Fear of God Leads to RepentanceHaggai 1:12-15

Main Idea: The people of Israel heard the word of the Lord, repented together, and obeyed God. As they obeyed God, He affirmed His presence among them.

1. God’s Word Led to Fear of the Lord and Repentance (1:12).
   1. God’s word brings forth obedience (1:12).
   2. God’s word brings forth fear of the Lord (1:12).
2. The Repentance of the People Led to the Restoration of the Temple (1:13-15).
   1. The messenger of the Lord delivered the message of the Lord (1:13).
   2. The Lord promises His presence to His people to stir them to obedience (1:13).
   3. The Lord stirs the spirits of the leaders and the people to encourage them and equip them to obey (1:14).

God’s Word Led to Fear of the Lord and Repentance (Haggai 1:12)

God’s Word Brings Forth Obedience (1:12)

God had spoken through Haggai, and the people heard God’s voice and responded obediently. Here in verse 12 we see that the high priest was the first to respond. As the high priest responded, so too the people responded. All of this, then, was precipitated by one significant event: the proclamation of God’s words. We see two distinct phrases in this verse that explain the significance of God’s words in the lives of the Jewish people. First, and most clearly, the text tells us that the people “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God.” God spoke, and they listened. However, it was not as if God audibly spoke to them from heaven. So how did God speak, and how did they hear? The verse goes on to point out that God spoke through his prophet Haggai. Continuing on in the verse, we are reminded that the people obeyed God’s voice, and second, they obeyed Haggai’s voice, his words, “because the Lord had sent him.” All things considered, verse 12 indicates three very important realities about God’s word and our obedience.

First, God’s word is powerful and effective. Scripture reminds us,

the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. (Heb 4:12)

God’s words are designed, by God, to quickly and effectively cut through the clutter and the chaos in our hearts and simply to define His will for us in a manner that compels us to obey. In a time when it seems that fewer and fewer pastors, church leaders, and Christians trust in the Word of God to adequately speak God’s truth to our hearts, this passage is a strong and compelling call back to the sufficiency of Scripture. God’s Word is enough to compel obedience to God’s will. This passage reminds us to trust in God’s Word and to center our pursuits, as leaders of the church, around His Word. R. C. Sproul has rightly said, regarding God’s Word and its authority in our lives,

It is fashionable in some academic circles to exercise scholarly criticism of the Bible. In so doing, scholars place themselves above the Bible and seek to correct it. If indeed the Bible is the Word of God, nothing could be more arrogant. It is God who corrects us; we don’t correct Him. We do not stand over God but under Him. (Five Things, 21)

Not only does this passage teach us that we must trust the power of God’s words, but it also teaches us that God often chooses to deliver His words through a preacher. Not only do the Israelite people respond to God’s voice, but they respond to Haggai’s voice, because he spoke as a representative of the Lord, sent by God. We have to be careful here to understand that every word that Haggai spoke was not inspired. There is a movement in contemporary church culture to acknowledge the pastor/preacher as if they are somehow supernaturally inspired, and therefore to challenge them is to challenge God Himself. This is a dangerous precedent, and it sets the pastor/preacher up for failure. However, it would be equally dangerous for us to assume that the pastor/preacher is just another person, standing up front, delivering a speech. Haggai was a prophet, delivering God’s words, under God’s power and because of God’s authority. This message should not have been casually dismissed, and thankfully the Israelite people did not make that tragic mistake. God’s words are powerful, but God has ordained the preaching of His Word by faithful preachers as the primary means in which His message is to be delivered to the world. This is among the greatest reasons why Paul felt so compelled to challenge his son in the faith, Timothy, about the importance of preaching God’s Word:

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of His appearing and His kingdom: Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. (1 Tim 4:1-2)

God’s words are authoritative, but God’s chosen method for delivering His words is most often through a preacher.

