CRITICAL NOTES.]
Haggai 1:5. Consider] Lit. set your heart upon; i.e. consider your conduct and lay it to heart: a frequent formula with Haggai (cf. Haggai 1:7; ch. Haggai 2:15; Haggai 2:18).
Haggai 1:6.] The meaning of these clauses is, not that the small harvest was not sufficient to feed and clothe the people, but that even in their use of the little that had been reaped, the blessing of God was wanting, as evident not only from the words themselves, but placed beyond doubt by Haggai 1:9 [Keil]. Holes] A torn bag was proverbial for money spent without profit (cf. Isaiah 55:2; Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 8:10). Necessities were dear, and a day’s wage to purchase them, as if put into a bag with holes.
Haggai 1:8.] The summons repeated. They were not required to buy, but simply to give their labour, and bring timber from the mountainous country where trees grew. Cyrus granted cedars from Lebanon for the building of the temple (Ezra 3:7; Ezra 6:3-4). Pleasure] God displeased when it was in ruins. Glorified] Be propitious to suppliants, and so receive the honour due to me (1 Kings 8:30).
Haggai 1:9. Looked] Lit. Ye turned towards much, inspecting frequently the growing crops (Exodus 16:10). Blow] I dissipated, blighted with my breath, the little gathered into barns. Because] Most emphatic. Run] Indicating the eagerness with which they pursued their own affairs and sought for self-indulgence.
Haggai 1:10.] The curse further depicted, with an evident play upon the punishment with which transgressors are threatened in the law (Leviticus 26:19-20; Deuteronomy 11:17; Deuteronomy 28:23-24) [Keil].
Haggai 1:11. I] The first cause: heaven and earth (Haggai 1:10), the visible and second causes. Drought] Affecting man and beast, through vegetation. “The word is carefully chosen, to express the idea of the lex talionis. Because the Jews left the house of God chârçbh, they were punished with chôrebh” [Kiel]. All] Comprehending the cultivation of the soil and labour for the necessities of life.
HOMILETICS
HUMAN THOUGHTLESSNESS.—Haggai 1:5
Having reproved their sinful negligence, the prophet urges them to a serious consideration of their ways. Why should the earth be deprived of produce and their labour of profit through their ingratitude and folly? From the results of their conduct they may discern the principles of moral government, and the proofs of their guilt.
I. Men should seriously consider their ways. Solemnly and prayerfully lay them to heart. Are they reasonable? Nature is governed by force, and brutes driven with the lash, but men should act under the influence of thought and reason, in gratitude to God,—and a feeling of responsibility. To be the slave of habit, or to be under the dominion of lust, is most unreasonable. Are they safe? If opposed to God’s word they are sinful and dangerous. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man: but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Will they end well? Every action tends to good or evil. Thoughts, words, and deeds are the germs of future harvest. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
II. Men do not seriously consider their ways. Thoughtlessness is common in spiritual affairs,—some occasionally, and others never, consider. Indifference, prejudice, and habit operate upon the mind. The greatest difficulty is to make men think. Thoughtlessness in spiritual affairs is inconsistent. Men think intensely and act eagerly in business. When self-interests are at stake they are considerate enough; but in most important concerns careless and guilty. “My people doth not consider.”
III. God urges men to consider their ways. God’s servants call continually upon them to reflect upon their character, condition, and doom. God’s providence warns them of their danger. They have been chastised time after time, to rouse them to consideration and repentance. Sorrows and griefs, disappointments and embittered cups, have brought no change. Once more God calls. Consider now before it be too late to consider. Neglect, want of thought, will be attended with consequences as fearful as open rebellion. “Son, do nothing without counsel, and when thou hast done it thou wilt not repent” (Sir. 32:19).
“Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart” [Hoed].
DUE CONSIDERATION OF OUR WAYS SHOULD TEACH US THE WILL, AND URGE US TO THE WORK, OF GOD.—Haggai 1:6-8
The admonition of Haggai 1:5 is repeated (Haggai 1:7), both as betokening greater urgency, and also for the purpose of reinforcing the argument of Haggai 1:5-6, by showing to what course a conscientious review of their conduct should determine them. They should be impelled, as is next shown, to make immediate preparations for the complete restoration of the temple [Lange].
I. Consideration of our ways should teach us the will of God. Lack of consideration led to disobedience. When the Jews therefore did not hearken to the word of God, they lost his favour and providential care, which secure fruitful seasons and social enjoyment. They were under the visible curse of the law (Deuteronomy 28). God’s will was read—
1. In fields without produce. “Ye have sown much, and bring in little.” God disappoints our expectations from the creature that we may fix them on him.
