HOW GREAT THOU ART

IN

HAGGAI

Chapter One

“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying …”

The book of Haggai can only be understood rightly when we have grasped the meaning and significance of verse one. Darius means “earthly,” and this prophecy is pertaining to earth. That it is in the second year of Darius the king implies that already two of the three times are past on earth and the earthly one is still reigning, but Haggai brings us a word for our day, the word of the Lord. Again, the sixth month here must be understood to mean the month prior to the seventh. We are thus shown that this word pertains to the last days. If we read it as, “In the second millennium” – a millennium being a thousand years – “whilst the kingdom of earth continued,” (prior to the time of our Lord’s return,) “there began a new day when the word of the Lord was spoken directly by a prophet raised up of God for His purpose.” This word is spoken to the governor of Judah, the leader of God’s people, and to the high priest as the leader of the priesthood. The names we will consider later. This is the meaning and significance of verse one, and needs to be properly understood if we are to get benefit from the prophecy of Haggai.

“Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, This people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.”

As we see in verse one the time referred to is our day, nearing the end of the second thousand years, in the last act of the drama of life on earth, and immediately prior to our Lord’s return. God is seen as waiting with His angels ‘off-stage’ as it were, in the expression ‘the Lord of Hosts.’ But God’s people on earth seem unconscious of the time – they are seen to be saying, “The time is NOT come,” whereas God is definitely saying the time IS come!

Therefore we must awake from sleep, and arise to do what must be done, for God will give us light. Our time has come, the house is to be reconstructed, and there is a work to be done now in our day. To mistake the time now is foolish; we can no longer say the time is not come, for God is speaking again directly to us and He is saying, “The time IS come.” It behooves us to see this and to know what God requires us to do. For this reason the book of Haggai assumes new importance, pointing out to us that today is the first day of the sixth month, the first day for an important new phase to begin for us when we must turn our attention to the house of the Lord. Let us now cease to say, “The time is not come,” for God is even now speaking to us through the prophet Haggai to show us these things.

Verses 3 – 6 >> Sown much but brought in little

“Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying -”

Just as God used His prophets of old to foretell the first coming of Christ to earth, so God uses us through the medium of the scriptures to warn His people to be ready for the second coming of Christ. Because there have also been false prophets in former days who misled the people and set dates for the Lord’s return when only God the Father knows the date – and reveals it to none – so now God is instructing us from His book, the Bible, to see that the time is short and calling to us through Haggai to awaken from our lethargy. We will not be misled if we pay attention to the scriptures, listening with the ears of faith to what the Holy Spirit would tell us concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. God is not setting dates for us, but rather revealing to us the word of the Lord – and the word of the Lord to this generation is simple and short, “The time is come.” To anyone who claims that God has revealed a date to him or her, let us make it quite clear. The date of our Lord’s return is so secret that the Lord Jesus Himself does not know it. If God the Father has withheld it from Jesus Christ, His well-beloved and only begotten Son, will He reveal it to you? Haggai gives us as close an approximation as we need get to see that God is saying only, “The time is come.” If we knew the date would we watch in hope? And if we do not watch in hope we annul the scriptures that teach us to be found watching.

“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?”

Up till now we have been neglecting rather badly the fact that God’s house is in a deplorable state. Which of us would willingly and knowingly neglect our own homes to the extent that we neglect God’s things? God’s house is the Church on earth and it is sad to see what a state it has fallen into in this our day. If decay and rot and vermin began to eat away our ceilinged houses in which we live today would we not take steps to repair them? Ask yourself, how much time, effort and money have I so far spent on my home compared to the house of God? Is this the Lord’s will for me? Has the time not come, therefore, to do something about the state of the Church on earth?

The Church lies today in ruins compared to its former magnificence and we are content to have it so. Gone are the pillars, the ornaments of God’s grace, the mystery, the atmosphere of godliness. Gone are the mighty bulwarks, the strong walls, the wealth of gold and silver and brass and wood. The roof leaks, the ceilings are fallen. Instead of godliness we have only efficiency and advertising, instead of faith we have games of chance, instead of our pillars we have a pliable plastic compromise, instead of ornaments we have nests of vermin, instead of beauty we have stocks and shares.

“Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; consider your ways.”

