When God Rebuilds... Ezra/Nehemiah Part 14 Haggai 2:1-9 The LORD Will Keep His Covenant

 May 5, 2024

From The Series: When God Rebuilds…

Part 14 The LORD Will Keep His Covenant

Haggai 2:1-9

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

Last time we were together, we read and studied Haggai’s first warning to the people of Jerusalem from the LORD. In this week’s passage, we see Haggai giving another prophecy from Yahweh, which occurs about six weeks after the first. This message was delivered on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles as it was being celebrated in Jerusalem.

If you are familiar with the various Jewish feasts that were remembered, you will know that the Feast of Tabernacles was observed to commemorate the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. The feast was observed at that time by having the faithful travel to Jerusalem and they were to gather poles along the way to make a temporary shelter that they would stay in for the duration of the feast in commemoration of the time spent in the wilderness. Today it is usually observed by some orthodox Jews by erecting a temporary shelter, or a tent in the backyard and the family sleeps in the shelter during the observance of the feast.

The purpose was to remember that God had been faithful to the covenant that Yahweh had with His people before their journey to Egypt, and despite 400 years of slavery under the Egyptians, God remembered His people and He used Moses to deliver them out from under the Pharoah’s rule and into their own promised land. The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated their 40 years spent in the wilderness, and God’s faithful provision of His people during this time.

This was a major feast on the Jewish calendar. It was celebrated for seven days, and it was one of the three pilgrimage Festivals where a pilgrimage to the Temple was required. We see that even Jesus observed this Festival in His day and He is recorded at least once in the Gospels in John chapter 7 as observing the festival.

There are parallels between the earlier time of Aaron and Moses and the time we are currently studying with Zerubbabel and Joshua. Both groups of people had been delivered from bondage by Yahweh. As stated already, God delivered the Israelites originally from the Egyptians, and we see now God had once again delivered His people, but this time it was from the Babylonians.

You know, God is still delivering His people today. Only now, God is delivering through Jesus when He brings us out of our sin and into the presence of God the Father through a restored relationship with Him. The message to Moses and Aaron, to Zerubbabel and Joshua, and even to us today, is the same message: we are to build a place for the true worship of God.

What does that look like? Does that mean that the building that we worship in must be incredibly large and ornate? Must our church be like the great cathedrals of Europe to be used by God? Quite the contrary. If we look at those great buildings in England, France, and Germany, many of those great cathedrals are simply public museums. Many are no longer places of Christian worship.

So, if a large ornate building is not the answer, if that is not what God is requiring from His people, then what is required? What we need most in this church, is the presence of the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit to be here with us, leading us to be used by God to build His Kingdom. We will get to that in a bit, but for right now, let’s look at a few verses in this passage in a bit more detail so that we may glean from these verses the truth that God has for us today.

Look at the first two verses again, “In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ² “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.” Notice who God is addressing through the prophet. God is speaking to the civil leaders, the religious, leaders, and finally to the remnant of His people present that day.

This message is for His people. The LORD is not addressing the entire countryside, He has a very specific message for His people. And it is a small group of people. Keep in mind, at this time, only a small group of all of those who had been scattered during the Babylonian captivity had returned to Jerusalem.

Because of the Feast of Tabernacles, there would have been a few extras that would have heard about the temple construction is started, and they would have traveled to Jerusalem to be in the proper observance of this festival. But, the group would have been small enough to be addressed as a “remnant”.

Look at the next instruction that Haggai received from God, “Ask them, ³ ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” The LORD is asking them to examine their hearts at the moment. We read in Ezra 3:12 and 13 when the rebuilding of the temple started, how some of those present were weeping instead of being joyous.

Ezra 3:12-13 says, “¹² But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. ¹³ No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” Through Haggai, God is addressing these folks who are heartbroken at the loss of the former glory of Solomon’s Temple. You know, it only takes a few wet blankets to dampen a whole crowd of people and God is trying to encourage all who were present that day.

Which brings us to our first point this morning. We are to remember the past, but we are not to dwell there. God’s people are not to be backward-looking all the time. We are to be a people who are present in the moment but also forward facing. Looking to the future helps us to get through the difficult times that we may be going through.

