“This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for Yahweh’s house to be built.’ ”
Then Yahweh’s word came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste? Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.”
This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says Yahweh. “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6, 7, 9 They who think that seventy years had not passed…
They who think that seventy years had not passed until the reign of Darius, may from this passage be easily disproved: for if the seventy years were not accomplished, an excuse would have been ready at hand,—that they had deferred the work of building the Temple; but it was certain, that the time had then elapsed, and that it was owing to their indifference that the Temple was not erected, for all the materials were appropriated to private uses. While then they were thus 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, this happened, as we have said, from another cause, because the prefects of king 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 had been too precipitate, and that they had thus been 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 deservedly 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 that true which I have often stated,—that the Jews were so taken up with their own 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.
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He declares what they said, This people say, 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 defense. We however see, that they hesitated not to promise pardon to themselves. Thus also do men indulge themselves 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. The kindness of God had been especially worthy of being remembered, the glory of which ought to have been borne in mind to the end of time: they had been restored from exile in a manner beyond what they had ever expected. What ought they to have done, but to have devoted themselves entirely to the service of their deliverer? But they built, no, not even a tent for God, and sacrificed in the open air; and thus they wilfully trifled with God. But at the same time they dwelt at ease in houses elegantly fitted up.
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 now 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. No less shameful is the example witnessed at this day among us.
But we may hence also see how kindly God has provided for his Church; for his purpose was that this reproof should continue extant, that he might at this day stimulate us, and excite our fear as well as our shame. For we also thus grow frigid in promoting the worship of God, whenever we are led to seek only our own advantages. We may also add, that 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. We now see that the Prophet not only spoke to men of his age, but was also destined, through God’s wonderful purpose, to be a preacher to us, so that his doctrine sounds at this day in our ears, and reproves our torpor and ungrateful indifference: for the building of the spiritual temple is deferred, whenever we become devoted to ourselves, and regard only what is advantageous to us individually. We shall go on with what follows tomorrow.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6, 8, 9 Not that they condemned the building thereof, but they…
Not that they condemned the building thereof, but they preferred policy and private profit to religion, being content with small beginnings.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–9 Hag 1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,…
Hag 1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.
Ver. 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying] This title is oft used in these three last prophecies (eighteen different times in that eighth of Zechariah) because, being to build, they had many enemies; therefore had need of all encouragement. And Jerome, in his prologue, noteth it as an act of great courage in Haggai and Zechariah that, against the edict of King Artaxerxes (or Cambyses) and the oppositions of Sanballat, and other potent adversaries, they should stir up the people to build the temple; and as an act of heroic faith in the prince, priest, and people, to set upon the work, and finish it, "Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts," Zec 4:6. See more of this title. {See Trapp on "Mal 3:17"} Doct. 1.
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This people say] Words then have their weight; neither are men’s tongues their own; but there is a Lord over them, {Psa 12:4} that will call them to a strict account of all their waste words, Mat 12:36, and hard speeches, Jdg 1:15, and then they shal1 experiment that by their words (which they haply held but wind) they shall be justified, and by their words condemned, Mat 12:37. How good is it, therefore, to carry a pair of balances between the lips? Nescit poenitenda loqui qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini, saith Cassiodore; He that weighs his words before he utters them shall prevent an after reckoning for them.
The time is not come, the time, &c.] He repeateth their frivolous and frigid excuses in their own very words; that he may the better confute them, and the sooner bring them to a sight of their sin, Usus est μιμησει ut rei indignitatem amplificaret. Sin and shifting came into the word together, Gen 3:12. And this is still the vile poison of our hearts, that they will needs be naught, and yet never yield, but that there is reason to be made, and great sense in sinning. These Jews, likely, had both Scripture and reason to plead for their backwardness (as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour; and the sluggard is wiser in his own eye than seven men that can render a reason, Pro 26:16). For Scripture: To everything there is an appointed time, a set season, such as we can neither alter nor order, Ecc 3:1 Hag 1:3 "There is a time to break down, and a time to build up." And that this time to rebuild the temple was not yet come, some might pretend that the seventy years foretold were not yet fully expired; others (with more show of reason) that they had been too hasty in laying the foundation long since, as appears by their ill success and many adversaries; that God, who had dwelt so long in a tabernacle, and was now worshipped at his newly created altar, would bear with them, if they first built their own houses, and then be more free to build his house, which they intended to do hereafter, with great care and cost. This is still the guise of graceless procrastinators, to future and fool away their own salvation. Hereafter, say they, may be time enough, and what need such haste to build the spiritual temple? In time comes grace, God is more merciful than so; and at what time soever a sinner repents from the bottom of his heart, &c. Fools and blind men (as our Saviour calls the Pharisees, Mat 23:17), that thus stand trifling and baffling with God and their souls, being semper victuri, as Seneca saith, always about to do that which, if not well done, they are utterly undone for ever; for upon this little point of time hangs the crown of eternity. The gales of grace are uncertain, the day of grace (which is very clear and bright) is usually a short one. Non licet in belle bis peccare, It is not permitted to error twice in wartime, said Lamachus to a soldier of his brought before him, and pleading he would do so no more: so God will not suffer men twice to neglect the day of grace, which, if once past, will never dawn again. Let none, therefore, when pressed to the present now of meeting God by repentance, answer as Antipater, King of Macedonia, did, when one presented him a book treating of happiness, ου σχολαζω, I am not at leisure. Or as Archias, the Theban, when forewarned of a conspiracy against him, cast the letters by, with In crastinum seria, and was slain ere the morrow came. Or as these Cunctators in the text, that had often in their mouth, "The time is not come, the time," &c., lest the very next minute they be cut off by death from all further time of repentance, acceptation, and grace for ever. Men may purpose, promise, expect a time of healing and happiness, when they shall be deceived, and find a time of terror and torment, Jer 14:19. Some, when a dying, would have given a world for time: as I have heard (saith a reverend man) one crying day and night, call time again; but that could not be. As in war, so here, none are permitted to err twice. Time must be taken by the forelock, as being bald behind, Posthac occasio calva.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–9 Thus speaketh, by way of reproof, and to awaken…
Thus speaketh, by way of reproof, and to awaken the drowsy Jews; he who knew their heart tells them what they both thought and spoke.
