The Time Has Not Yet Come
HISTORICAL/SERMON CONTEXT
If you’ve been with us this past month or so, you know that we’re studying the book of Ezra. As a brief reminder, Ezra covers the time after the Jewish nation was released from captivity by King Cyrus of Persia in 539 B.C. and allowed to return to their homeland. This was an amazing turn of events for the Jewish people (how often have we ever heard of a conquering nation letting their captives return to their homeland - unbelievable!) and fulfillment of what had been foretold by the Jewish prophets.
Now, in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah form one book. And, there are a several building projects in the two books, which can get a bit confusing. In fact, let me ask: how many distinct structures were being built in Ezra and Nehemiah? Well, the answer is: four. There were four building projects in Ezra and Nehemiah:
The altar
The foundation of the temple
The actual temple
The city walls
It would have been nice if the Jewish people were able to complete these projects one after the other in a timely manner. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The Jews were able to build the altar (Ezra 3:3), and they were able to lay the foundation of the Temple (Ezra 3:10). But shortly after they began working to build the temple things came to a halt. Why? As Brian explained so clearly last Sunday, it’s in part because the Jewish people began facing opposition to their building plans. If you haven’t heard Brian’s sermon covering Ezra 4 last Sunday, I encourage you to do so – Brian did a great job of explaining the kinds of opposition that they faced.
EZRA’S INTRODUCTION OF HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH
Let’s pick up where Brian left off and read Ezra 5:1:
Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. – Ezra 5:1
So, we’re introduced to two prophets: Haggai and Zechariah. And, one might wonder: what did these prophets say to the Jewish people? Anyone interested in knowing that? Well, we’re going to answer that question this Sunday and next! Today, we’re going to turn to the book of Haggai to see what he said to the returning exiles. But, before we dive in, let’s ask for God’s blessing as we move forward with our study of His Word!
THE PROBLEM (vs. 1-4)
So, let’s turn to Haggai (Haggai is the third last book in the OT) and read the first four verses:
1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest: 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.'" 3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” – Haggai 1:1-4
So, after informing us of who is ruling and when he is writing, Haggai begins by telling us what the Lord says. And, we immediately see something interesting: Haggai quotes God as starting with the words, “These people say…”
Now, who is God referring to when he says “These people”? Well, he’s referring to the Jewish people who had returned to their land to rebuild their country. What’s so interesting about that, you might ask? Well, how does God usually refer to the Jewish people? He usually refers to them as: “My people”. For example:
Exodus 3:7 reads: The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
1 Samuel 9:17 reads: When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, “This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.
1 Kings 6:13 reads: I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.
In these verses and many others, God refers to the Jewish people as “my people”. So it’s significant that here God refers to them as “These people”. What can we infer by this? I mean, presumably, God hasn’t forgotten that the Jews are His people? So, why do you think God did that? Well, let me tell you a story that I think illustrates the point.
ILLUSTRATION: When I was a little boy, I used to come up with some hare-brained ideas. I grew up in western NY, and that means a LOT of snow during winter. Well one snowy winter’s day, my friends and I thought it’d be a good idea to throw snowballs at cars driving by. Not very smart, right? What was even dumber is that we decided to throw them from behind our snow fort… which we had built in the front yard of my house! Yeah, we weren’t too smart - not good for anonymity! Well, the driver of one of the cars we pelted wasn’t very happy. So, when he started backing up and saw us running into my house it only confirmed what he already suspected: that one of us boys lived in the house behind the snow fort.
Well, after he told my mom what we were doing, she was livid! She sent me to my room to wait for my dad’s return from work. When my dad got home that evening, the first words she said to him were, “Do you know what your son did today?” Did you get that? At that moment, I wasn’t her son. In fact, I wasn’t even their son. No, I was his son. What was my mom doing? She was distancing herself from me. She didn’t want to even acknowledge being related to me! She couldn’t believe that her off-spring would do something so foolish.
That’s the same thing we see here: by referring to the Jews as “these people” rather than “my people” God is putting distance between them and himself. This immediately tells us that God is not happy with the Jewish people. Just like my mom being so unhappy with the foolish thing I did, here we see that God is likewise unhappy with what the Jewish people have done.
