“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. Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 7, 9, 10 Here the Prophet deals with the refractory people according…
Here the Prophet deals with the refractory people according to what their character required; for as to those who are teachable and obedient, a word is enough for them; but they who are perversely addicted to their sins must be more sharply urged, as the Prophet does here; for he brings before the Jews the punishments by which they had been already visited. It is commonly said, that experience is the teacher of fools; and the Prophet has this in view in these words, apply your hearts to your ways; that is, “If the authority of God or a regard for him is of no importance among you, at least consider how God deals with you. How comes it that ye are famished, that both heaven and earth deny food to you? Besides, though ye consume much food, it yet does not satisfy you. In a word, how is it that all things fade away and vanish in your hands? How is this? Ye cannot otherwise account for it, but that God is displeased with you. If then ye will not of your own accord obey God’s word, let these judgements at least induce you to repent.” It was to apply the heart to their ways, when they acknowledged that they were thus famished, not by chance, but that the curse of God urged them, or was suspended over their heads. He therefore bids them to receive instruction from the events themselves, or from what they were experiencing; and by these words the Prophet more sharply teaches them; as though he had said, that they profited nothing by instruction and warning, and that it remained as the last thing, that they were to be drawn by force while the Lord was chastising them.
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 vv4, 6, 8, 9 Showing that they sought not only their necessities, but…
Showing that they sought not only their necessities, but their very pleasures before God’s honor.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–11 Hag 1:4 [Is it] time for you, O ye,…
Hag 1:4 [Is it] time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house [lie] waste?
Ver. 4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, &c.] Not covered only, but ceiled with cedar (as the Chaldee here hath it), arched and garnished, as the Greek, carved and trimmed, as Ambrose rendereth it (Lib. 3. epist. 12). Sure, either your beds are very soft or your hearts very hard, that you can not only come into the tabernacles of your houses, but give sleep to your eyes, or slumber to your eyelids, before ye have found "a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob," Psa 132:4-5. Good David could not find in his heart to dwell in a house of cedar when the ark of God dwelt within curtains, 2Sa 7:2. Valiant Uriah deemed it altogether unfit and unreasonable that when the ark, and Israel, and Judah, abode in tents, he should go to his house to eat and drink, and to take his ease and pleasure, 2Sa 11:11. Solomon first built a house for God, and then for himself. The Christian emperors, Constantine, Theodosius, Honorius, &c., exceeded in building churches, which, from their stateliness, were styled Basilicae, or places for a king. The very Turks to this day, though content to dwell in mean and homely houses, yet their Mosques or meeting houses are very sumptuously built and set forth. It is a principle in nature, that the things of God are older and more to be respected than the things of men (τα του Yεου πρεσβυτερα η τα των ανθρωπων. Herodot.). A professor of the Turks’ laws proclaims, before they attempt anything, that nothing be done against religion. This is better than that which was written over the gate of the senate house in Rome (which yet is not to be disliked, in its place and order), Ne quid detrimenti Resp. capiat. Let nothing be done to the harm of the republic. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s: but with all, and above all, Give unto God the things that are God’s. The Greek article is twice repeated by our Saviour, when he speaketh for God, more than when for Caesar (τα του θεου τω θεω, Mat 22:21); to show that our special care should be to give God his due, to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and then all other things shall seek us. Caetera aut aderunt, aut caetera non oberunt The rest either will happen or the rest will not harm. (Cicero). But most people are so busied about their own houses, their cottages of clay, 2Co 5:1, the body, that God’s house, the soul, lies waste and neglected; the lean kine eat up the fat; the strength of the ground is spent in nourishing weeds. Earthly mindedness sucketh the sap of grace from the heart, as the ivy doth from the oak, and maketh it unfruitful. Men are so taken up about the world, that they think not of God’s kingdom: as the Duke of Alva told the French king, who asked him whether he had observed the recent great eclipse? No, said he, I have so much to do upon earth, that I have no leisure to look toward heaven. But is not one thing necessary, and all others but side businesses? And have we not in our daily prayer five petitions for spirituals and but one for temporals? Are we not taught to make it our first request, that God’s name may be hallowed, though our turn should not be served? Is not Esau stigmatized for selling his birthright for a mess of broth? Heb 12:16. And is not Shimei chronicled for a fool, who, by seeking after his servants, lost his life? Pope Sixtus for a madman, that sold his soul to the devil, to enjoy the Popedom for seven years? "What shall it profit a man to win the world and lose his own soul?" to win Venice, and then be hanged at the gates thereof, as the Italian proverb hath it? Surely such a man’s loss will be, 1. Incomparable, 2. Irreparable; for "What shall a man give in exchange of his soul?" Mat 16:26. It was no evil counsel that was given to John III, King of Portugal, to meditate every day a quarter of an hour on that Divine sentence. It would be time well spent to ponder as often and as long together on this text, "Is it time for you, O ye," that are so sharp set upon the world, so wholly taken up about your private profits, your pleasures and preferments, to sit in your ceiled houses, as Ahab once did in his ivory palace, or Nebuchadnezzar in his house of the kingdom (as he vain gloriously calleth it, Dan 4:30), and God’s house lie waste, and his service neglected, to whom we ourselves owe, 1Co 6:19, our lives, Mat 16:25, our parents, children, friends, means, Mat 19:29, our gifts and abilities, 1Co 4:7, our honours and offices, Psa 2:10-12, all that we are and have? How justly may God curse our blessings (as he threateneth these self-seeking, God neglecting Jews both here and Mal 2:2), scatter brimstone upon our houses, dry up our roots beneath, and above cut off our branches, drive us from light into darkness, and chase us out of the world with his terrors, Job 16:15-21. Surely such are the (ceiled) dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God, that inverteth the order appointed of him, by coveting, not the best gifts, 1Co 12:21, but an evil covetousness, Hab 2:9, by setting his affections, not on things above, but on things on the earth, by seeking their own things, every man, and not the things of Jesus Christ, Col 3:2 Php 2:21.
