggai we see the people of Israel stuck on stand-by. Ezra gives us the details of why. They had just recently returned from Babylon as captives and exiles and they have a chance to rebuild everything that had been lost 70 years ago. They had every reason to expect success. God himself had stirred the spirit of Cyrus to send Israel back. On their way out they are commanded to rebuild the temple and are furnished with all of the vessels of the temple and even more provided by King Cyrus. They set out with a sizeable workforce, 42,360 strong, and make good progress by laying the foundation of the temple. They’re on the path to victory here, offering sacrifice to God for the first time in Jerusalem in 70 years, they celebrate the foundation of the temple, it’s such an emotional moment people are weeping!

And then nothing happens to that temple floor for 11 years. How does so much energy dwindle down to nothing?

Probably the same way our New Years Resolutions get abandoned. I have never had a successful New Year’s Resolution. If I’m being honest, they’ve never lasted past February. We start off with so much hope until we let set-backs throw off the entire project. The reason I never am able to finish 52 books a year is because after my reading schedule gets disrupted by a single day it’s just ruined everything! We get discouraged, we get busy, we let the work pile up and so we just let it go. Maybe we soothe our guilt by telling ourselves it was never worth the work anyways. And here we are in November not much fitter, smarter, or disciplined. Maybe next year, right?

It’s really not a big deal if we let some of our resolutions slip. But unfortunately we drop the ball on far more important things. Just like Israel, we have work to do for God. And just like Israel we neglect our duty to God. Haggai addresses Israel and us and throws out every excuse we might have to neglect our work for the kingdom.

The Time Is Not Right

Haggai 1:1–2 ESV

¹ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: ² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

Israel made the excuse that it wasn’t the right time. To many other issues had piled up and needed to be dealt with before they could rebuild the house of the Lord. A few passages from Haggai and Ezra show us what the Israelites were working against.

Israel’s Obstacles

First, they were all pretty poor. When given the option to leave Babylon, generally the rich people stayed behind. They had money, success, and their businesses – who needs a temple? So only the zealous or poor, looking for better opportunities, made the trip back to Jerusalem. But, once they got there things weren’t getting any better.

Haggai 1:10–11 ESV

¹⁰ Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. ¹¹ And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

No grain, wine, or oil means no money. I can’t do God’s work if I can’t take care of myself!

Second, Ezra tells us they were surrounded by enemies.

Ezra 4:4–5 ESV

⁴ Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build ⁵ and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

In those 70 years away from the land it didn’t remain empty. Other people’s had moved in or been relocated by Babylon into the area, and they were filling pretty comfy. After 70 years they’re ready to say this is their ancestral land and that the Israelites are the foreigners. So every time Israel wants to build something or make their mark on the land, here come the enemies to drive them away. Before we can do any of God’s work, we need to settle our disputes with the people of the land.

Third, they had been expressly forbidden from rebuilding by one of Cyrus’s successors, The New King Artaxerxes.

Ezra 4:19–21 ESV

¹⁹ And I made a decree, and search has been made, and it has been found that this city from of old has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it. ²⁰ And mighty kings have been over Jerusalem, who ruled over the whole province Beyond the River, to whom tribute, custom, and toll were paid. ²¹ Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me.

Now we have to go through the courts and wait for our case to be heard before we can do the work of the Lord!

All of these made a compelling case for Israel to postpone the work. We can’t do the work if we’re starving or not being paid. We can’t do the work when everyone around us wants to kill us. We can’t do the work while it’s illegal. There are just to many obstacles to clear!

All of these set-backs build up until the work is abandoned completely. “It’s better if we just see how things look next year once everything has settled down.” And that can gets kicked down the road for 11 years.

Our Circumstances

We get tempted to make the same excuses. We look around at how busy we are, how many obstacles we face, and decide “Can’t do any work now, might as well wait later!”

We let our circumstances determine our Evangelism

I’m at work
Too many unbelievers, I’ll be overwhelmed!
I need to learn more first

We let our circumstances determine our Service For Others

My house is too small to show hospitality
I don’t know that family well enough
After college, after I get a promotion, after the kids are out of the house, after I travel, after I retire, and then your dead

We let our circumstances determine our worship

We have other things to do
We’re just too tired
It’s all too easy to just tune into the live-stream

Fewer Obstacles Then Believed

Have you ever decided to schedule some work or a project, get nice and settled, roll up your sleeves, and… oh! I can’t work without my coffee. So I need to go fix a cup. But now I don’t want to work with coffee breath, so I’ll go brush my teeth real quick. The glare coming from my window is just too much so I’ll adjust those blinds. Seat’s too low, now it’s too high, now I’m thinking I should just by a new one… And the list goes on.

