Haggai 1:5 (KJV) The Eternal Question

Haggai 1:5 (KJV)

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

It wouldn’t be impossible to argue that this verse is the axle upon which the prophecy of Haggai spins.

Haggai 1:7 (KJV)

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Haggai 2:15 (KJV)

And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:

Haggai 2:18 (KJV)

Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid, consider it.

While the passage urges us to consider our ways (I understand its primary application is to the Jews, especially those who had just returned from captivity and had placed their own needs above those of the Temple), it seems to me that the argument points to God. Consider, GOD IS. The fact is there would have been no reason to rebuild the Temple if God didn’t exist. And the fact is that none of the consequences described in this passage could have been attributed to anything but chance, unless God exists.

The one thing we must settle in our soul is whether God is. If God is, then every argument from human reasoning becomes moot. If God is, then all the philosophers, atheists, agnostics, and scientists are enemies of the truth. If God is, then morality matters, human life is eternal, and one has no argument against hell.

Now, I understand that there are those who will argue that there is no empirical proof of God’s existence. Antagonists like to claim the burden of proof falls on the believer. We must, in their minds, provide empirical proof of God’s existence or else they are free to ignore God. God has never required that a person believe in or obey Him.

What He does is ask us to consider.

• Are we better off obeying the ways of man?
• Are we better off putting ourselves first?
• Are we really better off ignoring God and His Word?

I know that professing believers have done terribly wicked things. But so have those who were pagans. And there have always been believers who did not participate in those wicked events.

God is. He has spoken through His Word, the Bible. Never mind what people have done. God is. He says our soul is eternal. He gave His Son Jesus (who never did an evil thing). Consider. Come to Christ alone.

#ConsiderYourWays #GodIs #FaithAndReflection #HaggaiChallenge #EternalTruths

The Eternal Question: Does God Exist? 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

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Haggai 1:5 (KJV) The Eternal Question

Haggai 1:1-2 (KJV) Where to Hear God’s Word and Will

Haggai 1:1-2 (KJV)
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.

Zerubbabel and Joshua were tasked with rebuilding the temple, the house of the Lord after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity. The work had been challenged and the enthusiasm of the people had waned. For the most part, they had lost interest in the house of the Lord. God brought the prophets to reinvigorate the work.

Zerubbabel and Joshua were getting input from two concerned but very different sources. 

• On the one hand, there was the prophet 
• On the other was the people. 

The Bible very specifically says that the Word of the Lord came, not through the will of the people, but from the prophet. The pressure certainly came from the people, work would surely have needed the cooperation of the people. But the word of the Lord, His will, was not to be found in the people but in the prophet. God spoke to Zerubbabel and Joshua. God even spoke directly to them. God spoke to them through the prophet. 

So many people miss the Word of God and the will of God because they are listening to the people and not to their preacher. It may even be they have so set their lives that they have no preacher to whom to listen. 

It’s so important that men and women repent of this. Return to the Lord by returning to church and by returning to the hearing and heeding of preaching.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Haggai 1:1-2 (KJV) Where to Hear God’s Word and Will

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Haggai 1:8 (KJV) God’s Blessing

Haggai 1:8 (KJV)
Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

I imagine every sincere Christian wants God to be pleased with them, wants God to bless them. This chapter is really a formula for that blessing. 

It begins with a sorry people 
Things were tough for these first Jews back into the Promised Land and fresh out of Babylon. It seemed to them that the priority would be to get established. Build houses, businesses, and jobs. Religious services could come later. 

God urges them to reconsider 
So far, they had gotten nowhere. They were not blessed. They worked but couldn’t get ahead. They saved but could keep what they saved. They attempted to build warm houses but had failed. 

Pleasing God brings the blessings of God
And what would please God was to build the house of God. The investment of time, talent and treasure into God’s house was the way to please God. 

And by pleasing God they would bring upon themselves the blessing of God. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
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Haggai 1:8 (KJV) God’s Blessing

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Just Not The Same

Haggai 1:1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

All was well once again. Israel had endured the seventy years of captivity; a judgment meted out by God and measured to the year.

