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Listen from the church in Normal.
INTRO: This section is like a flashback. The main point is a positive one in Hag. 2:19.
1) vv. 10-11
A) 2:10 – Dec. 18, 520 BC
1) This is 112 days from Haggai’s first word (nearly 4 months), and 89 days from when the people responded and got busy (about 3 months).
2) This text sounds like God is actively rebuking this people. There is instruction in here, but when we get to the very end of v. 19, we’ll see that this is ultimately a promise of blessing and hope.
3) We’ll talk about this date later in this lesson.
B) v. 11 – Ask the priests
1) Lev. 10:10-11 – The Levites were supposed to know these things and teach God’s people.
2) 1 Pet. 2:9 – Christians are called a “royal priesthood.” We teach people about right and wrong.
3) Mal. 2:4-7 – The priest did not do their job, and they were condemned.
2) vv. 12-14
A) v. 12 – Scenario 1
1) Description of the scenario
(a) A person has just offered their sacrifice, they’ve wrapped it up in their clothes, and they’re on their way home.
(b) There are 3 kinds of peace offerings (Lev. 7:11ff.)
(i) v. 12 – Thanksgiving (v. 15 – eat it the same day)
(ii) v. 16 – Vow offering & freewill offering
(iii) NOTE: The reason why I take the time to mention this is because somebody (maybe you) will almost certainly read this and ask, “Why is a person walking down the street with holy meat in his clothes?”
2) Scenario: I offered my sacrifice, and now I’m taking the rest of it home.
(a) It is holy because it was offered to God as a sacrifice.
(b) Imagine that it’s in a bag since we don’t normally carry food in our clothes. If that bag touches something, does the holiness of the meat transfer to the thing it touched?
3) Answer: No.
(a) POINT: If a person has done something good (i.e. sacrificed), that person’s holiness cannot be transferred to someone, or something, else.
(b) Illustration: This is like trying to catch someone’s good health. I can’t just hang out with a healthy person and wear their workout clothes and give them a high-five and expect to become healthy because I was in contact with them.
(c) Holiness means to be totally set apart and dedicated exclusively to God. You can’t just passively catch that from someone or something else because you touched (and everybody understands this).
B) v. 13 – Scenario 2
1) Description of the scenario
(a) A person has been in contact with a dead body, and now they are unclean.
(b) Question: If that person touches any of these things, do they become unclean?
2) Answer: Yes.
(a) Num. 19:11-13 – Not only are you unclean for seven days, you need to actively take steps to become clean again (not just wait it out).
(b) Num. 19:14-15 – You are unclean even if you go into the same room (or if a bottle is open).
(c) Num. 19:16ff. – Contact in an open field.
(d) SUMMARY: Num. 19:22
(i) Level 1 – If an unclean person touches a cup, then that cup will be unclean.
(ii) Level 2 – AND if a person touches the unclean cup, then that person will be unclean.
C) POINT: Defilement/uncleanness is contagious. Holiness is not.
1) Picture a doctor who has just spent 3 minutes scrubbing his hands getting ready for surgery. If he touches something dirty, the dirty thing doesn’t become clean. Rather, the clean thing gets dirty.
2) cf. Paul tried to help the Corinthians understand this.
(a) 1 Cor. 5:6 – “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
(b) 1 Cor. 15:33 – “Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.”
(c) 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1 – “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers…”
3) e.g. Parents and kids.
(a) Parents can’t transfer their holiness to their kids. We spend our entire lives trying to raise them to WANT to be set apart for God’s service. It’s very hard to do this.
(b) Alternatively, all it takes is one small negative influence in their lives to corrupt them and completely undo your entire life’s work.
4) Lessons:
(a) Negativity, sickness, dirt, corruption, rumors, defilement, and sin all spread effortlessly.
(b) Purity, health, integrity, and holiness have to be intentionally cultivated and protected (hard).
D) Conclusion: Defilement is contagious. Holiness is not.
3) v. 14 – “So it is with this people.”
A) “nation” = Heb. goy
1) DBL – 1. people, nation; 2. a population of an animal; 3. the Gentiles, i.e., a national group or groups that are not Jewish, with the associative meaning of being uncultured, pagan and heathen.
2) It’s interesting that God refers to his people with this word. (Think unclean thoughts.)
B) “And what they offer there is unclean.”
1) Ezra 3:1-6
(a) If I was in the crowd listening to Haggai, I might have said, “We are not unclean pagans. We have been offering sacrifices on the altar for the last 15 years.”
(b) Haggai’s response is, “Yes. But you have been doing that on the site of the ruined and rotting corpse of the unfinished temple.”
(i) You have been selfish, spending all of your time and resources building your own fancy houses.
(ii) And you have completely ignored God’s house.
4) MAIN POINT OF THIS TEXT / APPLICATION
A) Don’t think for one second that the holiness of your daily sacrifices will transfer to your life, and your home, and your nation while everything else around you is defiled and not set apart for service to God.
B) In fact, the defilement in your life is contagious, and everything you touch with their greedy, selfish and disobedient hands, INCLUDING THEIR SACRIFICES, becomes unclean before God.
C) Examples:
1) Matt. 5:23-24 – Leave your gift at the altar.
2) 1 Pet. 3:7 – Not being right with your wife causes God to not hear your prayers.
D) MAIN POINT
1) The sacrifices that we make for the Lord do not clean up all the other parts of our lives that are not right.
2) Rather, the other parts of our lives that are not right, make our sacrifices unclean.
3) SO… Let’s get busy with the whole picture and not neglect and overlook the “little parts” of our lives that are not right with God today.
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