Were we to take an extremely surface-level look at the prophet Haggai, we might use him to justify building up the church’s Building Fund.  Why should we live in panelled houses while God’s house lies in ruins?   I believe, though, that God has something much more foundational to say to us through the words which God spoke through the prophet Haggai just over 2,500 years ago.  Why should we be concerning ourselves with words spoken almost 2,500 years ago?  This is a fair question.  The church largely overlooks this prophet.  This is the first time we’ve spent three weeks going through the book.  He seems out of place, as someone has said.  No calls for social justice or assurances that God dwells with the humble.  Instead, we have this focus on rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem.  Doesn’t this speak to the kind of external and superficial religion which we like to think we have moved past?  Why all this talk about a building?  Isn’t the church more than simply a building?

Speaking of this book of the prophet Haggai, Martin Luther had this to say: “If we should consider the subject matter unsympathetically, the prophet will seem quite trivial on the surface, especially in our day.  Everything about which he prophesies, especially about rebuilding the temple, has ceased.  As a consequence, we must consider the subject matter correctly, so that we look not so much at it as the Word of God.” The word of the Lord came by the prophet, Haggai came to the people of God at a particular time and a particular place.  The word of the Lord comes to us by the prophet Haggai at a particular time and a particular place, and I believe that God has something of great significance to say to us.  Let us pray and ask for attentive hearts

The time and place in our story is Jerusalem.  In the second year of King Darius (of Persia), in the sixth month on the first day of the month.  So August 29^th, 520 BC.  In 587 BC, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple which Solomon had built.  The city’s people were taken away into captivity.  In the interim, the Persian Empire had become the prevailing power.  In 539, Persian King Cyrus decreed that exiles could return.  This is where the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah begin, and we looked at those stories as we were returning from a kind of exile ourselves (I’m talking about COVID).  “Return  Rebuild  Renew” was the call, and it’s still the call.

A remnant of the people of Israel has returned.  Things are not as they once were.  What had been a large kingdom has been reduced to a group of people living in and around Jerusalem, trying to hang on.  They’re subjects living on the fringe of an Empire that’s just had a change in leadership, so there is political uncertainty.  Things are precarious economically.  Into this situation speaks the word of the Lord through the prophet Haggai.  The last of the 12 Prophets as they’re known in the Hebrew Bible.  Mentioned in Ezra 5:1 – “Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.”

I just want to pause here for a moment and talk about prophecy and prophesying.  Oftentimes when we consider prophecy, we think primarily of someone who is speaking of the future – events that are yet to come.  We call this foretelling.  The thing that OT prophets spend most of their time on, however, is speaking the word of the Lord concerning what is going on today (or in their day).  They speak about attitudes and actions in the present.  We call this forth-telling.  It makes prophets unpopular, and it’s not for nothing that Jesus laments over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:17.  Both foretelling and forth-telling will be going on as we read Haggai.

The other thing that we need to consider is what the temple in Jerusalem represented before it was destroyed.  The temple was the representation or physical manifestation of God’s presence with God’s people. God’s promise, “I am with you,” was part of the covenant – the loving agreement – God made with the people of Israel.  This promise was, in fact, key.  Going back to just after the Golden Calf episode, God tells Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Ex 33:14). Moses tells God that if God’s presence is not with them, he doesn’t even want to go – “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” (Ex. 33:15)  The answer comes back from God – “I will do the very thing you have asked…” (Ex 33:17)  The presence of God was manifested in the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night that guided them.  The presence of God was manifested in the tabernacle or tent of meeting, which was set up just outside the camp whenever they stopped.  The temple that was built by Solomon in Jerusalem was a more permanent physical representation that God lived in the middle of his people.  The destruction of the temple in 587 BC was calamitous not only nationally and militarily but theologically.   Had God abandoned His people?

So let us keep this in mind as we listen for God’s word to us today.  God with us.  The temple.  The man that is called Emmanuel – God with us.  The one who said that if the temple were destroyed, he could build it again in three days.  Our living Christ as the embodiment of God with us.  The Spirit of our living Christ as Christ in you the hope of glory.  Our bodies as the habitation of God.  The Church as a temple of living stones being built up and founded on Christ, our cornerstone.  Let us keep all these things in mind as hear the words of the prophet.