This people, whom mercy preserved in, redeemed out of Babylon, and brought into their land on purpose to build the temple. This people, whom Cyrus by proclamation sent to do this, who seemed to long for a temple when they were in Babylon.
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Say; discourse thus among themselves, and discourage all that were forward. The time is not come; the proper season of rebuilding the house of God seems to be not come, for since the prohibition by Cambyses in the days of Cyrus, and through all the time of Cambyses, and in the first year and part of the second of Darius, we have no commission to do it, but are required not to do any thing in this affair without further order, Ezr 4:21.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,.... Of armies above…
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,.... Of armies above and below; whom all ought to reverence, honour, and obey; who was able to support his people in building his house, and protect them from their enemies, which should have been an encouragement to them; and to punish them for their neglect of it, which might have deterred them from it. This preface is made, to show that what follow were not the words of the prophet, but of the Lord; and therefore to be the more regarded, and the truth of them not to be doubted of:
saying, This people say; repeating the words of the people of the Jews to Zerubbabel and Joshua, that they might observe them, and the wickedness and ingratitude in them. "This people", lately brought out of the captivity of Babylon, and loaded with various blessings and benefits; and not a few of them, but the generality of them, the body of them, expressed themselves after this manner, when pressed to build the temple:
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The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built; suggesting that the seventy years of Jerusalem and the temple lying in ruins, reckoning from the destruction of them in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, were not yet fulfilled; or rather intimating that it was not the time in Providence, since they had been forbid and hindered in former reigns from going on with the work; or, since it had been a time of famine and distress with them, it was not a time fit and convenient to carry on such a service; and though they did not lay aside all thoughts of it, yet they judged it right and proper to defer it to a more convenient time, when they were better settled, and in a better capacity to engage in it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 8, 9 Ceiled - Arched and richly adorned.
Ceiled - Arched and richly adorned.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 Verse 2. The time is not come] They thought…
Verse 2. The time is not come] They thought that the seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah were not yet completed, and it would be useless to attempt to rebuild until that period had arrived. But Abp. Usher has shown that from the commencement of the last siege of Jerusalem unto this time, precisely sixty-nine years had been completed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 8 Hag 1:2-4. This people say, The time is not…
Hag 1:2-4. This people say, The time is not come, &c. — They had no just cause for saying this; but their own private concerns and conveniences (as appears from what follows) employed all their thoughts, and they preferred them to the rebuilding of the temple. Then — When the people were thus sluggish, made excuses, and delayed the work; came the word of the Lord to Haggai — To reprove them for their neglect, and excite them to their duty. Is it time for you, &c. — You think it full time to build your own houses: you judge it seasonable enough to lay out much cost on adorning them; what pretence then can you make, that it is not seasonable to build my house? Ought not that first to be set about, and the ornamenting of your own houses to be left till afterward? The reproof here given seems to allude to the different spirit with which David was actuated, Psalms 132., who vowed that he would not come into the tabernacle of his house, &c., until he found out a place for the Lord. It certainly argues a contempt of God, when men give the preference to themselves before him, or think no cost or grandeur is too much for themselves, but the meanest accommodation good enough for the service of God. It is true an humble and devout mind is the only temple which God delights to dwell in; and he dwells not in, nor regards, temples made with hands; but yet, for the public solemnization of his worship, and as an outward testimony of men’s respect toward him, it is proper that places should be erected for, and appropriated to his worship; which places ought not to be neglected, but made as decent and becoming the design of their erection as the circumstances of things will admit of.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people…
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say - Not Zerubbabel or Joshua, but “this people.” He says not, “My people,” but reproachfully “this people,” as, in acts, disowning Him, and so deserving to be disowned by Him. “The time is not come,” literally “It is not time to come, time for the house of the Lord to be built” . They might yet sit still; the time for them “to come” was not yet, for not yet was the “time for the house of the Lord to be built.” Why it was not time, they did not say. The government did not help them; the original grant by Cyrus Ezr 3:7 was exhausted; the Samaritans hindered them, because they would not own them, (amid their mishmash of worship, “worshiping,” our Lord tells them Joh 4:22, “they know not what”), as worshipers of the same God. It was a bold excuse, if they said, that the 70 years during which the temple was to lie waste, were not yet ended.
The time had long since come, when, 16 years before, Cyrus had given command that the house of God should be built. The prohibition to build, under Artaxerxes or Pseudo-Smerdis, applied directly to the city and its walls, not to the temple, except so far as the temple itself, from its position, might be capable of being used as a fort, as it was in the last siege of, Jerusalem. Yet in itself a building of the size of the temple, apart from outer buildings, could scarcely so be used. The prohibition did not hinder the building of stately private houses, as appears from Haggai’s rebuke. The hindrances also, whatever they were, had not begun with that decree. The death of Pseudo-Smerdis had now, for a year, set them free, if had they had any zeal for the glory and service of God. Otherwise, Haggai would not blamed them. God, knowing that He would bend the heart of Darius, as He had that of Cyrus, requires the house to be built without the king’s decree. It was built in faith, that God would bring through what He had enjoined, although outward things were as adverse now as before. And what He commanded He prospered Ezra 5–6.
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There was indeed a second fulfillment of 70 years, from the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar 586 b.c., to its consecration in the 6th year of Darius 516 b.c. But this was through the willfulness of man, prolonging the desolation decreed by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to the people not to the temple.
“The prophet addresses his discourse to the chiefs (in Church and state) and yet accuses directly, not their listlessness but that of the people, in order both to honor them before the people and to teach that their sins are to be blamed privately not publicly, lest their authority should be injured, and the people incited to rebel against them; and also to shew that this fault was directly that of the people, whom he reproves before their princes, that, being openly convicted before them, it might be ashamed, repent, and obey God; but that indirectly this fault touched the chiefs themselves, whose office it was to urge the people to this work of God” . “For seldom is the prince free from the guilt of his subjects, as either assenting to, or winking at them, or not coercing them, though able.”