Too many times, God’s work is delayed by those who are stuck in the past. They may be remembering past glories but more often than not, people are stuck on past hurts, and these wounds are preventing them from being present and participating in the work that the Lord is laying out for them to do today. Satan loves for us to dwell in our past hurt and pain. Instead, we are to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Colossians 3:13 gives us this very instruction, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” As I said, Satan loves for us to dwell in these places of pain and hurt. It is one of his most effective tools in keeping us disengaged from the present work that the Lord has for us to do. We can remember the past. This church has a wonderful history in this community, but our future does not lie in our past glory.

Just like many churches, there have been people who have come for a while, and then for a variety of reasons they have left and moved on. Some have found new church homes and are being cared for. I have spoken with surrounding pastors and have conversations about those who have left ensuring that they are being cared for and fed in their new church families. But our future is not tied to those who have decided to no longer attend Mountain View Church. Whether those people made those decisions last year or five or more years ago. There are more than enough lost souls in our community to fill this church several times over. We can remember the past, but we are not to dwell there.

We are to be in the present moment, with an eye to the future. When I say, “We are to be present”, what I am referring to is, are we currently listening to what God is asking us to do? Are we present enough and sensitive enough to the Spirit’s leading to join in with His work?

I mentioned last week a little about the Regional Conference for the EMCC and I have spoken to a few of you individually about the encouragement that Marilyn and I received while attending the conference. One of the biggest encouragements that I received was from a presentation that a pastor who has a ministry for church revitalization in addition to his pastoral duties for his church. Steve is his name, and God has given Steve a passion and gifts to help churches that are in decline to turn their situations around and become vital members in their communities again.

The encouragement I received while listening to Steve’s presentation was that many of the things that Steve listed as the steps necessary for revitalization, I recognized that we are already doing those things here at Mountain View. The funny thing is, that wasn’t the encouraging thing for me. The most encouraging thing for me, personally was that by listening to Steve’s presentation, he reinforced and confirmed for me that I was listening to the Holy Spirit here in this church.

You see, I am no expert in church revitalization or in church growth. When I accepted this call to pastor this church, I knew in my heart that this was God’s church and only He could be the one to grow or change it. Steve mentioned that 75% of the work needed for revitalization involves discovery and prayer. Those are the two main things that I have been concentrating on since I arrived at Mountain View, discovery and prayer. I have been trying to discover who Mountain View church is collectively as a body of believers and I have been trying to discover who each of you that attend are, and where you are in your present walk with Christ.

I have also been actively praying for this church since before I accepted the call to pastor this church. I have also been trying to teach by example what a praying church looks like. I have to admit, I have never prayed as much in my various roles in ministry that I have held in the past, as I pray now for this church. Praying is the heart of my ministry because I want to remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my role as a church leader. I continuously pray that my plans are God’s plans and that the words in my sermons are God’s words for His people at this time.

This leads me to my second point this morning, “God is with us, do not fear”. Because of my prayers and because of the answer to one of those prayers that I received at the Gathering, I know that God is with us here in this church. He is already at work here in this building and here in this community. We should draw encouragement from God through His Word and through the actions that we can observe in the lives of others around us. I can see God at work here through the growth that I am seeing in several of you in this church.

I see renewal happening, I see hospitality happening, I see visits and encouragement taking place. I have seen organizational growth and spiritual growth happening in individuals in this church. I am seeing healing take place as well. I have seen renewal in the people as well as in the building. I see a willingness to look to the future, and I pray that we are looking to the Lord and His guidance through the Holy Spirit both individually and collectively as a church. I see God calling His people to this church. I see god’s people answering that call. I am seeing fellowship grow again in this body. I’m seeing new friendships and relationships spawn and grow. I see a family growing and developing. I see God…at…work.

God calls us to join His work. God recognizes that we can remember the past, but we are to be in the present. Look at verse 4 of this morning’s passage, “⁴ But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” Look at the encouragement that God is giving His people here. Three times, God encourages those to whom He is speaking, to “be strong”.

First God instructs Zerubbabel the civil leader to be strong. Be strong and faithful in the decisions that you are making when ruling over God’s people. Rule with justice and fairness, while following the civil laws that God had given His people. Oh, if only our current patch of leaders would do the same for us.

