Haggai Part 7

VI. HAG 2:10-19. A. The twenty-fourth day of the month is significant throughout the remainder of the chapter. vs. 10, 18, 20. 1. Haggai delivers two messages: one to the priests and the people to snap them to attention for their good, the other to the governor to encourage and bless him with promises for he had been good. 2. Christian experience is marked by significant days also: not by high days which have been set aside as weak and beggarly elements (GAL 4:8-10) but by days Haggai 10-12-24 Page 10  where sin and folly are forsaken and the blessing of God that comes by our mortification of carnality and by surrender begins the blessing of God upon our souls. HEB 3:7-8; 2CO 6:1-2; ACT 2:41-42. 3. An overview of your personal building of a temple of God in your heart will likely witness such significant days from time to time when the light of God overrules the darkness of your ignorance or disobedience or procrastination and your spiritual well-being takes off on a blessed positive course. B. Haggai first addresses the priests (v. 11) since they were the teachers of the law (MAL 2:7) and their faithfulness in it or lack thereof had implications for the people. HOS 4:6. 1. Haggai is told to query them about aspects of ceremonial law with which they should be familiar so as to extract from them a judgment from their own mouths (and sometimes the most persuasive motivations are ones which we are wisely provoked to embrace by the implications of our own presuppositions). c/w MAT 21:40-46. 2. The message is conveyed by their knowledge of the communicating of defilement which was the application of the principle of discerning between the clean and unclean. LEV 10:10-11. 3. The ceremonial cleanness of the Law that was binding upon the Jews as touching many aspects of their lives (diet, company, etc.) is not part of the N.T. but there is instruction in righteousness in them for us. 2TI 3:16; 2CO 6:14-18; 7:1. 4. If one bears holy flesh (flesh consecrated for God’s use) in his garment, the garment cannot convey holiness unto other neutral things. v. 12. 5. If one is unclean by contact with a dead body, he does convey that uncleanness to whatever he touches. v. 13 c/w NUM 19:22. 6. NOTE: It is much easier for the unclean to pollute than for the clean to make pure. a. Hence, we are warned about evil communications with ungodly company and the old man of sin which should be mortified. 1CO 15:33; ROM 7:22-24; GAL 5:24; 2:18. b. Hence, we are also warned about the futility of cleaning up others when we are ourselves full of uncleanness. MAT 7:1-5; 23:25-28. c. Also, being in the company of good men is no substitute for repenting towards goodness ourselves. All should purify themselves. JAM 4:8; 1JO 3:2-3. 7. The priests by such observations could apply these principles to provoke the people to holiness and duty. C. The people were also assuming that the forms of godliness like offerings were adequate substitutes for godliness: a continually rejected formula. v. 14 c/w 2TI 3:5; 1SAM 15:22-23; PRO 21:3. 1. Their procrastination and disobedience rendered their sacrificies unclean: sin defiles religious forms. 2. The kingdom of God is not mint, anise and cummin but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost that comes from knowing the truth and obeying it. MAT 23:23; ROM 14:17. D. Not only were their offerings not cleansing substitutes, they had been frustrated in the works of their hands. vs. 15-17. 1. They were being religious. Why weren’t they benefitting as expected? 2. They had laid up in store but the investment had plummeted. 3. God looks for righteousness first. They weren’t. MAT 6:33. 4. When we lay up material in store without putting God first, we may find it there Haggai 10-12-24 Page 11  later, but we should remember that such is the “blessing” of the wicked. PSA 73:3, 12. 5. What we lay up in store for Christ never diminishes, regardless of circumstances. MAT 6:19-21; 1TI 6:17-19. 6. With God’s blessing, there are riches without sorrow. PRO 10:22. E. God had been sending them strong messages but they apparently weren’t paying attention to the He-mails. v. 17 c/w ISA 9:12-13. 1. Brute beasts sometimes have more sense than us. JER 8:7. 2. This diminishing judgment of God upon their material things should remind us of His similar power to diminish our spiritual blessings when we let sin go without repentance. Quench not the Spirit of God. 1TH 5:19; HEB 10:28-29. VII. HAG 2:20-23. A. Haggai then addresses the civil power, Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel had been zealous and active to build God a house and God now basically promises to build him a house as He had promised David. 2SAM 7:11. B. The throne of kingdoms as realized in Babylon’s system had been overthrown already but there were more shake-ups to come. 1. Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome would come and go as Daniel had prophesied. God’s church alone would continue. DAN 2:44. 2. The greatest shaking of heavens and earth was Christ’s victory over death and the grave to ascend to the heavenly throne and make all nations kiss the Son. GEN 3:15; PSA 2:12. C. At some point in the near future or in the world to come when the best rewards are given, Zerubbabel would receive special recognition. v. 23. 1. signet: A small seal, usually one fixed in a finger-ring. 2. A small seal of this kind in formal or official use, esp. as employed to give authentication or authority to a document. 2. Contrast this promise to a good leader with what was said of a wicked one who lost the Davidic throne. JER 22:24. 3. The signet denoted authority. Christ, like Zerubbabel, is God’s servant and God’s elect/chosen to Whom is given all power in heaven and earth. MAT 12:18; 28:18. 4. Zerubbabel was in a good way that lead to Christ. Haggai 10-12-24 Page 12