What Kind of God Do We Have (Haggai 2:5-9)

The brief book of Haggai covers a brief period in the experience of the returned exiles from Babylon. Those who had returned had become dilatory in their commitment to rebuilding the temple because of internal and external discouragements. Internally, they were small numerically and it was obvious that they did not have the resources to build a new temple similar to the one that had been built by Solomon. Externally, their opponents were more numerical than they were, and they were prepared to use political threats as well as other means to hinder any sign of progress, with the outcome that the people stopped working on the temple, and that led in turn to divine chastisement, which was not a pleasing situation for God or for them. So God sent Haggai to explain to the people why they should work for the Lord at that time in history. In the section of his message that we will consider, the prophet mentions several encouragements for a discouraged people.

God has a plan

The first reason that Haggai gives is that the Lord has a long-term plan. He mentions it in verses 4 and 5 when he reminds the people that they are in a covenant relationship with God (‘Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt’). They were being dealt with according to the terms of the same covenant that had been made by God when he delivered the people from captivity in Egypt, an event that had taken place many centuries ago.

There is a sense in which history is the school where we learn to understand principles found in divine providence. The one thing that providence teaches us is that we cannot shift God from his plan. Maybe God was telling them to think of what happened to Israel after the Exodus. They had their difficulties that we can read about in the Book of Judges and the disaster that was caused by King Saul. Yet even although they were often in bondage to other peoples, God had sent them deliverers repeatedly according to his covenant commitment. And since he had done that in the past, he could do it again in the future, if he wished.

Take a look at our own history and see what God did in difficult times. Obviously, we cannot probe minutely into everything from the past. But here are some selections that we can think about. Take the terrible period in the seventeenth century when the Covenanters were persecuted and the church in Scotland seemed about to be overthrown. This was followed by the hostility of the Enlightenment towards the gospel. Political turmoil in Europe also appeared, as exhibited in the horrors of the French Revolution. What did God do? He sent revival that we associate with Whitefield and Wesley, but there were numerous others involved with them, and the Evangelical Revival took place, the effects of which lasted for decades.

It is important to remember that God has his plan and all the opposition in the world does not make him move one inch from what he intended. We are in danger of being overwhelmed by what we are going through at present as a society, and we wonder where it is all going to end. The remedy is to remind ourselves that God has his plan and in that plan he has his days for revealing his grace. And from that point of view it does not really matter who or what has been opposing him. When he decides to do something, it will happen. That outlook is not fatalism, it is an expression of confidence in the Lord, the God who is in control and who works according to his plan.

God is present

A second detail that Haggai mentioned to the people was the reality of the presence of God. As we know, there are several ways of describing the presence of God and the way mentioned here is a reference to the presence of the Holy Spirit, stated by God in verse 5. The Lord highlights that the Spirit has not left them even although they had become dilatory in their commitment to the Lord. That is a wonderful divine response, and it is one that is also true of ourselves. Today, in our weakness, the Holy Spirit remains with his people. He may not be working to the degree that former generations saw, although we can never be dogmatic about that for the simple reason that we don’t know everything that he is doing today. But since we cannot be Christians without the Holy Spirit, it means that he is with us.

While it is not possible for us to say with certainty why this detail was mentioned, we can make reasonable suggestions. One suggestion would be that God was alluding to what had taken place at the beginning, as recorded in Genesis 1. Before God did anything in the creation week he arranged for the Holy Spirit to prepare the earth for what took place subsequently during the days of creation. While God could have used another way or ways of doing things, it is significant that the selected path involved preparation by the Spirit for subsequent divine activities. And we can see that was the case in Haggai 2. At that time, God was preparing them for future blessings which he will go on to describe.

Another suggestion could be that the Lord was reminding them by this statement that while they deserved judgment they were not going to be judged. Indeed, if we compare this chapter with Ezekiel 37 and its vision of dry bones coming to life, a vivid picture of recovery for those trapped in the exile, we can see that life was now present with them, even although they were weak in comparison to previous generations. The time of judgement was over for them, and one sign of that was the presence of the Holy Spirit. We need to remind ourselves of this perspective. If the Spirit is with us in grace, then God may be about to do something wonderful rather than to allow the situation to get worse. Who can say?

