Get Back To Work - Haggai

Haggai 2:9 (ESV)

The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.’”

Haggai is a motivation speaker sent by God to get the returning exiles off their comfortable couches and into the work of restoring the Temple. They were released from exile to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.  There were three returns and Haggai was sent with the first to motivate them.   But upon their arrival to Jerusalem,  this is what happened:

Haggai 1:2-4 (ESV)

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

Instead of repairing the Temple they sought out their own creature comforts.   Yet, when they did begin to build the Temple, the results were less than grand:

Haggai 2:3 (ESV)

‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

Not only did they stop the work, their efforts were first seen as mediocre at best.    Yet, that is when God began to encourage them through Haggai’s speech.  Haggai is giving a message of what will happen in this Temple in the future.   Yes, right now, it looks subpar.  Yet, according to God through Haggai’s speech, God was going to do a great work.  There was coming a time when this house of God will be greater than any time in its history.   It will be filled with God’s glory.   Haggai is speaking of two times in the future.  

1. The first time is when Christ came and filled the Temple with His presence.  It was a time when, as He died on the cross, that the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. God glory was seen in that time because that is when redemption came to mankind. 

2. Haggai is speaking of a time in the future that Jesus, Himself, spoke about:

Matthew 25:31 (ESV)

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Haggai wants to encourage the doing of the good works we were sent to do.  He talks to them about being motivated to finish what God gave us to start, as we are part of His glorious plan to return and show all mankind His glory, as He did on the cross and that resurrection morning.  

Contentment Through Reverence - Ecclesiastes 5-6

Ecclesiastes 5:10 (ESV)

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

I wrote this in 2010 about this verse and this section of Ecclesiastes:

The desire for more is vanity.  Contentment is God's blessing on the righteous, at least that seems to be the message we have in these chapters.  We are to rejoice in what we have, whether it is little or much.    Rejoicing in what we have as it is the very gift of God is the secret of managing the vanity in the world.  We should rejoice in riches, if God provides them.  But, we should not seek and desire them to fulfill our needs.  Riches and poverty are not the issue, but contentment in the situation we find ourselves in.  Be content.  Don't want.   Rest in the gift(s) we have.  They are His gifts.

In 2025 I would simply add that the above verse should be taught to all young people on a daily basis.   It seems that the younger we are the more we want to pursue careers and lines of endeavors that, in the end, will produce wealth and the “good life.”    Solomon, who had all the wealth in the world and was the riches man living on the planet, disputes any long term satisfaction you get from accumulation.   Remember, we can’t read Ecclesiastes unless we read the last verses, first:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Satisfaction and contentment are found, not in accumulation, but in total reverence for God.  

God Blesses Our Labor - Psalms 128-130

Psalms 128:1-2 (ESV)

A SONG OF ASCENTS.

Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,

who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

The Song of Ascents are a collection of 15 songs (120-134) that the nation of Israel would sing on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for feasts.   This one is about why they are going to Jerusalem:  God has blessed them.  Our blessings come from our fear of the Lord.    Those who walk in His ways are guaranteed that their labor will not be in vain.   And we should note that they had to labor.   God did not just give them food.  They had to plow, plant and reap the harvest.  It is God who provides the dirt, the seed and sent the rain and the sun.   God wants us to know that our blessings come from Him, but He also wants us to take what He has given us and plant it.  They created none of it.  Not the dirt, not the seed, not the sun, not the rain.   All of it is a gift from Him.   But they had to put the seed in the ground and nurture it.   That is what God then blesses.  We then, in turn, take that bounty from the crop and bring it back to Him.   God wants to bless us and give us everything we need to be blessed.   By faith we take His gifts and invest in them.  He expects a return. 

Note Jesus’ parable about the talents:

 Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV)

The Parable of the Talents

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Obedience Is Esstential For Worship - 2 Chronicles 33-36

2 Chronicles 35:18-19 (ESV)

No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

The significance of the above two verses can’t be understated.   The verses come at the end of a great worship service King Josiah orchestrated for Judah.   When he became king he started cleaning and rebuilding the Temple.  They came across a copy of the Book of the Law (the first five books of the Bible).  When Josiah read the book, here was his response:

2 Chronicles 34:19 (ESV)

And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.