– Too noisy

– Too bright

– Too tired

– Too distracted

What makes Israel’s excuse even worse is they didn’t let any of those circumstances prevent them from serving themselves. Sometimes our circumstances are just an easy justification for our own self-interest.

Haggai 1:3–4 ESV

³ Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

While the temple lay untouched for 11 years Israel got to work – for themselves. They didn’t like spending all day in the tent so they got to work on building their houses. These weren’t just functional homes – they were paneled. Throughout scripture when a building is exceptionally beautiful and well made it’s described as paneled. When Solomon built the first temple it was only finished after being paneled with cedar planks (1 Ki. 6:9, 15). Afterwards he built his own house with ornate panels of cedar (1 Ki. 7:3, 7).

God is not saying that we’re not allowed to have nice houses. He’s wanting to know if we value you them more than God and his glory. It’s a question of priorities. Solomon, as we just saw, had a luxurious paneled house. The important thing to note though is that he only began work on his house after finishing the temple of God.

Too often it’s easy to say that God can wait – I need to get my own house in order.

Overcoming Our Self Interest

God tells Israel to “consider your ways.”

Haggai 1:5–6 ESV

⁵ Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. ⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

We need to ask ourselves what we’re busying ourselves with and why. Am I seeking God’s will and his glory? Or am I too busy seeking the things that I want? The things that never bring satisfaction, and the things that never last?

The fact of the matter is that we do have time to serve God. We just like to spend it serving ourselves instead.

Life is busy

Working 40+ hours
Family commitments

But then we start paneling our lives by pursuing luxury

We carve out large chunks of time and money to renovate the house
We work overtime for a new toy that will consume even more of our time
We refuse to be content with what we’ve already been given
We pursue trivial pleasures
Binge watch Netflix the entire weekend
Scroll endlessly through Facebook or Reddit, spending hours on TikTok

We don’t do anything unless it serves our own interests

We don’t see the need to teach children’s classes when none of ours are in them
We don’t help care for the sick because I only make dinner for my family
I don’t need to come to services when I can worship from home
I don’t need to help this church grow because if it dies there’s another one down the road

And we justify it all in the name of self-care. All at the expense of building God’s temple.

We like to make the claim that God always comes first. In theory that means that every aspect of our life is guided and given meaning by him as we pursue the kingdom over ourselves. But in practice God is first on our list, and usually the first thing to get crossed off so we can pursue other matters.

The Right Time Is Now

Haggai 1:2 ESV

² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

But…

Haggai 1:7–8 ESV

⁷ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

God doesn’t care what Artaxerxes said. God doesn’t care about what the enemies are doing. God doesn’t care that the pocketbooks are empty. Go get the wood and build this temple!

Example of Paul

Paul, the world traveling, church planting evangelist is sitting in a dungeon. One might think that while in prison, chained between two Roman guards, that Paul was evangelistically neutered. But Paul writes that though he may be bound, the word of God never is.

Philippians 1:12–13 ESV

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

In Paul’s mind he wasn’t chained to the guards, they were chained to him and he had a captive audience. Rather than let his circumstances overcome him he took the opportunity to tell these guards why he was imprisoned, and told the story all over again at shift change. And soon enough the whole imperial guard has heard the gospel.

We need to apply that thinking to our own situations. There is always an opportunity to show Jesus in your life.

Evangelism

You’re not stuck at work, your coworkers are stuck with you and the word of God that lives in you
You let your light shine in any way you can
What did you do on the weekend? I heard a great sermon!
What are you doing tonight? I’m heading to bible class!
Bring that bible to lunch and open it up

We can always do the work of God, regardless of how good or poor our circumstances may be.

The Question of Ability

Haggai 2:1–3 ESV

¹ In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: ² “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ³ ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

The people are back to work, but not everything is going good. Before the people had started rebuilding they faced external threats: poverty, enemies, state interference. Now the obstacle is not an external threat, but the enormity of the project itself.

The Former Glory

There are a lot of parallels between the building of the first temple and the rebuilding efforts in Haggai.

We might read over the date that the word of God came to Haggai, the 21st day of the seventh month, but it’s important. Notice the dates when Solomon is building the first temple.