2. In daily necessities without enjoyment. “Ye eat, but have not enough,” &c. If men would seek first the kingdom of God, they would secure the secondary things of life (Matthew 6:33).
3. In labour without remuneration. Wages earned were spent without profit. They laid up treasures for themselves and lost them. Nothing will prosper if we neglect known duty. “The events of life are the hieroglyphics in which God records his feelings towards us,” says Moore. He speaks in the failure of the crops, and the loss of the merchandise. He diminishes the customers of the tradesman, and scatters the wealth of the rich, to correct in sin and restore to duty.
II. Consideration of our ways should urge us to the work of God. “Go up to the mountain,” &c. (Haggai 1:8). They were to rouse themselves, collect materials, and begin to build. When we seriously consider our life and are convinced of our sins, we shall amend our ways, engage with diligence in needful and neglected duty. “Amendment of life is the best repentance; neither is there any wiser way to break off our sins than to practise the contrary duties” [Luther]. In neglecting God’s commands we dishonour him; but earnest obedience will secure his blessing. “I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Haggai 1:5. Consider. The religion of the Bible is a reasonable service. We are not forced like a machine into insensible workings and results. We are here taught that while God is the author of all good, and our progress in goodness is from him, yet he does not carry us along in the way everlasting, but enables us to walk. He works in us, but it is that he may will and do. We are not only impressed, but employed. Thus all true religion arises from consideration [Jay].
Haggai 1:6. Withholding from God’s cause tends to poverty. Willingly devote a portion of your possessions to his glory, there will be sweetness in the remainder which the worldling can never enjoy (Proverbs 13:25). He will “bless us in basket and in store.” “As long as the sin lasted, so long the punishment The visitation itself was twofold; impoverished harvests, so as to supply less sustenance; and various indisposition of the frame, so that what would, by God’s appointment in nature, satisfy, gladden, warm, failed of its effect” [Pusey].
The bag with holes, contrasted with “bags that wax not old” (Luke 12:33). We provide for a large store in future, by a wise and generous use of what we have in the present. “Lord, thou knowest where I have laid up my treasure,” cried Paulinus, when he heard that the Goths had sacked Nola and taken all he had.
1. The work to do. Go up, bring wood, and build the house. A division of labour useful and successful. God a spiritual temple to build. All may help.
2. The motive to perform it. “I will take pleasure in it.” God would accept them and their labours.
3. The result. “I will be glorified, saith the Lord.”
(1) God is glorified in man’s service to him.
(2) In the manifestations of his grace to man. “God will not come to bless us as an uninvited guest. His favour will be displayed towards us only when we have prepared him a temple in our hearts” [Lange].
HOMILETICS
Important events in the spiritual world have been symbolized by things in the natural. In this event—
I. Observe an important operation directed. The nature of the operation is, “the building of a house,” i.e. the house or temple of God upon Mount Zion. The spiritual import of it, with which we have to do, is the formation and gradual perfecting, through successive ages, of the Church of God, which is compared to a temple. Observe its attendant difficulties. Numerous adversaries around them. Obstacles from the Jews themselves, scanty in number, and feeble in resource. Some depressed and fearful, others indifferent and apathetic. These facts set forth the circumstances attendant on the erection of the temple of Divine grace under the gospel of Christ. That work progresses, amid difficulties and opposition, in numerous forms; heathen imposture, infidel impiety, antichristian superstition, worldly contempt, neglect and indolence of the Church.
II. Observe the agency with which this operation is conducted.
1. An instrumental and secondary agency. The devoted labours of converted men, under the impulse of renovated nature, influencing others; their success being as the bringing of materials by which the temple is built.
2. Distinct mention is made of Divine agency. This agency is connected with the instrumentality of men; directs them in their counsels, gives efficiency and success to their movements.
III. Observe the result, in which this operation, so conducted, shall terminate.
1. The operation shall be triumphantly completed. The second temple was finished in a brief space of time.
2. Being triumphantly completed, it will eminently redound to the glory of God. “I will be glorified in it, saith the Lord.” This completion will be hailed with rapture by holy created beings. When the second temple was finished, they brought out the headstone “with shoutings, crying, grace,” &c. Ezra says that they kept the dedication with songs, and that they were delighted in the achievement of their work. We may anticipate the same delight in the victories of truth and the subjugation of the universe to Christ. Redeemed men will rejoice, and angels in heaven will partake in their pleasure. Application from the whole.