We each have only one life-time on this earth. The second coming of Christ is near. What should we do with the time that we have? There are many choices. We might succeed in the business world, or go to great centres of education and spend much time there. We might travel, we might set out to see a great deal of this planet or go on to another planet. We might immerse ourselves in sport or literature. We might drive bigger and better machines. There are thousands of ways of spending our time; from researching the past to predicting the future. It is no longer a question simply of working, eating and sleeping six days out of seven to keep body and soul together, but rather a multitude of choices of how to spend our time. Let us therefore consider our ways – now – and turn our attention to the neglected things of God in this golden age of leisure and entertainment. Some of course have a great deal less leisure and entertainment than others, but for each of us who dwell in ‘cieled houses’ the implication is clear – we have time, money, energy for own things whilst the things of God show neglect. If this describes our present position the word of the Lord of hosts to each one of us is, “Consider your ways,” and we might add that as regards the time, the word to us is clear, “Now therefore.” Not tomorrow – now!

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

Whether we consider this verse in the purely material picture it presents of those who despite all effort seem not to prosper, or whether we consider it from the spiritual point of view the revelation is clear enough. With all his technology and education man is not better off but worse off, and the problems of earth are not solved but multiplied. The individual never had more opportunity, but which of us has not felt that for all we eat, drink, and wear we seem to be empty and colder than ever? As inflation again and again overtakes our ability to earn we realize we are holding a bag of holes. But in the spiritual sense never has the gospel been more widely proclaimed, by publishing, printing Bibles, evangelistic crusades, mass communication and travel afar. “Ye have sown much” – with what results? Never have we seen so much “food” in the way of religious literature, religious tracts, religious pictures and great religious movements, but for all we “eat” our lives are strangely unsatisfied, even downright dissatisfied. We have also drunk of the water of life freely, and the Holy Spirit has been liberally “poured out” to us, but we are not filled with the Spirit in the manner of the early church.

Verses 7 – 9 >> Consider your ways

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.”

If we have seen that neither materially nor spiritually are we as a people prospering like we should then the time has come to ask, Why not? Or as scripture puts it, the time has come to consider our ways. Are we in fact on the right lines? For the efforts expended are the results good? If the sowing has been so abundant, why such meagre results? Peter preached a couple of sermons and thousands of people were saved – have we not preached thousands of sermons and only saved a couple of people? “Consider your ways.” Think about it. Think seriously about it. Something is wrong somewhere. Paul and a handful of followers turned the world upside down in his lifetime, without microphones or rallies or advertising or even a printed New Testament. Think of the aids to evangelism used today and the thousands of preachers who claim to have preached to millions of people, and the impact seems to be that of a wet sponge. Remember that in addition, ninety-seven per cent of the people on earth now have available to them both Old and New Testament scriptures in their own tongue and are far more literate than in the apostles’ day. “Ye have sown much” – good for you! “And Bring in little;” – what went wrong? A handful of men once converted the then known world; now armies of men are converting a handful of people. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.

“Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.”

What then are we to do to stop the rot? “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house.” What mountain, what wood? Surely Calvary is the mountain, the wood is the Cross of Christ Jesus our Lord. If we mean to repair the damage to the Church we must stop bringing our own materials, our efficiency and public relations ability and psychology and our advertising and our worldly efforts. We must give up our modern ways, our worldly-wise sermons, our human ideas, our carnal thoughts, our plastic Christianity, our bright synthetic smiles, our paper-thin veneer of godliness. We must turn back to Calvary, go up to the mountain, and bring back with us the Cross as the symbol of death and shame in the modern world. We are to preach Christ and Him crucified. We are to astonish a blase world with the gospel, the power of God to save people, by telling the world of sin and hell, of Calvary and resurrection and heaven. Use your modern technology once more, if you will. Record a few sermons, and ask yourself, “Did I preach hell to the sinners as a place of torment to which they will go, except they turn to Christ at Calvary for remission of sin through His shed blood?” Ridiculous? Yes. But it is the only way to build the house ever suggested by a prophet of God, and it is the only way to please God and to glorify the Lord of hosts. Consider your ways.

“Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.”

Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Has that been our experience? Those early expectations blasted with an east wind, those blighted hopes, those dreams that came to nothing. We expected more, far more, and our hopes and ambitions were high to begin with, but life dealt cruelly with those hopes and all our ambitions were vain. For no reason that we could discover we were frustrated in all our desires. But all along the reason was there in scripture if only we had sought to find it: – “Because of mine house that is waste.” Our ambition was selfish, to build up a house for ourselves, to get us a name, to bring home the blessing, to succeed, to be something in this life apart from God altogether. We ran every one to his own house, to his own things, and let God’s house fall into disrepair and disrepute. Perhaps we never understood before. As God’s people we were led to expect that God was on our side to help us, whereas in fact our own experience proves that God was not with us but against us. “I did blow upon it – Why? saith the Lord of hosts.” Now we know the answer, for it is clear enough. “Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.”

Verses 10 – 11 >> how to get God’s blessing

“Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.”

The dew is what makes for tender herbs, for spring flowers, for softness and lusciousness of fruits. We pray for showers of blessing, and the heavens over us are brass and the fruit is dry and withered. Why? The reason was given in verse nine, the ‘therefore’ in verse ten. For every effect is there not a cause, for every ‘therefore’ a prior ‘because’? If the effect does not please us let us seek out the cause, if the ‘therefore’ is not to our liking let us look to the ‘because.’ We should be concerned enough to ask questions. Why are these things so? Why is no one being saved in this place? Why are the heavens above us stayed from dew? Why are my prayers not answered? Where are the results of last week’s prayer meeting? Where is the fruit? Why does God seem to blow on everything we do? What is wrong?… If we are so smug and self-satisfied that we never ask questions God will ask the questions for us, and perhaps OF us. “Why? saith the Lord of hosts.” But it would be easier for us if we did the asking, for if the Lord of hosts has to come to us to point out what we should have discovered for ourselves, and ask us why these things are so, then we will be seen to have been asleep – caught napping, we would say – when we should have been watchful, and not suffered the things of God to die in our midst. Let us look to the things that remain, therefore.

“And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.”

If we neglect the affairs of God and the Lord’s house to look after our own affairs, our own house, how does it affect us and in what particulars will we notice it? Let us see what God is here pointing out to us. “And I called for a drought” shows that even our dryness, our barren sterility, is indeed the work of the Lord God, which is manifest in all these ways given here.
“Upon the land” – this is the place of our abode, wherever it be. “Upon the mountains” – we fail to reach any of the heights, so that life is barren and boring, dry and dull, without the high-lights which would make it all worthwhile.
“Upon the corn” – the harvest is never what our sowing led us to expect.
“Upon the new wine” – the gladness and the true joy is likewise dry and arid.
“Upon the oil” – the Holy Spirit is quenched within us.
“Upon that which the ground bringeth forth” – our earthly portion is barren.
“Upon men” – that is, upon us as a race, a nation, a people, a community, a neighbourhood there is a drought, a dryness to life that should never be acceptable.
“Upon cattle” – the drought extends even to the beasts, to creation about us.
“Upon all the labour of the hands” – our work, our best efforts, our busiest days are barren.

Can we not see that if our lives are such as described here it is more than time we stopped to consider our ways? When our hopes are blighted, our dreams lost, our ambitions frustrated, our visions perished, there must be a cause, as we saw in verse nine. It is not change or ‘luck’ or coincidence, for God says that everything we attempted to do He did blow upon it. Furthermore, if the conditions of drought have affected our abiding, our high points, our harvests, our happiness and our anointing there is surely something amiss. And if we can look round us and see this strange adversity going on to affect our nation, our neighbourhood even, to the point where the very creation seems to suffer, and all efforts to restore harmony through the labor of the hands appears to be futile, then we can be sure that God has called for this ‘drought.’

The answer therefore lies – not with the rulers of the country – with the church. The mysterious malady that afflicts us is a mystery no longer; it is from the Lord, because of the deplorable state of His house among us. Why complain against the government? – it is the Church in ruin which is the basic cause of our undoing. If our own lives are not what we would like them to be it is not because of taxes or unemployment or poor leadership – it is because we have neglected the house of the Lord of hosts. We are instructed to go to the mountain and bring wood and restore the house, and if we neglect that clear instruction then the drought will get worse by and by.