So, what are “these people” doing that displeased God so greatly? Well, we see that in verse 2. “These people” are saying that “The time has NOT yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.” So, actually, it was what the Jews were NOT doing that displeased the Lord as they were NOT rebuilding His house.
Before we go further, we need to remember that the Lord’s house in this passage refers to the temple which was the very center of Jewish religious life before they were conquered and sent into exile. The temple was where they were to go to worship God, to offer sacrifices, to pray, to hear the teaching of God’s Word. The temple, originally built by King Solomon (1000 B.C.), was a necessity for being with God. However, the temple had been destroyed when Jerusalem was conquered in 586 B.C. and was still in ruins when the exiles returned to Jerusalem. So, it should have been of prime importance for the returning Jewish people to rebuild the temple. But, the Jewish people were saying, “The time has NOT yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.” And, God wasn’t happy at all with this.
Now, one might ask, “Isn’t God being a bit unreasonable?” I mean, hadn’t they just gotten back to their land. Shouldn’t they have taken some time to clean things up, get things in order and to provide for their immediate needs? Well, actually, they hadn’t just gotten back to their land.
You see, this isn’t happening one year after they returned to the land. In fact, it’s not happening five years after they returned to the land or even ten years. The Jews had been back in their land for at least sixteen years! At least sixteen years had passed and they were still saying, “The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built”!
Moreover, what do we learn about the houses the Jews themselves are living in? Well, we see that when He asks in vs. 4, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Paneled houses may not sound like much to us today (given how nice our homes are), but this description says that their homes had some level of luxury; paneled houses were something beyond the basic housing structures. The Jews weren’t concerned with their basic need for shelter; rather, they were concerned with improving their already comfortable situation! So God is basically asking: is it right for you to live in your comfortable houses while My house (the temple) remains in total ruins?
ILLUSTRATION: Let’s picture what’s going on. These guys are in their comfortable homes sitting on their “La-Z-Boy” sofas knowing full well that the Lord’s house is still in ruin and they say to themselves, “Nah… I don’t think it’s time to build the Lord’s house right now…. Hey honey, when’s the hot tub repairman getting here? We really need to get that fixed. It’s been weeks since I’ve been in!
This is essentially what they’re doing. Right? It’s ludicrous and an offense to God! The truth of the matter is that at some point since coming back to their homeland the Jews were doing well enough that they could build relatively comfortable houses. And yet, they were still saying that the time had not yet come to build the Lord’s house. And so it sat in ruins.
You see, at some point, they became satisfied with their lives… they set aside the priorities of God… and these words became just an excuse: “The time has not yet come…”
Let me say that again, but just a bit differently: At some point in all the years that passed, they became satisfied with their comfortable lives… they set aside the priorities of God… and these words became just an excuse: “It just isn’t the right time to do what God wants me to do…”
Now, it’s interesting to note that the Jews weren’t saying that it was unimportant to build the Temple;
in other words they didn’t deny it was important to rebuild God’s house; they were just putting it off. Can we relate? If I were to ask: is it important to pray, we’d say “yes”. If I were to ask: is it important to share the Gospel with others, we’d say “yes”. If I were to ask: is it important to care for widows and orphans, we’d say “yes”. But, if I were to ask: are we doing all these things: some of us would probably say “no”. You see, we don’t say “it’s not important”; we just don’t do it. And that’s what the Jewish people were doing. They knew it was important to build the Temple; they just weren’t doing it.
Though the Jewish people were saying to themselves that they’ll do it later to God what they were doing is not obeying [that is, they are sinning]. When it comes to the things of God, procrastinating is the same as NOT doing; in other words it’s disobedience. And, it doesn’t matter that we intellectually know what we should do! God wants us to do what He calls us to do without delay.
WHAT WERE THEY DOING INSTEAD? (vs. 5-6)
So, the Jews made a choice. They decided to NOT build the Temple even though they knew what God wanted them to do. Now, one might ask: What were the Jews doing instead of building God’s house? [Were they at war? Were they dealing with an election?] Well, Scripture tells us what they’re doing in vs. 5-6:
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." – Malachi 1:5-6
So, what were the Jewish people doing while they weren’t building the temple? They were:
Planting and harvesting.
