This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.
Church extension
The people said this, because they thought the undertaking too great, too arduous, too expensive for a nation circumstanced as they were. These returned captives were but a small remnant of the population of the land. They had not yet fully established themselves in their own habitations. They had formidable enemies around them, bent upon impeding their work. They were labouring at present under extraordinary distress, from the failure of their vintage and their crops; and therefore, though they admitted that the work was one needful to be done, they said, “Not yet; not in these days.” How many good works are put by by being put off! How much of the business we are sent into the world to do is not done, under pretence that it is too soon to set about it. But the prophet shows this people that their present poverty and distress were sent by God as a chastisement for their past negligence, and a warning as to their future course. The poverty which they thought to prevent by not building the temple, God brought upon them for not building it. Having thus opened to them the nature of God’s dealings with them, he calls upon them to reflect upon them.
“Consider your ways.” Then he urges upon them the immediate duty of amending their ways--“Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house”; and adds also the promise of encouragement--“And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.” The message and exhortation of the prophet were not in vain. The message was given on the first day of the sixth month, and on the four-and-twentieth day of the month the people were at work. When the Jews were led, on account of feebleness and poverty, to neglect their duty in the restoration of the temple, God visited and chastised them with the increase of that very distress which was the excuse for their sloth; and though they misunderstood the lesson, He withdrew not His hand till, under the teaching of the prophet, they had learnt its meaning. Has no similar working of Almighty wisdom developed itself in our case? When we have been led to forgetfulness of our duty to God, not by distress, but by the full-fed arrogance of worldly prosperity, has not He drawn for us lessons of chastisement out of that which has been the very cause of our sin? Our great manufacturing and commercial towns are the offspring, the development, the very characteristic embodiment of the sort of prosperity which God has permitted a careless nation to work out for itself. And if such prosperity he a blessing, may we not well question whether the Almighty have not brought upon us the last and worst denunciation of prophetic word, and “cursed our blessings because we have departed from His ways” Now at length the conviction seems to he slowly forcing itself upon us that our disabilities are so great because in building up our social fabric we have omitted the temple of God. These are the providential chastisements with which God corrects a nation, which has allowed a population to grow up estranged from Him--untaught in His Divine law. And as yet we seem to be in the state of the Jews when God first visited them with dearth and poverty for their forgetfulness of Him and His temple. We are making the consequences of our sinful neglect reason for its continuance. We need all of us to have our spirits stirred within us to do the work of God, yea, even those who may think that they are already awakened to a sense of their duties. When the foundation of the second temple was laid amid general joy and congratulation, “the elders, who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice.”--They were afflicted at the thought of the humbled state of the Church of God. But if man in his niggardliness now builds meanly, God can give to His temple a splendour of its own. The glory of the latter house may be greater than the glory of the former. Into the second temple came the glory of the incarnate Son of God. And into our temple now may come that spiritual presence which will give it even greater glory. Then be strong in that which your duty calls you to do, and strong in that self-denying devotion by which alone it can be done. And doubt not that God will prosper and bless the work so taken in hand. (Bishop E. Denison, D. D.)
Objections to religious work
For about four months Haggai was employed in delivering prophetic sermons to encourage the people to rebuild the second temple. The people were disheartened. They prepared their own houses, they were ceiled, and painted, and decorated, but the Lord’s house was permitted to lie waste. This neglect arose from a principle prevalent in the human heart, which leads men to fancy that an exclusive attention to their own selfish concerns is the only way to promote their interests it does not enter into their narrow calculation that the first interest of man is to glorify God. Indifference to the cause of God has brought many a multiplied sorrow to the person, or community, who have manifested such a spirit; nor has it ever been known that zeal for God and love to His cause have passed unnoticed or unregarded by Him Every effort. .. of whatever kind it be, for the welfare of the souls of men, will be liable to objection. If we wait until all such objections are satisfied, we shall act like the fool, who stood by the side of the stream, waiting till all the water was gone by, that he might pass over. Objections arise from three classes of persons. The profane man is disgusted at the enthusiasm and madness of such attempts. Interested persons, whose narrow souls are incapable of a large grasp, have some certain line of action, but are alarmed at every new, magnificent, and extensive undertaking. Good and intelligent men sometimes suffer their minds to be prejudiced against particular forms of work. Illustration may be taken from objections to the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews.”