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 vv4–11 Is it time? you think it full time to…
Is it time? 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 can you make that it is not seasonable to build my house?
For you, Jews, who were by a king (that knew not your God) sent to build my house, you unthankful and forgetful ones.
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To dwell; to settle yourselves securely, and for continuance with stateliness.
Ceiled; searched and with cedar wainscot, curiously carved and covered, and as richly adorned as if you were full of treasures.
Houses: it seems to intimate some of them had more than one house, a city and a country house, and whilst God’s house lay waste; they thus lavish out their wealth on private worldly conveniences, but grudge the charge on God’s house. Can you thus live without a temple, an altar, a sacrifice, and yet cannot live without stately houses? Do you owe so much to yourselves, and so little to your God? so much to your bodies, so little to your souls?
Lie waste; in its rubbish, or in bare, naked foundations without any superstructure.
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 vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell…
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses,.... They could not only find time, leisure, and convenience to build houses to dwell in; but to wainscot them, and line them with boards of cedar, as the Targum; as bad as the times were complained of; and could sit in them, indulging themselves in luxury, ease, and sloth; and why then was it not a fit and convenient time as well to build the house of the Lord in?
and this house lie waste? or, "and shall this house lie waste?" or, "when this house lies waste?" (o) not indeed in its rubbish and ruins, as it was demolished by the Chaldeans, and left; but with a bare foundation, laid some years ago; and ever since neglected; the superstructure not carried on, and much less built up to be fit for service; and therefore might be said with propriety to lie waste and desolate, being unfinished, unfit for use, and no regard had unto it. David was of another mind, Sa2 7:2 and truly religious persons will be more concerned for the house of God than for their own houses.
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(o) "et domus ista deserta manebit?" Drusius; "quum domus haec vasta est?" Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "dum domus haec desolata est?" Cocceius.
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, 10, 11 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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 Verse 4. Is it time for you] If the…
Verse 4. Is it time for you] If the time be not come to rebuild the temple, it cannot be come for you to build yourselves comfortable houses: but ye are rebuilding your houses; why then do ye not rebuild the house of the Lord? The foundation of the temple had been laid fourteen years before, and some considerable progress made in the building; and it had been lying waste in that unfinished state to the present time.
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 vv5, 8 Hag 1:5-6. Therefore consider your ways — Reflect seriously…
Hag 1:5-6. Therefore consider your ways — Reflect seriously upon this affair, whether it is consistent with the reason of things, or whether you have even promoted your own happiness by it as you thought to do. Ye have sown much, and bring in little — Namely, into your barns. Ye eat, but ye have not enough — To satisfy your hunger; ye drink, but ye are not filled — Ye have not wine enough for your support. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm — Ye have not been able to get sufficient clothing to keep yourselves warm. And he that earneth wages, &c. — And whatever you gain by your labour, it is very quickly required for your necessary expenses, every thing being at a very dear rate. This has been the case with you, and this has arisen from your neglect of rebuilding God’s temple; for as you have neglected him, so hath he withdrawn his blessing from you; the consequence of which has been, that nothing has prospered with you.
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 Is it time for you - You, being what…
Is it time for you - You, being what you are, the creatures of God, “to dwell in your ceiled houses,” more emphatically, in your houses, and those “ceiled,” probably with costly woods, such as cedar . But where then was the excuse of want of means? They imitated, in their alleged poverty, what is spoken of as magnificent in their old kings, Solomon and Shallum, but not having, as Solomon first did (1Ki 6:9, ויספן), “covered the house of God with beams and rows of cedar” . “Will ye dwell in houses artificially adorned, not so much for use as for delight, and shall My dwelling-place, wherein was the Holy of holies, and the cherubim, and the table of showbread, be bestreamed with rains, desolated in solitude, scorched by the sun?”