Who is calling for a reordering of priorities.  He is speaking to the leaders, Zerubabbel, the governor and Joshua, the high priest – each of whom stand in the line of David the King and Aaron the original high priest, respectively.  The word from God is for everyone, starting with leadership.  The question is, “What time is it?”  “Thus says the Lord of hosts: these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.” (1:2). How can we be speaking of God as the foundation of anything in this economy?  How can we be speaking of God as the foundation in this climate of political uncertainty and social upheaval?  I have to take care of myself and those closest to me.  I have other priorities right now. The question which Haggai for those who follow Christ (or those who are wondering what following Christ is about) is not so much belief or unbelief.  The concern here is spiritual apathy.  The question for us as individuals is, “What time is it for us?”  Is it time to build the temple or to build our own temples?  The question for this church or any church is what is given foundational priority in our life together (and we can see how this metaphor of building and foundation and building materials works so very well).  Haggai doesn’t browbeat people here as he brings God’s word.  He asks a question.  “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (1:4) 

Is it?

Are we living lives that are turned in on ourselves?  If so, how is that working out for us?  “Consider how you have fared,” says God through the prophet – a sort of divine “How’s that working out for you?”  The word translated “consider” here is literally “set your heart upon.”  Stop and let us set our hearts upon how that has worked out.  A life of futility.  Chasing after wind.  Chasing after a never-enoughness.  “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 you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.” (1:6-7)  Keep on accumulating.  Keep on scrolling.  Hear the word of God.  “All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.” (Eccl 1:8).

We are not left there, however, because God is still speaking.  “Consider how you have fared.  Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured.” (1:7-8)  God delights in our delight in Him because this is what we are made for.  God’s name is honoured; God’s ways our made known when we seek Him first and his righteousness. So we pray and sing, “Jesus be the centre.”  God is building the temple, the church, and the individual stones in it (us).  This doesn’t mean there is nothing for us to do.  We are called to join God in this work.  The returned community that Haggai addressed gives us a wonderful example of the good and right and fitting response to God’s word.  They obeyed and the feared God – they gave God reverence and honour.  Even their response was the result of the Lord stirring them, and we continue to pray, “Lord, stir our hearts by your Spirit.”   Someone has said,

“It is because God is committed to establishing his kingdom in and through us that we are called to seek that kingdom first, above all other things. We should be stirred to a holy zeal to love and build God’s church. To be sure, the result of seeking first God’s kingdom will not necessarily be earthly prosperity, or even large, “successful” churches…. (Jesus’) own earthly ministry was not characterized by prosperity or a large following. But God does promise to be with his repentant people in the present and to fulfill his kingdom goals through us in the longer term. Even now, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). Even now, he is at work in us by his Spirit, convicting us of sin and stirring us up to desire holiness. What else do we need or want? In place of our constant preoccupation with food that does not fill, with drink that does not satisfy, and with clothing that cannot warm our souls, God promises us real food, drink, and clothing. In Christ, he gives us the bread of life, a fountain of living water… In place of the futile things to which we so readily give our lives, the Lord promises to give us true and lasting satisfaction in him.”

The Lord’s message came to these people, and the message was “I am with you.” The spirits of Zerubabbel, Joshua, and all the remnants of the people were stirred.  They were all together in their efforts.  They came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.  May the same be said of us on the 4^th day of the month in the sixth month.  May our obeying Jesus’ words in coming to this table, and our seeking his presence here be an outward sign of a new repentance, a new turning toward him.  

In him there is fulness of life.  This is what we have been created for.  Eugene Petersen, author and pastor, wrote of watching some tree swallows one summer at a lakeside retreat in Montana.  After watching the swallows gathering food for their chicks for some weeks, he was happy to see the three baby swallows lined up on a tree branch one day, about a metre and a half above the surface of the lake.  They were about to learn how to fly for the first time. One of the parents came alongside and started nudging them toward the end of the branch.  The first one fell off and found his wings before he hit the water.  He was off and flying.  Same thing for the second one in line.  The third one was not so keen.  He resisted his parents’ efforts.  He swung downwards but kept his grip on the branch with his baby swallow feet.  The parent started pecking at his little talons until, finally, the young bird let go – swooping over the surface of the lake on his first flight.  This is what Petersen had to say: “Birds have feet and can walk.  Birds have talons and can grasp a branch securely.  They can walk, they can cling.  But flying is their characteristic action, and not until they fly are they living at their best, gracefully and beautifully.”  Many things clamour for our attention and lay claim to being worthy of the central place in our lives.  We have been created in God’s image, and the seeking after his Kingdom – his delight and his honour is the foundation of a life lived (and lives lived together) gracefully and beautifully.  God helping us, and the Holy Spirit stirring us, let us build such a foundation together.