Since also Christians are the temple of God, all this prophecy of Haggai is applicable to them . “When thou seest one who has lapsed thinking and preparing to build through chastity the temple which he had before destroyed through passion, and yet delaying day by day, say to him, ‘Truly thou also art of the people of the captivity, and sayest, The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.’ Whoso has once settled to restore the temple of God, to him every time is suited for building, and the prince, Satan, cannot hinder, nor, the enemies around. As soon as being thyself converted, thou callest upon the name of the Lord, He will say, “Behold Me” . “To him who willeth to do right, the time is always present; the good and right-minded have power to fulfill what is to the glory of God, in every time and place.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8 Yet come. God’s service must be restored without delay,…
Yet come. God’s service must be restored without delay, and manners reformed; as otherwise many will be lost eternally. (Worthington) --- The Jews refrained from commencing the temple till the time marked out by Jeremias xxv. 11., and Zacharias i. 7. (Calmet) --- From the beginning of the last siege sixty-nine years had elapsed. (Usher, the year of the world 3485.) --- Others, reflecting on the obstacles placed by Cyrus and Cambyses, thought it was not yet time to work at the temple: but these were only pretexts. The kingdom was now held by another family, and the former decrees abolished. Fear of labour, therefore, was the only impediment.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, Lord of the powers of…
the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth, and therefore requiring implicit obedience.
This people--"This" sluggish and selfish "people." He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God.
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The time--the proper time for building the temple. Two out of the seventy predicted years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the temple, 558 B.C., Kg2 25:9) were yet unexpired; this they make their plea for delay [HENDERSON]. The seventy years of captivity were completed long ago in the first year of Cyrus, 536 B.C. (Jer 29:10); dating from 606 B.C., Jehoiakim's captivity (Ch2 36:6). The seventy years to the completion of the temple (Jer 25:12) were completed this very year, the second of Darius [VATABLUS]. Ingenious in excuses, they pretended that the interruption in the work caused by their enemies proved it was not yet the proper time; whereas their real motive was selfish dislike of the trouble, expense, and danger from enemies. "God," say they, "hath interposed many difficulties to punish our rash haste" [CALVIN]. Smerdis' interdict was no longer in force, now that Darius the rightful king was on the throne; therefore they had no real excuse for not beginning at once to build. AUBERLEN denies that by "Artaxerxes" in Ezra 4:7-22 is meant Smerdis. Whether Smerdis or Artaxerxes Longimanus be meant, the interdict referred only to the rebuilding of the city, which the Persian kings feared might, if rebuilt, cause them trouble to subdue; not to the rebuilding of the temple. But the Jews were easily turned aside from the work. Spiritually, like the Jews, men do not say they will never be religious, but, It is not time yet. So the great work of life is left undone.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 5, 6. If at present they are experiencing misfortune,…
5, 6. If at present they are experiencing misfortune, if the results of their labors are disappointing, if their crops do not prosper, all these calamities are a judgment from Jehovah for their indifference and neglectfulness (compare Hag_1:9). For the philosophy underlying this argument see on Amo_3:6, and at the close of comments on Amo_4:11.
Consider your ways — Literally, set your hearts on your ways. A favorite phrase with Haggai (compare Hag_1:7; Hag_2:15; Hag_2:18). Their ways are their conduct, but, as Hag_1:6 indicates, the consequences of the conduct are to be included in their considerations. Jerome explains your ways as equivalent to “what you have done and what you have suffered.” Their experiences have been startling enough to cause them to stop and think. A curse seemed to rest upon all their possessions and undertakings.
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Bring in — Harvest. Harvests had turned out badly; abundant sowing had produced sparingly (compare Isa_5:8-10). For how many years this continued we do not know. The same curse was seen everywhere. What they ate and drank did not satisfy their hunger and thirst, their clothes failed to warm them, and the wages of the day laborer were used up as rapidly as if they had been placed in a bag full of holes.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 2. speaketh] Lit. saith, the same word as throughout…
2. speaketh] Lit. saith, the same word as throughout the verse.
this people] possibly used as a term of reproach: comp. ch. Hag_2:14; Isa_8:11-12.
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the time is not come] Lit., not time to come. The sentence is evidently elliptical, and there is much difference of opinion as to what should be supplied. The simplest way of taking it appears to be, “it is not (yet) the time (for it, i.e. the matter in hand, or proposed undertaking) to come.” Then what that matter or undertaking is, is explained in the next clause, “the time of the House of Jehovah, for it to be built.” The LXX., however, and other Ancient Versions render, The time is not come for the Lord’s house to be built. R. V. margin.
It has been thought by some, that in saying the time was not come the Jews meant to allege, that the seventy years of desolation which had been predicted were not yet fulfilled. But if that had really been the case their excuse would have been valid. “There was indeed,” as Pusey observes, “a second fulfilment of seventy years, from the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, b.c. 586, to its consecration in the sixth year of Darius, b.c. 516. But this was through the wilfulness of man prolonging the desolation decreed by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to the people not to the temple.” It is clear from the sharp rebuke here administered, and from the severe judgments with which their procrastination had been visited (ver. 6, 9–11), that the excuse was idle and the delay worldly and culpable.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 (2) The time is not come.—Better (unless we alter…
(2) The time is not come.—Better (unless we alter the received text), It is not yet time to come—i.e., it is not yet time to assemble and commence preparations for building. It is not stated on what grounds the people based this assumption; but probably they palliated their indifference to religion by a pretended dread of Persian hostility. Darius, however, unlike his predecessor Artaxerxes, gave the enemies of the Jews no countenance when a report was actually made to him on the subject. (See Ezra 5, 6)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–9 The Lord of hosts. Haggai, as the other prophets,…
The Lord of hosts. Haggai, as the other prophets, always uses this formula in enunciating his messages. (see note on Amo_9:5) Trochon justly remarks that this expression is not found in the earlier books of the Bible the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges. If these books were contemporary with the prophets, the phrase would certainly occur in them (see a valuable note in the Appendix to Archdeacon Perowne"s Commentary on Haggai, in "The Canibridge Bible for Schools"). This people; populus iste (Vulgate), with some contempt, as if they were no longer worthy to be called the Lord"s people. (Hag_2:14) It looks as if they had often before been admonished to proceed with the work, and had this answer ready. The time is not come; literally, it is not time to come, (comp. Gen_2:5) which is explained by the new clause, the time that the Lord"s house should be built. The versions shorten the sentence, rendering," the time for building the Lord"s house has not come." The excuse for their inaction may have had various grounds. They may have said, reckoning from the final destruction of Jerusalem (B.C. 586), that the seventy years" captivity was not complete; that there was still danger from the neighbouring population; that the Persians were adverse to the undertaking; that the unfruitful season rendered them unable to engage in such a great work; and that the very fact of these difficulties existing showed that God did not favour the design.
