"Blessing, Blight, and Mildew" Sermon: Haggai 2:10-23

“Blessing, Blight, and Mildew”

[Haggai 2:10-23]

October 23, 2011 Second Reformed Church

            The remnant who returned from Babylon was instructed by God through Cyrus, the King of Persia, to rebuild the Temple.  After they began to rebuild, they fell away from the work, and God sent the prophet, Haggai, to call them to repentance and to encourage them to return to God’s work for them and not give up hope, but to trust in God’s Promise of the Kingdom which is yet to come.

            The final two prophecies of Haggai came about two months after the people returned to the work:

            “On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: “If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?”’ The priests answered and said, ‘“No.”’ Then Haggai said, ‘“If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?”’ The priests answered 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.’”

            God sent Haggai to ask the priests two questions about God’s Law:  If something holy touches something common, will the common thing become holy?  If something unclean touches something common, will the common thing become unclean?

            And the priests said, “No, if something holy comes in contact with something common, the common thing will not become holy.  Holiness is not a communicable attribute.  You can’t ‘catch’ holiness by touching something that is holy.”

            What does that mean?  God was telling Israel that they were wrong in thinking that they were holy simply because they were God’s people and they had returned to the land.  No one becomes a hamburger by going to McDonald’s.  Holiness is not merely about being part of a community or assenting to statements about God.  Holiness is complete obedience – it is coming into complete conformity with God.

            When God saves us, we are not instantly holy.  Becoming holy is the process called “sanctification.”  God works in us and through us to bring us to holiness when Jesus returns, but until then, it is a struggle – a fight – hard work to progress towards holiness.  Holiness cannot be bought on the Internet; holiness is a lifelong struggle towards obedience and being conformed to the Image of Jesus.

            God the Holy Spirit indwells every person who believes in Jesus the Savior.  The Holy Spirit reminds us of what we have read and heard from the Scripture, and He helps us to understand it.  And when we are tempted to sin and walk away from the road to holiness, God makes a way for us to keep from sinning.  Paul wrote, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”  (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV).

            We are called to holiness in our whole life:  “since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:16, ESV).  Holiness is neither automatic, nor easy.  It takes work, but, eventually, God will cause all those who believe savingly in Jesus Alone to be holy      Becoming unclean – sinning – is easy:

            The priests also said, “Yes, if something unclean comes in contact with something common, the common thing will become unclean.  Uncleanness is a communicable attribute.  One sin makes you a sinner.”

            God said, “or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, …; or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, …;” (Leviticus 5:2-3, ESV).

            There are laws concerning what is clean and unclean throughout the Bible.  Although it is not necessary for us to keep the Ceremonial Law, since it has been fulfilled in Jesus, the principle remains the same:  if we sin, we are a sinner, and as we continue in sin, the easier it becomes and the more frequently we will sin, and the more difficult it will be to stop sinning.

            Israel gave in to the pressure to stop building the Temple – to put paneling up in their homes instead – and they neglected the Temple for fourteen years until God sent Haggai.  Sin snowballs.  They gave in to pressure and took some time to make their homes magazine ready, and fourteen years slipped by.

            Understand, holiness is not a prerequisite for salvation.  We do not have to become holy to be saved.  Salvation is the Gift of God through Jesus Christ to whomever He wills.  But, once we have been saved – once we have been delivered from God’s Wrath for our sin – we are called – commanded – to become holy.  We cannot enter the fullness of the Kingdom unless we become holy. 

            When Paul writes, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12, ESV), he is not saying that we can earn our salvation.  What he is saying is that those who have been saved by Jesus – because He is God the Only Savior – we ought to work with everything we are to become holy, as He has commanded – and it is work.

            Also, understand this:  everybody sins.  However, the Christian who realizes he is sinning will repent of it and pray that God will forgive Him and help him to not sin again.  The non-Christian will say, “Well, I’m good enough – I’m better than most people, so God will excuse this.”  The non-Christian will say, “It doesn’t matter if I continue to commit adultery, because I am a member of a church, so God has to accept me.”  The non-Christian will say, “I’m not under the Law, I don’t have to obey God, so long as I believe in Him.”

            Israel was saying, “Yes, we abandoned rebuilding the Temple, which God commanded us to do, but we kept other parts of God’s Law, so in the end, it will count as obedience – as holiness.”  But they were wrong:  just as you can’t be “kind of pregnant,” you can’t be “kind of faithful,” you can’t be “kind of holy,” and you can’t be “kind of obedient.”  Before the Holy and Faithful God, we are either holy, or we are not, we are either obedient, or we are not, we are either faithful, or we are not. 

“Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD.  Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing.”