1. The first objection made to the attempts of this society is this--That, considering the present state of the Jews, the work of their conversion appears to be very arduous, that success can scarcely be hoped for. We admit the difficulty, because our aim is not merely to produce a change of sentiment concerning the Messiah, but to do an internal and spiritual work in souls. But as this is the work of God, we cannot and must not despair. The power belongeth unto God, and He has promised to work by His servants.
2. Another objection is this,--The time for the conversion of the Jews is not yet come, because the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet brought in. But Christ has said it is not for us to know times and seasons. If I do not know the time, how can I say that it has not come? We are to be guided, not by what God has delivered as a prediction, but by what He has enjoined as a duty.
3. Others are ready to say, Is there anything in the state of the Christian Church at present that flatters us with peculiar hopes of success respecting the Jews? While Christianity continued pure and unsophisticated, there were many of the Jews converted. By what power were they converted? It was by that instrument which God always employs in the conversion of souls, the pure testimony of Jesus. When the Gospel lost its purity and simplicity, the power of preaching was lost also. The inquisition compelled many Jews to become Christians in name. True, when the Church was reformed, little was done for the Lord’s ancient people. Little could be done, because party spirit, sectarian bigotry, narrowness of mind crippled and enfeebled all their efforts.
4. It is said a difficulty arises because the Jews find we want to convert them to some particular sect.
5. It is said that the present state of the Jewish nation is specially unfavourable to the reception of Christianity. But these difficulties are not likely to vanish of themselves, if we take no pains to lessen them.
6. It is also said that the plans of this Society are utopian, for where are their means?
7. It is said, There is no door open; wait till God opens a door in His providence, and then go forward. The way to get further opportunity is to seize and use the present.
8. It is said, What right have you to interfere with the religion of the Jews? If we have a better, we must share it with others. Other objections are that this Society is actuated by interested motives; that the Jews have to be bribed to make a Christian profession; that none but poor Jews are turned from their ancient faith; that all Jews are impostors; and that this Society uses unjustifiable means. (E. J. Jones.)
Procrastination
The Lord was displeased with this people for their demur. They should have obeyed the command given them at once and earnestly. The prophet expostulated, and his expostulation was not in vain.
I. A rejoinder with which many of you are familiar. Such and such things are presented for your consideration, and they are presented kindly and intelligently. And you admit the importance of the things. For example, you listen respectfully when the necessity is set before you for sorrow for your personal sin. Yet, when you have admitted this necessity, you quietly say, “But I must be excused at present--not now--the time is not come.” Again, you give heed when the minister points out the necessity for the abandonment of sin. But, many and many a time, when the effort has been made to urge the actual relinquishment of bad habits--the immediate, continuous, and permanent abandonment of them, you have said, “What a ease that is!” Well, what then? “Ah! but you must be excused at present. Not now. The time is not yet!” Again, how respectfully you listen when the minister points out the necessity for the forgiveness of sin. It is shown you that however deep may be the sorrow, and however complete and entire may be the abandonment of sin, there is the sin after all; there is the sin, with its pollution, on your conscience; and there is the sin, with its guilt, waiting settlement in the book of God’s remembrance. That guilt is to be cancelled; that pollution is to be cleansed. But what was the upshot in this case of pleading? “We must be excused for the present. Not now. The time is not yet.” Again, how respectfully you have listened when the effort has been made to show the necessity for co-operation in counteracting sire Yet this has been met by the same procrastinating response.
II. Certain reasons whereby your rejoinder is justified. “The time is not yet.” Why not?
1. The answer from some of you is that your situations are especially unfavourable to a religious life.
2. Others say they are so entirely absorbed with secular avocations and with worldly care.
3. Others say, Oh, my passions and predilections are so entirely beyond my control.
4. Others say, I have never yet been visited by any overpowering communication from on high. And all the time you admit that sin shall be confessed and abandoned, that forgiveness shall be solicited, and that you should take your place amongst those who, m God’s name, are attempting to counteract sin.