Verses 12 – 15 >> The people’s obedience

“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, 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 did fear before the Lord.”
Let us take heed to this book of Haggai and hear the voice of the Lord our God speaking through the words of Haggai unto us the people of God. First we must cease to say, “The time is not come,” for now therefore the time certainly IS come, as the reading of the words of Haggai clearly shows. Then second we must go up to the mountain, to Calvary, and arm ourselves with the Cross of Christ, and so begin to restore the house of the Lord which has fallen into its lowest state for years. Thirdly, we must start all over again by our study of scripture to discover the will of God for our lives and obey that will. The voice of the Lord is saying, “Consider your ways,” and sudden enthusiasm is not what God is after but serious consideration of our present ways of doing things, and obedience to God when we discover that our way is not His way. Not all the people, but the remnant of the people who are faithful and willing should take this upon themselves, and so bring the fear of the Lord back again to all the people. Haggai brings us this message for our day, a clear call to the work of restoring the house of the Lord, and we pass over it at our peril, for the drought is beginning to have deadly effects in our generation.

“Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.”

We saw in the earlier verses, and in our own experience in our own lives, that God was against us because we were neglecting His house, so the prophetic message to those who obey the word of the Lord is, immediately, “I am with you, saith the Lord.” If it is clear to us that Haggai is the Lord’s messenger bringing before us a message for our day from the Lord, then it is up to us to change our way of going and respond. Then and only then will the rest of the message be meaningful to us, “I am with you, saith the Lord.” This message is to those who fear God, who obey His voice, who bring the Wood from the Mountain to restore the House. Those who refuse to see Haggai as the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message to His people are left with the drought of verse eleven. Let us not defer therefore to be counted among the remnant of the people who heard and obeyed. God does not send His messengers with a message to His people merely to pass the time, nor does He look with approval on those who scorn the message and spurn His messengers. If we can see by our own experiences that God is not with us then it is time to stop and consider our ways, for it is clear from this verse that if we obey the voice of the Lord and the words of this prophet, and see the messenger with a message for us, that indeed “I am with you, saith the Lord.”

“And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God…”

There is our side to every matter and there is God’s side to every matter. It might appear that here we take the initiative and obey the message, and then along comes God to stir up the people, but un fact if God did not stir our hearts first would we ever do anything for Him at all? If we are led by the Spirit we cannot precede God, and the stirring up is actually followed by the work that is done. May God stir our hearts today with this message by the hand of Haggai so that we willingly obey to do the work!
The Lord of Hosts is once again spoken of now as being “their God.” No longer can the world say, “God is dead,” for the evidence of their God among them is in stirred hearts and obedience to the Lord’s voice and a mighty work taking place in the Church, in the house of the Lord of Hosts. These people are now people who have gone up to the mountain, who have the word in their midst, who are conscious that God is with them, who fear before the Lord. Add to that stirred hearts and spirits, a willingness to listen to the prophets, and a mind to obey, and it is apparent that this is exactly the message for our generation, if we are to stop the rot that we see in the Church in our day.
:in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”

This last verse in chapter one emphasizes the shortness of the time at our disposal. It is the equivalent of the eleventh hour. Only a brief period is left to us in which to work, for we are already in the final days, the great seven day period of grace which ends the sixth month and closes the chapter of the Church’s history on earth. When we reach the twentyfourth day of the month we are looking at the last week, the last period of grace, for this is the sixth month. This is not date-fixing, but only a look at God’s calendar to see that activity is needed now if any of the magnificence of the house is to be retained. The message of Haggai regarding time is fairly specific, yet can be summed up in words we are all familiar with – Brethren, the time is short. Haggai is a prophet of the last days, and we do well to remember that his call is to the sleepers to awake, to arise, to build again the Lord’s house. Darius still reigns, we are still on earth, nothing has changed, yet now according to God’s calendar we are in the final seven day period of the sixth month of the second ‘year’ of Darius the king. If we have got the message, let us also note the time, and begin at once to restore the house of the Lord of Hosts.