Vers. 2-5The mistakes of the temple builders: a warning.
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I THEY FAILED TO DISCERN THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. They imagined the time had not come for them to build the Lord"s house, whereas it had fully arrived.
1. What led them to suppose or say so, though not stated, may easily be inferred.
(1) They were disheartened by the opposition they encountered (see next head).
(2) The original grant obtained from Cyrus (Ezr_3:7) was probably then exhausted.
(3) They had been interdicted by a decree of Artaxerxes, or of pseudo-Smerdis. (Ezr_4:23, Ezr_4:24) And
(4) they were suffering from had trade and worse harvests (ver. 6), and consequently were unable to contribute towards the expense of the building.
2. The indications that the time had fully come were so plain that they should hardly have been misread.
(1) The seventy years during which the whole land of Judah was to lie desolate, and its inhabitants should serve the King of Babylon, (Jer_25:11, Jer_25:12) and at the end of which the exiles should return to their own land, (Jer_29:10) had manifestly rolled by.
(2) The very deliverer of whom Isaiah had spoken by name, Cyrus, (Isa_44:28 Isa_45:1) had appeared, and opened the two-leaved gates of Babylon. (Ezr_1:2, Ezr_1:3)
(3) The sacred vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off to Babylon, (2Ki_24:13) and Jeremiah (Jer_28:3) predicted would again be brought from Babylon, had actually been delivered over into the hands of Zerubbabel by Cyrus. (Ezr_1:8)
(4) The bad harvests and depressed trade from which they were suffering were a manifest token of the Divine displeasure on account of their negligence, and were no real excuse for their illiberal conduct, since they could obviously find money enough to build ceiled mansions for themselves.
(5) The decree of Artaxerxes only forbad the building of the city, (Ezr_4:21) not of the temple; and even though it had been directed against the latter, Artaxerxes himself no longer reigned, having been driven from the throne he had usurped, and his place having been occupied by Darius Hystaspes, so that the repressive edict, had they been anxious, might easily have been revoked. This mistake of the builders has often been committed; as e.g. by Moses in Egypt, who misread the signs of the times, and thought the hour had struck for Israel"s deliverance when it had not (Exo_2:11-15; Act_7:25) by the Jewish rulers in Christ"s day, who failed to discern in the Galilaean Prophet the manifest tokens of Messiah; (Mat_16:3, Mat_16:4) by the city of Jerusalem, which knew not the day of her visitation; (Luk_19:42) and by the present day unbeliever, who cannot see that "now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation". (2Co_6:2)
II THEY WERE TOO EASILY DAUNTED BY OPPOSITION.
1. The nature and source of this opposition is described in the Book of Ezra (4). Prevented from taking part in the building of the temple, the Samaritan settlers first "weakened the hands of the builders," next "hired counsellors against them," and ultimately obtained an interdict commanding them to cease. It was certainly annoying, but:
2. They should not have been so easily discouraged. No enterprise of any moment was ever carried through without encountering difficulties and frequently hostilities, and without calling for patient perseverance in well doing. How otherwise would Israel have been brought from Egypt at the first, or Judah from Babylon a few years before?
3. The same mistake is committed still by those who imagine the spiritual temple of Jehovah, either in the individual soul or in the Church as a whole, can be built without difficulty, without experiencing resistance from enemies within and without, or in any other way than by indomitable perseverance.
4. Never despair" and Never give in" should be the twin mottoes of every one engaged in temple building for God of the individual believer, of the Christian minister, of the foreign missionary.
III THEY PREFERRED THE MATERIAL AND TEMPORAL TO THE SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS. The ordinary occupations of life had more attraction for them than the duties of religion. To assert that they cared nothing for religion would, perhaps, be wrong, since what had brought them back from Babylon, where for the most part they had comfortable settlements, was a true feeling of piety no less than an ardent spirit of patriotism. Yet were they not long back upon their much loved ancestral soil before they showed they had brought back with them from Babylon a passion stronger than even their love for religion, namely, devotion to the earthly and material pursuits of life. Their zeal in temple building was quickly damped, but not so their enthusiasm in ploughing and sowing their fields, in working for wages, in erecting magnificent mansions, sumptuous palaces like those they had seen and perhaps lived in in Babylon, with walls of polished stone and roofs of cedar. With much case they could see that "the time for building God"s house was not come," as they supposed; they had large difficulty in perceiving it was not the season to attend to their ordinary avocations. So do many on becoming Christians carry over with them into their new life "passions for things material and temporal," which, while religious feeling is fresh, are kept in abeyance, but which, the moment this begins to abate, assert themselves to the hindrance of what is properly religious work, and to the detriment of the soul"s religious life. This constitutes a third mistake against which Christians should be on their guard.