III. How utterly unwarrantable, and how utterly unsound your justification is. If there is a commandment in this book that is imperative, it is the commandment to be sorry for sin. If there is a duty incumbent, it is the duty of abandoning sin. If there is an obligation paramount, it is the obligation to seek, through Christ, the forgiveness of sin. If there is a responsibility brought to bear upon human intelligence by the Divine authority at all, it is the responsibility to take your place on the Lord’s side. Your reasons are indefensible, untenable. I pray you to mark the untenableness, and to have done with them. (William Brock, D. D.)
Not yet
The cause of God, in all ages, suffers more from its professed friends than from its open foes. It was the selfishness, sloth, carelessness, and apathy of the Jews which caused the work to cease, after the foundation had been laid. So it is now. If I had a Church of two hundred communicants, all of whom were constantly meeting every claim which they constantly acknowledge, and if I had grace to do the same, I should not be afraid that any opposition would be able to break our moral power over this community. It was not the Samaritan intrigue but the Jewish apathy, which permitted the temple to lie so long unfinished. The apathy, not the opposition. The address of the prophet is to those who admitted the claim, but answered, “Not yet.” The work was to be done at some time, but “not yet.” This describes the temper of thousands who crowd our Churches in this day. Orthodox but inactive. Your inactivity produces disastrous results, from which your orthodoxy cannot save you. Correctness of opinion and ruinousness of conduct may co-exist in the history of the same individual. A postponement of action, in things that are imperative at the present moment, is a denial by the conduct of that which the intellect affirms and urges. It sets the whole life on a contradiction, which weakens the powers and breaks the influence.
1. There is the subject of attention to one’s personal salvation. There can be no controversy as to that. No serious attendant on Christian worship will deny that it is a man’s duty to give serious attention to his soul. Yet how many are wholly neglecting the culture of their soul. They intend to concern themselves about this matter, but not yet.
2. “The time is not come,” causes also the postponement of honest self-examination. Every reasonable man admits that it is of the utmost importance that every man know all about himself. Self-deception does no good. It is senseless to prefer a brief enjoyment of false security. But a strictly honest self-examination is painful. It is always a revelation of defects, often of deformities. Self-searching would lead to repentance, and faith, and a Christian life.
3. This same plea leads to a postponement of a public confession of Jesus. Christ naturally expects a public acknowledgment of my friendship for Him. It is His due. It is my duty.
4. Lastly, we come inside the Church. Professing Christians all unite in acknowledging that the greatest things should be done for Jesus. Why are not those things done by us. Because we are the people who say, “The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” There are three influences producing in us this injurious spirit of procrastination.
(1) We exaggerate the difficulties.
(2) Our covetousness.
(3) A disposition to wait until all things are ready.
No experience seems able to cure men of this propensity. There provably never was an undertaking of any magnitude for which all things were completely ready. If all the great improvements of the age had been held back until an things were ready, they never would have been brought forward. They have had to fight their way. How many evils come of procrastination, especially to those who admit that what they put off must certainly be done. How it deadens the conscience by blinding the senses, and blunting the sensibilities! This spirit of procrastination sets us in opposition to God’s plan, which must be the best plan. God’s time is now. There never will be a time for coming to Jesus better than this time. Do not put it off. Let not selfishness, covetousness, or sloth, make you postpone. Your return to God, your acknowledgment of Jesus, your new life must begin in some now; oh, for the sake of your peace, and growth, and everlasting happiness, let it be this “now.” (Charles F. Deems, D. D.)
Waiting for the right time
1. It is a fearful though usual sin in the Church, when that which is the principal fruit and end of all their deliverances, and a chief means of their happiness, and which they seemed to esteem most when they wanted it, is most neglected when they are delivered, and have occasion to testify their affection and thankfulness: such was the building of the temple to this people, and yet this “house lies waste.”
2. It is a most dangerous way of sinning, when the sinner pretends affection to God, when he wrongs Him and His matters most, and when he thinks himself able, by fair pretences, to excuse, if not to justify his way: So did this people sin, alleging no disaffection, but that “the time is not come,” etc.
3. As the Lord may permit very great obstructions to be laid in the way of a work which yet He will carry on; so a people, who do not openly disaffect the work, may sinfully concur in obstructing of it. This they do--
(1) When they are not sensible of obstructions in the way, but are soon hindered.
(2) When they neglect or pass from a known duty upon any pretence of providence, or God’s secret will.