“With these words carnal Christians are reproved, who have no glow of zeal for God, but are full of self-love, and so make no effort to repair, build, or strengthen the material temples of Christ, and houses assigned to His worship, when aged, ruinous, decaying or destroyed, but build for themselves curious, voluptuous, superfluous dwellings. In these the love of Christ gloweth not; these Isaiah threateneth, Isa 5:8, Isa 5:12. “Woe to you who join house to house and field to field, and regard not the work of the Lord!”
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To David and Solomon the building of God’s temple was their heart’s desire; to early Christian Emperors, to the ages of faith, the building of Churches; now mostly, owners of lands build houses for this world’s profit, and leave it to the few to build in view of eternity, and for the glory of God.
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 11 Ceiled: superbly adorned. Hebrew, "covered." You are not content…
Ceiled: superbly adorned. Hebrew, "covered." You are not content with what is merely necessary, while the temple lies in ruins. (Calmet)
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 Is it time--It is not time (Hag 1:2), ye…
Is it time--It is not time (Hag 1:2), ye say, to build Jehovah's house; yet how is it that ye make it a fit time not only to build, but to "dwell" at ease in your own houses?
you, O ye--rather, for "you, you"; the repetition marking the shameful contrast between their concern for themselves, and their unconcern for God [MAURER]. Compare a similar repetition in Sa1 25:24; Zac 7:5.
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ceiled--rather, "wainscoted," or "paneled," referring to the walls as well as the ceilings; furnished not only with comfort but luxury, in sad contrast to God's house not merely unadorned, but the very walls not raised above the foundations. How different David's feelings (Sa2 7:2)!
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 4. for you, O ye] Lit., for you, you:…
4. for you, O ye] Lit., for you, you: you, yourselves, R. V. The repetition of the pronoun is emphatic, “you are the people I mean;” or you in implied contrast to Almighty God, comp. 1Sa_25:24, where Abigail, anxious to appease David’s anger at the churlishness of Nabal, exclaims, “upon me, my Lord, I (am the person at fault), let this iniquity be.”
your cieled houses] Lit. your houses cieled, i.e. your houses (and they too) cieled. The adjective thus added without an article has the force of a predicate and so becomes emphatic. With the article it would form part of the subject. Comp. Psa_143:10 : “Let Thy Spirit good (as it is, and therefore ready to help and guide the sinful and infirm), lead me,” &c. The translators in A. V., feeling the force of the adjective as a predicate, have broken the first part of the sentence into a separate proposition, “Thy Spirit is good, lead me,” &c. The Prayer-Book version is, “Let thy loving Spirit lead me,” &c.
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cieled] Lit. covered or boarded. The word is used with reference to the roof of the Temple, which was high-pitched like our modern roofs, and cieled with boards within. “He covered the house with beams (rafters) and boards of cedar,” 1Ki_6:9. It is also used of the cieling with boards of Solomon’s house of the forest of Lebanon, 1Ki_7:3, and of some kind of covering or boarding (the passage is obscure) of his “Porch of Judgment,” 1Ki_7:7. The practice was luxurious and magnificent even in a king (Jer_22:14). Yet they who professed themselves unable to restore the House of the Lord were indulging in it in their own houses. They built costly houses for themselves, even using, it may be, to decorate them, the cedar wood which had been brought for the Temple (Ezr_3:7; Dict. of the Bible, Art. Zerubbabel), and had grown indifferent to the ruin and desolation of the House of God.
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 (4) Is it time for you . . .—Literally,…
(4) Is it time for you . . .—Literally, Is it time for you to dwell in your houses, and those ceiled?—i.e., probably with cedar and other costly woods. A crushing retort. If the adverse decree of Artaxerxes, which disallowed the building of Jerusalem (Ezr_4:21), had not hindered them from erecting magnificent residences for themselves, how could it reasonably excuse an utter neglect of God’s House?
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 vv4–11 For you, O ye; for you, yourselves; such as…
For you, O ye; for you, yourselves; such as ye are. (see Zec_7:5) He appeals to their consciences. You can make yourselves comfortable; you have time and means and industry to expend on your own private interests, and can you look with indifference on the house of God lying waste? Your cieled houses; your houses, and those cieled wainscoted and roofed with costly woods (1Ki_7:3, 1Ki_7:7; Jer_22:14) perhaps with the very cedar provided for the rebuilding of the temple. (Ezr_3:7) Septuagint, ejn oi]koiv uJmwn koilosta>qmoiv, "your vaulted houses," or, as St. Cyril explains, "houses whose doorposts were elaborately adorned with emblems and devices." They had naught of the feeling of David, (2Sa_7:2) "I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.