Eating and drinking.
Earning wages.
In other words, they were going about their everyday life doing their everyday tasks with the goal that so many of us have: improving their lot in life. If I had time, I would love to show how that worked out for them and more interestingly why it didn’t go so well. But, time is short so I can’t, but I encourage you to read the entire chapter – there’s a lot more to learn. But for our purpose this morning, I can just say they didn’t prosper as they expected. God says in verse 9:
“Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. – Haggai 1:9
God says that things aren’t going well for them because each of them was busy with his own house while God’s house remained in ruins. In other words, they were tending to their own affairs. They were letting their every day affairs supersede what God wanted them to do.
You know, when you get right down to it, for the Jewish people it really was a question of priorities. It’s not wrong to take care of our everyday affairs. It’s not wrong to want to improve one’s life. But, it becomes wrong if that takes precedent over what God tells us to do. The Jewish people had mixed up their priorities: they had placed what they wanted to do above what God wanted them to do.
THE CORRECTION (vs. 8)
Rather than trying to advance their own situation, what should they have done? By now, I’m sure we all know the answer: they should have built the Temple (God’s house). And, that’s exactly what God says to them in verse 8:
8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the Lord. – Haggai 1:8
What God wanted them to do was to build His house. God wanted them to build the Temple so that they could He could take pleasure in it and be honored. The Jewish people had been putting this off for too long. For too many years, they said, “the time has not yet come.” They were sadly mistaken: the time for doing this was/passed by long ago.
THE RESPONSE (vs. 12-15)
So how does this story end? Well, I’m happy to report that this story has a good ending. Let’s read from vs. 12-15:
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him... 14 They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius. – Haggai 1:12-15
So, we’re told that the people obeyed (vs. 12) and began re-building the Temple. The Jews finally did what God wanted! Twenty-three days after Haggai’s rebuke, the Jewish people re-started their work to rebuild God’s temple.
And returning to the book of Ezra, we find that they re-built the Temple in four years. We read in Ezra 6:14-16:
14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. 16 Then the people of Israel--the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles--celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. – Ezra 6:14-16
Thus, they finally had a place to worship and to offer their sacrifices to God.
THE FUTURE
Before we leave Haggai, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one other prophecy about the house of the Lord they were rebuilding. We see it in 2:6-9:
6 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” – Haggai 2:6-9
What an awesome promise! Even though some would view the new temple as inferior to the old temple, God promises that the new house would be greater than the glory of the old house!
CLOSING
So, this story ends on a good note. The Jewish people finally got their priorities straight and placed God’s house above their own; they placed God’s commands above their own desires.
What about us? Do we sometimes say, “the time has not yet come” to what God asks us to do when perhaps we are just procrastinating? When, in fact, the time has already passed and we should have been doing what the Lord wants long ago?
Is there something in your life that God is calling you to do but you’ve put it off saying “the time has not yet come?” Perhaps you’ve been doing this for years, like the Jews were doing. They were saying the time has not yet come, but the truth is that it should have been done long ago. Let me just point out three areas where we might respond as the Jewish people did with “the time has not yet come”.
First, when God calls us to serve in some way.
1 Cor. 12:7 - “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
1 Pet. 4:10 - “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.”
Second, when God call us to forgive someone for something they’ve done to us.
Col. 3:13 – “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Me: “When we sin, we want forgiveness; when others sin against us, we want justice.”
Third and finally, when God calls us to give financially toward His work.
2 Cor. 9:6,7 – “6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
“Rockefeller” – when asked, how much is enough, he said, “just a little bit/one dollar more”
I want to encourage you to take some time today or this week to ask yourself: am I acting like the Jewish people in Haggai’s day? Is there something God wants me to do, but I am putting it off? I’m saying the time has not yet come, but in reality I should have done this long ago? If so, do what the Jewish people did: repent and then do what God is calling you to do. Let’s be obedient to God and stop delaying. And with that said, let us pray.