We should observe the logical deduction that the Lord informed them of here. Because he has a plan and because he has left the Spirit with them, they were not to be afraid of their opponents. We are reminded here, I would say, of the statement of the apostle John when he wrote to first-century Christians facing tough times that the one in them (the Holy Spirit) is greater than whoever is in the world.

God is powerful

The third reason that Haggai gives to encourage the people was to remind them that the Lord is powerful. We have seen someone shaking a dishtowel. Obviously, they are stronger than the dishtowel. We might then seem them shaking a quilt. Although the quilt might be bigger than them, it is not more powerful. Yet if they tried to shake the pavement, we would say to ourselves that they were trying to do the impossible. Nevertheless, there is someone who can shake the pavement – God. Indeed, he can shake every pavement in the world and everyone who is on it. He has the power to do so, and he revealed that he could when he sent the Flood in Noah’s time.

God uses this description more than once in this letter to indicate the effectiveness of divine activity. This form of description became common for providential involvement in human affairs. He indicates that he is going to work globally for the development of the little temple that the Jews were building. When he decided to give the nations a shake, they would give willingly from their treasures. He is reminding the people that since he is the God of providence it would be easy for him to provide the resources for rebuilding the temple.

In Ezra, we have examples of the Persian empire giving financial help towards building the temple. This statement by the Lord reminds us that he has the entire world in his hands. Imagine a meeting of the G7 group of nations which decided that the combined total of their financial wealth would be given to expanding the kingdom of God. That change seems very unlikely to happen from our point of view. But God is telling the people that because of his power he can change the outlook of the world and make all nations support his cause if he wishes.

Similar prophecies of global transformation are made elsewhere in the New Bible. But what Haggai is telling us is that the Lord has the power to shake the world positively or negatively. When he does so positively, who can estimate what the degree of blessing will be? The people in Jerusalem were to take comfort from knowing that about God, and so should we. Of course, we should also note that he can shake individuals and countries in a negative sense, and that is happening today in various places.

God comes personally

In verse 9, the prophet mentions that ‘the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former’, which means that the latter glory of the second temple would be greater than the glory that belonged to the first, to Solomon’s temple. We know that both temples were destroyed by the forces of powerful empires – Solomon’s temple by the Babylonians and the second temple by the Romans in AD 70. Haggai announces that before the second temple is destroyed something glorious will happen to it or in it.

It might be hard for us to imagine what that greater experience would be until we recall that the Son of God himself visited the second temple, which did not happen to the first temple. While God was present in a solemn way in Solomon’s temple as indicated by the shekinah glory in the holy of holies, surely we can see that the presence of Jesus in the second temple, whether as a child, or as an adolescent, or as an adult, was glorious in a greater way. Think of the response of Simeon when he held Jesus in his arms, or when Jesus was there at twelve years of age speaking with the teachers there, or when as an adult he announced in the temple, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37-39). The most important events that occurred in the second temple took place when Jesus was there, and that range of activities and interactions were wonderful as he revealed God’s grace to the people.

God makes peace

The final detail of the message of Haggai about the location of the temple in Jerusalem is that it would be the place where God would bring about peace. That seemed very unlikely to Haggai’s hearers. Jerusalem, we might say, was the city that never lived up to the meaning of its name – the city of peace. But God promised that the time would come when peace would be available, and it would be connected to that city. Reading this with New Testament eyes, we see here a prediction of what happened at the cross when Jesus paid the penalty of sin and brought about a state of reconciliation between God and sinners.

So what can be said about this peace? First, it was made by God and not by man. There have been many human attempts at peace, but they didn’t provide peace because they could not deal with the root of the problem which is the presence of sin (the same happens with new initiatives in our time). God the Father sent his Son into the world so that he could bring about a situation of peace through his work on the cross by bearing the punishment due for sin.

Second, as far as we are concerned, if we have not entered this state of peace already, we can do so now. The important detail here is that we must know the status of peace with God before we can experience a sense of peace within. The way to obtain the status of peace is to trust in Jesus Christ, and the gospel call includes an immediate invitation. It is the most important matter that each of us faces.

Third, this status of peace is permanent and will extend into the eternal world where there will be a fullness of peace within God’s people as well as an environment of peace in which they will enjoy God’s blessings for evermore. Shalom will be provided for and enjoyed by God’s people world without end. Hopefully, all of us will be there.

As we leave the service, we should recall the five details in Haggai’s message.