God then exhorts the religious leaders to be strong. God reminds the High Priest Joshua to be strong in His duties. Remember they had already had to be strong and refuse the assistance of their pagan neighbors and that resulted in a 16-year delay to their rebuilding project. God is telling the church leadership to be strong, oh if only today’s church leadership continued to heed this instruction. Too many times I have read how the church and its leadership is caving to the demands of culture here in the West. I was following this past week some of the happenings at the United Methodist Church General Conference in the US where they requested that the delegates share their preferred pronouns when they came to the microphone to speak on the issues. Most also identified their race and sexual preferences as well. The United Methodists have now rejected the traditional definition of marriage, they also endorsed gay and lesbian clergy and declared that homosexuality is no longer incompatible with Christian teaching. A complete caving of the church to the pressures of culture.

We must be strong. Strong and loving. Loving enough to tell people the truth of God’s Word. The great news is that we do not have to rely on our strength and wisdom. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can depend on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have access to the strength and Wisdom of God. For God tells us here in verse four that, He is with us.

After encouraging the civil and religious leadership, the Lord then exhorts the people to, “Be strong” but he doesn’t leave it there. The LORD says to “Be strong and work”. You see, someone has to be the hands and feet of God and do the kingdom work that we are called upon to do. This may lead you to the question “Why, why must I do the work”. It follows the rule of sowing and reaping. Before you can enjoy the benefits of the harvest, you must put in the work of the sowing.

Here we are in the springtime again, and I know that you are all too aware of the effort required during seeding time. But why must we participate in God’s work for the Kingdom? I mean, He is God, can’t He just do it all Himself?

The answer lies in verse 5, “⁵ ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’” God reminds those present that day, and by extension, God reminds us today, that we are in a covenant agreement with Him, and as such certain responsibilities fall to us to accomplish.

According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary, a covenant is defined as the following, “Covenant: An agreement between two parties that specifies requirements for at least one party, and includes blessing and curses for obedience or failure.”

There are 39 covenants recorded in the canon of the Bible. 13 are between God and men. 12 covenants plus one promise of a new covenant are found in the Old Testament and one covenant is found in the New Testament. All of the covenants between God and mankind were initiated by God. God initiated the covenants and God is the primary party responsible for the success of each of those covenants. Man is responsible for maintaining their requirements of the covenant through obedience to the instructions of God.

As I said, a covenant is a contractual agreement between two parties. The agreement is often ratified by a binding action, such as an oath, from one or both parties. For an example, we will look at two specific occurrences of a covenant between God and men. The first and probably most well-known example of a covenant between God and man is the covenant between God and Abraham.

We don’t have time to turn and read the passages in the Bible this morning, so I will mention that we are looking at Genesis chapter 15 where God enters into a covenant with Abraham for the first time. A careful reading of scripture reveals that God entered into a covenant with Abraham a total of three times. This first time in Genesis chapter 15 and the location of this event is not revealed. The second and third events and locations are listed in the bulletin.

In Genesis 15, I want to draw our attention to one specific fact, this was a covenant between God and Abraham and God was promising a land of inheritance to the descendants of Abraham. The amazing thing was, that at the time of this promise, Abraham was old and Sarah was past her child-bearing years, yet God promised descendants to Abraham. Abraham was instructed to gather several animals and to cleave them in two and to place each half on the sides of a minor slope so that the blood would collect in the bottom. Traditionally, what would happen in the culture of those days is that each party would walk between the halves of the animals through the blood as an oath to the seriousness and binding nature of the contract on each of the parties.

However, this time if you remember well, only God passed through the halves of the sacrificed animals. Abraham drifted off into a deep sleep. The fact that only God passed through the halves represented that only God was responsible for the fulfillment of the covenant. If Abraham disobeyed the terms of the covenant, he would bring a curse upon himself from the LORD, but only God could fulfill the requirements of the covenant. God would gift the land to Abraham’s descendants. All that was required for Abraham to do was to accept the gift presented by God.