1 Kings 8:1–2 ESV

¹ Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. ² And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

That feast would have been the Feast of Tabernacles which started on the 15th, and ended on the 21st. God is speaking to Haggai on the anniversary of Solomon’s Temple, when it was completed and when the Ark of the Covenant came home.

When Solomon completed the temple it was a monumental event. The building itself was beyond anything we’ve seen. It was covered in gold, beautiful artwork inspired by the Garden of Eden, massive pillars supporting the roof, and incredible craftsmanship.

After it was completed there was a massive celebration.

1 Kings 8:5 ESV

⁵ And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

But what makes this event truly monumental, is that God shows up to the celebration himself.

1 Kings 8:10 ESV

¹⁰ And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord,

Just as a pillar of cloud led Israel out of Egypt and then settled on the tabernacle as a sign of God’s presence among his people, now it fills the temple. God is with his people, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

How Do You See It Now?

Haggai 2:3 ESV

³ ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

Here we are 439 years later and nothing is left of the temple’s former glory. All of that excitement, all of that motivation, all of that momentum, and on the anniversary of the temple’s dedication all you see is a dusty floor.

You see:

No gold
No sacrifices
No Ark of the Covenant
No God

And the people themselves are nothing more than a remnant to rebuild this temple.

Forget about the poverty, the enemies, the legality of it all. The task itself is an obstacle that we can never get over.

How Do We Look At Ourselves?

Even given the best circumstances, we have no easy task before us. Look at the job Jesus gives us.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We are personally responsible for going out into that scary, broken world and fixing it. Go to all those Muslim countries and make them disciples. Go to secular Europe and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go into crazy America and teach them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.

Are you the right person for the job?

Maybe in another age we would have thought the church had a chance at saving the world. You hear of those old revivals that attracted thousands of people. You remember Gospel Meetings that led to more baptisms in a single night than we’ve seen in years. You recall a more genuine heart among the people who sought God.

But now we see attendance declining. We had more people visit our Gospel Meeting from Fayetteville than we did locals. And it seems that so many are attracted to the mega-church model where they can slip in unnoticed to be entertained by a superficial message and leave without ever getting a glimpse of God.

We see the state of the world and God’s people, and it’s nothing in our eyes.

The Problem

Feelings of inadequacy are paralyzing. The guy doesn’t ask the girl out because who is he to ask someone like her out? We don’t apply for the jobs we’re unqualified for. We stay in our lane and tackle the problems we know we can handle.

But we cannot let our feelings of inadequacy stop the building of God’s House.

If we say we’re too small to compete with the mega churches – we will stay small
If we say the culture we live in is too hostile to overcome – we will never reach out to them
If we say we’re unqualified to teach – we never will
If we say that it is impossible to grow then we will slowly dwindle down to nothing

God’s Comfort

How can we overcome our feelings of inadequacy?

When we are to distracted by our paneled houses God speaks a word of rebuke. Attitudes of apathy and complacency need to be challenged. But when we face a crippling sense of inadequacy, we’re met with words of encouragement.

Work, Because God Is With Us

Haggai 2:4–5 ESV

⁴ Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, ⁵ according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

God commands both the leaders and the people to be strong and work. Steel yourselves, gird up your loins, and press on. But not because they are stronger than they know. Not because they forgot the magic of teamwork and gumption. Work – “for I am with you, declares the Lord of Hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst.”

God is reminding the people that Israel began as nothing – a ragtag assembly of slaves who did nothing but complain. But God swore that he would be with them and took this motley crew called Israel and turned them into a mighty nation that would eventually build God’s temple. If God could do it then, he can do it again. God assures Israel that just as his Spirit dwelt among them in the wilderness, in the tabernacle, and in the first temple – it still remains with the people.

During the wilderness wanderings, Israel knew God was with them because they could see it. They had a very tangible sign of God’s presence among them. At Mt. Sinai he shrouded the mountain with a thick cloud and the sound of thunder. When the tabernacle was completed we’re told in Exodus 40:34 that “…the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” And later on at the completion of Solomon’s temple God’s glory once again is made manifest. But now, all they can see are ruins and need to be reminded that God still stands with them.

Application

We need that same reminder. We don’t see the work of the Spirit in the cloud or smoke, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t with us. Scripture states plainly that God is still with us:

Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

²⁰ …And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Talk to all those people who intimidate you about Christ – God is with you
Keep learning all you can about the bible – God is with you
Keep encouraging everyone in here to keep building – God is with you
Keep making a difference in the lives of people around you, no matter how small – God is with you

And when we keep working, God will do some incredible things through us.