TEXT: Haggai 2:1-9

SUBJECT: Christ in the Old Testament #34: The Glory of the Lord

Are you overwhelmed by how much you have to do? Are you discouraged by how little time you have to do it? Do the people—who should help you—often make things worse? Do you feel so swamped that you’ve pretty much given up?

If so, welcome to the club! The people who lived in Haggai’s day felt just the way you do. And maybe worse.

Their problems were many--and big. In the last 100 years, they had fought four major wars—and lost them all. Their last good king, Josiah, was killed by the Egyptians. Shortly after that, Judah was invaded three times by the Babylonian armies, who finally took Jerusalem, and put it to the torch.

Those who fell in battle were the lucky ones. Many of their countrymen starved. Sitting on the rubble that used to be God’s city, Jeremiah sang,

Those who didn’t die of hunger were carried away into a distant land. For seventy years, God’s people suffered the hardships and humiliation of exile. Doctors and lawyers became houseboys and grooms. The wives of rich men became cooks and washerwomen. The children grew up, got old, and died having never set foot on the Land God had given them.

When asked to sing the folksongs of Israel, the captives…just couldn’t do it.

The pain of the exile was compounded by the people’s sense of guilt. Not all suffering is deserved. Innocent nations have been conquered and enslaved, too. But Judah was not innocent. The exile was not an accident of geography. No, it was a punishment, a direct judgment of God.

The holiest man in the world knew that. And felt ashamed of his people and of his part in their guilt,

This is the wider context of Haggai’s prophecy. He spoke to a people loaded down with sufferings and guilt.

The last 100 years had not been kind to Israel. And the times weren’t getting much better!

The People of God had come back to their land, but it was no longer productive.

These problems—again—had a moral cause. God was cursing their work because they were neglecting His work. He had sent them back to rebuild His House. They had started several years earlier, but when the excitement died down and things got hard, they quit.

They were like the thorny ground hearers our Lord described in the parable. They received the Word with joy, but "the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of this life" grew up around them and choked the Word.

You can sympathize with them. No one has enough time or money to serve the Lord! But, until we devote both to His Cause, we cannot expect God’s blessing!

It’s not that they were lazy. But the harder they worked, they farther behind they fell.

Under the pressures of poverty and frustration, the people lost heart. Even their great men gave in to despair, Zerubbabel the Governor and Joshua the High Priest.

The Lord sees their discouragement and does something about it. In fact, three things about it. In the first place, He tells them to get off their lazy rear ends and go to work!

Nothing will cure feeling sorry for yourself faster than going to work. That’s the command: I know you’re really bummed out, but I’ve got a House to build, and you’re going to do it!

Having told them to get busy, God comes to them with a good word: They’ve been lazy and selfish, but,

The Prophecy wakes the people up and stirs them to action…for twenty-seven days.

But then, another problem comes up and takes the heart out of the people once more.

This time it’s the old folks who are to blame. A handful of people had seen the First Temple in all of its glory. The beautifully cut stones, the cedars of Lebanon, the gold, the tapestries, and all the rest.

But this thing? It’s a chicken coop by comparison! It’s small and tacky and not worthy of God! That’s what the old timers said. And no one could argue with them.

Seeing His people go slack, the Lord speaks again, this time with a Promise that seems impossible,

If God has made the Promise, it must be fulfilled. But has it been? And, if so, how?

Some possibilities are easily dismissed. For example, its visible beauty was not nearly as great as Solomon’s Temple. Years later, Herod the Great richly decorated it, but still, it was nothing compared to the First Temple.

Nor can we say—as some do—that this Second Temple is, in fact, a Third Temple that will one day be built in Jerusalem. That can’t be true, for the glory of that Temple (if there will be one) would provide no incentive for building the one in Haggai’s day.

Others have seen this Temple as being—not the building itself (the one they were then working on), but the Church or the Kingdom of Christ. That’s a true doctrine, but it’s not the one taught here. Because—again—it doesn’t fit the context or give the men in Haggai’s day any reason to work on their building.

The true interpretation is also the most obvious. The glory of the Second Temple would be greater than the glory of the First Temple simply because…

God would set foot in it.

In Solomon’s Temple, the glory of God shone over the Mercy Seat. But this Temple would be graced—not only by God’s glory—but by His Fullness!

In Jesus Christ,

The men who saw Him said,

Hebrews 1:3, calls Him

Ambrose of Milan sang to Him,

When I was in Florence, Italy, I must have seen a dozen plaques that said, Dante slept here. The houses weren’t that impressive, they looked like any other, but they were immensely important. Because the Great Poet had been there. If these houses became glorious because of his presence, how much more glorious is the Second Temple because of our Lord’s Presence?

He first came to the Temple at fifty days old. He was then, "presented to the Lord". When Anna saw Him she burst into praise. When old Simeon spotted Him, he was ready to die!

He came again at twelve years old and astonished the scholars with His understanding of God’s Word.

He came often later. Twice He cleansed it.

These visits made that little place infinitely greater than anything Solomon could have built.

That may be good, but what does it say to our everyday lives? How does it encourage us?

In this way: Jesus Christ makes all our work meaningful. Not just "religious" work or "church" work, but everything done for Him—at home or on the job or anywhere else—is important because it’s done for Him!

Here’s the text, Colossians 3:23-24,

Construction is not considered a "religious calling" But the men who laid the foundation, put down the floor, raised up the walls, plastered, painted, and roofed that Temple did it for Christ. Their hammers and paintbrushes were as holy to God as the High Priests’ Mitre and the Prophet’s Scroll.

If God has called you to change diapers, then you change them for Jesus Christ, and your work will be every bit as meaningful as the pastor’s sermon, the theologian’s study, or the martyr’s death.

Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called No Little People, No Little Places. What he means is this: When done for Jesus Christ, everything is important!

It is important now. And will be important forever. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, they rest from their labors and their works do follow them!"

• Take the little things of life seriously. It matters if you say "please" and "thank you" or not.

• Look at your job as a Divine calling. I read of a gardener who made a good living and saved every penny he could. By the time he reached 65, he had salted away a very fine retirement. But he didn’t retire. When asked why, he was offended, "What? Do you think I work just to eat? I work to glorify God!" When done for Christ, gardening is no less spiritual than missionary work.

• Appreciate what others do. You see someone who has a low-paying, low-prestige job. You tend to look down on him—"Flunkey" you think. Never do that again. When the toll-taker takes your toll for Christ, his work is eternally important.

• Appreciate what your wife does. I once heard a man say to his wife, "You get paid what you’re worth and you don’t get paid anything!" Besides being proud and cruel, the man was stupid! Both the happiness and the survival of the human race depend on wives and mothers doing their thankless and unpaid jobs. When done for Christ, their work takes on immense significance.

If you’ve studied theology, you know Jesus Christ sanctifies the Christian. But that’s not all He does. He also sanctifies our work. He makes the hum-drum daily grind into Spiritual Service. That’s why He tells us, Romans 12:1.

The love of God be with you all. Amen.