(3) When they are hindered from their duty in advancing the work of God by any hazard whatsoever.
(4) When they look for times wherein there shall be no difficulties, but all advantages for doing God’s work in, and in expectation of such times do lie from present duty.
(5) When the true cause of men’s negligence, which layeth many a lion in the way, is their love to their own things and private interests.
4. Men’s own consciences, when they speak impartially, will convince them of heinous sin, when they, study to promote their own interest, to the neglect of God’s affairs.
5. A people’s sinful negligence in God’s matters, though times were never so perilous, renders them contemptible, whatever their privileges be, and provokes God to bring them down to know themselves better. (George Hutcheson.)
Duty adjourned
“The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” They do not question the desirableness or the obligation of the work. During the captivity, we are told elsewhere, that they hanged their “harps upon the willows,” and wept when they “remembered Zion.” Often, perhaps, in those circumstances did they resolve, should they ever be restored, to rebuild that temple which was the glory of their land; but now that they are there on the spot, and the ruins lying before them, their ardour is cooled, and they say, “The time is not come.”
I. Cowardice. They did not say, “We will not build the temple, we will leave it to remain in ruins,” they were too cowardly for that. Their consciences rendered them incapable of making such a decision. Men who neglect duty are too cowardly to say, “We will never attend to it, we will never study the Scriptures, worship God.”
1. Sin is cowardice.
2. Sin is cowardice because conscience, the truly heroic element, is ever against it.
II. Selfishness. They set to work for their own private interests.
1. Selfishness is a perversion of self-love.
2. Selfishness is fatal to self-interest.
III. Presumption. “The time is not come.” How did they know that? Were they judges of times and seasons? Are they imperious enough to plead providence as a patron of their disobedience? “Go to, now, ye that say to-day and to-morrow.”
1. Such presumption is always guilty. It implies that we know better than our Maker about times and seasons.
2. Such presumption is always perilous. It treads upon an awful precipice. (Homilist.)
Excuses for neglecting religious duty
While the people were taking care of themselves, and consulting their own interest, the building of the temple was neglected. That the temple was not built till the reign of Darius, was occasioned by the fact that the prefects of Cyrus gave much annoyance to the Jews, and Cambyses was most hostile to them. But when liberty was restored to them, and Darius had so kindly permitted them to build the temple, they had no excuse for delay. It is however probable that they had then many disputes as to the time; for it may have been, that they, seizing on any pretext to cover their sloth, made this objection,--that many difficulties had occurred, because they were too precipitate, and they had been thus punished for their haste, because they had rashly undertaken the building of the temple. And we may also suppose that they took another view of the time as having not yet come, for easily might this objection occur to them: “It is indeed true that the worship of God is to be preferred to all other things; but the Lord grants us this indulgence, so that we are allowed to build our own houses; and in the meantime we attend to the sacrifices. Have not our fathers lived many ages without a temple? God was then satisfied with a sanctuary; there is now an altar erected, and there sacrifices are offered. The Lord then will forgive us if we defer the building of the temple to a suitable time. But in the meantime, every one may build his own house, so that afterwards the temple may at leisure be built more sumptuously.” However this may have been, we find it true, that the Jews were so taken up with their domestic concerns, with their own ease, and with their own pleasures, that they made very little account of God’s worship. This is the reason why the prophet was so greatly displeased with them. He declares that they said, “The time is not yet come to build the house of Jehovah.” He repeats here what the Jews were wont to allege in order to disguise their sloth, after having delayed a long time, and when they could not, except through consummate effrontery, adduce anything in their own defence. We however see that they hesitated not to promise pardon to themselves. Thus also do men indulge in their sins, as though they could make an agreement with God, and pacify Him with some frivolous things. We see that this was the case then. But we may also see here, as in a mirror, how great is the ingratitude of men. And how is the case at this day? We see that through a remarkable miracle of God, the Gospel has shone forth in our time, and we have emerged, as it were, from the abodes below. Who does rear up, of his own free will, an altar to God? On the contrary, all regard what is advantageous only to themselves; and while they are occupied with their own concerns, the worship of God is cast aside; there is no care, no zeal, no concern for it; nay, what is worse, many make gain of the Gospel, as though it were a lucrative business. No wonder, then, if the people have so basely disregarded their deliverance, and have almost obliterated the memory of it. As God’s temple is spiritual, our fault is the more atrocious when we become thus slothful; since God does not bid us to collect either wood or stones or cement, but to build a celestial temple, in which He may be truly worshipped. When therefore we become thus indifferent, as that people were thus severely reproved, doubtless our sloth is much more detestable. The building of the spiritual temple is deferred, whenever we become devoted to ourselves, and regard only what is advantageous to us individually. (John Calvin.)
