Verses 15 – 19
“Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider it.”
O priests, take a morning off from your innumerable duties, from all the labors of your hands, and sit down somewhere quiet and listen to God. Pause awhile in your busy lives and stop and think. Consider it. Consider the Church, the temple, the house, the Bride of Christ. Consider even from the day that the foundation was laid, and see if these things be so or not. Remember the day the foundation was laid, the glory that filled the temple, the power that was exhibited there before the rushing mighty wind became a blasting, when the Church had the power of God behind her, and now God is blowing in your faces. Why is it so? Is it not because you are facing the wrong way, facing away from God, facing westward onto a dying world? Turn you, and repent, and feel that God is behind you once again backing you up in all you do. Turn and feel the power available to fill you as it filled them at the first. Consider, consider, consider. “I pray you, consider.” From the day that God intervened personally in the affairs of men, when the Lord came in human flesh, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the Lord’s temple was laid, consider it. Should you carry on with all the labors of your hands in view of the blasting, the mildew and the hail? Consider, I beseech you.
“Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.”
Is it too late to change? No, for the seed is not yet in the barn, the end is not yet come, the ingathering has not started just yet. There is still time to change – that is the message of Haggai to this generation. The vine is still growing, it has not yet yielded up her fruit. And the fig tree, the whole institute of Christianity and religion towards God, is still in leaf only. And the pomegranate, the fruitful apple tree, has not yet borne her fruit. And the olive tree has not brought forth. There is yet time. But is it worth it, worth the effort, worth the stirring up, the labor of rebuilding, the blood, the sweat, the tears? Suppose there is time to do what needs doing, suppose we start today – what then? “From this day I will bless you,” is the promise of scripture, the promise of God. Have we never longed for the abundant life, for Pentecostal power in our assemblies, for miracles to happen, for thousands to be added daily to our numbers, for God to raise up great men and for God to stir up the spirits of the people? Is there no one you can think of who needs healing? Do you believe there is an abundance of prophets or can you find difficulty naming one? Would your people benefit by going up to the Mountain and bringing the Cross back into their daily lives, back to the building up of the house? Consider well.
“And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying …”
Once again God is speaking ‘the word of the Lord.’ Haggai is an Old Testament prophet yet the word of the Lord came unto him in the four and twentieth day of the month. Not specifically the ninth month, nor yet specifically the sixth month, for what is represented by these two ideas does not enter into it at this point. Haggai is seen rather as a prophet who has a message for a certain day, not altogether for the men of his generation who lived and died so long ago, but rather the word of the Lord as it pertains to the four and twentieth day of the month. In other words, Haggai comes in at a set time, the beginning of a new phase of things oriented towards the last days. His word would have been applicable to Israel on the arrival of John the Baptist, his word would have been applicable to the apostles immediately prior to Pentecost, his word would have been applicable to Martin Luther’s generation. But because we saw earlier that the instruction is connected with the second ‘year’ of Darius the king, the word by Haggai is perhaps more applicable to this our generation than at any other time in history. Each time the four and twentieth day of the month comes round the word of the Lord comes to Haggai again and again, thus proving him not only a prophet for the last days but clearly the messenger with the Lord’s message for all those who have ears to hear.