IV THEY FOLLOWED THEIR OWN INTERESTS RATHER THAN THE GLORY OF GOD. One cannot help thinking that, had the building of the Lord"s house been a matter that concerned their own glory, comfort, or interest, they would not have suffered it to lie waste as they did; but only the honour of the Deity was involved, and what was that to their material advantage and temporal felicity? Was it not of greater moment that they themselves should be well housed, well fed, well clothed, than that even God, who dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and requireth not to be worshipped as though he needed anything, should be well lodged? If it came to the worst, they could do without a temple altogether, could worship in the open air, as they had done since coming from Babylon, but they could not well do without well stocked farms and finely celled houses. And so they let the work, which had only God"s glory as its motive, drop, and applied themselves to that which contemplated man"s or their own material good. Is it wrong to find in this a parable for Christians? Is not the essence of Christianity just this that a man, like Christ whom he follows, shall seek, not his own glory, but God"s; shall do, not his own will, but the will of him who hath sent him into the world? Yet among professing Christians are those who cannot see beyond their own little selves, and who imagine that a man"s chief duty upon earth, even after having become a Christian, is to do the best he can for himself, whereas it is to do the best he can for God. Acting on the former principle leads to spiritual blindness, to cowardice, to this-worldism, all of which are deplorable mistakes; acting on the latter.principle terminates in no such disastrous results, but brings with it to the individual so acting spiritual insight, moral courage, and heavenly mindedness three qualities which ennoble all by whom they are possessed.
Lessons.
1. The duty of discerning the signs of the times.
2. The necessity of combining courage with forethought.
3. The propriety of guarding against the disturbing influence ofsupposed self-interest.
Procrastination.
people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord"s house should be built." There are several ways of accounting for the delay which occurred in the work of re-erecting the temple in Jerusalem.
1. In part it arose from the returned exiles being preoccupied in seeking tosecure to themselves material prosperity.
2. Then they were daunted by the opposition they had to encounter as theyengaged in this work. The powerful neighbouring tribes, being alike antagonistic to the restoration of Jerusalem as the centre of the pure and unadulterated worship of God, combined to place obstacles in the way of the repairers of the breaches.
3. Further, they had grown somewhat accustomed to being without thestructure. Comparatively few of them had seen "the first house.
4. It is to be feared also that they had lost, through the changes they hadexperienced, that strong sense of the need of the Divine abiding presence in their midst. Influenced by such considerations as these, and forgetful that "good is best when soonest wrought," they kept postponing carrying out the great undertaking to which they had pledged themselves, and excused themselves by saying, "The time is not come," etc. (ver. 2). This habit of delay is far too general, and is not limited to any age or race. It prevails widely today as in all past times; and in no respect more so than in matters affecting man"s relation to God. Time was when man was wholly devoted to his Maker"s praise. God formed him in his own image, holy, spotless, pure; but he mournfully fell. He who had been the temple of God became a moral waste. "Ichabod" became inscribed upon the once consecrated spiritual man.. Every power of the soul became corrupt, every propensity became drawn to that which is evil. "The gold became dim, and the most fine gold changed." And the voice of God calls us to the glorious work of rebuilding tills temple. He has presented to us, in the perfect life of his own Son, the pattern after which we should seek to raise in ourselves the superstructure of a holy life, and offers us his gracious aid so that we may build into our character the noble materials of truth and virtue, wisdom and love. And it is just at this point that the temptation to delay meets men.
5. They are not insensible to the claims of God, nor are they altogetherindifferent about attending to these, but they say, "The time is not come," etc. (ver. 3).
1. They are immersed in other matters at present:
1. the cares of the world;
2. the pursuit of riches;
3. the pleasures of life, absorb them; they are preoccupied just now; they say, "The time is not come" (ver. 3).
6. They reason that there is the whole future yet before them, and thatample opportunity will be given them in due course. So they go on robbing themselves of "aspirations high and deathless hopes sublime.
Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene. S.D.H.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 7, 8 This people say, The time is not come, the…
Hag_1:3
This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lords house should be built.
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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 Gods 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 Lords 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 Lords 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Lords 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 ones personal salvation. There can be no controversy as to that. No serious attendant on Christian worship will deny that it is a mans 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 Lords 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 Gods plan, which must be the best plan. Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods work in, and in expectation of such times do lie from present duty.
(5) When the true cause of mens negligence, which layeth many a lion in the way, is their love to their own things and private interests.
4. Mens own consciences, when they speak impartially, will convince them of heinous sin, when they, study to promote their own interest, to the neglect of Gods affairs.
5. A peoples sinful negligence in Gods 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 Lords 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Lords house
These people were glad to have an excuse for turning away from building the Lords house to build houses for themselves. Though they found plenty of time and means for adorning their own houses in a costly manner, the Lords 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 Lords work? We may not be called to build up the Lords 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 Lords 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 Lords house is built. When we come to Church, as members of Christs 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 Gods 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 Lords 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 Christians constant danger is lest his Saviours 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 Lords house should be built. It was not a denial of Gods 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 Lords 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 Lords 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. Gods prophet bids the people consider their ways, and that all Gods 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 Lords 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 Lords 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 mans 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 Lords 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 nations 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 creatures 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Lords house in Haggais 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 Gods 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. Gods laws vindicate themselves now. Prosperity and happiness here are as much dependent on our acknowledgment of Gods laws as prosperity and happiness in the world to come. What did this peoples neglect of Gods 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 wont 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 Lords 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 didnt 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 dont 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 (Hag_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 (Hag_1:4).
3. No man ever gains anything by trying to cheat God. He makes a fools bargain, bartering a real good for a perishing bauble, and losing at last even what he gained (Hag_1:6).
4. A careful pondering of Gods dealings with us will often indicate to us Gods 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 (Hag_1:6).
5. Obedience to God is an advancement of His glory (Hag_1:8).
6. Disobedience to God will often, even in this life, issue in disappointment and disaster (Hag_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 (Hag_1:11).
8. True religion manifests itself in fearing the Lord, and in obeying the voice of His servant (Hag_1:12).
9. The presence of God with a man is the best blessing he can receive, for it includes everything else (Hag_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 (Hag_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 (Hag_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.)
Hag_1:3-4
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?