The duty of building the Lord’s house
These people were glad to have an excuse for turning away from building the Lord’s house to build houses for themselves. Though they found plenty of time and means for adorning their own houses in a costly manner, the Lord’s house was left to lie waste. Are they the only people who have ever acted after this fashion? Have we not been equally slack in doing the Lord’s work? We may not be called to build up the Lord’s house of stone and mortar; but there is another work requisite, even soul work; and from that neither we nor any other Christians can be spared. Every Christian is called to bear his part in building up the Church of the Lord spiritually, by prayer and thanksgiving, by faith and righteousness, by holiness and love; for this is the Lord’s true Church. The New Testament Church is the congregation of believers. But any hindrance, however petty, is now deemed insurmountable--any excuse, however trifling, is held to be perfectly valid--if it is only to keep a person away from Church. Even when we come to Church, are we all diligently employed in building the house of the Lord? It is not of the bodies of men, but of their hearts, and souls, and minds, that the Lord’s house is built. When we come to Church, as members of Christ’s congregation, we come, or at least we ought to come to Christ. Moreover, every Christian ought himself to be a temple of God. He is so already, as St. Paul tells the Corinthians; and he ought to become so more and more entirely. This should be the great work of his life, to build himself up as such, with the help of God’s Spirit dwelling in him. This is our work--a long and laborious work--to fit all our thoughts and feelings for being built up into the house of God, by purging them from the untempered mortar of this world. When so purged, how are we to cement them together? By good works; by works of holiness and love. It behoves us, one and all, to make it the great work of our lives to build up the Lord’s house, both in our own hearts and souls and minds, and in the congregation of His people. We must be careful to carry on both works together; for neither will prosper without the other. (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)
The waste house
One of the most palpable effects of the Fall is that it has led man to live for himself. Sin is essentially selfish, and one of the first effects of redemption is to make man live for others. Real Christianity always takes a man out of himself. Yet the Christian carries about with him a sinful body, which is always craving for indulgence. The Christian’s constant danger is lest his Saviour’s glory should cease to be paramount to every other consideration. Christ must be first, or the soul will find a want in everything. Observe the name God takes here--“Lord of hosts.” When God is about to ask His people for anything, or to supply His people with anything, this is the name by which He generally addresses them in the Old Testament. Observe the sin of the people here. “The time is not come that the Lord’s house should be built.” It was not a denial of God’s claim upon them, it was a putting God off. Is not this the sin of the present day?, God asks for His place in the heart of the sinner, and the answer is, “Not yet.” The sin of all, converted and unconverted, is that of putting God off. We have not the courage, the straightforwardness, to disallow His claim altogether. We add mockery to our sin by acknowledging the justice of a claim which we have inwardly determined shall never be met. While we are dwelling in our ceiled houses, and the Lord’s house is lying in ruins, what is the consequence even in this life? The end of everything they did, these people missed. Christ is the end, the satisfying thing in all. Toil without Him must end in vanity, it God, reminds them of their disappointment in everything, and the cause of Because of Mine house that is waste.” What is this breath wherewith the Lord blows upon everything? The breath of His Spirit withering everything we do, because His house is in ruins. What is the Divine remedy? “Consider your ways.” Pass in review your heart, your life, your daily history. Set about the duty of the hour, and put your heart into the doing of it. (F. Whitfield, M. A.)