The house of the Lord lying waste.
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The temple was designed to be the centre of hallowed influence to the Jewish nation. It was the recognized dwelling place of God, the shrine where, in bright symbol, his glory, was specially revealed. The pious Jew rejoiced to repair to it, and wherever his lot might be cast he looked towards it with ardent and longing desire. The desecration of it by the introduction of idolatrous practices into its courts had materially contributed to the nation"s collapse. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, that the work of its restoration should be pressed forward with all zest, now that the captives bad been permitted to return, and at first it seemed as though this course would have been pursued, but unhappily they soon allowed their zeal to flag, and year after year passed by and nothing was done. The house of the Lord lay "waste." The Divine Teacher, when he came to usher in a new dispensation, declared that God is a Spirit, and is to be worshipped "in spirit and in truth". (Joh_4:23, Joh_4:24) He taught that place has but little to do with worship, and that there is no spot we may not consecrate by our praises and prayers, and render to us "hallowed ground." Still, he constantly resorted to the temple, and we read of his apostles how that they went up to the temple "at the hour of prayer". (Act_3:1) The erection and maintenance of Christian sanctuaries is most thoroughly in harmony with his will, and is calculated to promote the truest interests of the race. Close all such sanctuaries, and
(1) good men would be left to sigh for the holy fellowship they had lost;
(2) spiritual darkness would steal over the land;
(3) the streams of true benevolence would rapidly diminish;
(4) men in general, losing sight of the common relationship they sustain to the Eternal, would also overlook the interest they ought to feel in each other"s weal;
(5) iniquity would pass unreproved, and vice unchecked. As lovers of God, our country, and our fellow men, we do well to sustain Christian sanctuaries, and not to allow them to "lie waste." Notice, "the house of the Lord" may "lie waste
I IN THE SENSE OF THE MATERIAL STRUCTURE BEING NEGLECTED. There should be correspondence in respect of beauty and adornment, comfort and cleanliness, between the houses in which we live and the sanctuary in which we meet for worship, and where this is lacking, the want indicates a wrong state of mind and heart.
II IN THE SENSE OF ITS PECUNIARY RESOURCES BEING OVERLOOKED, AND THERE BEING THUS STRAITNESS IN RESPECT TO MEETING THE EXPENSES NECESSARILY INCURRED IN ITS MAINTENANCE. Giving should be regarded as an act of worship. "Bring an offering, and come into his courts". (Psa_96:8) Contributions for the maintenance of the worship of God ought not to be regarded in the light of charitable gifts, but as the discharge of bounden obligation.
III IN THE SENSE OF ITS SEATS BEING UNOCCUPIED. There is far too much of "waste" in this respect. The growing habit of attending only one of the services on the sabbath, and none during the week days, needs to be checked Personal influence should be brought more to bear upon the inhabitants of a locality with a view to securing their presence. "Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord". (Psa_122:1)
IV IN THE SENSE OF THE EXERCISES CONDUCTED THEREIN BEING MARKED BY BALDNESS AND INEFFICIENCY. The services should be marked by culture, variety, heart; the worshippers should throw their whole souls into all its engagements, and render each part of the service "heartily" and as "unto the Lord.
V IN THE SENSE OF PAUCITY OF SPIRITUAL RESULTS. With a view to the prevention of this, let us "pray for Jerusalem," that its services may yield comfort to the mourning and guidance to the perplexed, and that through these the cold in heart may regain the fervour of their "first love," and "the dead in trespasses and sins" be quickened to a new and heavenly life. "Save now, O Lord; O Lord, we beseech thee send us now prosperity"; (Psa_118:25) "Repair the waste places of Zion"; (Isa_58:12) "Build thou the walls of Jerusalem". S.D.H. (Psa_51:18)
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 vv5, 6, 7, 8, 10 Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider…
Hag_1:5
Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
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Preparation for self-amendment
The design of this prophecy is to persuade the Jews off from that slothful security in the neglect of their duty which had already exposed them to the displeasure of God. They had outward difficulties of circumstance, but their chief hindrance was their own neglect and dulness, their want of respect for God and holy things. It was this state of insensibility that God sent His prophet to bring them out of. His words here primarily import no more than that it was time for that rebellious people to observe and consider diligently of all their labour and pains, and the works of their hands, and see what it all came to. This, however, is not the only design. They were to consider with a view to amending their lives, and getting free of those sins which were causing Gods displeasure. How much our case is like that of the Jews in Haggais time. The temple we are now to build up, is the Church and body of Christ; not with stones and wood from the mountains, but with living materials, Christ being the foundation and chief corner-stone. The building up this holy temple consists in advancing the credit and honour of religion among men, and in discountenancing, in the course of our lives, and the whole tendency of our discourse, all vice and profaneness, and everything that is inconsistent with religion; and this, it is too certain, we have not had the courage and the constancy to do. We of this nation, too generally, have not been advancing the public interest, and the Protestant cause, as we ought to have done. The prophets words are therefore applicable to us.
