Blessings for a Defiled People

 

Haggai 2:10-19

 

Blessings for a Defiled People

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet,   “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.”   Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.”   Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. 

And what they offer there is unclean.   Now then, consider from this day onward,  Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.   I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.   Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider:  Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”

Do not miss what is being asked to the priest by Haggai in verse 12, holiness cannot be transferred.  It could not be transferred from the meat to the bread, and it cannot be transferred from your grandmother or mother to you.  It is not transferred by joining a church, walking an aisle, or being baptized; it requires faith given to you by God, to believe in His only Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus taking your place paying for your sins, by the shedding of His blood as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world.

 

Verses 13 &14 give us a clear picture of works, even giving to your church or the building fund does not make one holy, it is not doing, but faith in Jesus Christ,   Many a Jew then and now believed it made them holy by touching the temple, but God is the only source of holiness and He looks at the heart, not what one does.

 

If no matter how hard you work it seems you never get caught up, things wear out or break long before they should, your family seems to always be going to a doctor, lay out  your plans before Him, and wait for His leadership.  The people of Israel were not so, God withheld His blessing, and yet they kept trying to do it all themselves, only giving God lip service.  Have you taken that inventory, have you examined yourself?

 

God speaking through His prophet Haggai, is telling you and me also to “Consider from this day onward,”  to confess our sins of getting our needs met outside of Christ.  My friend Bill Gillham often said the following: “If your self-acceptance is tied to the flesh, it is only a matter of time until you encounter a crisis.  God never intended for you to get your needs met through your own resources.  The flesh is incapable of supplying what God intends to supply Himself.”

 

I will leave you with this thought also from my friend  Bill; “God accepts you based upon what you have done with Christ.  If you have based acceptance upon anything other than Christ, you have higher standards than God.”

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice