1) Intro
A) Our last text was like a flashback (2:10-14). God is not bringing a new criticism. He’s reminding them of their sins from the past.
B) 2:15-19 – BUT NOW… “from this day onward…” (3 times).
2) One thing that stands out the most to me is the timing.
A) Timeline
1) 1:1 = Aug. 29 – Build my house
2) 1:15 = Sept. 21 (23 days later) – Ok. They did.
3) 2:1 = Oct. 17 (49 days later) – The people were discouraged. God encouraged them.
4) 2:10, 19b = Dec. 18 (111 days later / 16 weeks / 3 ½ months) (i.e. a college semester)
B) Summary: God told the people to get busy, and they did, and then finally 3 ½ months later God said, “Ok, now I’m going to bless you.”
C) 2:15-17 – NOTE: This was not an easy 3 ½ months.
1) They expected 20 measures from their grain harvest, but they got 10. They only harvested half of the food they planned for.
2) They expected 50 measures of wine, but they got 20.
3) v. 17 – blight, mildew, hail
4) cf. 1:6, 9
5) In our text, God says, “From this day on I will bless you,” BUT we’ve been doing the right thing for 3 ½ months and suffering hard while we do it.
(a) It’s Dec. 18. How are we going to survive!
3) I don’t know why God did it like this, but in this lesson, I have some maybes for us to consider.
A) Maybe he wanted to see if their recalibrated life was going to stick.
1) Camp illustration. We spend a week in a spiritual environment, and everybody leaves committed to a new and better life. But for a lot of us, it just doesn’t stick very long. The excitement wears off and daily grind wears you back down to where you were before camp.
2) Jn. 6
(a) vv. 1-15 – Jesus fed 5000.
(i) Result: vv. 14-15.
(ii) This is the initial excitement. It’s a double whammy: miracle + full bellies.
(b) Jesus left and they followed him.
(i) vv. 22-35
(ii) POINT: There’s something more to this that Jesus needed them to understand.
(c) v. 66 – “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”
3) Consider two scenarios:
(a) Imagine that Haggai came and told them to get busy with the temple, and the second they did all of their barns and all of their pantries miraculously filled up with more food than they could eat. So, of course, they kept building the temple.
(b) Now imagine that Haggai came and told them to get busy with the temple, and they did, and their barns stayed empty and they stayed hungry, BUT…they kept building the temple because it was the right thing to do.
(c) Maybe God wanted to see if the people’s commitment to him was real, or it they were just wound up because a prophet yelled at them.
4) Application
(a) This is a good time to think about your own faith.
(b) We’re not looking for faith like a roller coaster where you’re hot and then cold.
(c) If you are going to serve God, then settle in and get after it for the long haul.
(d) Jesus specifically warned people about this (Lk. 9:57-62).
B) Maybe he wanted to teach them about saving faith.
1) The only thing that God has ever wanted from ALL of his people, is for us to put our faith and trust in him.
(a) Gen. 15:6
(b) Rom. 4:18-21
(i) vv. 23-25 – Same for us (this is the ultimate object of our faith)
(ii) cf. Matt. 6:11 – “Give us this day our daily bread”
(c) James 2:20-24 – Saving faith drives us to DO. BUT, it’s still the faith that God is after.
2) It’s really hard to trust God when the barns are empty and winter has arrived.
(a) But the people put their faith in God and got busy building his house.
(b) God’s response is, “THAT is what I want from you.”
C) Maybe he wanted to teach US that our hope is in the future, not the present.
1) Haggai’s audience was building God’s house with their eyes firmly fixed on the future.
2) cf. Ps. 126:5-6
3) The point about faith in Heb. 11 is that we put our faith in God and trust in him BECAUSE he has promised us something in the future.
(a) v. 1 – “hoped for”
(b) v. 13 – “having seen them and greeted them from afar”
(c) 2:2 – Jesus “for the joy set before him”
4) God’s people don’t live for our barns to be filled here and now.
5) We live for the day when we get to sit at Jesus’ table in the presence of God. That’s our hope, and it’s the same hope regardless of whatever your life might look like together or tomorrow.
4) Finish with the really good quote I read about this:
A) “Think about that moment in your own life when you finally make the hard, agonizing, correct choice. You finally break that addiction. You walk away from the toxic relationship. You stop lying. You commit to the right path. You start the difficult project. You finally make the apology you've been avoiding for years.
B) Your physical circumstances might not magically fix themselves overnight. The barns are still empty. You might still have massive credit card debt. You might still feel the emotional pain of the past. You might still be staring at the bare branches of a ruined career.
C) But the trajectory of your life has fundamentally, permanently changed. The curse of your own selfishness is broken. You have moved from a trajectory of decay to a trajectory of blessing simply because the foundation has been reset.
D) It requires an immense, radical amount of faith to look at an empty barn and truly believe that you are blessed. But that is the core of Haggai's message, and it's the core of the prophetic worldview. The blessing isn't the grain itself. The ultimate blessing is the restored relationship with the Creator who provides the grain.”