I. The person speaking. It is that Being who has furnished you with all the blessings you have enjoyed; who has been your continual safety and protection. He can never lay any commands on us but what are necessary for us, and highly tending to our own interest. He is infinitely wise, and so knows perfectly well what will conduce most to our interest and happiness. Other arguments there are, perhaps of more force than these. In the text He is called by that awful title, The Lord of hosts, importing that He has a right to us and all our actions, because He created us and all things.
II. The advice or command which is given. Consider your ways. A very plain and easy command. The original is, Set your heart upon your ways. Observe, attend to, watch over all your actions.
1. Show the mischiefs of inconsideration.
(1) We give ourselves up by it to the most stupid and insuperable ignorance imaginable.
(2) We lay ourselves open entirely to the power of our lusts.
(3) It subjects us to the tyranny and insults of our great spiritual enemy.
2. Some of the advantages and necessity of consideration. The blessed advantages of consideration can never be enumerated. It gives us strength and vigour in the performance of all our duties. It is the only means to furnish us with suitable arguments and victorious resolutions against every temptation and artifice of the devil. And as it suffers us to omit no duty, it effectually destroys and conquers every beloved lust and inclination.
3. Answer some objections by the devil raised in our minds against consideration.
(1) It is exceeding difficult and trouble some to be always upon the guard, and watching against ourselves. But the question for us concerns not the difficulty but the necessity and the duty.
(2) To be always filled with notions of the power, justice, and vengeance of God, must needs make us very melancholy. But enter into religion aright, and you will soon find that, instead of melancholy, your souls will be filled with the truest and most satisfactory joy and life and vigour. (John Gale, D. D.)
The great importance in life of frequent reflection and self-examination
The faculty of reviewing our past lives carries with it an evident obligation upon all men to exercise it constantly and uprightly. It is a principle that implies in its very nature an authority over the whole of our conduct; and we every one feel ourselves most intimately bound to obey its dictates. God our Maker saith to each one of us continually, by the inward voice of our own breasts, Consider your ways. In the midst of so many passions and appetites as compose our frame; so many disorders in it as we are born with; such powerful temptations as surround us on every side, we cannot hope that the carefullest attention to ourselves will keep us entirely free from faults. By a little neglect of culture, a soil so fruitful of ill weeds will soon be covered with them. The best inclinations of the best minds, if left to themselves, will run wild and degenerate. A duty thus plain and necessary, God will doubtless expect us to perform very faithfully. What the Almighty commands, we shall find it our interest to do, never to omit. The cowardice of not searching our wounds will inevitably make them fatal. Possibly we are not convinced that our behaviour is of such infinite and eternal importance. It is important to examine, whether it be or not. Perhaps we have inquired, and think there is reason to doubt of what we are commonly taught concerning these matters. But when did we begin to think so? And what do we doubt of? Not surely of all the articles of faith, and all the obligations of life. Have we considered well what the undoubted ones are, and how far they ought to influence our conduct? We find it but too easy, if we will, to judge very favourably of almost the worst actions we have ever done. But God sees everything in its true light and magnitude, and surely then it is our concern to see it so too. Have we then examined, as in His presence, our lives and hearts? By what standard have we tried their innocence or guilt? The practice of others can no more justify us than ours can them. Have we done our utmost to divest our examination of self-partiality, to enlighten it by the instruction of pious and judicious friends and books, and above all, to direct it by the unerring Word of God? Our business is so to examine ourselves now, as to live more Christianly than ever. And whence can we better begin than from what we owe to Him that made us? We owe Him worship, faith in what He teaches, obedience to what He commands. How fully soever we own the authority of religion, do we practise it? Do we live to any unworthy passion? If we are clear both of worldliness and vanity, still what can we answer with respect to pleasure? In regard to other indulgences, have we acted as becomes rational natures, designed to prepare ourselves, by the discipline of this life, for spiritual happiness in a better? Another very material head of examination is our resentments. Do we bear ill-will to no one? Again, what is the tendency of our common discourse and conversation? Is it favourable to religion, to probity, to decency, to goodwill among men, or the contrary? Our behaviour must be regulated, not only towards our fellow creatures in general, but with a closer view to the more general relations of life. Are we careful what sort of example we set others to copy after? Nor should we stop at considering what our faults have been; that alone would be a speculation of little use: we should proceed to think what must follow from them. Are we deeply sensible that, in all we have done amiss, we have provoked a most holy God; and have no claim to pardon, much less to happiness hereafter, but through the mercy procured by our blessed Redeemer? (T. Secker.)
