Haggai 2 - Little Temple and a Big God

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are completing the Old Testament Minor Prophet Book of Haggai.

And as we learned yesterday, Haggai was a prophet to the Children of Israel. They had returned from their 70-year captivity in Babylon.

The Old Kingdom of Israel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah had been destroyed a little more than 70 years prior.

So then the Children of Israel had been taken into kind of what we would know more now as the Middle East, kind of Iran-Iraq area. And 70 years elapses. Babylon is then destroyed by the Medo-Persian Empire, who take over.

They allow the Israelites to go back to their hometown, if you will. So they go back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem and really all of Israel is kind of in shambles.

You have the walls of Jerusalem and all of the gates. Those were all broken down and destroyed. The Book of Nehemiah talks about how those were rebuilt.

And then the Temple of God had obviously been destroyed. All of the good things, the gold and silver, everything valuable had been taken out of it.

And you can even read in the Book of Daniel of how the Babylonian kings even used some of the things that had come from God's Temple in their various parties, things like that.

So as Israel gets back into the land, one of the things that they were supposed to be doing was rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed.

They didn't have to necessarily make it like as nice or as amazing as it had been back in Solomon's Day, but certainly they needed a place where they would go and worship just as they did with the tabernacle way back when, and then with the temple in

the days of Solomon and onward. However, they had not done so.

They had been very focused on themselves, on planting their crops, on trying to amass everything for themselves, and they weren't caring about their relationship with the Lord or about their kind of responsibilities that they had to each other that

God had told them about in the book of Deuteronomy, of this covenant that they were under between them and God, that God had said, here's all of the blessings that will happen if you do life in the way that it was made to be lived, which included

having a relationship with God. And then he also said, here are all of the, if you will, the curses, the bad things, the consequences, for if you live your lives in this land without God and in defiance of God, here is what will happen to you all. So

all of those things were coming true. And so God encourages them, hey, through the prophet Haggai, worship me, follow me, and we will, you will have abundance. There will be such joy in what you do.

And so the children of Israel, they received it, and so they began building the temple. And so that's where we find ourselves today in Haggai 2 and verse number one.

It says, on the 21st day of the seventh month, so this is a little less than a month that they had been working on the temple, the word of Yahweh came through Haggai the prophet.

Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to the high priest Joshua son of Jehoshedek, and to the remnants of the people.

So this is, as I mentioned yesterday, Zerubbabel is the 18th great grandfather of Jesus, and Joshua son of Jehoshedek obviously is a high priest, one that is in charge of the worship of God's people.

So he says, to these two leaders and to all of the people, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn't it seem like nothing to you?

Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel. This is Yahweh's declaration. Be strong, Joshua son of Jehoshedek, high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land. This is Yahweh's declaration. Work, for I am with you.

The declaration of Yahweh of Heaven's armies. This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit is present among you. Don't be afraid.

For Yahweh of Heaven's armies says this, once more in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.

I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says Yahweh of Heaven's armies. The gold and silver belong to me. This is the declaration of Yahweh of Heaven's armies.

The final glory of this house will be greater than the first, says Yahweh of Heaven's armies. I will provide peace in this place. This is the declaration of Yahweh of Heaven's armies.

Okay, I want to standardize a couple of things. Number one, the very first thing that jumps off the page at me is just how many times God is described, number one, by His covenant name of Yahweh.

This was the God that they had made a covenant with centuries before, and He's saying, I am faithful to the covenant, and you all have now been following in obedience and worship of me.

And I want you to know that even though this temple isn't very impressive to you all, and you guys are thinking about all of the riches that once like made this place gorgeous and beautiful, he says, don't worry about that.

Like be strong, keep on building, because I am the one who is going to make this house beautiful. I am going to make it so that all of the various treasures of heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, that all of that comes to this place.

He says, I will do that. You guys don't have to worry about that, if you will. I'm in charge of furnishing the house.

You guys just build the house. And then, I love what he says there at the end. He says, the final glory of this house will be greater than the first.

So he says, this temple is going to be greater. There is going to be something better about this temple than about the last temple. And then he also says, I will provide peace in this place.

Okay. What is God talking about? Why would they work hard to make a subpar temple to them?

Some of them, the old ones, they remembered what it was like to walk into Jerusalem and to see the sparkling gold, to see the silver, to see the elaborate pillars and the great cedars of Lebanon that had been brought in to build this house.

What would make this temple better? Okay, well, number one, this temple would be the temple that Jesus would eventually walk into.

Of course, Herod the Great built lots of great things on top of, if you will, the shell of this temple, that he made it so that it was much nicer in Jesus' day than when these had built it initially.

