Blessings

Haggai 2:10-18 Blessing

Three months had passed since they had resumed work on the temple yet there where two problems 1) They begin to feel, because they were doing a holy work, that must mean that they themselves are holy. So they begin getting confused that, because they are engaged in external religious activity, God must be pleased with them simply because of the work of their hands. 2) They felt that, because they have now turned their hearts in obedience to God, God must be obligated to bless them. Haggai seeks to correct this errant theology and to show them that no man is good enough on his own to earn both the holiness or the blessing of God. There’s no work that you can do in and of itself that obligates God to then make you holy and bless your life. Haggai is going to argue that the only thing man is capable of earning is the judgment of God because of the sin that’s in his life. So if any favor or any blessing comes your way, it’s not because you were good enough to earn it, but it’s because the grace of God has been poured out on you out of His own goodness. It is not our religious activities that saves us and sustains us. It’s not our religious activity that makes us holy before God. It’s not our obedience to His work that obligates Him to do any sort of blessing in our life. We are in need of the grace and mercy of God to be poured out on us, not for anything we’ve done, but for everything that God has chosen to do in His love for us. (Sumlin)

The Condition of that prevents Blessing

Defilement of the People

11 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: 12 If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’ ” The priests answered, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?” “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.” 14 Then Haggai said, “ ‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled. “ ‘The people did the work but they did it with an unclean (defiled) heart. All of their acts if religious service and sacrifice were defiled because they are offered by a defiled people. Two scenarios are presented in the form of questions to the illustrate the pervasiveness of their defilement: 1) Is consecration catching? (Mote) V12 or Can an object that is dirty become clean simply because it rubbed up against something that is holy or pure? The answer is no! The meat from that holy, unblemished animal would be taken and would be set upon the altar. The meat would then go up as an offering pleasing to God, recognizing that that offering was a perfect substitute to cover for their sin. As the priests would take the meat from the place it was slaughtered to the altar, they could not touch the meat. If anything touched that meat, it would become defiled and they could no longer use it as a sacrifice. So the priests were very careful to take that meat and put it in the fold of their garment. “If on the way the garment holding the meat accidentally touched something, was it possible for that something to be cleansed and holy?” The answer

is no. It doesn’t work that way. . . . if you have new shoes, if I go jump in a puddle of mud, it’s not going to turn that mud into a nice pair of shoes. In the same way, you and I catch colds; we don’t catch health. When you go into a doctor’s office, they have the well child room and then they have the sick kid room. They don’t bring the well kids into the sick room so that the sick children would just sit next to them and all of a sudden be well. It doesn’t work that way. They separate them because it’s the cold that can spread to the healthy ones. So no, holiness doesn’t transfer in that way (Sumlin). So dead body makes one defiled and if they touch something while defiled, bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, it becomes defiled. 2) Is defilement catching? So Haggai asks, “If someone who has become unclean by contact with a dead body then touches any of these things, will those things become unclean if they’re touched?” And the priests rightly answer here, “It does become unclean. Leviticus 22 states that if an Israelite touched a dead body, whether at a burial or just happenstance, they would be ceremonial unclean because they touched it. They would not be permitted to go into the temple services because they have been defiled by that which was deemed unclean. So they would have to then go wash themselves in a ceremonial bath, and then they would have to remain outside of the camp until evening before they were deemed ceremonially clean to come back into the services. So it’s impossible to commute or transmit holiness, but it is possible to transmitting unholiness, uncleanliness? If you take something that is clean and rub it up against something that is dirty, the dirty thing is going to win. You can take a load of all whites and throw in that one red sock and the red sock is going to win every time. It’s going to bleed and stain the white shirts. 1 Corinthians 5 says that just a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. So in a sense, all that the nation had done before God revamped their heart and they got back to work, all that they had done to rebuild the temple, God says is unclean. God essentially says, “Everything that you did was unclean. I don’t care how great the religious activity was, your hearts were unclean. Therefore everything you touched didn’t make you holy. What it did was desecrate the work that I had committed you to do.” You don’t get it. Just because you have gotten back to work and you’re moving forward doesn’t mean that all of a sudden you’re holy nor am I obligated to just reverse all the agricultural curses that were on you for the last fifteen years. What I’ve been after is your hearts. It’s not your hands that make you clean; it’s your heart. It’s a cleansed heart from within, not your external work (Sumlin)

Disaster upon the People

15 “ ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.