Church building
The decree of Artaxerxes prohibited the building both of temple and city, but it seems that the people had persisted, spite of the decree, in building dwellings for themselves, though no progress had been made with the temple. The mission of Haggai and Zechariah was to rouse the people to the long-neglected work, to reprove the indolent, and encourage the desponding. The excuses of the people, like those commonly of men who defer religious duties to more convenient seasons, were but marks of a secret resolve to escape, if possible, altogether from a labour which must interfere with more congenial pursuits. Our text contains the prophets expostulation, meeting the excuse that the time was not come for building the Lords house. The temple may not be indispensable in spiritual Christianity, but it is certainly valuable. There may be privileges attached to it which we have no right to expect, elsewhere. We need not confound our case with that of the Jews, though we address to Christians the expostulation of the text, as if the change in dispensation had made no difference in its pertinence and force. Christianity, unlike Judaism, is not tied to places; its ordinances may be everywhere celebrated. Then what necessity is there, under this new and better covenant, for structures devoted to sacred uses, or what loss is it to us if this house lie waste? It is contrary to the established order of providence that miracles should be employed where the: result might be accomplished through ordinary means. The propagation of Divine truth has been entrusted to the Church. The public ordinances are therefore indispensable; and suitable places for such ordinances must be provided. We can safely contend for the indispensableness, under the existing dispensation, of sanctuaries, or Churches, maintaining that cities without these sacred edifices would be cities that must ere long be wholly sunk in irreligion, and occupied by a population with no fear of God. We can no better spare our Churches than the Jews could their temple. In proportion as we allow any city, or any portion of our population to be destitute of the public means of grace, we fasten On that city or population something of the same religious incapacity as was fastened on Jerusalem, whilst its temple lay in ruins. The Jews are not blamed for having built their own houses, but for not having, at the same time, built the house of God. Wherever there is a community, there ought to be a house devoted to God. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Diligence in the work of God
I propose to excite you to greater diligence, and to a more fervent zeal in the work and cause of God.
I. An existing depression in the cause of God. There is a painful imperfection in the work of God as it exists in the present day. The cause of God is by no means in the state that Christians desire. What are the scenes presented to our view in lands where Christianity is professed? In our own land, what do we see? What in other Christian and heathen lands? We are compelled to confess that the temple of God lieth waste. We are too apt to triumph: we are prone to forget the present state of things. We despair not; but we do not feel enough.
II. Temporal gratification may be pursued to the neglect of those exertions which God so justly demands. These people were dwelling in ceiled houses, while the temple of God was in ruins. We see now wealth, talents, genius, property, fully used for self-interests, and estranged from the cause of God. Especially may be noticed neglect of claims of Christian missions. Viewing our efforts in connection with the claims of God and of men, we must surely confess that there are many claims not answered, many duties not fulfilled. Regard the text.
III. As challenging the employment of our various talents, and urging the claims of God.
1. Consider the nature of those obligations under which you are placed by God, with regard to the services you are called to render.
2. Consider the peculiar nature of the system of the Gospel you have embraced. Is there not a sentence pronounced on all those who are ungrateful and disobedient?
3. Consider that, while there is not this energy in the cause of God, there is an amount, an awful amount of misery resting on your fellow-men.
4. Consider the prospect of success. Let then the vast importance of the work, and the consideration of the past neglect of it, urge you to exertion. (James Parsons.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 Hag_1:5. Consider] Lit. set your heart upon; i.e. consider…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hag_1:5. Consider] Lit. set your heart upon; i.e. consider your conduct and lay it to heart: a frequent formula with Haggai (cf. Hag_1:7; ch. Hag_2:15; Hag_2:18).
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Hag_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 Hag_1:9 [Keil]. Holes] A torn bag was proverbial for money spent without profit (cf. Isa_55:2; Jer_2:13; Zec_8:10). Necessities were dear, and a day’s wage to purchase them, as if put into a bag with holes.
Hag_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 (Ezr_3:7; Ezr_6:3-4). Pleasure] God displeased when it was in ruins. Glorified] Be propitious to suppliants, and so receive the honour due to me (1Ki_8:30).
Hag_1:9. Looked] Lit. Ye turned towards much, inspecting frequently the growing crops (Exo_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.
Hag_1:10.] The curse further depicted, with an evident play upon the punishment with which transgressors are threatened in the law (Lev_26:19-20; Deu_11:17; Deu_28:23-24) [Keil].
Hag_1:11. I] The first cause: heaven and earth (Hag_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.—Hag_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.—Hag_1:6-8
The admonition of Hag_1:5 is repeated (Hag_1:7), both as betokening greater urgency, and also for the purpose of reinforcing the argument of Hag_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 (Mat_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. (Hag_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
Hag_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].
Hag_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 (Pro_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” (Luk_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.
Hag_1:8.
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
Hag_1:8
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.—Hag_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” (Hag_1:9). “Therefore” (Hag_1:10). [Adapted from The Homilist.]
THE DOUBLE CURSE.—Hag_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 (Hag_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 (Php_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
Hag_1:9. Mine house waste, ye run every man, &c. Apathy in spiritual matters, zeal in selfish (Pro_1:16 : cf. Psa_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 (Php_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].
Hag_1:10. He “calls for famine, &c., as instruments of his wrath (2Ki_8:1; Psa_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
Hag_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].
Hag_1:5; Hag_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].
Hag_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].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v6
Haggai
VAIN TOIL
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Hag 1:6.
A large emigration had taken place from the land of captivity to Jerusalem. The great purpose which the returning exiles had in view was the rebuilding of the Temple, as the centre-point of the restored nation. With true heroism, and much noble and unselfish enthusiasm, they began the work, postponing to it all considerations of personal convenience. But the usual fate of all great national enthusiasms attended this. Political difficulties, hard practical realities, came in the way, and the task was suspended for a time. A handful remained true to the original ideas; the rest fell away. Personal comfort, love of ease, the claims of domestic life, the greed of gain, all the ignoble motives which, like gravitation and friction, check such movements after the first impulse is exhausted, came into play. Like every great cause, this one was launched amidst high hopes and honest zeal: but by degrees the hopes faded and became nothing better than ‘godly imaginations.’ The exiles took to building their own ceiled houses, and let the House of God lie waste. They began to think more of settling on the land than of building the Temple. No doubt they said all the things with which men are wont to hide their selfishness under the mask of duty:-Men must live; we must take care of ourselves; it is mad enthusiasm to build a temple when we have not homes; we mean to build it some time, but we are practical men and must provide for our wants first.’
