Haggai 1
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In verse 8, God orders the people to build the house, His temple, so that He can take pleasure in it and be honored. The question arises:Why would the Lord care so much about an earthly temple?
The answer is this: the Lord’s temple represented His earthly dwelling place; it symbolized His rule on earth and also His presence among His people. The Lord “takes pleasure” in dwelling among His people, and He is “honored” when they build a “house” for Him.3
Today believers continue to honor God by building a “house” for Him, but in this case it’s a spiritual house that is being built. We ourselves are God’s temple, God’s dwelling, in which He lives by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16–17; Ephesians 2:22).
12 Haggai’s words persuaded Zerubbabel and Joshua to act, and they in turn persuaded the people to act. But how could one man, Haggai, have such an effect? It was because God had sent him and God had spoken through him. It is not our human words that have power; it is God’s living word that persuades men and women to do His will. Haggai was simply God’s mouthpiece; it was God’s HOLY SPIRIT that carried the words to the people’s hearts. And the people feared the LORD.4
13–15 When God saw that the people “feared” Him—that they were ready to submit to Him and obey Him—then He spoke the most wonderful words any human being can ever hear: “I am with you” (verse 13). If God is with us, everything is possible (Mark 9:23; 10:27; Philippians 4:13). If God is not with us, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Thus with God’s help, that community of Jews defied all obstacles and rebuilt God’s temple.
Notice that the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, stirred up the spirits of the people (verse 14); it was He who moved them to begin work on His temple. But the Lord does not force people to do His will. He starts gently. It’s not for His sake that He wants us to do His will but for our sakes. Only when we are in His will can we receive the blessings He wants to give us. If we are slow to respond, He sends us trials. Just as He sent trials to the ISRAELITES throughout their history (Amos 4:6–11), so He sends trials to us today when we lose the way and wander from His will.