“It’s too early! I’ll get up in five minutes’ time!” I wonder if that’s been said these mornings as school starts again. There’s another version of it in the afternoons - I’ll do my homework in a wee while. I’ll get round to it eventually. But it’s not just the kids who can put things off. Have you ever had one of those days when you wake up with a list of things to do, all good intentions, and then go to bed that night no further on. Maybe tomorrow, you think. I’m reminded of the wee saying - when a man says he’ll do something about the house he doesn’t need reminded every six months...
But have you found that when you have important things to do, unimportant things become so much more attractive? They’ve no time to do their homework, but have the time to complete ten levels of a computer game. You didn’t manage to get your tax return finished, but did arrange your cds in alphabetic order. No time for the things that really matter, but loads of time for other things.
As the prophet Haggai steps up, this is the problem he’s facing in the city of Jerusalem in 520BC. Sixty-seven years earlier, Jerusalem had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar. Its walls and its houses, had all been destroyed. Even worse, the temple had been destroyed - the place where God’s presence dwelled; the place you met with God; the place of sacrifice. God’s people had been taken away to Babylon, where they lived in exile - you might remember when we looked at Daniel.
Some of the exiles have returned now, they’ve been around for about 18 years. Ezra 3 tells about the restoration of the altar and the foundations of the temple. But that’s all they’ve done, at least, to the temple. They’ve been busy doing other things, though.
And so, on this certain day, the first day of the sixth month (29th August 520BC), Haggai delivers the LORD’s message. ‘This says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’ Not yet, we’ll get round to it eventually. But Haggai continues: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?’
Do you see the contrast between God’s house and their houses? It wasn’t time to build God’s house, which was in ruins; yet they were living in panelled houses - luxury houses. Just imagine walking along Temple Street, Jerusalem. You see the big, impressive houses, and, even though you’re not meant to, you can’t resist taking a peek through the windows as you walk past. It’s not just bare stone walls inside, there’s panelling. You can nearly hear Lloyd Grossman from Through the Keyhole asking ‘Who lives in a house like this?’ And then you walk up the street, and well, you don’t need to go through a keyhole, there’s just a pile of stones, a ruin of rubble. Who lives in a house like this? Oh, this is meant to be God’s house. The contrast is shocking, and it’s meant to be.
As Haggai continues, though, he says that they should have known something was wrong. Do you see in verse 5, the therefore? ‘Now, therefore, (because of all this), thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.’ Or to put it in a Northern Irish saying, ‘Catch yourself on.’ Haggai points to a series of disappointments they were facing. You sow much, but only harvest a little. You eat, but you’re still starving. You drink, but you’re still thirsty. You put on clothes, but you’re still cold. You earn wages, but they seem to disappear too quickly - like putting them in a bag with holes.
Now, was it just that times were hard, and they were unfortunate with the way things turned out? Not at all - verses 10-11 show that God was behind their difficulties. He called for the drought they were facing - in the original there’s a play on words Haggai uses - God’s house is in ruin - ‘hareb’ - so God sends a ‘horeb’, a drought.
Verses 10-11 are an echo of the old covenant curses, which Moses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28. As the people of Israel entered the promised land, they were given the choice of obedience or disobedience, life or death, blessing or curses. They’ve already been through exile, losing their land because of their disobedience. Now they’re back, and they’re doing it all over again.
So again he says, ‘Consider your ways.’ Catch yourself on. Think about what you’re doing. But this time, it’s also a call to action - catch yourself on, and here’s what to do: ‘Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.’
Here’s the big problem. The temple lying in ruins spoke volumes about their attitude to God, and his glory. They didn’t really care about God. They didn’t care what other people would see or think of their God in his temple ruin. They were much too busy keeping up appearances in their own houses to worry about God’s house.
They went about their own business, but neglected God’s business. Could that be true of us, as we gather today? We’ll worry about getting serious with God stuff sometime, just not today, or this week, or this year. We’ll get to it eventually, but in the meantime, we’ll concentrate on ourselves. In Jerusalem in 520BC, it meant that the temple was neglected. So does that mean that we apply this now by looking at the parish church, that we need to consider our ways and compare our houses with this house?
It would be great to be able to do it - except, we’re not sitting in Jerusalem, in the temple ruin in 520BC. We’re here in Aghavea in 2016. The challenge is the same - are we focusing on ourselves and neglecting God’s house - but we have to ask, what is God’s house?
You see, the temple was the place on earth God had chosen to make his presence especially known on earth. If you go to Jerusalem now, there is no temple. But do you remember the Christmas gospel, John 1, which tells us that ‘The word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ Jesus is the temple, the place where God’s presence is found. And now, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3, the temple isn’t bricks and stone - the temple, where God dwells is, is us - his people. ‘Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?’ (1 Cor 3:16). That ‘you’ is plural - yousins, you together are God’s temple.
So if we gathered together are the temple, what will it look like to give ourselves to the work of building the temple, God’s house? We’ll want to build up and encourage each other, by coming together, being there for one another. We’ll want to see others brought in, added to the building, like living stones. We’ll not just focus on ourselves and what we like, but seek to serve one another. And as part of that, we’ll want to make sure that our meeting place is well kept and welcoming - but we shouldn’t work on the building, and neglect building us, the church.
Consider your ways. Perhaps we need to hear that word from the Lord today, just as the people in Haggai’s day needed it. From verse 12 on, we’re told how the word was received that day. Zerubbabel, Joshua with all the remnant of the people ‘obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.’ They heard God’s voice, they obeyed it, they feared the Lord. As they do so, Haggai has another message, a word of grace as they repent: ‘I am with you, declares the Lord.’
They might have initially abandoned God’s house, but God has not abandoned them. God is with them - and so God stirs them up to action, to work on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.
As we turn from our own glory to live for the Lord’s glory, so we have that assurance - I am with you. As Paul reminds us, God is with us, and God dwells in us. As we respond to God’s word, and consider our ways, may we know both his promise that he is with us, and also his stirring up to action.
This sermon was preached in the Haggai: Building for God's Glory sermon series in Aghavea Parish Church on Sunday 4th September 2016.
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