PROPHET HAGGAI, CURSES, AND BLESSINGS

From where do blessings come? From God, of course. What might block these blessings? When we do not honor God, He will not honor us. Jesus expressed it as putting God first in our lives:

·       “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

There are many examples of this principle to be found throughout Israelite history. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. However, the captive Israelites had been allowed to return to their land in 538 BC after the Persian King Cyrus had defeated Babylon. The governor Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua led them to their Promised Land. However, they failed to put God first by rebuilding His Temple. Instead, they first wanted to take care of themselves and their families, and it seemed that their two leaders were willing to endorse their misplaced priorities.

However, God sent them a fresh prophetic voice. Haggai explained that their crops and animals were failing was because they hadn’t put God first.

·       “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 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. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” (Haggai 1:7-11)

Fortunately, Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the people heeded Haggai’s warning, the Word of God, and commenced rebuilding the Temple. To reinforce this lesson, God also gave them a parable:

·       Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these [ceremonially clean objects], does it become unclean?” The priests answered [correctly] and said, “It does become unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.” (Haggai 2:13-14)

Because the Israelites hadn’t honored their God above everything else, they were unclean in His sight. As a result, everything that they touched and did became unclean and contaminated. This is what happens when we don’t treat God as #1 in our lives. When we fail to honor His Word, He will not honor us.

God reassured Israel that now that they had turned back to their God, things would now be different:

·       Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.” (Haggai 2:19)

Yet, we wonder, “It hasn’t worked out this way for me. I honor God, but He doesn’t seem to honor me.” This is a common and understandable complaint. I’m going to try to explain that there are some differences between our experience that theirs. For one thing, for those to whom more has been given – and that’s us – more is expected. We have the Holy Spirit and can enter boldly into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-22). Whereas, Israel dreaded the presence of God, and God had forbidden them from entering into His presence. He even purposely terrified them so that they would follow His commands (Exodus 20:18-20). Meanwhile, we are to “walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:6-7), something that God had not instructed Israel to do.

Instead, Israel had been like little children. Lacking the Spirit, they required a steady diet of miraculous confirmations, like seeing the 10 plagues in Egypt and being fed daily with the manna from heaven. Consequently, their barns would soon overflow: “But from this day on I will bless you.”

Since we have been given greater blessings than Israel, we are required to exercise a greater measure of patience. Therefore:

·       And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

This means that we should expect to become weary and disheartened, for to this have we been called for the perfecting of our faith (1 Peter 1:6-7).