When Later is not Good Enough
Hello and welcome to Grace Outpost! I am delighted to have you join me
today. This past week has been a tough
and discouraging week. I honestly
thought about skipping today's message altogether and just have a stress free
day. However, I ran across the passage
that we will look at today. I kept
running into this message throughout the week from more than one angle and
place, it became obvious to me this morning that God was speaking to me and my
discouragement today.
Before we can jump into Haggai we have to understand the
scene upon which Haggai chapter 1 begins.
For this background we need to look in the book of Ezra, chapters 3
& 4, which give us the backstory of what Haggai will speak into. These books cover a return to Jerusalem after
the 70-year exile in Babylon. King Cyrus
who was king of the Persians sent out a decree allowing those from Jerusalem to
return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
Zerrubabel and Jeshua (also called Joshua in Haggai) were amongst those
to return, Joshua is the high priest and Zerrubabel is the governor of
Judah. Ezra 3 tells us that these men
begin the process of rebuilding by building the altar and they began
sacrificing upon the altar to God. It
goes on to tell us that the temple foundation had not yet been laid when the
altar was completed. Two years into
their return to Jerusalem they lay the foundation and they were overwhelmed
with emotion upon the foundations completion.
At the end of Ezra chapter 3 things seem to be going well, the altar is
built and the foundation is laid, but in chapter 4 they encounter problems with
people who had been moved into the land during the exile. These people petition the king to halt work
on the temple, which the king gives a decree to stop work in response to their
request. Joshua and Zerrubabel, let the
work cease… enter Haggai.
Haggai is one of two prophets sent to them during this
period of time. We do not know for how
long Haggai shared God’s word with the people, but we do have a good idea that
the time span for the pause in work was between 9 and 15 years long.
1 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? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of
hosts: Consider your ways. 6 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.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house,
that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9
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. 10
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has
withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the
hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on
man and beast, and on all their labors.”
Those who had stopped the temple from being built had
questioned whether it was the proper time for the temple to be built. Perhaps even the returned exiles began to
adopt this view during the hiatus from rebuilding. It certainly seems so, as God asks of them if
is it right for them to dwell in paneled homes, while the temple lay in ruins
(Haggai 1:4). Paneled houses would have
been an unusually expensive adornment for homes in ancient Israel, so the
criticism is not that they have made homes while the temple lay in ruins, but
they have indulged in luxury when there is work to be done. He then tells them to consider their ways, by
selfishly placing themselves before the rebuilding of the temple they had
brought hardship upon themselves. God tells
them that they sow much and harvest little; they eat, but do not have enough;
they drink, but do not have their fill (Haggai 1:6). He tells them again to consider their ways
and tells them to build the temple, to get back to their calling. Which they had ceased when encountering
hardship. God tells them flat out that
their lack is because he has brought a drought against them and withheld the
dew, because of their disobedience.
So you are probably sitting there, if you are still reading
this, thinking so what? What does this
have to do with me? Have you had a clear
vision from God of something you were supposed to do? For example, right now my wife and I are part
of a church plant and we are fast learning that the path of church planting is
far from easy and that is just as a launch team member, not as a church
planting pastor! We have had bumps along
the way over the last year, but right now we have seemed to hit a place where we
are running out of steam. It is easy in
these times to coast and see adversity as a sign that what we thought we were
called may have been wrong. It is easy
to give up, though you are willing to serve.
That is what we see in Haggai 1.
We have leaders and people who were eager and happy to serve God, but
when a road block arose, they stopped. I
can relate, there are many times in ministry and in life when it is easier to
quit than to persevere. We admire
stories of those who have an iron will and do not quit, we admire these because
it is a rare trait. As I read this today
and all week, God seemed to be encouraging me and rebuking me to not falter, to
press forward.
Most of us are willing to be used, but on our time table, or
on our terms without pain or problems.
How many times have we been convicted by a sermon, challenged by the
Spirit to serve on a team, or in a ministry, or make a change, only to say I
will do that… later. Later isn’t good
enough, God has cast a vision for you to pursue, he has work for you to tackle,
and we will meet challenges and perhaps pain in pursuing it. It is okay when things feel to big for us to
handle, because we are supposed to give it to God. God will see you through the task and make
things work to accomplish his will, if we put God’s priorities first he will be
glorified in our work. How refreshing
that God desires for us to be a part of his work, lets be clear, he does not
need us to accomplish his will. That
fact, should be a great relief to us as well, if God doesn’t need us to
accomplish his will, then he invites us because he desires our
participation. It might be for our
growth, or merely for his glory, but his will shall be accomplished no matter
what. Jesus died on the cross that we
might be reconciled with God.
Are you currently putting off something? Perhaps God is saying “Later is not good
enough” to you today.