This wisdom of theirs turned out folly, as it generally does. There came, as we learn from this prophet, a season of distress, in which the harvest, for which they had sacrificed their duties and their calling, failed: and in spite of their prudent diligence, or rather, just because of their misplaced and selfish attention to their worldly well-being, they were poor and hungry. ‘The heaven over them was stayed from dew, and the earth from her fruit.’ Haggai was sent by God to interpret the calamity, and to urge to the fulfilment of their earlier purposes.
His words apply to a supernatural condition of things with which he is dealing, but they contain truths illustrated by it and true for ever. For us all, as truly as for those Jews, the first thing, the primary, all-embracing duty, is to serve God, to obey, love, and live with Him. The same selfish and worldly excuses have force with us: ‘We have business to look after; men must live; we have no time to think about religion; I have built a new mill that occupies my thoughts; I have found a new plaything, and I must try it; I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So God and His claims, Christ and His love, are hustled into a corner to be attended to when opportunity serves, but to be neglected in the meantime. And the same result follows, not by miracle, but by natural necessity. Haggai puts these results in our text with bitter, indignant amplification. His words are all the working out of one idea-the unprofitableness, on the whole and in the long-run, of a godless life. He illustrates this in the clauses of our text in various forms, and my purpose now is simply to apply each of these to the realities of a godless life.
I. It is a life of fruitless toil.
The Prophet pictures the sowing, the abundant seed thrown broadcast, the long waiting, and then, finally, a wretched harvest-a few prematurely yellow ears and short stalks. I remember a friend telling me that when he was a boy he went out reaping with his father in one of our years of great drought; and after a day’s work threshed out all that he had cut, and carried it home with him in his handkerchief. That is what Haggai saw realised in fact, because the sowing had been without God. It is what we may see in others and feel in ourselves. It is the very law and curse of godless toil with its unproductive harvest. The builders set out to build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven, and they never get higher than a story or two. There is nothing more tragic than the contrast between what a man actually accomplishes in his life and what he planned when he began it. Many and many of our lives are like the half-built houses in Pompeii, where the stones are lying that had been all squared and polished, and have never been lifted to their place in the unfinished walls. Much of the seed never comes up at all; and what we gather is always less than what we expected. The prize gleams before us; when we get it, is it as good as it looked when it hung tempting at the unreached goal? A fox-brush is scarcely sufficient payment for riding over half a county. Ah! but you say, there is the enthusiasm and stir of the pursuit. Well, yes; it is something if it is training you for something, and if you can say that faculties worth the cultivating are developed in that way: and whether that is so depends on what you think a man is made for, and on whether these are faculties which will last and find their scope as long as you last. Consider what you are, what you seek; and then say whether the most fruitful harvest from which God and His love are left out is not little.
This fruitlessness of toil is inevitable unless it springs from a motive which in itself is sufficient, pursues a purpose which will surely be accomplished, and is done in hope of the world where ‘our works do follow us.’ If we are allied to Christ, then whether our work be great or small, apparently successful or frustrated, it will be all right. Though we do not see our fruit, we know that He will bless the springing thereof, and that no least deed done for Him but shall in the harvest-day be found waving a nodding head of multiplied results. ‘God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him’; and ‘he that goeth forth weeping shall doubtless return, bringing his sheaves with him.’ ‘Your labour is not in vain to the Lord.’
II. A godless life is one of unsatisfied hunger and thirst.
The poor results of the exiles’ toil did not avail to stay gnawing hunger nor slake burning thirst, and the same result applies only too sadly to lives lived apart from God. There are a multitude of desires proper to the human soul besides those which belong to the bodily frame, and these have their proper objects. Is it true that the objects are sufficient to satisfy the desires? Does any one of the things for which we toil feed us full when we have it? Do we not always want just a little more? And is not that want accompanied with a real and sharp sense of hunger? Is it not true the appetite GROWS with what it feeds on? And even if a man schools himself to something like content, it comes not because the desire is satisfied, but because it is somehow bridled. Cerberus often breaks his chain, in spite of honied cakes that have been tossed into the wide mouths of his tripled heads. What do wealth and ambition do for their votaries? And even he who thirsts for nobler occupations and lives for higher aims is often obliged to admit, in weariness, that ‘this also is vanity.’
But even when the desire is satisfied, the man desiring is not. To feed their bodies men starve their souls. How many longings are crushed or neglected by him who pushes eagerly after any one longing! We have either to race from one course to another, splitting life into intolerable distractions, or we have to circumscribe and limit ourselves in order to devote all our power to securing one; and if we secure it, then a hundred others will bark like a kennel of hounds.
And if you say, ‘I know nothing about all this; I have my aims, and on the whole I secure a tolerable satisfaction for them,’ do you not know a nameless unrest? If you do not, then you are so much the poorer and the lower, and you have murdered part of yourself. Some one single tyrannous desire sits solitary in your heart. He has slain all his brethren that he may rule, as sultans used to do in Constantinople. One big fish in the aquarium has eaten up all the others.
God only satisfies the soul. It is only the ‘bread which came down from Heaven,’ of which if we eat our souls shall live, and be filled as with marrow and fatness. That One is all-sufficient in His Oneness. Possessing Him, we know no satiety; possessing Him, we do not need to maim any part of our nature; possessing Him, we shall not covet divers multifarious objects. The loftiest powers of the soul find in Him their adequate, inexhaustible, eternal object. The lowest desires may, like the beasts of the forest, seek their meat from God. If we take Him for our own and live on Him by faith, our blessed experience will be, ‘I am full: I have all and abound.’
