11/10/24 Haggai 1:14-2:9 “And It Came to Pass!”

07 Nov 11/10/24 Haggai 1:14-2:9 “And It Came to Pass!”

11/10/24   Haggai 1:14-2:9      “And It Came to Pass!”

I sometimes think that it is amazing how we discard things that are old.  My computer crashed once and I was forced to use an old one.  I found that it worked wonderfully well but it was a little slower and that is ok for what I do on a computer.  I think that we do the same thing with our clothes.  I once wore an old postal shirt, one that I hadn’t worn in years.  It was a perfectly good shirt to wear while raking leaves.  It is a perfectly good shirt and I don’t know why I hadn’t worn it before this.  We send clothes to the thrift stores that we don’t want any more for whatever reason.  Usually they haven’t been worn out yet.  I’m sure that you can think of many other things where new is always better than the old, at least in our minds.  But I’m going to take an exception to this because my old computer still does the job and my old shirt is still good.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that old is good.  Many people dismiss the Old Testament because of the name: old.  They are quick to point out that it isn’t relevant because Jesus isn’t talked about.  I couldn’t disagree more.  The Old Testament is full of references to Jesus and today’s reading in Haggai is no exception.  The prophet Haggai is giving encouragement to a beaten people.  Let’s see if we can tap into their source of encouragement in building our Temple.

Melvin Newland talks about the ‘Reticular Activating System’ that we all have and I would just guess that you never knew you had it.  This is what it does.  Once something has been brought to our attention and we are prepared to see it, then we see it almost every place we go.  For example, we used to play a game in the car when the children were younger called ‘Yellow One.’  We would get a point for every yellow vehicle we saw.  Now I know that before I ever played this game I never noticed yellow cars.  But after playing it, I saw all the yellow cars.  Or say you want to buy a blue Ford pickup.  After you make this decision, then you see all the blue Ford pickups because that is what you are looking for.  I’m sure you can fill in the blank on many other things where this happens.

This happens to us as people also, especially of yourself.  If you perceive yourself as not very athletic, then you probably won’t be very athletic.  If we see ourselves as procrastinators, then we will probably procrastinate.  You can fill in just about any negative or positive behavior and it will probably happen.  Humans are very susceptible to these kinds of suggestions.  This is why it is so important that we remain positive for our children.  Put all the negatives on the back burner and be positive because it affects your whole life and the lives of others.

I think we need a little background before we start.  The book of Haggai was written after the people had come back from exile.  The people had rebuilt their homes and their walls but they hadn’t started on the Temple yet.  God wants Haggai to tell the people to begin the work.  He wants Haggai to do this is a nice way.  Haggai was one of the few prophets if not the only prophet that wasn’t gloomy.  In the first chapter, he told them how to build the new Temple and in our reading he talks of the glory of the new Temple.

Haggai gives this message on the Feast of Tabernacles, 66 years after the Temple of Solomon was destroyed.  There were a few of the older people who remember the magnificence of the old Temple.  They remembered all the gold and silver.  They remembered how there was fine artwork.  They remember the Temple in its grand splendor.  Now they are faced with a pile of rocks.  There is nothing here but rubble.  This is the height of their discouragement.

Have you ever come to times in your life when there is nothing but rubble?  Sometimes this happens in a marriage when we wake up to find that there is nothing there and the spouse is gone.  Sometimes it happens in business where the market drops for a product or service and we are left holding the bag.  Farmers know all about rubble, especially after a hail storm or a 5” rain that comes through and destroys everything.

A group of pastors and I were talking about this very thing one day.  We came to the conclusion that God doesn’t necessarily create any of these hardships.  God doesn’t cause bad things to happen.  This is in total agreement with my philosophy.  God may test our strength in adversity but He doesn’t necessarily cause it.  He may test us in many ways during hard times or bad times.  God didn’t cause the tornadoes that went through Oklahoma last week.  God didn’t cause the Red River to flood so many years in a row.  God didn’t do any of these things.  God doesn’t do bad things.

God didn’t destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.  However, He didn’t stop it from happening.  I think that there is a huge difference.  Many times God doesn’t stop things from happening.  He didn’t stop the Oklahoma tornadoes or our floods.  You might think that I’m splitting hairs on this but I don’t think I am.  You see, God has all the power to make everything or destroy everything or even to alter time.  He can do it all.  But He doesn’t help us out in many instances because we are so sinful.  Even when we are at our best, we are like filthy rags before the Lord.  The Jewish people needed to be exiled.  They needed all these things to happen so that the remnant would want to come back and be faithful to God.

All God wants is for us to return to Him and that is all He has ever wanted.  If we are left to our own devices, we will turn to evil until we just can’t take it anymore.  We have been like this since the Garden of Eden.  I’m pretty sure that all humans have an innate learning disorder.  We cannot learn to be good.  We have to be forced to our knees in utter hopelessness. We have to be beaten down before we realize that God has been right all along.  Is the God of the Old Testament tough?  Yes He is!  However, He is just as tough on people today.  I would say 70% of the world, maybe 80%, doesn’t get it.  They are standing around looking at the Temple that is a pile of rocks and they will do nothing to help rebuild.