Chapter Two >> The coming glory of God’s house

Verses 1 – 5

“In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying …”

It is needful for us to see that Haggai represents a messenger, a prophet of the last days, by whom comes the word of the Lord to the people of God. In the seventh month we see that God’s time has come when He will personally intervene in the affairs of men, and this is stressed by the twentyfirst day of the month – that is, three times seven in the seventh month. It is not even yet the day of the Lord’s return, which would have been the first day of the month, bit rather the emphasis here is on God’s time. (thrice seven). So we must conclude that this ushers in the tribulation period, that final time of trouble when evil overtakes the world – evil, that is to say, not as has always been in the world in relation to Satan, but evil from the seven vials spoken of in Revelation as God’s direct intervention in the affairs of men. The verse does not mention Darius, because what is in view now is God revealed as a God of wrath – the sixth month being ended and the days of grace gone forever as far as the world is concerned. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai. We see again the importance of Haggai, for right into the tribulation era the word of the Lord comes to us ‘by the prophet Haggai,’ thus serving many generations.

“Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying …”

Let us at this point consider the names given here – first, Zerubbabel which means ‘the last word’ or ‘the final voice’, implying the word or the voice at the end of all things. ‘Son of Shealtiel’ means begotten of the King and of the kingdom, denoting the authority behind the word or voice. On the other hand Joshua means Saviour, (literally Jesus) the son of Josedech, which again means “the author” as in the sense of the fountain-head of all authority, and implies the King and the kingdom. We must remember that Haggai came before the birth of the man Jesus Christ, and therefore spoke to Him as well as spoke of Him; Haggai is an Old Testament prophet pointing out Christ to the people, for all prophecy pointed to the coming of the Messiah. But because Haggai is more important to us than to them, his prophecy is easier perhaps to understand in our day than in any previous age because the times are actually here now. There is only One who could be the Governor of Judah and our great High Priest at the same time, the One born in Bethlehem in a manger, for “out of thee (Bethlehem) shall come a Governor that shall rule (lead) My people Israel.” Haggai thus serves a double purpose, to foretell the Messiah to Israel and the second coming of the Lord to us. If we are the residue of the people let us listen to this prophetic utterance.

“Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?”

Here are three questions that we should all look at seriously. Who is left among you that saw this house in her former glory? It is a question directed to the elders, those who remember when the Church was a great house, or those who have gathered from the New Testament some idea of the first glory of the early Church, or those who have seen from the Old Testament the glory that God gave to the Church as the place on earth where He had put His great name, in the illustrations of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and Solomon’s Temple in the land. And how do ye see it now? Apart from the microphones, tapes, efficiency, comfort, conveniences, public relations officers, big business methods, financial resources, real estate, buildings and parking lots – how do ye see it now? To those who have eyes to see so as to understand and perceive, is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Do ye not mourn the passing away of her glory and power and influence and beauty and love and zeal? – to be replaced by synthetic Christianity and business-school methods and boredom and powerlessness, but with bright smiles and lively singing and entertainment. To those who retain some idea of the great house in her first glory, this latter house is a ruin and a desolation that puts despair into the stoutest hearts at the thought of re-building.

“Yet now be strong, O Zerrubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

The words of Haggai the prophet are addressed to our Lord Jesus as leader of the people and as Saviour and High Priest of Israel, for the work which was done on earth in His day here called for determination and strength to carry it out, first as the man Christ Jesus the son of David – “Be strong, O Zerrubbabel;” then as the high priest of the great sacrifice – “Be strong, O Joshua;” then as first-born from the dead among many brethren – “Be strong, all ye people of the land,” and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. But whereas the early church was to replace the former house of Moses and the temple of Solomon, and seemed to them to unfavourably compare to what they had known, yet the glory of the latter house was to be even greater than the glory of the former house. But to us the word in Haggai is not so much to ‘build again’ as meaning to start from the new foundation, but to ‘build again’ as in the sense of restoration of greatness and glory. We are thus to be strong in the Lord for this final effort, even with the strength and purpose and determination which He showed when He left us His footsteps to follow, for the task before us today is almost as great as at the first.

“According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.”

As the tribulation period approaches, and the day of grace ends, the Church on earth is to come to a climax of greatness and glory before being taken away. All the wonders seen in Egypt are to be revived, and the covenant renewed, and the Holy Spirit brought into prominence. For this the word is, “Be strong – fear ye not.” We are not asked to do the work in our own strength but in the strength of Zerrubbabel and Joshua – that is, in the strength of the Lord our Saviour. And we are blessed by the presence with us of the Holy Spirit, for “My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.” We have all the help we will ever need; the Mountain is still there and so is the Wood, the Governor of Judah is our leader and Joshua is our high priest, the prophetic utterance gives us instruction and direction, and the Spirit of God remaineth among us. We have the new covenant in blood, according to the word which God covenanted with us when we “came out of Egypt.” Let us not fear, therefore, nor be discouraged from doing the work of building again the house with the wood from the mountain, but let us be led by the Spirit, be strong in the Lord, be resolute and willing to do the work to which God is calling us. The shortness of the time left to us should by no means put us off this work, but rather compel us to put away our lethargy and procrastination for ever.

