HE WHO PUTS  GOD FIRST
DENIES HIMSELF

1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time has not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built.
3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
6 You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you are not full of drink; you clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD.
9 You looked for much, and see, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew on it. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of My house that is in ruins, every one of you is running to his own house.
10 Therefore the heavens over you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.
11 And I called for a drought on the land, and on the mountains, and on the grain, and on the new wine, and on the oil, and on that which the ground bears, and on men, and on cattle, and on all the labour of your hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and 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 feared before the LORD.
13 Then spoke Haggai, the LORD's messenger, in the LORD's message to the people, saying, I am with you, says the LORD.
14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
15 In the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius, the king.

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The Jews who had returned from Babylon to their homeland had been at work awhile rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and building houses for themselves. Then some jealous people among the Samaritans, to the north of their land, had sent a slanderous letter about them to the Persian emperor, who ruled over them. This letter induced the emperor to forbid any further construction of the wall. We read of this episode in Ezra chapter 4. The Jews took that as a reason not to build the temple either, and instead they continued making all the "home improvements" they wanted on their own houses.
Then God sent the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to exhort them to obey the command God had given them to rebuild His temple, as we learn from Ezra 5:1. The book of Haggai is the message God sent through him to that effect. He insisted that they must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). Now that they had houses that could be lived in, they must forego further work on them until the temple was built, so as to put God first.
God's message to Israel by Haggai told them of REASONING  THAT THEY NEEDED TO CORRECT (verses 1-4). Their taking the decree against rebuilding the wall as a reason not to rebuild the temple, was not valid reasoning. The king had not specified that they were not to build the temple; and even if he had, they must obey God. On top of that, the first Persian emperor, Cyrus, had decreed that the Jews were to build a temple for God (Ezra 1:2, 3); and "the law of the Medes and the Persians, which doesn't change," didn't permit a subsequent monarch to cancel that decree. The Jews needed simply to send a reminder to the present monarch about that decree-- as the eventually did-- and they would have been assured the full liberty to build the temple.
Their reasoning was self-centered, since they were seizing an excuse to do what would bring them comfort. It was also superficial, since they were reading into the king's decree something he hadn't said. They were thus putting up a front as though they couldn't build the temple for the time being, whereas the real problem was that they didn't want to. That is a common type of reasoning, that can readily become a snare to God's people.
In fact, even children learn to reason this way at very young ages, and will become clever at it if they are allowed to get away with it. Let us imagine, for example, a little chatterbox, who seems to be geared so that everything that enters the mind comes out the mouth. Chatterbox talks all day, unless Mother sometimes puts a piece of tape over Chatterbox's mouth to give her some respite. Then one day Chatterbox catches a cold; but you'd never know it; that mouth is still as active as ever. Yet when the time comes for family devotions, and Father wants each person in the family to read a few verses from the Bible, Chatterbox says, "Do I have to read tonight? I've got a sore throat." Of course Chatterbox expects Father to say, "Poor little thing! We understand!" But do you think that will work? Hardly! Rather, Father will say, "Since you've hardly stopped talking for hours and hours, you can certainly read some verses that will barely take a minute!"
Spiritual reasoning would cause people to think like David, when he said, "I'm living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God is kept in a tent" (II Samuel 7:2). Though David wasn't the one chosen by God to build a temple, remark showed a desire to put God first. He considered it simply abnormal for God's people to enjoy comfort while God was neglected.
The Jews of Haggai's day therefore needed to learn that, whatever the cost, they must put God first, overriding any other factor to be found.
God's message through Haggai also told the Jews of a REALITY  THAT THEY NEEDED TO OBSERVE (verses 5-11). Their selfish choice had only brought frustration. All their efforts to live as though they were rich, without God, had left them in poverty. God was showing them that, once people have been enlightened by the truth of the Gospel, God won't let them get away with living as though they had never known it. A person who has never been exposed to the truth, might ignore God and still prosper in this world; but if someone who knows the truth tries to do the same, it won't work.