The use and benefit of Divine meditation
Two things remarkable in the text. The repetition and enforcing of it again (Hag_1:7). The benefit that came by it; it brought them to repentance. Doctrine--Serious meditation of our sins by the Word is a special means to make men repent. Meditation is a settled exercise of the mind for a further inquiry of the truth. Four things in meditation--
1. An exercise of the mind.
2. A settled exercise. Not a sudden flash of mans conceit, but it dwells upon a truth.
3. It is to make a further inquiry. It would fain know more of those truths that are subject to it. Meditation pulls the latch of the truth, and looks into every closet, and every cupboard, and every angle of it.
4. It labours to affect the heart. Meditation musters up all weapons, and gathers all forces of arguments for to press our sins, and lay them heavy upon the heart. Meditation, having bundled up all items against the soul, and brought in all hills of account, fastens sin upon the soul, makes the soul feel it, so that it must needs be convinced without any evasion. It is with the Word as it is with a salve. II a man have ever so good a salve, it will not heal if it be constantly taken on and off. Only if it be let lie on will the salve heal the wound. What shall we think of them who are loth to practise this duty of meditation, but keen enough to meditate on their own worldly affairs? The poor man thinks he has no time for this tedious duty; the rich man thinks he needs it not; the wicked dare not do it; so no man will. The lets or hindrances of serious meditation are--
1. Vain company.
2. Multitude of worldly company. He that over-employs himself, his meditations of heaven are dreaming meditations; his thoughts dreaming thoughts, he can never seriously meditate on the good of his soul. A good meditating mind no man came to surfeited wire employments.
3. Ignorance. A man cannot meditate of a thing he knows not, nor thou of thy sins, if thou be not skilful in Gods catalogue of thy sins.
4. Averseness of the heart; which consists in three things--
(1) In the carelessness of the heart.
(2) In runnings of it. The heart is like a vagrant rogue, he would rather be hanged than tied to his parish.
(3) In the wearisomeness of the heart. This may serve for terror unto all those who, for all this that has been spoken, dare sit down without it. If thou wouldest meditate aright, separate yourself for other things. Observe the times of privacy: morning, evening, when the heart is touched at sermon or sacrament. Rub up thyself and thy memory. Rouse up thy heart. Use meditation for reprehension; for men usually make slight account of their sins. But you will say, How shall I come to feel my burden? Three things are here to be discovered.
1. The ground upon which our meditation must be raised.
(1) Meditate on the goodness, patience, and mercy of God, that hath been abused by any of your sins.
(2) Meditate on the justice of God; for He is just as well as merciful.
(3) Meditate on the wrath of God.
(4) Meditate on the constancy of God.
2. The manner how to follow meditation home to the heart.
(1) Weigh and ponder all these things in thy heart.
(2) Strip sin, and look upon it stark naked; for sin has a way of covering and disguising itself with pleasure, profit, ease.
(3) Dive into thy own soul and heart. There is a tough brawn over thy heart, that it feels not its sins.
(4) Anticipate and prevent thine own heart. Meditate what thy heart will one day wish, if it be not humbled; and tell thy soul as much.
3. How to put life and power into meditation.
(1) Let meditation haunt the heart, dog thee with the hellish looks of thy sins, and follow it with the dreadful vengeance of God.
(2) Let meditation trace thy heart, as it should haunt thee, so let it trace thee in the same steps. Because the heart is most cunning, and hardest to be tracked by its scent, when the heart hath taken up with abundance of good duties, and attained unto sundry graces. These good duties and common graces drown the scent of the hearts wickedness.
(3) Hale thy heart before God, and let meditation bring it before His throne. Make complaint to God; and thy complaint must be full of sorrow. It must be a full complaint of all thy sins, and of all thy lusts. It must be with the aggravation of all the circumstances of thy sins, which may show them to be odious. It must be a self-condemning complaint. Let meditation, when it hath haled thy heart before God, there cast thee down before Him. Motives--
1. It is a folly not to meditate.
2. Thou wouldst be loth to have the brand of a reprobate.
3. Thou wouldst be loth to rob God of His honour.
4. Or that all the worship thou givest to God should be abominable; but so it will be without meditation, before it, and after it. (W. Fenner, B. D.)
Consider your ways
Nearly twenty years had passed away since a remnant of Gods people had returned captivity. Dung the whole of that time nothing had done to restore the temple. Yet the people had thought of their own comfort they dwelt in ceiled houses. Haggai arose to point out their mistake. He cries, Consider your ways So they would discover--
1. The reason of their misfortunes--Which was that they had thought of themselves and had forgotten God. It is the explanation of all unhappiness. If you wish to be miserable--be selfish. Selfishness looks not at what it has, but at what it has not; casts covetous eyes on what others have. The selfish man thinks more of what he has than what he is, and disregards the needs of others. All these are so many doors to unhappiness. He that will save his life shall lose it.