Verses 6-9 >> The presence of Jesus produces glory.

“For thus saith the Lord of hosts; yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; …”

This of course is the teaching of the apostles as conveyed to us by the New Testament. But what we must new see is the teaching of Haggai. We have learned the doctrine of the apostles regarding this ‘yet once and I will shake’ verse, but still the people say, “The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” In other words, we have come to regard the phrase, “It is a little while,” as an indefinite period which still appears to stretch ahead of us without any sign of ending. But wake up and look around you. If God’s prophets seem still asleep, the world’s prophets cry of impending doom in ever shriller accents every day, and many worldly-wise persons have heeded their warnings already. Indeed, a rising suicide rate attests the fact that many have felt the beginning of the shaking of God and were so frightened they jumped off a bridge to get away from it all. Surely it is only God’s people who now say the time is not yet come. Everywhere one looks there are men and women starting up in alarm, aware without conscious effort that the long-foretold end is at hand, feeling instinctively that the shaking of heaven and earth is either about to commence or has already commenced in the life of this generation.

“And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”

The nations are feeling shaken already and the desire of all nations (which is of course nationalism) is emerging more and more as they feel themselves being shaken. These and many other signs indicate the approaching end of all things in the period of bitter tribulation facing the world, but for us the end is not only tribulation but glory as well. “I will fill this house with glory.” This house? Yes, indeed, this house. Says who? Saith the Lord of hosts. So we need not fear or be discouraged or despair but only be strong to build again the house so that it is a proper place for the glory of the Lord to rest upon. Would we have the glory of the Lord of hosts filling a ruined house, a run-down structure, a mere edifice of outward godliness? Would that be a fitting climax to two thousand years of church history and the memory of all those who have gone before us? But rather let us labor to make the Church a fitting place to be filled with all the glory which God would bestow upon her so that she may be taken out of the world a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We cannot gain glory for the Church; her glory must come from God – but we can build up the Church again from its present state so that it may be found to be a fitting place to be filled with the glory of the Lord of hosts.

“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.”

The silver and gold found on earth is put there by God, and He knows exactly how much there is to draw upon. But in a more spiritual sense we see that the silver represents that which is of the Spirit, that which on earth is purely spiritual and belonging to God, to the realm of the Kingdom of God, while gold speaks to us also of eternal things, of faith and ‘like precious things’. In the temple we see how silver and gold are used to overlay wood. Thus the meaning of the Cross of Christ, the basic factor in Christianity, becomes overlaid with spiritual thought and faith in things pertaining to the Kingdom of God; and it is this combination of the basic factor, the Cross of Christ, represented always by the wood with which the house is built, and then the overlay or ornamentation given to the basic factor by our own spiritual thought and faith in Christ Jesus our Lord which makes the house so literally precious and beautiful and tremendous and wonderful. So the Church of Christ is a structure of wood and silver and gold, of altars and pillars and buttresses and cornerstones, skillfully put together by the Master designer and architect to form a house not made with hands. We need only go up to the mountain and bring the wood, and God will add the silver and the gold to restore this house to all its former beauty and splendour.

“The glory of the latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.”

God is seen in Haggai as the Lord of hosts, the Lord over all the hosts of angels and the hosts of heaven and the hosts of earth, just as in Revelation. He is seen surrounded by many milling multitudes. This is the difference between Haggai and Genesis, between the end and the beginning, between the solitary God making the one man and the Lord of hosts with the uncountable multitudes. We see that everything in God’s plan depended on Calvary – “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” Because of the Cross of Christ all things fit together, the solitary God of all eternity becomes at the end the Lord of hosts, and the glory of the latter house is greater than of the former. Thus God is glorified, and it is God who glorifies the house in turn. Our task is only to go to the mountain, to return with the wood, and thus build the house – we may leave it to God to glorify the house just as He adds the silver and the gold to overlay the wood and make magnificent and beautiful the whole structure as it pleases Him. “And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” We need not concern ourselves about the division and strife that accompany our attempts to rebuild the house according to our instructions from the prophet, for the word of the Lord standeth sure.

