B. Responding to His Message (Haggai 1:12-2:9)

Confrontation is always difficult. We risk our relationship and acceptance from others. Haggai, however, rightly responds to God's calling by boldly confronting the Israelites as we saw in section one.

By fully relating what was on God's mind, the people could see what was on God's mind and respond to Him. This initiated one of the most wonderful reforms we see in scripture. Three individuals or groups were mentioned.

1) Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, was the governor of Judah. He represented the government. It is important to keep the rule of the country out of the hands of the religious clergy. When the religious leaders seize a country's rule, all sorts of unnecessary and excessive reforms are brought upon the people that shame the name of God.

2) Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, was the high priest. He played a key role in influencing the people and the governor of the land. His job was to intercede before God for the people. He was to listen to God and help the people understand God's will.

3) The remnant of the people also responded warmly to the Lord. This remnant was the people who came back from the exile. They are the ones whom the Spirit of God prodded to go back on over the desert region to fight for a living in their old devastated land of Judah. (Read Nehemiah or Ezra for more background information).

Haggai 1:12 speaks of the key change that occurred that made the difference between blessing and curse. They obeyed the Yahweh their God.

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 showed reverence for the LORD. (Haggai 1:12).

Obedience is the best sign of repentance. Repentance requires a change in which a people would respond to God. Obedience is what God really wanted in the first place. In this case, it requires a person to do what God originally wanted. In many cases God's standards gradually decline and no one is there holding up God's standard in front of His people. The people slide down into patterns of sin and protectionism. They might think they are fine but God does not think that way! They need God's prophet to speak and lead them out back to God's green pastures.

What happened as a result of their obedience? Everything significant and good came from that decision to humble oneself and do what God always wanted. The larger the group and the more categories of society that are included in that decision to obey the Lord, the more influence the revival will have on the society. We see here the political forces joined with the religious forces and the people for a genuine true revival. A prophet spoke and the people obeyed, but there was another important step.

We find that the LORD stirred up the spirit of these people to do the work.

So 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, (Haggai 1:14).

Each person or group that obeyed the Lord, was soon moved by the Spirit of God to do God's work. Have you ever noticed that a spirit of defeat often roams around the churches? This is the opposite to the Spirit's work. The Spirit of God is the mobilizer of the people to rightly respond to God by equipping them to do His work.

If we notice the spirit of defeat around us, we should look for areas that we have disobeyed the Lord. What areas have we neglected to respond to? Have we allowed a selfish materialism block out the glory of serving the Lord? Obedience brings mobilization. We treat the depression of man and woman by first seeking which ways they might have compromised their full loyalty to God. God is the mobilizer. If all is well, He comes and enables us to do His good will. When we see that depression, we should pay careful attention to our lives.

The Lord's Presence

Haggai in 1:13 declared that the Lord was with them. "I am with you." What a difference that makes when we know God is with us.

Most of our projects show only that man is with us.

Man's plans for increase in the church or ministry are plagued by ways of the worlds. Pragmatists say that if it works, use it. But they don't realize that God's ways bring glory to Him while man's ways bring no special worship of God. Most building projects show man is with us. We bring debt rather than faith into the picture. Fights and long discussions substitute praise times for God's direction and provisions. We find something radically different here; a renewal takes place because God is there.

The other morning I was speaking with a brother about dead churches. He commented how a community around a Bible school that he was familiar with was plagued with witchcraft and occult. He oft hand mentioned that people are seeking these dark means of spirit communication because they cannot hear God speak in the churches! There is much truth in this. Is God rooted in our ministries? Are they 'our' churches or ministries or God's?

Further Encouragement

After a month of extremely hard work, God sent the prophet again to encourage them. Evidently some of the workers or perhaps onlookers, were greatly discouraged by the sad shape this new temple building was taking. There were some old timers who had evidently seen the former temple in its glory. They had heard story after story about the glitter of gold on the old temple. After all, the gold and silver, the ornaments, the cyprus trees, etc., were all lacking. We can imagine this temple was nice. But in comparison, it greatly lacked the embellishments that King Solomon gave the former one.

God encouraged them by stating how this temple's glory would not be in its construction but by what this temple represented. God was going to do a new work that would go far beyond that temple. Truly it was nothing like before (Haggai 2:3-4). The significance of this temple would not only be great but greater.