Haggai (Letter 37, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)
God reveals himself as the god with the power needed to win the war against sin and sorrow no matter how vile the sin or deep the sorrow. When we know Him by this name, then we will hope in all that this name reveals about Him, and we will hear the message of Haggai. We will live not to build our house but to build His temple.
No matter how discouraged you feel, no matter how little evidence you see of God’s power, no matter how off course His plan appears to be or how unlikely to fulfillment of His promise seems to be, no matter how dark your night or empty your soul, build His temple.
Whatever you do for His sake that involves the sacrifice of self-interest, whatever you do to reveal Him to others when you feel least able to do so, whatever you do that pleases Him at any cost to yourself, that is building His temple.
Haggai delivered four messages:
- Do not let discouragement or opposition get you off course
- Know that what seems insignificant today will be revealed as significant tomorrow
- Evil is more contagious than goodness
- God would fulfill His plan through the man of His choosing
Book Name: HAGGAI – From Ray Stedman
Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman
HAGGAI: Some Words to Discouraged Carpenters
When you read this book you will notice that the theme of the prophecy of Haggai is “get busy and build the Lord’s house.”
and the church building is not the house of God.
As many of the prophets had prophesied, the Babylonian captured Jerusalem, and just as the prophecy of Jeremiah had foretold, the people stayed in bondage exactly 70 years. This, by the way, is one of those remarkable prophecies which have already been fulfilled, so you can see how God speaks through the prophets what no man could speak on his own.
So we will read this prophecy not only as a message of the prophet to the people of his day about building the temple, but also as a message to the people of God everywhere concerning their responsibility in building the great house of God, the temple that the Holy Spirit has been building out of human hearts.
In this prophecy there are four messages; each one reveals an excuse givenby the people for not working on the temple.
In the first message you could say God says, “Is the problem really that you think it’s not yet time for me to work? Well, it’s amazing that you think it is time for me to work in helping you to build your house. How about mine?” And he rather ironically suggests that the real reason the work of God has lagged is that they are all wrapped up in their own affairs.
The great question that Haggai confronts us with is: how can we find time to advance our interests so eagerly, so carefully, so thoughtfully – spending so much time thinking about advancing our own material gain and then excuse ourselves from the work of building the house of God (not the brick and mortar building) by saying, “It isn’t time yet”?
But the great lesson that God wants to impress upon us is that God always does a new and different work. The thing that is coming in the future is always better for our present situation than the past. We do not need to hang on to these things of tradition. God is saying, “Keep on working, I am with you. And when I am in your midst you don’t need to worry about how it is going to turn out. It may be different but it will always be better.”
Do not worry. Keep on. Do not stop work just because you do not see instant results. If you are doing the right thing, keep on doing it.
Now in what way is all this a word to us?
It is a word of encouragement in a day of darkness, a word of rising up and acting now:
- Build now. Do not wait. The work of God needs to be done now.
- Not next year.
- Not ten years from now.
- Now!
- Are your homes open?
- Are your lives ready?
Are we investing in eternal things? That is Haggai’s word.
HAGGAI – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)
Key thought: The priority of finishing God’s work should come before the priorities of our own comfort and convenience.
Key Verse: Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! Haggai 1:3-5
Key Action: Be strong, all you people of the land, and work. For God is with you (see Haggai 2:4)