Hag. 1:1-11: Stop putting your money in bags with holes

Listen from the church of Christ in Normal. Watch this lesson on YouTube.

Intro

1)     Historical context (timeline pic)

A)   539 BC – Cyrus let the Jews go back home after their Babylonian captivity.

B)    535 BC (Ezra 3:10) – The builders laid the foundation of the temple.

C)    Ezra 4:24 – The work stopped.

D)   520 BC (Ezra 5:1) – Haggai and Zechariah show up and ask, “What have you been doing for the last 15 years!”

1)     Illustration: The California High-Speed Train Project

A)   In 2008 (18 years ago), California voters approved Prop. 1A to start an 800-mile rail system through California. It was going to cost $33 bil. and be finished in 2020.

B)    The groundbreaking happened in 2015.

C)    As of today (18 years later):

1)     It’s going to cost $231 bil. now.

2)     And we’re just focusing on a 171-mile stretch.

3)     It should be ready between 2030-2033.

D)   POINT: It’s been 18 years and there is no train!

E)    It seems like a reasonable question: What have you being doing for 18 years? Where did all the money go that was supposed to fund this project?

2)     This is exactly what Haggai was dealing with.

Points

1)     Question: What have you been doing? We know the answer: The people have been prioritizing the wrong things.

A)   v. 2 – “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

1)     It’s important to notice what they did NOT say:

(a)   They did not say that would not or should not build God’s house.

(b)   They did not say that God did not matter to them anymore, or that they were ready to abandon this project.

(c)   They just said, “The time is not right yet.”

2)     I can imagine some of their excuses:

(a)   We really need Persian politics to calm down and the economy to stabilize first.

(b)   The local opposition is pretty tense right now, and we don’t want to stir stuff up if it doesn’t need to be stirred up.

(c)   Once we get our own farms up and running, then we’ll have some discretionary income, and then we can get to the spiritual stuff.

(d)   It’s just not practical right now for us to be working on God’s stuff.

B)    vv. 3-4 – “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”

1)     “you yourselves”

(a)   Pic - There is a double “you” here for emphasis.

(b)   “YOU are living in paneled houses”

2)     “paneled houses”

(a)   NET Notes – “Paneling is otherwise known in the OT only in connection with the temple (1 Kgs 6:9) and the royal palace. It implies decoration and luxury. The impropriety of the people living in such lavish accommodations while the temple lay unfinished is striking.”

(b)   Trans.

(i)    NET – “richly paneled houses”

(ii)  NCV – “fancy houses”

(iii)          NLT – “luxurious houses”

(iv) NIrV – “you are living in your houses that have beautiful wooden walls”

3)     Summary: MSG – “How is it that it’s the ‘right time’ for you to live in your fine new homes while God’s Temple, is in ruins?”

C)    v. 8 – Reset your priorities to work for God’s pleasure and glory

1)     cf. “you” (v. 4) and “I” (v. 8)

2)     Problem: YOU are focusing on YOUR stuff.

3)     God’s solution: Focus on MY stuff so I will be glorified.

D)   v. 9 – “My house lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.”

E)    CONCLUSION

1)     God sent Haggai to say, “What have you been doing?” And then he puts the answer in their laps.

2)     Application Question:

(a)   Are my priorities and my efforts in life centered around what I like and what I want?

(b)   Or are they centered around what pleases God and gives him glory?

3)     We’ll talk more about this in the next lesson, but the goal of life is not to work in order to have as much luxury and free time as we can possibly have. The goal of life is to take on as much responsibility for the Lord as we can handle and be busy with HIS business.

2)     Consider your ways.

A)   vv. 5, 7

B)    Lit. “set your heart on your ways”

C)    Trans.

1)     NET – “Think carefully about what you are doing”

2)     NIV – “Give careful thought to your ways”

3)     MSG – “Take a good, hard look at your life. Think it over.”

4)     NCV – “Think about what you have done.”

D)   CSBSB – This “is a call for serious thinking on the decisions that the people were making and what these choices say about their priorities.”

E)    This is our first action item: I want you to think about some things.

1)     How have you been spending your time?

(a)   If you keep a calendar, you can probably do this with objective data.

(b)   Has it been for your pleasure and your glory, or for God’s?

(c)   Imagine you have two stop watches: one for time spent on your stuff, and one for God. At the end of each day will you have spent more time on your stuff, or God’s?

2)     How have you been spending your money?

(a)   Look at your bank statement.

(b)   Has it been for your pleasure and glory, or for God’s?

3)     Reality: The stuff you put before God will never amount to anything.

A)   v. 6

B)    vv. 9-10

1)     Irony:

(a)   I feel almost certain that these people said to themselves, “I’m going to work until I attain X, and, when I do, then I’ll be secure enough, and wealthy enough, and have enough time on my hands that I will finally be able to give God what he deserves.” I assume that they had good intentions.

(b)   You keep piling up your food, and God keeps blowing it away. You will never have enough.

C)    v. 11 – God’s people had been devoting themselves to all the wrong things, so God said he was going to take those things away.

4)     Conclusion: God’s message to the people of Israel through Haggai is the same message for us today:

A)   Have you been prioritizing the wrong things?

B)    Consider your ways!

C)    Remember, the stuff you put before God will never amount to anything.