Well, God will have none of this kind of thing.  They are having a hard time imagining that this pile of rocks can be a Temple.  God is trying to tell them that the new Temple might not look like the old Temple.  It will not be as grand or splendid as the former Temple but it will indeed be much better.  They are also not to worry about such things because God is with them.  Once again we find this promise.  Not only that but He tells them that the Holy Spirit is with them.  This is one of many references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.  Sometimes we like to think that the Holy Spirit made His first appearance at Pentecost but He has been with us since the beginning.  Anyway, because of this they aren’t to fear.  There are many enemies in the area who don’t want the Temple rebuilt, but they are not to fear them.

I just mentioned some of the piles of rubble we have in our lives.  Many times it seems that they cannot be rebuilt.  The Jewish people rebuilt the Temple and it was quite nice and it lasted for centuries.  It wasn’t as grand as the former Temple but it was better and they came to worship it, which is a whole other story.  So if you have to start over with rubble of the past, first of all, trust Jesus; trust God.  God is with us.  God is all around us.  God can be inside you if you just ask.

God is telling them that He is going to shake the heavens, the earth, the sea and the dry lands.  He also reminds them that He made all the gold and silver and everything.  Even though this looks hopeless, like a pile of rocks, the new Temple will have far more glory than the old one.  What in the world is God trying to tell us here?  We know from physical history that this hasn’t really happened yet so what is He saying.

This new Temple albeit a mere shadow of the old Temple, will be the place where Jesus comes.  Remember that this is still centuries before Jesus is born.  Jesus will come to this Temple and bring more glory than the earth has ever seen.  Some of these people still remember the glory of the old Temple.  Now here is God telling them that the new one will be even greater.  All they have to do is trust that God knows what He is doing and rebuild the Temple.

If the modern day Christian has a problem, it is in this area of trusting God.  God fulfilled this promise to rebuild the Temple.  God has fulfilled every promise He has made or He will in the future.  You cannot show me one instance of where God has broken a promise.  It has never happened and never will.  So why is it that you don’t go to Him for everything?  There is no one or thing in this world that even comes close to being as trustworthy as Jesus Christ and that is a fact, Jack.

I’m going to leave this because there is a transition here that we need to see.  As a review, Solomon built the Temple and it was fabulous, simply fabulous.  After the exile, the Temple was rebuilt and it would be more glorious than before because Jesus was there and taught.  God will then shake the earth because of Jesus.  He isn’t really talking about physically shaking the earth but spiritually.  When Jesus came to this world, He turned it upside down.  Things would never be the same and we still see major effects of this, 2000 years later.

Now hang with me here because this wasn’t part of the reading but it is there between the lines if you look for it.  Jesus comes to the Temple.  He tells us that He is the new Temple.  Do you remember where He tells us more than once that the Temple will be destroyed and rebuilt in 3 days?  The second Temple was great until Jesus came and He became the new Temple.  Never again would we need an ornate place like that to be with God.  Jesus also promised us that He would live inside us if we made Him our Lord and Savior.  Therefore, when you ask Jesus to live inside you, you are making your body the new Temple.  Paul and the Gospel writers talk about this.  This is the Good News.

Hopefully, most of us here have Jesus living inside of us.  Therefore, you are all the Temple of God.  You are all sacred.  You are all that special.  There is not a person in the world that is not that special.  God had you in mind centuries ago when He set this all in motion.  This little book of Haggai has been uplifting ever since it was written.  It was uplifting for the Jews and it should be for us also because we know that we are now the Temple of God.  What could be better?

There isn’t enough time for me to be able to emphasize how important this is.  Tomorrow morning when you get up and look in the mirror, don’t think about how bad you look without a shave or without your makeup.  Don’t think about how your nose is too big or too small.  Don’t think that you are too short or too tall.  Instead take a good look.  See how you are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.  See how all the precious diamonds and emeralds in the world pale in comparison to you.

God set all of these things in motion centuries ago because He loves you.  He wants you to be encouraged by this reading.  He wants to spend eternity with you.  He wants you to have the best life possible here and in the life to come.  This happens when you have Jesus inside of you and you are His Temple.  And because you are His Temple, you can trust Him with anything and everything in our life.  His promises are always right and true.  Go to Him as often as you breathe because He wants to hear from you.

One of the ways to get close to God for encouragement is to read the Bible.  Something always feels good in my temple when I do this.  Martin Luther once said, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”  Stephen Sheane tells the story of an adult Sunday school class who were asked ‘what was their favorite passage to read when they were discouraged?’  One young man liked Psalm 23 and another Psalm 46.  A middle aged fellow liked John 16.  But an 80 year old gentleman  stood up in front of the class and said, “It says, ‘And it came to pass…’ 85 times in the Bible.”  The class started to snicker a bit thinking the fellows memory was playing tricks on him.   When the snickering stopped, he said, “At 30, I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn’t know how I would make it. At 40, my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down. At 50, my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60, my wife of 40 years got cancer. It slowly ate away at her. We cried together many a night on our knees in prayer. At 65, she died. I still miss her today.  The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable. I wondered ‘where was God?’ But each time I looked in the Bible I saw one of those 85 verses that said, ‘And it came to pass.’  I felt that God was telling me, my pain and my circumstances were also going to pass and that God would get me through it.”

God loves his people so much that He had them build 2 Temples and lives in a third one today, the one that is in your hearts.  He will not let you go through undo pain and suffering because He lives inside you and suffers also.  In order for all this to happen you need to keep focused on Jesus and Jesus only.  He is not a small God for Sunday morning only.  He is a huge God who is there for us every second of your lives.  Go to Him and go to Him often.  He will help you through any, any discouraging situation and that is a promise.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.