2. The secret of blessedness. Render to God the things that are Gods. Build the temple, said Haggai. Put yourselves in harmony with God and His purposes. Philosophers have discovered that happiness is not found when it is sought directly. Seek it obliquely. Live for others. But the doctrine fails because men are sinful. To join them is to join them in their sin, and sin is the gate of all wretchedness. Happiness can only come by living for another, when that other is sinless. Live for God, and the secret of all blessedness is discovered. This is the true Imitation of Christ, whose meat and drink it was to do His Fathers will. (Herbert Windross.)
Lenten thoughts
Lent is the season which our forefathers have appointed for us to consider and amend our ways, and to return, year by year, heart and soul to that Lord and Heavenly Father from whom we are daily wandering. We need a particular time in which we may sit down deliberately and look our own souls steadily in the face, and cast up our accounts with God, and be thoroughly ashamed and terrified at those accounts, when we find, as we shall, that we cannot answer God one thing in a thousand. The hurry and hustle of business is daily putting repentance and self-examination out of our heads. Much for which a man ought to pray, he forgets to pray for. Many sins and failings of which he ought to repent slip past him out of sight in the hurry of life. Much good that might be done is put off and laid by, often till it is too late. It may be said that the bustle will go on just as much in Lent as ever. How can we give up more time to religion then than at other times? There is a sound and true answer to this. It is not too much more time which you are asked to give up, as it is more heart. The time will come when you will see yourselves in a true light; when your soul will not seem a mere hanger-on to your body, but you will find that you are your soul. Then there will be no forgetting that you have souls, and thrusting them into the background, to be fed at odd minutes, or left to starve,--no more talk of giving up time to the care of your souls; your souls will take the time for themselves then--and the eternity too; they will be all in all to you then, perhaps when it is too late! Then try, for this brief Lenten season: the plan which the Lord of heaven and earth advises, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. You need not be idle a moment more in Lent than at any other time. You can get ten minutes more in the morning, and tea at night. When there is a will there is a way. Then make up your minds that there shall be a will. Examine yourself and your doings. Ask yourself, Am I going forward or back? Can we not all find time this Lent to throw over these sins of ours,--to confess them with shame and sorrow,--and to try like men to shake them off? (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
Of consideration and meditation attended with resolution
I. The nature of this religious exercise. Meditation seems to be of a higher nature than consideration. This latter is an operation of the mind in order to conversion and reformation of life; but the former is the continued work of those that are already changed in their hearts and lives, and have attained to some improvements in religion and godliness. Meditation includes in it consideration, but it is something more, yea, much more. They agree in this, that they are both of them a serious reflecting and animadverting on those matters relating to religion that axe set before us, to the end that we may receive advantage by fixing our thoughts on them, and thereby become more pious and holy. Consider the proper objects of meditation. These are ourselves; God; His Word; His works; mens actions; those solemn entertainments of our thoughts, which are commonly called the four last things.
II. The worth and excellency, the vast usefulness and advantage of meditation.
1. It is the proper employment of rational minds.
2. This exercise well ordered, will banish idleness and vain diversions.
3. It mightily improves the faculties of the soul. Knowledge, reason, judgment, and a right apprehension of things, with composedness and consistency of mind, are the fruits of it.
4. It wonderfully promotes all the parts of devotion and religion.
(1) It fixes the mind, and thereby is useful to preserve in us a constant sense of God in our souls, and to keep up a steady disposition in our minds towards goodness and holiness.
(2) It begets heavenly-mindedness.
(3) It promotes prayer, which is the very key of devotion, and the chief office of our religion.
(4) It helps all the duties of religion and the exertment of all the graces of the Holy Spirit, by seasoning the heart with savoury and pious thoughts.
(5) It not only promotes religion, but also the comforts and solaces which attend it.
III. The mischief of inconsideration; or the neglect of this excellent duty of meditation. This is the fault of Christian men, and that by which they generally miscarry,--they will not reflect on their ways. The complaint is, My people doth not consider. Men seldom sin out of ignorance. Want of consideration is the great spring of all their disasters.
IV. Directions for the right managing of our meditations.
1. You are not to give yourselves up to immoderation in this exercise, but to use prudence and discretion.
2. When we meditate on Divine things we should keep ourselves within due bounds. Many are too inquisitive and curious in their contemplations. They would be wise above that which is written.
