The greatest, and most dangerous invention, is one that you might use every day. When you use it, you really feel the benefit of those extra five or seven minutes... but it can also be dangerous, leaving you hassled and stressed and rushing about. The greatest and most dangerous invention may well be... the snooze button! The alarm goes off, and you think, just a few minutes more in bed. It’s not time yet.
Now, whether you jump out of bed at the first sound of your alarm, or use the snooze two or three times of a morning - you will have said those last few words at some point, in some situation - it’s not time yet.
That might be with homework - I’ll do it in a wee while. Or when the deadline for your tax return is due - I’ll get round to that tomorrow. I’ve never forgotten the advice shared on Facebook a few years ago - Ladies, if your husband says he’ll do something, you don’t need to remind him every six months about it!
It’s not time yet. If you’ve said that in the past week, or month, or year, then you’ve got company. Because that’s the very thing that the people of Israel were saying back in the time of Haggai. It’s what God focuses on as he sends Haggai to speak to the people - we see it in verse 2. ‘These people say, “The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.”’
Now, to help us understand Haggai, we need to do a very quick Bible overview, to see where Haggai fits into the big picture. So last week, Colin helped us see that God called Abraham; and from his line - Isaac, Jacob - came the people of Israel. After slavery in Egypt, God rescued them in Exodus (through Moses), then they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Joshua led the people into the land, and they conquered it (mostly). The Judges followed, then the kings - Saul, then David and his line. Solomon built the temple, all was peace and prosperity, then it all went downhill. The kingdom split (into Israel and Judah); Israel the northern kingdom was conquered. Then finally, Judah (the sons of David) were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The people were taken away into exile, and the temple destroyed.
But by now, some of the people have returned, by order of the king. They’ve been back in Jerusalem and Judah for eighteen years. And on a certain day - a day that people cleverer than me have worked out to be the 29th August, 520BC, Haggai steps up to share the word of the LORD. The word of the LORD that comes in verse 2. ‘These people say, “The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.”
We know that we need to build up the temple, but it’s not time just yet. We’ll do it eventually. The time hasn’t come. But God hasn’t finished. He continues to speak through Haggai in verse 3-4. ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’
God confronts them with their own words, and their own experience. So, it’s not time to build God’s house, but it is time to build up your own houses? And not just build up a basic house, but panelled houses. You can imagine the episode of Through the Keyhole - not the new version with Keith Lemon, but the old format with Lloyd Grossman asking ‘Who lives in a house like this?’
So he works his way up Temple Street. The first house is big, luxurious, with the wooden panelling on the walls. It speaks of wealth, and comfort, and work that has taken lots of time and effort. The next house is even bigger, even better. Even more time, money and effort has gone into it. And then he comes to a heap of ruins. Burned stone. Dusty and dirty. Who lives in a house like this? This is God’s house. Abandoned. Derelict. In wrack and ruin.
So Haggai says to the people, delivering God’s message to them - you say you’ve had no time to work on my house, the temple; but you’ve had plenty of time to work on your own house! It’s not about time, it’s about priorities.
In verse 5, God invites the people to consider their ways - to think carefully. ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.’
This has been their experience. They never seem to have enough. Things don’t turn out as well as they expected. They have food and drink, but it’s never just enough to satisfy. they feel a chill, but can never get warm, no matter how many jumpers they put on. It’s as if they’re throwing their hard-earned wages away, and never know where it goes.
So again, in verse 7, God repeats the same words - ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’ But this time, it’s a call to action. To consider what they’re now going to do. How they’re going to respond. Think it through. And he suggests a plan of action in verse 8. ‘Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured.’
It’s a call to build the temple. And why should they do it? ‘So that I may take pleasure in it’ - for God’s pleasure - ‘and be honoured’ - for God’s glory. Building the temple is so that God will delight in it; and so that God’s glory is displayed in it.
God gives this call to action, as he combines the two ways of thinking carefully - about experience in the past, and action in the future. You see, they expected much, but it turned out to be little. How had it turned out this way? It was God who was bringing about these difficult circumstances, to bring the people back to himself. They were working on their own houses while God’s house lay in ruins. That’s why God called for a drought on fields and mountains, grain, new wine, oil, and everything else. There’s a play on words here - God’s house is in ruin - ‘hareb’ so God sends a ‘horeb’ - a drought.
Haggai calls the people to ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’ And through him, God is calling us to give careful thought to our ways. Are there things that we’ve been putting off, saying it isn’t the right time, while we’ve been finding time to do all sorts of other things?
Have we been building up our own houses while neglecting God’s house? Now, we need to be careful to see what the temple is these days. The temple - God’s house - is the place where God dwells, where he is at home, where you meet with God. And through the Old Testament, God’s house was first the tabernacle (a tent) in the wilderness; then the big building in Jerusalem built by Solomon and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. A temple would eventually be rebuilt.
But that all changed with the coming of Jesus. God’s presence was no longer in a building, but in a person. Do you remember in John 1, ‘The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory...’ (1:14). And in John 2, Jesus says, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ He’s speaking about his body, the place where God dwells, where God’s glory is seen.
And then we come to the rest of the New Testament. And 1 Corinthians is just one of the many places where we, the church, are presented as the temple, the dwelling place of God. ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? This building isn’t the temple, we are. We used to sing a song - church is not a building, it’s the people there inside, people who love Jesus, and wear his badge with pride.
So if we are the temple, if this fellowship of God’s people are God’s dwelling place, his house, then what will this challenge of Haggai look like for us? How do we need to give careful thought to our ways?
Are there things we’ve been putting off, saying that the time isn’t right? Have we been building up our own houses while neglecting this church family? Is this church family a house that God takes pleasure in, and is glorified by? When people in Richhill go through the keyhole, what do they see? Do they see a group of people where God is first priority? Where we’re committed to building one another up, encouraging one another, welcoming new people, being there for one another, giving generously so that we can fulfil the mission of God in this place? Or will we get round to all that some time?
While we’re pondering our response, we see how the people responded in verse 12. The governor, Zerubbabel, high priest, Joshua, ‘and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God... And the people feared the LORD.’ So God speaks again with a word of encouragement. We see it in v13. ‘I am with you.’
As we hear God’s word, as challenging as it may be, we have the promise of his presence with us as we step up in obedience. The people knew it that day, as their spirits were stirred up. And 23 days later, they got going. They began work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God.
We have that promise as well - the Lord Jesus says, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ The Holy Spirit dwells within us. Perhaps this word is a wake-up call. Just don’t hit the snooze button, thinking, it’s not yet time. God asks: where do our priorities lie? Our own house and interests? Or God’s interests - his pleasure and his honour? Give careful thought to your ways. And may we be stirred up in our spirits, for God’s glory.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 27th May 2018.
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