The judgment on neglecting to build the Lord’s house
God is never content with confounding His enemies. He does not confound to destroy; He confounds in order that He may save. The courses by which He brings this purpose to pass are various. One of the commonest is the one set before us in the text. Seeing that the motive why we forsake His service is that we may give ourselves up to our own service,--seeing that self is the mask which Satan puts on, to lure us away from God, and that the baits with which he tempts us are the pleasures of sin and the charms of self-indulgence, God mercifully shows us the vanity of those pleasures, the misery and deceitfulness of that self-indulgence. He sends some heavy affliction to humble our pride, to prove to us that, in leaning on earthly things, we lean on a broken reed. Then, at the height of our distresses, He sends His messengers to explain their meaning and purpose. He sharpens the stings of conscience; He brings out the letters of the law, like the letters which the hand wrote on the wall of the palace of King Belteshazzar. These people regarded the earth as their servant, spread out beneath their feet for no other purpose than to do their bidding, to feed their wants, and to pamper their lusts. Wherefore God vouchsafed to show them that the earth was not their servant, but His; that it was not spread out beneath their wings to do their bidding, but His. If the sun and rain were locked up in heaven, the earth would yield no increase, notwithstanding all that man could do to make it. God’s prophet bids the people “consider their ways,” and that all God’s dealings were designed to prove to them how, in the ways in which they were walking, although they were to sow much, they would reap little,--although they ate, they would not have enough,--although they drank, they would not be filled with drink,--that they might clothe themselves, but none would be warm,--and that the wages which they earned would be put into a bag with holes. All this God did, not in order to leave them in their confusion, but in order to raise them out of it. If they will arise and work, and build the house of the Lord, He will still take pleasure in it, and will be glorified in the house they shall build for Him. This message is also sent to us. It is a message of misery; but it is also a message full of warnings, a message of mercy following upon warnings, to the end that the warnings may not be misunderstood, but may be seen in their true light, and may produce the effect they were intended to produce. But the message is not merely sent to nations, it is sent also to individuals. No one ever gave himself up to the work of building the Lord’s house, without allowing his heart to be distracted by the desire to build some house or other for himself. The message applies to us in all its parts. We, like them, have been delivered out of captivity. We have been called to the work of building up the house of the Lord who delivered us,--of building it up outwardly, whenever an occasion for doing so comes across us,--of building it up continually by joining with our neighbours in His worship,--and of building it up daily in our own souls. As we are like the Israelites in having this duty, so we are like them in neglecting it. Instead of doing the Lord’s work, we do what we regard as our own work. But if self is the lord of the house we build, whatever the materials may seem to be, when the gilding is rubbed off, they are found to be cares, and jealousies, and disquietudes. Every house in which self is set up as master, is a house of death. It may seem full of life; but it is the house of death, of moral death, which is the first death, and always brings the other in its train. This must be the condition of those who neglect their duty of building up the house of the Lord. Whatever they do will be empty and unprofitable. Those who build up the house of the Lord always have enough. (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)
National religion
Great as any man’s duties are which he is called to discharge, or great as his sins may be on account of their past neglect, he is not left either without the hope of forgiveness or the promise of succour. This passage was intended as a rebuke for the neglect of a duty seen and acknowledged. That duty was a pious and holy regard for the temple and service of the Lord. The neglect was that, while they were anxious about the splendour and comfort of their own dwellings, they suffered the Lord’s house to lie waste. The fault lay not with the people only, but also with their princes and rulers. Taking all the circumstances of this case into due account, the following propositions are offered for our due consideration--
1. That rulers and heads of nations, being the servants of God, and bound to conform to His will, and to seek above all things to promote His glory, are as responsible to God for all their ways and works, both individually, officially, and supremely, as any other person whatsoever. But we live in strange times. Principles of the most dangerous character, and utterly subversive of all holy feeling and good government, are openly broached and boldly patronised in the grand assemblies of the nation. A double duty is therefore incumbent upon all who wish well for the nation’s good, and for the true welfare of their fellow-beings. The mutual responsibilities of each, the governing and the governed, must be plainly and practically enforced, on the ground of the Divine Word, which is their proper authority.
(1) We maintain that all men, everywhere, are account able to God. All souls are in the hand of God. Man cannot be divested of this responsibility, wherever he may be placed, or however he may be circumstanced.
(2) This obligation and responsibility rest with a far greater weight upon some. Where more is given, more will be required.
(3) Rulers and heads of nations are as responsible in their individual capacity as others, and in their official capacity even more than others.
(4) They are the positive servants of God. Not in the saving sense of the word, but in the responsible sense of the term.