For the second example let’s turn to the New Testament example. Jesus makes a new promise. A promise of forgiveness of sin, one of spiritual transformation, and the fulfillment of the divine plan of redemption. Once again, blood is the sign of the covenant, however this time instead of the blood of innocent animals being shed, it was the blood of the most innocent Jesus Christ that was shed for our benefit.

Let’s spend a little time in the Book of Hebrews to gain a better understanding of the relationship between this covenant and the previous covenants that occurred between God and mankind. Some of the previous covenants were specific to the individual like Abraham and his descendants, this new covenant is between The Father and the ones that the Father has chosen.

Hebrews 8:13 tells us, “¹³ By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” We see from God’s Word that this new covenant replaces the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant known collectively as “The Law” was replaced by the new and improved covenant found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

Hebrews 8:6 tells us that not only was the Old one outdated but the new covenant is, “is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.” But what makes the new superior to the old? The new is based on the ministry of Jesus Christ, it is based on the atoning sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf to pay the sin debt that we owed to the Father.

It is a more secure promise because “Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.” Hebrews 9:15 informs us, “¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Once again we see that only God can fulfill the covenant. Only the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ could satisfy the wrath of God. All that is required from us is to gratefully accept this amazing gift, a gift that we call Grace. If you do not know Jesus in a personal and intimate way, I implore you to reach out to God through prayer and ask Him to reveal Himself to you and to accept this gift from the Father and the Son.

Back to verse five of today’s passage. We have seen that God is encouraging the faithful in Jerusalem to be strong, He is reminding them that they are in covenant with the Father, but we see two more encouragements in verse five.

After Yahweh reminds them of the covenant, He says to them, “And my Spirit remains among you.” Think about that for a second or two. This is Old Testament teaching where the Father is telling His people that His Spirit remains among them. This is a significant statement because too many times we incorrectly think that the Holy Spirit didn’t play much of a role until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit indwelt the believers. This isn’t true at all.

We see the presence of the Spirit here among the people in old Jerusalem guiding them as they rebuilt the temple. Pay attention to what Scripture says here, the Spirit was “among them” not “within them” as we have today. This passage today is the second time that God has reminded those in Jerusalem that He is with them. In Haggai 1:13, Yahweh also reminded them that He was with them at that time.

In verse five we see the culmination of all this encouragement with the statement “Do not fear.” Why are we not to fear? We are not to fear because of all that we may go through in this life, we do not go through it alone, for He is with us and therefore we should not fear. As believers in a risen Lord Jesus Christ, we can also have no fear of what lies beyond this life as well. We should not fear death as believers. Our faith and confidence in who Jesus was and what He accomplished for us should extend to His promises of the afterlife for us. We should not fear.

This leads us to our final point in this morning’s sermon, a day of judgment is coming. Look at verse 6 in Haggai chapter 2. This is the only fear that we should have and that is a Fear of the LORD in our lives. “⁶ “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. ⁷ I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

What Haggai is speaking about here is a day of judgment that is coming on all peoples and nations. When this day of judgment comes, God will be revealed in all His glory and the time of judgment will divulge the beauty contained within the attributes of God’s Justice and Righteousness.

The reference here in verse seven to the house being filled with glory is a messianic reference and not one restricted to the reconstruction of the temple. Although, it will apply to that as well. In the days of Herod and Jesus Christ, the Temple was a magnificent structure with great beauty. The most important glory that shone near the Temple was the glory of the sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary for us. That is why in verse 9 God can declare, “⁹ ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

This is a forward-looking verse as the only lasting peace that can be offered is the peace that comes from the sacrifice of Jesus. Verses 6 to 9 definitely have an eschatological theme about them, so it is safe to reason that God is referring to end-times here when the final peace will come with the final return of Jesus Christ and the New Jerusalem will be established on the new earth. What a wonderful day that will be.

I hope that we can take some encouragement from the words of today’s passage. We need to recognize that it is ok to acknowledge the past, but it is not helpful to dwell there. We should remember to forgive or to seek out reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We should not fear not even the fear of death, because God is with us. His character is sure and unchanging and because of that, we can draw strength from that as we join Him in His work. We should never forget that we are in a covenantal relationship with Him. That His Spirit dwells within us, comforting and strengthening us to be obedient unto He that calls us.