1. What encouragement here for those already labouring for God.
2. What rebuke here to those who profess the religion of Jesus, yet are indolent and inactive.
3. What warning here to those avowedly hostile to God and his truth [Preacher’s Treasury].
DUTY VINDICATED BY DIVINE GOVERNMENT.—Haggai 1:5-11
I. The Divine government recognizes the selfish motives which actuate men. First, the necessity of moral reform in the world. Secondly, the necessity of attending more to the spiritual than the formal in the Church. Thirdly, the possibility of solemn disclosure at the last day.
II. The Divine government avenges selfish motives which actuate men. “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little.”
1. God neutralizes the fruits of their labour. “I will blow upon it.”
2. God renders inefficient the materials of their labour. Learn—
(1) That God directs the universe. “I called.”
(2) That God directs the universe to mind. “Why?”
(3) That God directs the universe to meet the state of every heart. “Because” (Haggai 1:9). “Therefore” (Haggai 1:10). [Adapted from The Homilist.]
THE DOUBLE CURSE.—Haggai 1:9-11
To stir them up, the evidences of God’s anger are again put before them. All sought their own things, and neglected the things of God. He therefore disappointed their hopes of harvest, and withheld his blessing from that which they gathered into the barn. “God punishes men in both ways, both by withdrawing his blessing, so that the earth is parched, and the heaven gives no rain; and also, even when there is a good supply of the fruits of the earth, by preventing their satisfying, so that there is no real enjoyment of them” [Calvin].
I. Little was reaped when much was expected. “Ye looked for much,” &c. Their toil had been great. They sowed much (Haggai 1:6), and kept much ground under tillage. They expected much, enough and plenty to spare. But the greater their hopes, the more bitter their disappointment.
II. Little was reaped, and that little withered away. “When ye brought it home,” &c. Stroke follows stroke, and men are punished in their homes and possessions. Portions, little or great, are easily scattered by the blast of the Almighty.
III. The cause of this double curse.
1. The cause should be sought. “The curse causeless does not come.” Afflictions do not spring from the ground, nor trouble rise from the dust. God appeals to the awakened conscience. “Why?”
2. The cause may be found. “Because of mine house that is waste,” &c. (a) In duty neglected. Absorbed in material interests, they had no time for God’s work. Men seek their own, more than the things of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:21). (b) In Divine retribution for duty neglected. “Therefore the heaven over you is stayed,” &c. God rules the world in the interests of humanity. Heaven and earth are at his command, to bless or curse. Spiritual indifference results in temporal distress, and ruin falls upon an unfaithful people. “If ye will not bear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Haggai 1:9. Mine house waste, ye run every man, &c. Apathy in spiritual matters, zeal in selfish (Proverbs 1:16: cf. Psalms 119:132). Concern for the spiritual wants of men.
1. The situation of mankind, in a moral and religious view, is such as ought to awaken the unaffected concern of good men.
2. Men who properly care for the spiritual state of their fellow-beings are rarely to be found. This was the case in the time of Haggai; Paul (Philippians 2:21); and is so now.
3. Some of the principal causes of this unconcern.
1. An inordinate and criminal self-love.
2. The prevalence of unbelief.
3. Despondency [Dr. Payson].
Haggai 1:10. He “calls for famine, &c., as instruments of his wrath (2 Kings 8:1; Psalms 105:16). The contrast is striking between the prompt obedience of these material agencies and the slothful disobedience of living man, his people [Fausset].
House wasted, and drought. Heb. chârçb and chôrebh. Wasted temple and wasted substance. Divine retribution in human conduct, the correspondence between the sin and its punishment. “The very evils which men think to escape by neglecting God’s ordinances, they actually bring on themselves by such unbelieving conduct” [Fausset].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Haggai 1:6. Holes. Money is seen in the pierced bag when it is cast in, but when it is lost it is not seen. They then who look how much they give, but do not weigh how much they gain wrongly, cast their rewards into a pierced bag [St. Gregory].
Haggai 1:5; Haggai 1:7. Consider.
“Come, then, sad thought, and let us meditate,
While meditate we may. We have now
But a small portion of what men call time,
To hold communion” [H. K. White].
Haggai 1:9-11. Looked. We are too apt to misjudge the dispensations of Providence when we wish them with our own wishes [Skelton]. The good things of Providence may be considered as having this inscription, “Accipe, redde, cave,” that is, “accept us as from God, return us in gratitude to him, and take care not to abuse us” [Wilson].