God said, “Israel, did you notice that your efforts weren’t paying off?  When you were neglecting My Temple, did you notice that you were losing money and your crops were failing – nothing was going right?  Did it occur to you that I was punishing you – disciplining you – in an effort to get your attention and get you to realize that you were living very comfortably in sin?”

God could have blotted them off the face of the earth, but God is faithful.  He disciplined them to show them they were doing wrong – to correct them and get them to repent and pursue the holiness that all of God’s people are called to.  God disciplines all of His children – everyone who believes savingly in Jesus – that we might reform – that we might turn from our sin.  As the author of Hebrews wrote:

“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:5-14, ESV).

Sometimes, when everything is going wrong, God is calling us to repent of our sin and turn back to Him, following after holiness.  We can’t attribute every bad day to God’s discipline, but we ought not to neglect the fact that God may be disciplining us for sin when things are going wrong.  So, let us examine ourselves regularly, repenting of our sins, and praying that our Loving Father will lead us and keep us in the way of holiness.

“But from this day on I will bless you.”

Why?

“Well, they repented of their sin, so God rewarded them.”

No.

“Well, they had resumed work and worked hard for two months, so they earned it.”

No.

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,” (Deuteronomy 7:9, ESV).

God blessed them because He is Faithful.  God bless us – all those who believe – because He is Faithful.  Not because of anything we did or did not do.

“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, ESV).

God is faithful because it pleases Him to be faithful.  God is glorified – His Character is revealed – as He is faithful to His unfaithful people – you and me.  As God is faithful to us, we glorify Him.

And here Israel – and we – finds hope – if we are God’s people, if we have truly believed in God and His Savior, God will be faithful to us and treat us as His children.

The final prophecy of Haggai is specifically directed towards Zerubbabel, the governor:

            “The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ‘Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.’”

            Last week, we looked at the prophecy at the God would make “the latter glory of this house greater than the former.”  And we understood that, in the Kingdom, there will be no human-made temple.  On earth, three temples were built to God – the third being destroyed in 70 A.D., and it will never be rebuilt, because God, Himself, is the Fourth Temple – the Temple of the Kingdom after Jesus’ Return (cf. Revelation 21:22).

            We saw that this prophecy included the overthrow of everything and everyone that is opposed to God:  God will turn the entire Creation upside-down and shake out all sin and evil and corruption and cast what falls out into the lake of fire.  All that is left will be perfected and brought into “the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21b, ESV).  And this shaking had already begun and would be seen by Zerubbabel, as he saw the collapse of the Persian Empire.

            What we didn’t consider was God calling Zerubbabel his “signet ring.”  A signet ring was a stone that was worn on a ring or on a necklace which bore the mark of the sovereign – the one who was the final authority.  The vice-regent – the under-shepherd – the representative of the sovereign – would take the stone and press it into wax on official documents signifying that the documents have the authority and approval – not merely of the person sending them – but of the sovereign.

            For example, we read in Esther:  “So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, ‘The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.’

“Then the king's scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king's satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring” (Esther 3:10-12, ESV). 

            The king gave Haman his signet ring so Haman could have letters written in the king’s name which would hold the authority and the power of the king, despite the fact that the king, himself, did not write the letters.

            God chose Zerubbabel, His servant, to be a living signet ring as governor.  God chose to use Zerubbabel to display God’s Power and Authority through him.  The prophet Zechariah records how God used Zerubbabel:             “Then [the angel] said to [Zechariah], ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’

            “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel’” (Zechariah 4:6-10a, ESV).

            Despite the displeasure of the surrounding nations, Zerubbabel stood before them and oversaw the completion of the building of the second temple.  Zerubbabel had the power and the authority of God, and as His chosen servant, Zerubbabel was able to complete the work God set before him.

And God also glorified Himself and made Zerubbabel a signet by making Zerubbabel a direct ancestor of Jesus:  “And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:12-16, ESV).

We believers in Jesus have also been chosen for the work and to the Glory of God.  Peter wrote:  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).

Let us believe that God is our Loving, Heavenly Father Who disciplines us for our sin so we would repent and return to Him.

Let us follow after God, working hard to become holy, knowing that it is God’s Work and Intention to make us holy and a glory to Himself.

And let us be the Church, having this hope before us that we are the chosen people of God – a people that God is using to draw all nations to Himself and the salvation that can only be found through His Son.  “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, ESV).

Let us pray:

Almighty God, You are Holy and Just, so You cannot allow sin to go unpunished.  We thank You for the Gift of Your Son Who has taken on Your Wrath for our sin and justified us before You.  We thank You for the Gift of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit who is ever leading us towards You in holiness, and we pray that You would make us holy.  Help us to be Your chosen people – a people You were pleased to call to Yourself and for Your Glory.  Help us to trust and to do and be all that You have called us to do and be – not matter how things may look around us – being confident that You are the Sovereign God Who brings all things to pass according to Your Will.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.