“In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying …”

Here we see a time change. No longer is Darius ‘king,’ but only the earthly scene is in view. In other words, God intervened to block our view of any other, so that what we see here is not Darius reigning but only the time of Darius, now spoken of as the ninth month rather than the sixth month because God has stepped into the affairs of earthly things. We are thus shown the same scene, the twentieth and fourth day of the month signifying the day of grace, with this difference – the kingdom of God is now present among men, the foundation of the Lord’s house has been laid, the second ‘year’ of Darius is the time, the ninth month is the beginning of the glory of the heavenly kingdom dawning. At this point it is stressed that the word of the Lord comes to us by Haggai the prophet, the prophet of the last days, the one raised up as the messenger of God to bring the message of God specifically to the remnant of the people of God – that is, to those who after all this time still adhere truly faithful to the pattern of God as revealed to them in the scriptures. We are found now as priests in the house of God, offering the sacrifices ordained of God from the beginning of time, ready, watchful and waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, building up the house in the manner designated.

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying …”

This takes us back to Leviticus, to the ordained priesthood and all we saw in Leviticus concerning holiness and the priesthood and the offerings and the pattern and the law and the oil for the lamps and our discernment. Only if we have mastered Leviticus can the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet come to us in our capacity as priests. We saw in Leviticus that the priests had knowledge, they were the ones who through study had learned rightly to divide the word of truth. Here we see the interaction of the prophet and the priests – God uses the prophet to question the priests. The priest has sought knowledge of God through the scriptures and has been ordained by God to serve in the house of the Lord, but the prophet has a gift (and we are taught to covet earnestly these gifts of the Spirit, but rather that we may prophecy) so that God can use the prophet to speak to the priests. Although no doctrine, no revelation, no word from God, no prophetic utterance can depart from the truths taught in scripture, it is clear from this passage (and all scripture) that prophecy goes beyond the priestly exposition, and that God can speak to the priesthood through the prophets. God is a God of order; He does not ask the prophet concerning the law but He asks the priest concerning the law, He asks the prophet concerning prophecy. God does not ask the priest to prophecy, nor expect the prophet to serve the altar.

“If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.”

The priestly part is to exercise discretion and discernment in all matters concerning the law; that is, pertaining to the priesthood. This is an important judgment. If Jesus was the Son of the living God, would not the town of Bethlehem or the village of Nazareth be holy? Would not all He ever touched be holy, even if only the hem of His garment touched it? It is a question for the priests, and the priests answered and said, No. Similarly, if we being sanctified by God are priests, is whatever we touch not holy? The priests themselves answered and said, No. So then it is clear that only the things sanctified by God are counted as holy, and only the persons sanctified by God are counted as holy. Salt is salt, and has the ability to impart its own saltiness to whatever it touches, but the other which is touched does not become salt. Holiness can pertain only to whatever or whoever is sanctified by God. Creation pertains to God yet it is not holy. The law pertains to God but the law is holy. Mankind pertains to God yet is not holy. The people of God on the other hand are an holy nation. The angels who followed Satan will not come with the Lord at His appearing, for the Lord will come with the holy angels. So then this important principle is upheld by the priests, who answered and said, No.

“Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.”

This again, remember, is not a question put to all the people, but a question directed at the priests only. We have seen that holiness does not impart holiness to whatever it touches, but now let us see that uncleanness clearly does impart uncleanness to whatever it touches. In other words, uncleanness contaminates. This is the principle taught by God, upheld by the priests, and brought to our attention in the last days of Haggai. We saw in Leviticus the teaching regarding the dead body, that all things mentioned in the law which were dead, which had not the life of Christ in them, render us unclean if we put our hands to them to touch them. But what the prophet of the last days is stressing is the things which have been contaminated – the bread, the portion, the wine, the oil and the meat. These are all things that pertain to the house of the Lord. So we are shown, or rather the priests are shown, that the communion table and the fellowship and the joy and the spirit and the doctrine are contaminated because we have put our hands to dead things, we have dragged the dead things of this world into the life of the Church, thereby rendering the things of the Church and of the holy priesthood unclean in the sight of God whose standard is Holiness unto the Lord, and whose instruction is , “Be ye holy for I am holy, saith the Lord.”

“Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.”

Up till now the emphasis has been on building the house, but enough has been said to teach us what we must do to build the house again and restore it so that God can add His glory to it and His silver and gold to it. At the same time the word of the Lord is directed to the priests. This people, this nation, their works and their offerings are all unclean in the sight of the Lord. The priesthood is responsible for the holy things, so that contamination may not occur, and we have been wickedly lax in fulfilling our responsibilities. We have watched our people turn to the dead things of this world and failed to comment. We have dragged these dead things into the house of the Lord and thought ourselves clean. We have failed to prohibit those who are unclean from touching the bread and the wine, the oil and the pottage and the meat. We have turned our head away when we realized that certain ones were a contaminating influence in the house of the Lord, and as priests we have behaved ourselves very badly indeed. It is not that outsiders are unclean – we know that anyway – but it is “this people, this nation” which is unclean and every worm of their hands and every offering is unclean today. If the people are instructed to build up the house of the Lord, then the priests are the ones who are instructed to clean up the house and purify it.

“And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord: …”

We are the living stones which are built up to form the Church proper, the house, the temple of the Lord. When God is addressing the people He refers to the house, but when He is addressing the priests He refers to the temple. Even the mode of address is different here. No longer is it simply, “Consider your ways” but, because it is the day of grace, “And now, I pray you, consider …” or even, “I beseech you, consider.” God is asking the priests to consider, He begs them to consider, He beseeches them to consider. Will we refuse yet again in these last days to consider in spite of the pleading of the Lord our God? The message takes us back to Calvary, back to the foundation of the Church, back to the day “from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.” The appeal is to the priests to turn their thoughts back to Calvary, to consider from that day and upward, to see these last days in the light of that day, to review in their thoughts what the Church is today and consider it in view of what its founder intended it to be. If the word to the people in our day is, “Go up to the mountain and bring wood,” then the word to the priests is, “Consider from this day and upward.” What day? The day our Lord was crucified, the day He rose from the dead, “from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.” What think ye? Will you consider, or not?

“since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.”

Since those days – since the first golden flush of love and joy and zeal in the early Church the sparkle has not been seen again. With the decease of the apostles the enthusiasm seemed also to die, to be replaced by a soberer note, a sense of chores to perform, of duty rather than love, of responsibilities rather than excitement, of endurance rather than joyous hope. The priesthood adopted black as their color of choice, and the Church put on her widow’s clothes. No longer was the life a new way of abundant living, but when one came to a heap of twenty measures there were but ten, and instead of the overflowing of joy and gladness that characterized the early Church, now it seemed that when one came to draw fifty vessels from the pressfat there were but twenty. There were exceptions, of course, and history records many mighty men of God, but the description of verse sixteen fits perfectly the overall picture of the Church – “since those days were.” Indeed to anyone studying the New Testament accounts of the first days with its heaps of twenty measures and its bursting pressfats full of wine, the discrepancy is obvious. The Church has endured, certainly, to this present hour, but half the enthusiasm appeared to be lost very early in the life of the Church proper.

“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to Me, saith the Lord.”

Very obviously the Church had settled on her own course in history and was determined to follow it. Occasionally great men of God arose who refused to go along with this idea and sought to turn the Church back to God, and many succeeded during their own lifetimes, yet so brief is the span of a man’s life that little was effected by the most zealous, and for all their efforts God has to say, “Yet ye turned not to Me, saith the Lord.”
“I smote you,” says the Lord, as many chastened ones can testify, “with blasting and with mildew and with hail.” The mighty rushing wind at Pentecost that filled out the sails of the little new-launched barque and bore her along on wings of power became later a blast that shook her from stem to stern as she turned against the wind. “With mildew” – when the rot set in, and divine wisdom was set aside in favor of man’s thinking, when the traditions of men were substituted for the commandments of God. “And with hail” – when God’s wrath was openly displayed against the Church, when the harvests failed and the vines yielded no fruit for God and no satisfaction for His people, and many were sick and many died, and wrath was more in evidence than blessing in the Church.

“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to Me, saith the Lord.”

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.