III. The godless life is one of futile defences.
‘Ye clothe you, but there is none warm.’ The clothing was to guard against the nipping air that blew shrewdly on their hills, and it failed to keep them from the weather. We may be indulging in fancy in this application of our text, but still raiment is as needful as food, and its failure to answer its purpose points to a real sorrow and insufficiency of a life lived without God. In it there is no real defence against the manifold evils which storm upon all of us. When the bitter, biting weather comes, what have you to shelter you from the cold blast? Some rags of stoical resignation or proverbial commonplaces? ‘What is done cannot be helped’; ‘What cannot be cured must be endured’; ‘It is a long lane that has no turning,’ and the like. But what are these? You may have other occupations to interest you, but these will not heal, though they may divert your attention from, your gaping wounds. You have friends, and the like, but though you have all these and much beside, these will not avail. ‘The covering is shorter than that a man can wrap himself in it.’ Naked and shivering, exposed to the pelting and the pitiless storm, with rags soaked through, and chilled to the bone, what is there but death before the man in the wild weather on some trackless moor? And what is there for us if we have to bear the storms and cold of life without God? No doubt most of us struggle through somehow. Time heals much; work does a great deal; to live is so much, that no living being can be wholly miserable. Other cares and other occupations blossom and grow, and the brown mounds get covered with sweet springing grass. But how many lie down and die? How many for the rest of their lives go crushed and broken-spirited? How many carry about with them, deep in their hearts, a sleepless sorrow? How many have to bear passionate paroxysms of agony and bursts of angry grief, all of which might have been softened and soothed and made to gleam with the mellow light of hope as from a hidden sun, if only, instead of defiantly and weakly fronting the world alone, they had found in the man Christ the refuge from the storm and the covert from the tempest. How can a man face all the awful possibilities and the solemn certainties of life without God and not go mad? It is impossible to work without Him; it is impossible to rejoice without Him; but more impossible still, if that could be, is it to endure without Him. It is in union with Jesus Christ, and with Him alone, that we shall receive ‘the pure linen, clean and white,’ which is a surer defence than the warrior’s mail, and ‘being clothed we shall not be found naked.’
IV. A godless life is one of fleeting riches.
In Haggai’s strong metaphor, the poor day-labourer earns his small wage and puts it into a ragged bag, or as we should say, a pocket with a hole in it; and when he comes to look for it, it is gone, and all his toil is for nothing. What a picture this is of the very experience that befalls all men who work for less wages than God’s ‘Well done.’ Take an instance or two: here is a man who works hard for a long time, and puts his money into some bank, and one morning he gets a letter to tell him the bank’s doors are closed, and his savings gone-a bag with holes. Here is a man who climbs by slow degrees to the head of his profession and lives in popular admiration, and some day he sees a younger competitor shooting ahead of him, and all is lost-a bag with holes. Here is a man who has, by some great discovery, established his fame or his fortune, and a new man, standing on his shoulders, makes a greater, and his fame dwarfs and his trade runs into other channels-a bag with holes. Here is a man who has conquered a world, and dies on the rock of St. Helena, with his pompous titles stripped off him, and instead of kingdoms a rood or two of garden, and instead of his legions, half a dozen soldiers, a doctor, and a jailer-a bag with holes. Here is a man who, having amassed his riches and kept them without loss all his life, is dying. They cannot go with him. That would not matter; but unfortunately he has to live yonder, and he will have ‘nothing of all his labour that he can carry away in his hands’-a bag with holes.
Such loss and final separation befall us all; but he who loves God loses none of his real treasure when he parts from earthly treasures. Fortune may turn her wheel as she pleases, his wealth cannot be taken from him. His riches are laid up in a sure storehouse, ‘where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.’ We each live for ever. Should we not have for our object in life that which is eternal as ourselves? Why should we fix our hopes on that which is not abiding-on things that can perish, on things that we must lose? Let us not run this awful risk. Do not impoverish or darken life here; do not condemn yourselves to unfruitful toil, to unsatisfied desires, to unguarded calamities, to unstable possessions; but come, as sinful men ought to come, to Jesus Christ for pardon and for life. Then, in due season, you will reap if you faint not; and the harvest will not be little, but ‘some sixty-fold and some an hundred-fold’; then you will ‘hunger no more, neither thirst any more,’ but ‘He that hath mercy on you will lead you to living fountains of water’; then you will not have to draw your poor rags round you for warmth, but shall be clothed with the robe of righteousness and the garment of praise; then you will never need to fear the loss of your riches, but bear with you whilst you live your treasures beyond the reach of change, and will find them multiplied a thousand-fold when you die and go to God, your portion and your joy for ever.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 7 the word of Yahweh came
the word of Yahweh came
This idiom is used to introduce a special message from God. See how you translated this in Haggai 1:1. AT: "Yahweh gave a message" or "Yawheh spoke this message" (See: Idiom)
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by the hand of Haggai
Here the word "hand" refers to Haggai himself. Yahweh used Haggai as the agent to deliver his command. See how you translated this in Haggai 1:1. AT: "through Haggai" (See: Synecdoche)
Is it a time for you ... ruined?
Yahweh is rebuking the people. This rhetorical question can be translated as a statement. AT: "Now is not the time for you ... ruined." (See: Rhetorical Question)
this house
the temple of Yahweh
but cannot get drunk
There is not enough wine to satisfy the people's thirst and not nearly enough for drunkenness. The reader should understand that the text is not calling drunkenness a good thing.
the wage earner earns money only to put it into a bag full of holes
Not earning enough money to buy necessary goods is spoken of as if the person were losing the money that falls out through holes in the money bag. AT: "the money the worker earns is gone before he finishes buying everything he needs" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
Yahweh of hosts
harvest
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 1:2 Lord of Heaven’s Armies: Haggai’s and Zechariah’s favorite…
1:2 Lord of Heaven’s Armies: Haggai’s and Zechariah’s favorite expression for God emphasizes the invincible power behind God’s word. The Lord can call on infinite numbers of heavenly troops to carry out his will at a moment’s notice (2 Kgs 6:17; Matt 26:53). This thought was intended to encourage the Judeans, who felt helpless and insignificant. • The time has not yet come: Poor crop yields from drought and pestilence had so weakened Judah’s economy (Hag 1:6, 9-11) that the people thought they could not afford to rebuild the Temple. Haggai convinced them they could not afford to leave the Temple in ruins, for God would not bless and prosper them if they did not rebuild the Lord’s house (1:4, 7-8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.