·       The time of captivity was exactly what God has said

·       The man who would allow their return was exactly who God had said

There were prophets in Judah once again. There were members of the royal family ruling in Jerusalem again.

But all was not the same. Zerubbabel, though ruling, was not a king but a governor. They were home but they were not sovereign.

We often speak of the grace of God, His unmerited favor. And we rejoice in the mercy of God. He restores the fallen and forgives the sinner. But more times than not we fail to adequately consider the consequence of sin. Though forgiven and restored, in many cases the scars of the sin plague us the rest of our lives.

·       We are restored

·       All is well

·       We may resume our life with God

But things are not the same. Some sins leave scars that carry on to eternity.

·       We are forgiven

·       We are saved

·       We are in heaven

But we have suffered loss.

Don't toy with sin. Confess it and forsake it quickly, before judgment begins.

My Hope Is Not In the First Glory

Haggai 2:3 KJV
Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

Though the prophet had encouraged the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem he could not prevent them from noticing that this temple was nothing like the previous one. The ravages of years of wars and constant scavenging of the treasures (even before the captivity) had stripped it of its former glory. What they had now constructed was a building but it was not a palace.

So the Lord's word to them here is that their hope was not in this building. Their hope was in a future work of God. They were to continue their work in the Temple; they were to remain faithful to worship God in the Temple, but they were not to place their expectations in the Temple.

I suggest that this parallels what has been Christian history. The beginning of the history of our faith is indeed glorious, though not wealthy. Our faith is built upon Jesus Christ as the Chief Cornerstone and the apostles, who turned the world upside down in their lifetimes. Though they were all martyred, even that speaks of heroism - glory.

But then came the declension. Corruption invaded the churches as the apostles said it would and indeed, as it had already done even in their day. Years and years of ungodliness resulted in most eyes being fixed, not upon the glorious Saviour, but in the superficial glory of buildings and monuments of stone, stucco and mosaic.

In the midst of all of this there has been a movement of God.
• It has never built great structures (though even the flesh has gotten into it so that some have become much too preoccupied with large buildings)
• It has never seen huge masses (though again the flesh has caused some to believe that the sign of God's blessing is large attendance)
• It has little of what the world would call glorious.

And God has a message for that church: its glory is still future. Though it cannot compare today to the monuments to men, when it stands before the Lord its glory will exceed the sum of all that man has accomplished. Truly the work of man already has its reward. I would rather hold out for the one that is greater, that is heavenly.

From This Day

Haggai 2:18-19 KJV
Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid, consider it.
Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

It occurred to me that Haggai may have been the most successful of all of the prophets though one of the least known. Haggai's preached to the Jews who had returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian captivity. The people had not put the emphasis on rebuilding the Temple as they should have and God had withheld His blessing upon them because of it.

Haggai's charge was to stir the people under Zerubbabel to put get to work on the Temple. God was not interested; it seems to me, in the "gaudiness" of the Temple. He did not care that it was ornate, only that it was ready for the people to truly worship Him. Under Haggai's preaching Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, and all the people got busy and restored the Temple.

And God's response to the people was, "from this day I will bless you."
That is great success in the ministry.

I Give Peace

Haggai 2:9 KJV
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Israel had once had the beautiful temple that Solomon had built. It was overlaid with gold. It was splendorous. It was the "pride" of Isreal. But over the years of declination, much of that splendor had been stripped away and when Babylon seized the city, the destruction of that temple was completed. Every stone was torn down; all the gold was removed and taken into Babylonian possession.

When the Jews returned to the land and, by the insistence of the LORD, rebuilt the temple, the resulting building was nothing like the former one in its beauty and pomp. Some of the elders, who had seen the first temple, were likely saying, "This is nothing like the first one." God's answer was that he owned all the silver and all the gold and could have the most beautiful building imaginable if that was His desire. God said that the glory of the latter house would be greater than the glory of the former because in the latter God would give peace.

We, humans, tend to put our stock in things that are beautiful to the eyes. Things that look impressive, things that smack of success. God, on the other hand, has little interest in those things. In fact, many times those things only prevent us from knowing Him in a personal way.

We don't need beautiful buildings
We don't need golden or in other ways ornate objects
We need the grace and the peace of God in our souls.