What’s Your Focus? Haggai 1
Egg timer: does anyone use these anymore? It’s got to be runny in the middle for my liking. That’s why timing is everything. You’ve got to stay focussed on it (otherwise it’s hard in the middle, can’t spread it, terrible), must not lose focus on the timing of those eggs. Timing and focus is everything. Israel had lost their focus and their timing was out.
Bit of background. Remember that Jerusalem was taken in 587BC – time was up. They were taken to Babylon. God said through prophets like Jeremiah that they would spend 70 years in Babylon. Well, 70 years was up and they returned. Haggai spoke to those who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild. They came back and started to build: their houses, not the Lord’s house.
You might say we have to live somewhere! Then, of course, they are going to build their own houses before any other house. That makes sense. But look at verse 4, “"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” Panelled houses were opulent houses; for looks, not security or function. God’s house, the temple, was still a pile of rubble from when the Babylonians destroyed it decades earlier.
It wasn’t the fact that they built their houses first. They had lost their focus in their building program. They kept building to their houses, panelling the inside… adding on rooms, started adding a deck, an inground pool, granny flat, theatre room, indoor gymnasium, bar and cellar area. I am being facetious, but we can do the same, can’t we? We can lose our focus on self and/or overextend ourselves financially. We work every waking hour we have, build a business, extend a house, build our investments, build our recreational lifestyle whatever that looks like. Focus on our careers or building a portfolio.
Are any of these things wrong? Not in and of themselves – absolutely not. It’s when the spiritual focus in our lives, and the building up of others and Christ’s body, is neglected that there is a problem.
What does this look like? When we don’t contribute what God tells us, but give the bare minimum in time, money and effort as a pattern in life. That is spiritually detrimental.
What happened in Haggai’s day was that the altar had been built in 536BC, as soon as they returned; so people could still offer something, but the spiritual house, the temple, the building was neglected. That still lay in a pile of rubble. Haggai was preaching in 520BC. For 16 years the temple had lain in ruins. This came with some serious consequences.
But, as always in these things, they all started out with noble aspirations. We see the same here with these ancient Jews. 70 years of Babylonian captivity had passed. King Cyrus gave them the decree – go and build and Ezra 2 tells us that 50 000 people retuned to Jerusalem to re-build the temple. That was in 536BC. The time of writing here in Haggai is 520BC – and only the base had been laid. What happened. Well 2 things actually:
1. Opposition and discouragement (Ezra 4:1-5)
2. Abundance was used for a temporal rather than a spiritual mindset. Ezra 1:4 says silver, gold and freewill offerings were given: not only that, wood was gathered from Tyre and Sidon for the temple. What were they going to do with all this wood? Well, we may as well just build our own houses: not just any houses – cedar panelled ones that were generally associated with kings’ palaces. God’s resources were used for temporal use.
What happened as a result? It meant they were constantly chasing their tails, constantly working to provide but the crops kept failing. It was as if there was a hole in their pockets. Look at verses 9-11. They all were working hard, but it was having very little influence on their bottom line. Another way we can be lean is not financially, but spiritually. We may have heaps of money, but our souls are malnourished; we lack spiritual depth or fervour, we don’t see a lot of the supernatural or Holy Spirit doing the miraculous, our character has more flesh than Spirit. Jesus wants better than that for us. “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38) You reap what you sow. This is true in every aspect of our lives including spiritual endeavour, serving in the church, character development, relationship health: the principle is the same.
We also read Malachi this week. Malachi had a heap of stuff to say about this – giving our best; with regard to our sacrifice, our serving, but also giving. Tithes – 10%. Malachi said try giving the least to your Governor. Modern application: try giving less than what is required to the Tax Office, see how that works out or if you default on your payments to Westpac, see how well they treat you as a customer. They’ll be asking for the keys to the house or car. Malachi said the 10% isn’t even ours; to not give it was in fact stealing from God. When we don’t give in this way we lose focus, our timing is out we become hard in the middle. Not pleasant to anyone including the Lord.
Well, what happened? It says they heard this word. (Verse 12) “the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him.” Vs 14 says, “And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.” Their spirits were stirred.
They completed the temple in 4 short years. In 516BC it was finished; after 16 years of being a pile of rubble. Working on God’s house, giving and serving is a work of the Holy Spirit. I believe we are seeing that in our church. God is stirring and working in people’s hearts. We are seeing the Lord’s blessing, including today and being a blessing to each other and our community.
God does a new work. “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.'" (Haggai 2:5-9) Jesus poured out His Spirit upon the church and His desire is to do that in us in such a great measure that we have never seen before.
Don’t lose your focus. Watch the time. What time have you wasted? Don’t become hard in the middle; especially this time of year as we consider the cross, the payment and great cost for our sin, but also the victory of an empty tomb. Stay focussed on living out and sharing the love of Jesus with others and being involved regularly in giving and serving in His Body – the church.