The subject is the building of the second temple. The people had been busily employed in building their own houses some of them had gone to great expense and much labour upon these houses, but they had not built the temple of God. The prophet Haggai was sent to incite them to holy labour.
Haggai 1:1-2. 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, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Thus people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.
A bad excuse is thought to be better than none. These people would not object to the building of the Lord's house, but they were willing to postpone so expensive a matter. There are always some persons who will not say that they decline self-sacrifice for Christ that were more honesty than it were reasonable to expect from them, and honesty might cost their feelings too much, but they have some other reason or pretense of reason «The time is not come that the Lord's house should be built.» Men are generally quick enough for anything that is for their own interest. «A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.» We must catch time by the forelock. Oh! if we had the same desire in the work and service of God if we had the same desire we should have the same promptitude to do our task. «The time is not come the time that the Lord's house should be built.»
Haggai 1:3-4. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?
They had wainscoted their houses with cedar and odoriferous wood, decorated them with carving, whereas the plainest edifices would have sufficed. God will allow them to build their own house for necessary dwelling, but next to that should certainty come his house, before they took to decorating their own. «Is it time for you to do this?» and, indeed, it may well be said to many a wealthy man, «It does not appear to you to be time to aid foreign missions, but it does seem to you to be time to put another thousand pounds in Consols. It does not seem time for you to help the Bible Society, but it seems to be time to make another investment, and purchase another estate that adjoins your own.» «Is it time for you, oh! ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses?»
Haggai 1:5-6. Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 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.
Those people did not prosper: they were very prudent after a worldly sort, but somehow they did not get on. No! it is not what we do so much as God's prospering us that will make us really succeed. It is vain to rise up early and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness. God must give us prosperity, and he often withholds this where he sees it is not right. A man will not trust a bad steward, and though God hath trusted many and many a bad steward for wise reasons, yet among his own people he often gives chastisements, and deprives them of worldly comfort, when they use not what they have for his service. I think I have heard some people say that ministers never ought to talk about money in the pulpit. The prophet Haggai did, however; and it is because ministers say so little about the consecration of their substance to God's cause that this most important part of true piety is often treated with levity, and with some even by disgust. Nay, brethren, we must speak often. The great sin of the Christian Church is withholding from God. Now is it the sin as in the days of Haggai. «Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.» If you considered your ways, you would see that you have been losers by your attempts to gain. Consider your ways practically by altering them.
Haggai 1:7-8. 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.
That should be the great object that we should aim at in all we do, that God may be glorified that God may take pleasure in it. It does not matter who we please if God is not pleased, nor who gets honour from what we give, if God is not glorified thereby.
Haggai 1:9. Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little;
It vanished: the breeze was so strong that the unconsecrated substance went away like chaff.
Haggai 1:9-11. 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. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 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.
Men make an inventory: item so many cattle, item so much corn, item so much wine. God can make items, too, and he can curse all our blessings one by one. This catalogue looks like it. If they have saved in all these, robbing God, God will take care that they shall get nothing by their doing.
Haggai 1:12. 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.
There is good bottom in those men who are led to duty when they are reminded of neglect, and it is blessed work preaching where there is a conscience quick to accede to the admonition. I do not suppose it was so with all the people of Jerusalem. but it was with some of them, and those the leading men. Where high priests and men of authority lead the way, others, if not so prompt, are often guided by the principle of imitation, and they follow the leader.
Haggai 1:13. Then spake Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying. I am with you, saith the LORD.
Here was the best cheer for them. They had engaged in God's business, and God would be with them
Haggai 1:14-15. 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, In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
Notice that date the four and twentieth day of the sixth month.
This exposition consisted of readings from Haggai 1:1 to Haggai 2:9; Hebrews 7:15-28.