So certainly, what God says there about the treasures of earth and of heaven and of the sea and the land definitely came true in some literal senses that this temple was beautified by Herod, who was trying to curry some favor with the Jewish people.

But I also noticed that the glory of that temple was the fact that God himself walked in inhuman flesh into it, that He was dedicated there as a child. And we can read about that at the end of Luke chapter 2. Jesus was the one that walked in.

He taught in this temple. God himself taught His word at 12 years old in human years in the temple. What a glorious thought.

He was the one that came in and purified the temple, the one that said, I have this zealousness, this zeal for the Lord's house. This one who said that God's house was to be a house of prayer, a house for all nations.

It was not supposed to be a marketplace or some place that people would go to take advantage of others. This was the temple that God himself would rip the veil into the Holy of Holies.

That he ripped that curtain that was in this temple, thereby showing that the way had been made forward, him providing peace in this place, that Jesus was, he was in there consistently.

What a wonderful thing that these people, a couple hundred years before, they wouldn't have been, they wouldn't have known that.

They didn't know that what they were doing in this day, this little thing that they were putting together in obedience to God, that it would be a place where God himself would walk and worship and give and purify and teach in.

They didn't know that the Messiah was going to do all of that in their temple. And so God is encouraging them, hey, be strong in your work because God is going to be here and there will be greater glory.

I will make lasting peace between God and man forever through what would take place in this temple. And certainly Jesus, the treasure of heaven, all of those things that God is doing and would do in this temple.

Can I tell you today, you might not have any idea about what you are doing. You don't know if what you do has value.

Can I tell you that if this is true for these people, that hundreds of years later in a like refurbished addition of their temple that they were building, that God would do all these amazing things and God lives in you now.

The Holy Spirit made you his dwelling place, his tabernacle, his new temple. And you might not have any idea of what God wants to do through your life.

But in the mundane, even though you might look at it and go, wow, it's not really that my life is not that startling, fabulous, amazing, noteworthy. God can do incredible things through your life.

You don't know what person that you influence or disciple or say a kind word to. You don't know what they will go on to do. You don't know whose lives they will go on to touch.

I can think even of some of the people that were amazing pastors over the past couple of centuries, that they were led to the Lord by a Sunday school teacher.

And that Sunday school teacher was led to the Lord by someone who was just in the church or in the community or just a business owner or worker. And those people had no idea what God would do through their spiritual legacy. Can I encourage you?

One of the ways that you can know like, okay, God, does my life have value? If we are following and obeying God's commands, just as here the people of Israel were doing, then we can know like, God, I'm giving you everything that I am.

I am telling others about you. I am discipling. I am being faithful to pass on to others what I was given.

Then we can know, like, God's going to do something. I don't know what it is. It might just be that I impact one person positively for Christ in my life, but I have no idea who that one person will impact or who that person will then impact.

So let's be faithful to obey the Lord. And in our obedience, just as these people discovered, God can do so much with our little. He can do amazing, bountiful things with our plain little obedience.

Then verse number 10. On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Haggai, the prophet. This is what Yahweh of heaven's army says.

OK, so now we now we've pivoted. Now there's a different story. What is God saying now to Haggai?

Ask the priest for a ruling. OK, ask him what's right according to the law of Moses. If a man is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his garment and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil or any other food, does it become holy?

The priest answered, no. So he says, if you take something holy and the holy thing touches something else, does that other thing become holy? The answer from Leviticus and from Exodus and Deuteronomy is no.

It doesn't. It become holy. Verse number 13, then had I asked if someone defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?

The priest answered, it becomes defiled. So if you touch a dead body and then you touch meat or then you touch oil or then you touch food or wine, does it become defiled? And they go, yeah, totally.

Like that's how the whole clean and unclean thing works. Verse 14, then Haggai replied, so is this people and so is this nation before me. This is Yahweh's declaration and so is every work of their hands.

Even what they offer there is defiled. He's saying, okay, you guys are building the house, you're building the temple, but you are not doing so in a clean hearted way. You are defiled.

Verse number 15, now reflect back from this day. Before one stone was placed on another in Yahweh's temple, what state were you in? The answer is unclean.

When someone came to a grain heap of 20 measures, it only amounted to 10. When one came to the winepress to dip 50 measures from the VAD, it only amounted to 20.

He's saying, you guys remember what was happening, that you weren't experiencing blessing. It seemed like you were always running out, always empty.

Then he says, I struck you, all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, but you didn't turn to me. This is Yahweh's declaration. He says, I tried to let you guys know what you needed.

He says, but you didn't repent, you didn't turn to me. He says, consider carefully from this day forward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of Yahweh's temple was laid, consider it carefully.

Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on, I will bless you.

So he tells them, like, make sure that you guys are clean, that you are both like ritually clean as well as in your life, that you are clean and holy because just working with God's stuff, just, if you will, volunteering in church doesn't make you

holy. It doesn't make your actions or your thoughts right. But you can defile everything that you touch through not walking with the Lord, through not being pure.

It will, in the words of Hebrews 13, you know, if you've got bitterness in your heart, that will bubble out and over and it will contaminate everything else.

In Hebrews 13, it's, beware lest there spring up a root of bitterness and thereby many be defiled. So he says, watch out. Remember that it's much easier to stumble into sin and evil than it is to do things in a right way.

And this is because of that sin nature that we battle, that we are trying to engage, we're trying to engage and win the battle for right. But our natural tendency is that prone to wander.

It's to go back to the old way, to walk in our sin instead of walking with the Lord. And, but he says, but look at all of the crops, I am going to bless you from this day forward. So there's a promise of blessing, there's a warning against evil.

And then we end with verses 20 through 23. The word of Yahweh came to Haggai a second time on the 24th day of the month. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah.

I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. Okay, here we have this imagery of like a great earthquake again that brings in God's kingdom, the Messiah, the treasures of all the nations, of everyone going to the Lord, going to Jerusalem.

He says, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. Okay, so now we know.

All right, there are still Gentile kingdoms today, so this is still future prophecy. This has not yet been fulfilled. He says, I will overturn chariots and their riders, horses and their riders will fall each by his brother's sword.

So this is the people going out to fight, but they end up accidentally turning on each other.

This is something that happens in Judges and Kings and Chronicles and will be something that will happen even now as is being prophesied is happening in this last battle that we would know as Armageddon from John's Revelation.

He says, on that day, this is the declaration of Yahweh of Heaven's armies. I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant. This is Yahweh's declaration and make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.

This is the declaration of Yahweh of Heaven's armies.

So, here the book ends with this promise of a nobling of this king, this ancestor of Jesus who here is kind of being like pictured as a stand-in for Jesus, but certainly as he is one of God's people, he will return with the Messiah on that day, the

book of Jude, of Yahweh coming with all of Heaven's armies, with all of his saints with him, that he comes in and Jesus with the word of his mouth dismantles all of the Gentile kingdoms and armies. He reigns victorious and he will reign, as the song

says, forevermore. He will reign forever and ever.

What an interesting way for the book to end, that we look at chapter 2 and we see that Jesus will make this plain temple a place of amazing worship, that God will beautify what is done there, that he will give himself, his only son, as the treasure

that will give this temple purpose, that he will make peace for all time in this temple. He will be its glory, that he will, if you will, erase the separation that was there between God and man because of mankind's sin, through paying for man's sin,

now God's righteousness and, if you will, ritual cleanness, the purity of heart and soul and spirit that we needed God providing. So in that, he made peace through ripping the veil in that temple that these people built.

And then he lets him know, okay, and for the ultimate victory for God's people, these gentiles that currently kind of rule over you still, you're just a governor over Israel, he says, I'm going to favor you.

I'm going to favor and remember David's lineage. Here's Zerubbabel, a descendant of David and an ancestor of Jesus. He says, I'm going to remember my promises to have an heir on the throne of David.

And he lets Zerubbabel know, like, you are included in this plan, that God hasn't thrown off the line of David. And instead, they will experience all of God's promises that he made to them. Which is really cool to me.

Remember in the end that God wins, that there is no kingdom, there is no earthly political party, there is no invading armies that could ever hope to be successful against Yahweh of heaven's armies.

The God of angel armies, as Chris Tomlin once put, is always by my side. And I'm so thankful for that truth.

Today, if you've felt like you're nothing, that you're going through difficulties, that who you are or what you're doing isn't really worth it, remember what God did with this little temple that these people put together.

Remember if you feel outcast and isolated and alone, that God has included you and his family, that because you are with Jesus, you have a bright future and hope in front of you. So hope that the Book of Haggai would be an encouragement to you.

The next book that we're going to be going over is 2 Thessalonians 3. I don't really know how long that will take us. It's only three chapters, so I can't imagine more than like six or seven episodes in total.

It might be a little shorter than that. And then we're going to close out 2024's Tabernacle Talks with the Book of Hebrews. And I don't know how long that will take, but I love the Book of Hebrews.

It was one of the first books that I went through in a translation that wasn't the King James. And so I was really, really, really ministered to buy the Book of Hebrews, reading it kind of for the first time in my English.

And it just really opened my eyes to so much of God's Word. And so I look forward to concluding our study this year in that book with you all. Thanks for tuning in and have a great day.