He didn’t just respond by tearing his clothes, however. He also started to obey the words of the Law.  He must have read about having the Passover, because that is what he did.  He reinstated the Passover feast.   This is the startling point made.  NO ONE had done this like this since the days of Samuel.   The time frame from Samuel to King Josiah was 400 years.   For numerous generations of leaders we did not see the Passover done in this way.  This was the reason for the division between Israel and Judah.   This was the reason Israel was in captivity and Judah was about to into captivity.  Disobedience to the word of God results in walking away from the way of God.   Josiah was brining them back to God.  To do that he needed to obey the words of the Book.   Obedience to God’s word will change the direction of a heart, a community and a nation.   Without obeying God’s word people don’t change.  When we do obey God’s word we can worship Him properly.   

The Theme of the Bible - Deuteronomy 10-12

Deuteronomy 11:13-17 (ESV)

“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

The above instruction from Moses to the nation of Israel may be the most basic instruction of the entire story of Israel. It might be the simple, but major, story of the Bible.   Obey God’s commands and word and you will experience blessings.  Disobey God’s commands and word and you will have curses.  This is certainly the theme of Deuteronomy.  It was the theme of the Garden of Eden.  It was the theme after the flood given to Noah.  It was the theme given to Abraham.   It was the theme talked about my Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. It was and is the theme of the New Testament.  Obedience to God equals blessing and disobedience does not.   God gets to define the meaning of blessing.  We read that and we think something quite different than God means. Here we might remember the story of Job.  In the end he was blessed. But the journey felt much less.   Obedience to God is the key to life.   Simple, but true and powerful.  

Do Not Judge - James 4-5

James 4:11 (ESV)

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Judgment is reserved for a judge.   Spiritual judgment is reserved for The Judge; God!   Yet, for some reason we all think we can do it.  We all think we can bring judgment on others by our mere thoughts about their actions, decisions and/or directions in life.   Why?  We don’t like that others judge us.   We would like them to accept us unconditionally and all we do as permissible to them.  Even though we know we are sinners ourselves, we hope others won’t judge us.   Yet, it does not take long for us to do this.  We are all guilty of this.  This is why Jesus said these words in His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 7:1-5 (ESV)

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

My log in my own eye makes it impossible for me to even see the speck in my brothers.   Yet, the heart expresses judgment through the tongue, about a person’s speck.   The interesting point that James is making is that the person who judges another is setting themselves up ABOVE the Law (God’s moral and character code of ethics and spirituality).   James is telling us that we are not only doing harm to our brother, whom we are judging, but we are doing harm to ourselves. We are putting ourselves above God, making ourselves The Judge!   We are displacing God and taking His throne.  That puts us in the place of judgement that we don’t really want to be.  Think about that before you try to point out the speck you think you see.  

God Moves Us - Acts 11-12

Acts 12:12-17 (ESV)

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.

Peter has been locked up by Herod for his faith.  Herod has just killed James, the brother of John, and was eager to oppress the Christians even more.   As Peter is held in prison, presumably for his faith, angels rescue him in a miraculous way.  Peter thought he was seeing a vision has he is brought out of jail.  Once he came to his senses, the above story unfolds.   Outside of one brief mention of him in Acts 15, this is the last time Peter is mentioned in Acts.   When it says he departed and went to another place, we don’t know where that is.   Here are some lessons from this shift in Luke’s account of the early church. 

1. Peter went somewhere else for practical reasons.   He may have left Herod’s jurisdiction. He could not stay at Mary’s house. That is the first place Herod would be looking for him. 

2. Peter went somewhere else for suffering reasons.   God wanted him somewhere else so God used this incident to move him.  God often allows suffering to be a way to move us from one place to another.   

3. Peter went somewhere else for ministry reasons.   God is about to change the story of the church and is pivoting away from Peter to Paul.   This is Luke’s way of ending the focus from one to another.  This is God succession plan.   

4. Peter went somewhere else out of fear. This reason is not complimentary to Peter. But watching James die and having this experience would undoubtedly change someone.   

5. Peter went somewhere else to write.   We do know we get 1 and 2 Peter out of all this.   Peter will be long enough in his ministry to pen these two letter warning us about false teachers and how to live in a hostile world.  (It is noted that he teaches us to obey and submit to worldly leaders, in his first epistle.) 

According to church tradition Peter was martyred in Rome.   Wherever he went, he served his Savior and died for Christ’s message.   God sometimes moves us for His reasons and not ours.