Haggai 2:10-19 Consider your Obedience
Theological Proposition/Focus: God is worthy of our complete obedience
Homiletical Proposition/Application: God’s standard for obedience is high. Those who know God’s standard are expected to follow God’s standard.
Introduction:
Image: Lipstick on a pig: vacuuming the carpet in our first house.
Emily and I were married young while both of us were still in college. At the time we did not have much income and so we rented a very old house that was not in the best of conditions. Nevertheless, we tried to keep it clean. Unfortunately, it was a lot like putting lipstick on a pic.
We would dust the house, but there were places where you could see light through the walls since, eventually we put some caulk to get it sealed a little better.
At one point the entire ceiling just fell in on us while we were playing board games.
We vacuumed and the vacuum cleaner always filled up completely, some of it was dust, a lot of it was the carpet disintegrating.
No matter how hard we tried to do the right things to clean up, we could not overcome the obstacle that was a very old house in very serious disrepair. It was like putting lipstick on a pig.
Need: As we strive to grow together we need to watch out to make sure we are self-sabotaging ourselves through disobedience.
Subject: Obedience
Preview: Today we will start with a universal truth, look at a specific promise to a specific people, and then take away a theological principle.
Text:.
Setting the Stage:
The stage
Recall that Haggai is prophesying to a people who started rebuilding the temple, but then became distracted and stopped.
On the 24th day of the sixth month the work was restarted (Haggai 1:15)
Now, in verse Haggai 2:10 we see that we are a full three months into the process and Haggai has an important reminder message for the people.
The culture
For an Israelite the priest served a duel role.
Priests presided over ritual sacrifice.
Priests communicated and interpreted the law for the people.
In Haggai 2:10-19, God is going to use this 3-month anniversary to remind the people of the mistakes of the past and the blessings of the future.
Body
A universal truth: While holiness is not contagious, Sin has a corrupting effect! (11-14)
Haggai, in his third prophecy, employs some questions to prove his points. Haggai approaches the priests, the experts int he law, and asks them for a legal opinion. This legal opinion will become the basis for Haggai's argument.
There are no such things as spiritual talismans. (11-12)
Haggai's first question really amounts to the following "can contact with something set apart for God spread that sanctified status?
The answer from the priests is a resounding "No!"
No object is capable of transferring sanctification.
God is the one who sanctifies.
1 Thess. 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
On the other hand, sin has the ability to wield devastating corruption. (13-14)
The picture of defilement by a corpse is supposed to remind us of how disgusting sin actually is.
In Leviticus 22:4 (don't read) Moses had written that defilement from contact with a corpse was a significant defilement.
Defilement from a corpse prevented excluded someone from celebrating Passover with everyone else (Numbers 9:6). It seems they were excluded being part of corporate worship until clean (Numbers 5:2).
In verse 14 Haggai applies the text to the people
The people were offering what they thought were sanctified sacrifices.
However, their sinfulness was corrupting the sacrifice in the sight of God
Even if the people thought what they were doing was good, sin was corrupting it before God!
The efforts, intentions, etc. of the people were irrelevant if they did not deal with the sin that was so corrupting.
What had the people done that was so awful as to defile everything else?
Chapter 1 tells us. The people were neglecting the completion of the temple!
Image: When Cilantro tastes like soap.
I do not like cilantro. I am told that some people are generically predisposed in a way that cilantro tastes like soap and overruns everything. I must have that because if cilantro is in a dish, that is all I can taste. You can add as much of whatever else you want but the cilantro will corrupt the taste.
A specific promise: For Israel, faithful obedience brought a promise of blessing. (15-19)
Haggai open the next section of this prophecy with another call to consider carefully. Think about what happened in the past and recognize the significance!
In Israel, disobedience brought consequences. (15-17)
Haggai told the people to remember that disobedience had brought them economic disaster.
And God took credit for the economic disaster in verse 17.
In fact, this is consistent with the promises God had made in Deut. 28:15-68
The curses proclaimed in Deut. 28:15-68 are for a specific people (Israel) in a specific place (the promised land). But that doesn't mean the principle does not hold.
