God's Word Lights a Fire - HAGGAI START

Spiritual stagnation can be just as dangerous as sin. 

We come to the book of Haggai. God's people have returned to the land after their exile and settled in the city and land that had been taken from them. They have made life not only bearable but quite prosperous. The work to rebuild the Temple, begun years earlier, was, however, stalled. It seemed everyone was caught up in their own well-maintained domicile and neglected the house of prayer where they met with the Lord.

If the spiritual problem of Israel before the exile was idolatry and injustice, the spiritual problem after it was apathy and low interest in the very thing that made them special - the presence of God among them. 

Into this situation, the prophet speaks:

Haggai 1:1–4 (ESV) In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” 3 Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

Haggai ministered sometime around 520 B.C. The people had returned to the land in 538 B.C. In 536 B.C., they began to rebuild the temple. The project, however, faced significant obstacles. Residents in the land wanted to participate, but because they were not true full-blooded Jews, the leaders forbade them. Because of this and the apathy that developed over time, passion for building had completely faded into 16 years of inactivity.

Haggai steps up and calls them out for being preoccupied with their own house instead of the Lord's Temple. He cites they were living in "paeneled houses" - a deliberate phrase that was used to describe Solomon's Temple project hundreds of years earlier. 

How often our own agenda gets in the way of time with the Lord! And what is the result? Who suffers when we don't spend time with Him? We do. That is Haggi's point.

Haggai 1:6 (ESV) You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Then Haggai points out the celestial obstacles that the people face.

Haggai 1:10 (ESV) Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.

The world continues to testify that we actually control very little. God is sovereign over what sustains us. And God is the source of our sustenance. He is also the author of our prosperity. The warning of Deuteronomy repeats that Israel beware not to forget the Lord who gives them power to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18). 

Haggai doesn't beat around the bush. He ties their personal struggles directly to their disregard for the Temple project:

Haggai 1:9 (ESV) 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.

The words are heard. A renewed interest in the project is born, and the leadership starts the work:

Haggai 1:12 (ESV) Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

The governor (Zerubbabel) and Joshua (the high priest) work together to bring this project back to life. Instantly, another message of a different sort was announced by the prophet Haggai:

Haggai 1:13–15 (ESV) Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.” 14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Their desire to rebuild God's house ignites a fire in the hearts of the leadership that spreads to the people. And it all began with a word from the Lord through His prophet Haggai. 

This is why the house of God is so important for us. You never know what the Word of God will ignite in your life, in the leadership you have been given, in those you lead. It may be a Word that calls you to wake up from spiritual slumber, as in the days of Haggai, or it may be a Word that warns you from spiritual destruction, as in the days of Zephaniah, where we just studied. The point is that God's Word is the source for sustained life and good success. The key is NOT forgetting it.