3. Some fit place for meditation should be chosen: some retreat from the noise and bustle of the world.
4. When thus alone, you must be very busy; for privacy and solitude are not commendable unless well employed.
5. Some appropriate time must be set apart. The close of the day is very suitable. The Lords day is arranged to provide opportunity. After reading or hearing Gods Word a time of meditation is useful. At the Lords Supper. In time of trouble or distress. And in times of great mercy and deliverance. The proper qualifications of this duty are the following. Prayer must always accompany meditation. It must be accompanied with the affections, or else it is a very dry and useless exercise. And resolution should follow meditation. Meditation must not only produce resolution, but also action. Devout thoughts minister to religious endeavours and enterprise. (John Edwards.)
On the duty of considering our ways
Lay them to heart. Ponder them, meditate upon them, maturely weigh them. It is the want of this reflection and consideration that now brings difficulties and distress upon us, and will soon bring severer judgments. To the warning voice of Haggai the people prudently listened. To us, however, the words would convey a meaning not precisely the same with that which the Jews would collect from them. To us the command would enjoin the scrutiny of our lives and conduct, but it would bid us compare them with the precepts of a new and more perfect law, the covenant of grace. But how few do consider their ways! How seldom is it possible, even by alarm, to bring to life those that are dead in trespasses and sins! Without considering your ways, without practical reflection, your state is one of imminent danger. To the young, more especially, this advice is most necessary. (A. B. Evans, D. D.)
Self-examination
At the encouraging voice of their Divine Protector, through the prophet, the spirit of the Jews revives, their zeal is inflamed, and their hands are joyfully given anew to do the work of the Lord. We may learn that the Almighty knows and observes all human actions, and will sooner or later in this life, and certainly in the next, punish the negligence of those who disobey His commands. The text contains instruction in righteousness. The power of reflection is one of those characteristics by which our nature is adorned. The other animals enjoy or suffer only for the present. The exalted spirit of man, made in the image of supreme intelligence, subjects to his view the future and the past. As this power distinguishes us from all other animals, it is most becoming in us to employ it. We should strive to be acquainted with our spiritual state, that we may know, when at a throne of grace, what we have to confess, what to ask to be forgiven, wherein to pray to be encouraged and strengthened. The negligent and careless worshipper cannot be acceptable unto God. This self-examination is a matter of some difficulty.
I. Illustrate the nature of the duty. For the regulation of our conduct we have the power of judging between right and wrong: the knowledge of God and His perfections: a revelation of the Divine will, and promised assistance of Gods Spirit: and the certainty of a future state of retribution. All these means for regulating our ways point out the same line of conduct. Christians should consider their ways in reference to each of these different means of direction, and they will enable them to ascertain their state with regard to knowledge, faith, love, repentance, and new obedience.
1. Consider your ways by the power of knowing right from wrong. Though we be called into the marvellous light of the Son of God, this original power of our minds is not extinguished, neither is its exercise superseded. In many cases it must be our sole guide, because Divine revelation does not descend to minute particulars. This power is often biassed and weakened by prejudice and passion.
2. Consider your ways in reference to God. Consider in what light your actions must appear to this all-seeing God: whether they have been such as He had a right to expect, and it became you to perform. Compare your conduct with the rectitude of the Divine nature, and with the obligations under which you lie.
3. Consider your ways in reference to the revealed will of God. As our judgments are often defective, it is expedient that we examine ourselves by that clearer rule which is given us in the Scriptures, in which are distinctly unfolded the duties which we owe to God, to society, to individuals, and to ourselves.
4. Consider your ways with reference to immortality, and a state of retribution. This life is of uncertain continuance.
II. Man shuns the performance of the duty of considering his ways. He is unwilling to weigh his actions, because he knows that, in so doing, most unpleasant feelings are prepared for him. But is this conduct rational or judicious! From considering our ways there arises perseverance in holiness. A man must examine himself that he may reform. There can be no apology for setting aside this work. It is difficult, indeed, but it is commanded by our God, on whom our fate depends. It is necessary for promoting that holiness on which our happiness must be founded. Shall we be deterred by this difficulty from taking those salutary measures which are essential to our everlasting peace? (L. Adamson.)
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 vv7, 10 bring timber
bring timber
This represents only a part of what they needed to build the temple. (See: Synecdoche)
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behold
"look" or "listen" or "pay attention to what I am about to tell you"
I blew it away
The people not being able to find what they were looking for is spoken of as if Yahweh had blown on dust so it would go away. AT: "I made sure there was nothing there for you to find" (See: Metaphor)
declares Yahweh of hosts
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
Yahweh of hosts
glory
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 vv4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 1:4 Why are you? Rhetorical questions in prophetic literature…
1:4 Why are you? Rhetorical questions in prophetic literature call for agreement rather than a reply (see 2:3). The purpose of this question is to remove the listeners’ opportunity to offer excuses in response to the message. • The luxurious (or covered, paneled) houses of the people contrasted with God’s Temple, which was in ruins (or desolate) and thus unusable.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.