A Christian whom my wife and I once met, told us of how one of his sons tried to do exactly that. As a young adult, he said to his father, "Dad, you've been telling me all my life that I can't get along without God; so now I'm going out to prove to you that I can!" He bought an old gravel truck, planning to make his living delivering gravel. He didn't expect the age of the truck to cause any problems, since he knew auto mechanics well. Also, since the Lord's Day meant nothing to him, he planned to give the truck a thorough checkup every Sunday, to be sure it would run without trouble during the working week. But it turned out that, though the truck seemed every Sunday to be in apple-pie order, it never failed to break down during the week. Sometimes it would break down on Monday, sometimes on Tuesday, but never any later than Wednesday. And when it broke down, it always took the rest of the week to get it running again. Every week it was the same story-- apparently perfect condition on Sunday, but a guaranteed breakdown by Wednesday. Finally that young man said to his father, "Dad, you were right; I can't get along without God!"
By their selfish effort in concentrating on their own houses, the Israelites were actually hurting themselves. It must have cost them quite a sum to put the finishing touches on their houses and make them feel luxurious-- while at the same time, their harvests were so poor that they weren't getting enough to eat! "Putting wages into a bag with holes" might be meant literally; or it might mean that prices were so high that their wages spent almost before they realized it, and yet they had hardly bought anything. They were managing their funds very poorly. Were they seeking an escape from the reality of their poverty by seeking to make their houses so fancy? People often do spend foolishly on escapes when they can't afford the essentials of life.
For a time during my childhood, a very poor family sent their children to our assembly's Sunday School. My father used to visit them in their home, and also visited the father, who was dying in the hospital. Their poverty was obvious at first sight by the clothes the children wore, and their house made it all the more evident. Then one night when my father visited them, he found them sitting around a television they had just bought, watching it. And in those days, a television cost a lot more in proportion to the general cost of living, than it does now. My father's heart sank; he wondered, "Why did they do it!" But it was probably an escape from thinking about their poverty.
Yet the Jews in Haggai's day didn't have to live in poverty. God had promised them blessing if they would obey Him. He hasn't given New-Testament saints the same promise of prosperity if they obey; but He has promised to provide all our need (Philippians 4:19). But these Jews hadn't even started building the temple, as we can see from Haggai's exhortation to go up to the mountain and cut wood. The wood would only be used for the framework of the temple; the rest would be made of stone. They hadn't begun to obey. And their efforts to live as though they were rich, had left them with nothing at all.
Then Haggai told the Jews of A REACTION THAT THEY  NEEDED TO SHOW (verses 12-15); and they finally did react accordingly. It was a reaction of obedience. It is a good sign that the leaders were the first to be stirred up to obey; it is always painful when it's the contrary. Zerubbabel, the governor and secular leader; and Joshua, the high priest and religious leader, were both stirred up to lead the people in putting God first. Yet it is not enough if the people simply "follow the leader;" their hearts must also be directly touched by God.
The people also reacted with godly fear. This fear is more than reverence, though it includes it. It is a healthy fear of displeasing God, which keeps us serious about obeying Him. It compares with the proper fear of any authority. The people reacted with the fear of God because they recognized that the message they were receiving came from God, and not from man. They recognized that Haggai was simply "the Lord's messenger" (verse 13).
This fear brought with it an assurance of the presence of God. In our day, "meditation" has become very popular as a way of "practicing the presence of God." We do not deny the value of meditation; but it is not all. To be assured of the presence of God, and to experience it as a reality, one needs to live by the fear of God. It was when Israel feared the Lord (end of verse 12), that Haggai communicated to them God's words, "I am with you." Such an assurance of the presence of God gives His people the courage to act, even in the face of opposition. God got action from great men of His by promising them His presence-- including Moses (Exodus 3:12), Gideon (Judges 6:12), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:18). New-
Testament saints have the same promise in Christ's last words--
I am with you always, even till the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).
Then, God's people reacted with a display of zeal. They went immediately to fetch the building material to build the temple; and construction on the site of the temple began after twenty-three days (the difference between verses 1 and 15). God knew it would take time to bring the material to the site, and time afterwards to build with it. God always knows the time that is needed to do what He calls us to. But He expects obedience and zeal to be shown by getting to work immediately when He calls. He was pleased when His people did so.
Thus God's people showed self-denial by accepting to postpone their own "home improvements" until God's temple was built, in order to show that they were putting Him first in their lives. What is God calling you to do, and what is He telling you to postpone until His will on that issue is done? He expects our choices to show that His will is more important to us than comfort, pleasure, or convenience for ourselves. If we make His will our highest priority, we can count on our Lord's promise that says--
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

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