(5) Therefore rulers and heads of nations are under the positive, unvariable, and unchanging obligation of seeking above all things to promote the Divine honour and glory. Nothing can release them from these demands; nothing can lessen or alienate these claims.
(6) They are as responsible to God for all their ways and works in their ruling or official, as they and others are accountable to God for all their doings in their merely personal or individual capacity. It is often said that the ruling power is above law, and therefore accountable to none. But this is a most dangerous doctrine, and calculated to lead to the most lawless licentiousness.
2. That they are bound, by every motive and consideration, both of alarm and encouragement, seriously to lay this to heart; to consider how the matter stands with them; and to inquire what may be its probable termination, both with themselves and others; whether in judgment or mercy; whether in the gracious approbations, or the heavy wrath of Almighty God.
(1) Can any man with safety neglect the duties which God requires at his hands?
(2) Must it not be a fearful thing to incur the displeasure of Almighty God? His wrath is like a consuming fire.
(3) Will not God, in the final day of account, deal as impartially and justly with the mighty and great as with the humble and mean?
(4) Can any man set aside the Divine authority, or nullify the creature’s responsibility?
(5) Will the Lord ever leave any man, who sincerely aims to do His will, without His help and blessing?
(6) What blessings might not the exercise of such an authority, in such a manner, be the means of diffusing! Reflections--
1. How needful is it that princes and rulers should be clearly informed of what God requires at their hands.
2. How careful they should be not to abuse the power with which they are charged!
3. How great must be the guilt of all who attempt to hinder such princes and rulers in the conscientious discharge of their duties.
4. How very far are we yet from that state of things which ought to exist. (R. Shittler.)
Temporal consequences of sin
In God’s dealings with His ancient people, we find the principles of His government in all ages of the world. God took no greater interest in the history of the world then than He does now. He did not interfere more constantly in the affairs of men then than He does now. The only difference is, men used to see the hand of God where we find no trace of it at all. In all the calamities and blessings of life they heard the voice of God. And God still speaks to us in all the events of life. We can find many philosophical reasons for them, but who ever hears the name of God in connection with them? This persistent denial of the government of God is one of the saddest phases of public life amongst us. The prophet tells the people that their poverty and distress are due directly to their selfish care for themselves, and their neglect of God’s house. The underlying principle may be thus stated--neglect of the laws and claims of God, either in this world or the next, never results in any good. .. In the particular direction which God gave concerning this temple, we may find the principles which should guide us in the erection of all houses for His glory and worship. We find a severe condemnation of that specially modern custom of lavishing wealth in increasing the luxuries and beauties of our private dwellings and public buildings, whilst we are content that the Lord should dwell in a house scarcely equal to our granaries or our stables How easy it is to find intimations of providence against a work for which we are little disposed. Indolence, selfishness, a fear of the trouble and expense, were the real causes of the delay in building the Lord’s house in Haggai’s time. What unbounded faith people have in providence when providence seems to speak on the side of their own inclinations: but how deaf men are to the voice of providence when it contradicts their own desires! God says to these people, “Consider your ways.” What have you gained by your neglect of My house? You thought by so doing to escape poverty, yet poverty has come. Have your selfishness and niggardliness produced the results you expected? God says nothing about the insult offered to Himself in this neglect. This is the final argument against sin, and the one which perhaps touches men most. Sin is a violation of God’s law; but men care little for that. It is the basest ingratitude; but men care little for that. More still--it is the most consummate folly. The man who does wrong is not only a sinner, he is a fool. Consider,--what has sin done for you? Does sin answer your purpose? The laws of God are for this life as well as the next. The most sure way of securing prosperity and happiness is to acknowledge them. The most certain way to bring upon ourselves adversity and misery is to live in defiance of them. God’s laws vindicate themselves now. Prosperity and happiness here are as much dependent on our acknowledgment of God’s laws as prosperity and happiness in the world to come. What did this people’s neglect of God’s house imply, and how would this affect their material prosperity?
1. It implied the fear of a little expense. But niggardliness never pays.
2. It exhibited great selfishness. In time of disaster, who has the selfish man to fall back upon? Selfishness won’t do in the world nowadays. In three different ways God may destroy our prosperity.
(1) He may make our labour unproductive.