Proverbs 3:11-12 (read it) reminds us that God uses discipline to help us to grow.
Don't despise - reject or take lightly - God's discipline, i.e. don't ignore it.
Don't resent - abhor or loath - his rebuke - God's verbal correction should be accepted as loving concern.
Disobedience has consequences and these consequences are important because of the universal truth, sin corrupts!
However, notice that he phrase is "give careful thought" in verse 15 is missing the "to your ways" Why, because God is about to remind the people to not just think about the past but look to the future!
However, obedience would bring great blessing. (18-19)
The entire section of verses 15-19 is supposed to draw the people to make a contrast between the disobedience and discipline of the past with obedience and blessing of the future.
Haggai calls on the people to look back three months ago and consider what they started.
Things were bad, disobedience put them in a position where the grain had run out, the fruit crop had failed.
But, in light of the obedience of the people for the past three months, all of that was about to change!
Deut. 28:1-14 had promised blessing to the specific people in the specific place and they were about to realize those blessings.
An applied principle: As joint heirs, we are possess great blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3-6)
Our promise of blessing is in Christ. (3)
Israel was given the promise of blessing in for obedience. For the Christian, things are a little different. Our blessing is already assured in Christ.
The word for praise in "praise be to God" is Εὐλογητὸς which is only applied to God and means to speak well of
The phrase who has blessed us is a translation of the word εὐλογήσας a verbal form of the praise mentioned earlier which here means to benefit or prosper
The word is not used in classical Greek, i.e.e Zues does not bless his people
So what is this blessing? Understanding some details will help us understand the blessing and Ephesians 1:3 tells much about God’s blessings on believers:[1]
when: in the past; i.e. we already have possession of these blessings
with what: every spiritual blessing; i.e. we have all we need to prosper spiritually
where: in the heavenly realms; i.e. our prosperity is not necessarily physical but rather spiritual
This does not mean God does not provide physical blessing but rather, that physical blessings come out of spiritual blessings.
In fact, this is what the second half of Ephesians is all about. Paul argues that a spiritual life will have an impact on how you live your physical life.
how: in Christ. i.e. it is nothing that we have done
The blessings that we have are by virtue of our union with Christ.
Hence, we are blessed with freedom from sin! A genuine relationship with God.
Our status in Christ is holy and blameless. (4)
Don't get lost in the weeds here. God chose us, we could spend hours debating what that means. Here is what I want to say. Ephesians is written to people who were saved. Hence, God in some way chooses people. this passage says nothing about God not choosing other people and says nothing about God chooses some people for damnation. Here is what I know, God in all knowing and all powerful in some manner beyond my comprehension God chose to bring me to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, not because of anything that I have done but simply because of his grace. I am smart enough to know there is much in this world I don't fully understand and so why not just admit that I don't really understand what it means to say that God chose me.
Don't lose sight of what God chose us for!
He chose us to be Holy
This is it, this is important, don't just let this one pass by you!
=In Lev. 11:44 (read this) God called His people to be holy and this has not changed with Christ. God desires for His people to be holy (1 Pet. 1:16).
Lev 11:44 I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.
1 Peter 1:16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.
He chose for us to be blameless
Since we are in Christ we are guaranteed that we will be presented to GodHoly and Blameless (Col 1:22)
Col 1:22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
Under the Mosaic covenant blessing followed obedience, under the New Covenant Christ was perfectly obedient and secured our blessing. Now God wants us to be obedient because it is what is best for us.
Here is where everything comes together. For the Jews to which Haggai was ministering disobedience had brought about devastation but God reminded the people that their now obedience would bring about blessing. For the Christian, we have the promise of blessing but that doesn't change the fact that God desires obedience. The big difference is that now God's law is written on our hearts. Our obedience does not come from without but from within as we submit to the working of the Holy Spirit. Disobedience may bring chastisement but that chastisement is always aimed at restoring the individual to God's way of life.
MTR: Embrace Christ's gift. Enjoy the blessings. Check your obedience.
- ↑ Harold W. Hoehner, “Ephesians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 616.