God has them consider or give careful thought– literally to put your heart, mind and attention on a matter (Laetsch) to all of the agricultural struggles they have faced. They had been living off of half the crops for many years. God seems to say all your efforts can not produce one seed corn, one sheaf of grain, one cluster of grapes unless I give my blessing. (Laetsch) The hope of these disasters was to help them see that everything they touched was defiled, because they were unclean and that their hearts were not right with God in hopes of bringing them to the place of repentance and return to the Lord. God never brings calamity without hope of contrition and change.

The Cause that hinders Blessing

Divine Hand 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, God is sovereignly in control of all things. There is not one thing that happens that catches Him of guard. He caused the agricultural problems they were facing. He brings about the good and allows disasters (Is 45:7, Amos 3:6, Job 1:21) He works all things after the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11) This "all things" includes the fall of sparrows (Matt 10:29), the rolling of dice (Prov 16:33), . . . the decisions of kings (Prov 21:1), the failing of sight (Ex 4:11), the sickness of children (2 Sam 12:15), the loss and gain of money (1 Sam 2:7), the suffering of saints (1 Pet 4:19), the completion of travel plans (James 4:15), the persecution of Christians (Heb 12:4-7), the repentance of souls (2 Tim 2:25), the gift of faith (Phil 1:29), the pursuit of holiness (Phil 3:12-13), the growth of believers (Heb 6:3), the giving of life and the taking in death (1 Sam 2:6), and the crucifixion of his Son (Acts 4:27-28). From the smallest thing to the greatest thing, good and evil, happy and sad, pagan and Christian, pain and pleasure - God governs them all for his wise and just and good purposes (Is 46:8-10 Gen 50:19-20) (Piper)

Disobedient Hearts yet you did not return to me,’ declares the LORD.

The reason for God’s hand is upon them is that they walked in willful disobedience to him (Lev 26:3-13). ”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.“ All those were curses under the Mosaic Law in Deut 28. When they turned to idols, God would withhold and afflict their crops. And God is saying, ”Prior to that, I poured out My love to you, and you didn’t repent to Me. Then I disciplined you and tried to bring you back into relationship with Me, and you didn’t repent. All this effort that you poured into yourself produced nothing, and you still wouldn’t turn to me. But now you have and your heart has been changed.“ (Legge)

The Cure that brings Blessing

V 19 From this day on I will bless you.’ ”Just like God brought the blight now he brings the blessing. (Joel 2;12-14) They cleared away all the weeds from the foundation and they began to put brick, upon brick, upon brick. But, they had done all that, they - as [far as] they could see - were obeying God, but as they looked around them, there was still drought in the nation - God didn't seem to be answering their obedience. they expected that the moment that they obeyed God and they started rebuilding the temple, that that very day, that very moment and minute of obedience, that God would begin to work again, that God - but it didn't come! The blessing was not coming. they had everything, you would think, but the blessing still wasn't coming down. Why? Because they were unclean, their heart was defiled. (Legge).

Obedience precedes blessing. Obedience is a prerequisite for God’s blessing, but it is not the basis of his blessing. We obey not to get God’s favor, but because we have his favor. Only those who obey will receive God’s blessing, but their obedience only allows for the blessing, it doesn’t obligate God to bless them. Gen 28:1-14

Obstinacies prevent blessing Disobedience prevents God’s blessing. God doesn’t bless rebellious sinful behavior. Those who willfully walk in disobedience to God should not expect and will not receive His blessing. Gen 28:15ff

Outpourings precedes from God’s hand

God chooses when, where and to whom to pour out his blessings. He is not obligated to bless us on our time table (Gen 12:2-3). The Israelites had been building the temple for 13 weeks and they still had not seen God’s blessing. They were not to watch for his blessing, but work because he had blessed them. His blessing always comes as an act of his grace and is not conditioned on anything we do. We cannot earn and we will never deserve his blessing, it is wholly and act of his grace. . So God is saying, ”Even though you turned back to work, there has been nothing. There has been no fruit for the last several months. You haven’t seen anything. Just because you got back to work doesn’t mean that automatically all the storehouses of blessing are going to happen, because it was on you. No, what makes it happen is because of My grace.“ What God is not after is religious activity of our hands. What He’s after is a heart that has been cleansed by His overwhelming amount of grace. In that time, He loves to pour out His blessing on that. (Sumlin)