(2) He may take away the power to enjoy what we have gained.
(3) Our earnings may slip away as quickly as they come.
Let me ask you again, What do we gain by neglecting God? What prosperity can we secure or enjoy without His blessing? Of what happiness have we such a firm grasp that He cannot take it away from us? What is our strength if we provoke the Lord to fight against us? Is it wise to forget God? God says, “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” (B. G. Wilkinson.)
Indolence
Indolence in the Lord’s work is a great sin. Many a Christian crying out” Oh, my leanness!” had better be honest and cry Oh, my laziness. So much of an anomaly is an indolent Christian that Dr. Dwight gives the following testimony:--“Among all those who, within my knowledge, have appeared to become sincerely penitent and reformed, I recollect only one lazy man. And this man became industrious from the moment of his conversion.” (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)
Idle Church members
In a former charge, one Sabbath, I took into the pulpit the Church records, and I laid them on the pulpit and opened them, and said: “Brethren, here are the Church records. I find a great many of you whose names are down here are off duty.” Some were afraid I would read the names, for at that time some of them were deep in the worst kind of oil stocks, and were idle as to Christian work. But if the ministers of Christ in Brooklyn, and New York, and in all the cities, to-day, should bring the Church records into the pulpit and read, oh, what a flutter there would be! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Shirking the burden
Thomas Highat lay dying. He was a foreman in a large ship building yard in Greenock. There was a long heavy log of wood to be lifted, and he had taken his place along with the men under him to assist in the carrying. As the procession was moving on, one mean fellow who liked to scamp his work, dropped his shoulder and the load came down with sudden force upon the shoulder of Thomas Highat, who was not so tall. There was serious injury done, the doctor pronounced it fatal. As he lay on his death-bed, he said to his minister, the Rev. A. Davidson, “I ought not to be here just yet. It was because so and-so didn’t stand up to his burden.” It is in many Churches as in that shipyard, that some are made to suffer seriously and needlessly, because the heavy end of the work is left to them--because certain of their comrades don’t stand up to their burden.
Irreligious delay
1. Men are always prone to put religion off with scraps and leavings, and serve God with what costs them nothing. In the outward things of religion, they are much more disposed to work for themselves than for God; and if they have time that cannot be otherwise used, or funds that are not very current, to give them to the treasury of the Lord, and if any larger expenditure of either is urged, to plead that “the time has not come” to do this work. In the inward things of religion the same spirit is shown. The young, the middle-aged, and the old, all alike procrastinate the great work, on the plea that “the time is not come,” the convenient season that, like the horizon, recedes as we advance (Haggai 1:2).
2. Our expenditures on ourselves, whilst we pretend to have nothing for God, will bear emphatic and fearful testimony against us. The carved ceilings and costly ornaments will have a tongue in the day of judgment (Haggai 1:4).
3. No man ever gains anything by trying to cheat God. He makes a fool’s bargain, bartering a real good for a perishing bauble, and losing at last even what he gained (Haggai 1:6).
4. A careful pondering of God’s dealings with us will often indicate to us God’s will regarding us. The events of life are the hieroglyphics in which God records His feelings toward us, the key to which is found in the Bible (Haggai 1:6).
5. Obedience to God is an advancement of His glory (Haggai 1:8).
6. Disobedience to God will often, even in this life, issue in disappointment and disaster (Haggai 1:9-10).
7. God has not abandoned the universe to the sightless action of general laws, but is so related to that universe as to be able to direct its laws to the fulfilment of His purposes, whether in rewarding the good, punishing the evil, or answering prayer, without deranging or destroying the normal action of those laws themselves (Haggai 1:11).
8. True religion manifests itself in fearing the Lord, and in obeying the voice of His servant (Haggai 1:12).
9. The presence of God with a man is the best blessing he can receive, for it includes everything else (Haggai 1:13).
10. God is waiting to be gracious, and will meet the returning wanderer, even before his hand has begun the actual work of His service (Haggai 1:13).
11. Every good impulse, or reviving of religion in the hearts of men, is produced by the direct power of God, through the Holy Spirit (Haggai 1:14).
12. Obedience to the commands of God will always end in a blessing, whilst disobedience will always end in a curse, if not in time, surely in eternity. (T. F. Moore, D. D.)