The final lesson in verse 12 that we can learn regarding the words of God is the power of leadership in respect to repentance. It is no small thing that, when confronted by God’s words, the Israelite people repented, but only after the high priest, their spiritual leader, first modeled repentance. Good leadership leads by example, in humility, and in obedience to God’s words. It is hard to overstate how significant this is. It is powerful to note that, in response to the high priest’s obedience, the “entire” remnant of the Israelite people repented. I think it may be quite possible that, among many of our churches today, sin is not taken seriously because the church has never seen her leaders publicly taking sin seriously. It may be that the church is just waiting for the leadership to acknowledge the deadly danger of sin, to recognize that this sin sometime exists in their own lives, and to repent and walk away from sin toward righteousness.

God’s Word Brings Forth Fear of the Lord (1:12)

In response to God’s words being preached, the Israelite people repented. They did not merely change their behavior, though; this passage points out that they were completely reoriented around the nature and character of God. verse 12 ends with a declaration that the people “feared the Lord.” This statement is a powerful one, and one which is a little bit difficult to fully understand in English. The original word used here does not have an exact equivalent in the English language. It conveys a couple of ideas about fear, neither of which convey terror, but instead they combine to provide a picture of affection and worship driven by an acute awareness of God’s character.

First, this fear conveys a sense of submission to the authority of God in response to God’s character as God. In other words, the people become intimately aware of who God is—His holiness and His awesome power, among other things—and they are compelled to bow in obedience and submission. In a very real sense, this mirrors the picture we see of Isaiah in the throne room of God in Isaiah 6. As Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up” and became deeply aware of who God is, his response was,

Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. (Isa 6:5)

Awareness of God should always drive us to our knees in confession and humility, compelling us to obey. After David committed his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and was confronted about his sin by the prophet Nathan, David composed one of the most moving passages in all of Scripture, a statement of confession and submission, in Psalm 51. Specifically David said, “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart” (Ps 51:17). David understood that the appropriate response to God is a heart that is surrendered to Him and a life that is bowed down before Him. Of course, this raises the question, “Why is the church so full of people who do not seem to have a life bowed down in obedience before God?” Might it be possible that this is true because so many who call themselves believers in Christ rarely, if ever, come into the presence of God to be confronted with the reality of how great our God is? I fear so.

Not only does the word fear convey the idea of submission in response to God’s character, but it also communicates a sense of awe because of God’s power and might. The Israelite people were repenting and preparing to walk in obedience partly because they were driven to worship God as they became more distinctly aware of His might. The psalmist once said,

God, hear my cry; pay attention to my prayer. I call to You from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength. Lead me to a rock that is high above me, for You have been a refuge for me, a strong tower in the face of the enemy. I will live in Your tent forever and take refuge under the shelter of Your wings. (Ps 61:1-4)

The idea that God is majestic, powerful, and able to save is a key element to rightly understanding who God is and to rightly worshiping Him. The Israelites’ disobedience would have been, at least in part, driven by their forgetfulness of who God is, how awe-inspiring He is, and how He is able to save. Like the psalmist in Psalm 61, the Israelites were in need of repentance and saving. They needed to remember again that God is sufficient, that He is all powerful, and that He is mighty to save. Haggai’s proclamation of the words of God served that specific purpose. The Israelites were called back to rest under the authority of His strength and, like the psalmist in Psalm 61, they were once again in the refuge of His strength.

So as we walk in disobedience, and as we find ourselves confronted with God’s Word, our response should be grounded in a fear of God. Not necessarily an abject terror, but instead affection, worship, and trust, rooted in the person and character of God.

The Repentance of the People Led to the Restoration of the Temple (Haggai 1:13-15)

The Messenger of the Lord Delivered the Message of the Lord (1:13)

Verse 13 is packed with helpful morsels that point us to the significance of the messenger of the Lord, the preacher of God’s words. As we discussed in verse 12, the preacher of the word is a vital component to God’s plan for the spread of His message. While this messenger is not infallible, the preacher is also not to be taken lightly or easily dismissed. The message of the preacher is a message of substantive weight and grave importance. While this verse says a number of things about the messenger of the Lord, I want us to consider two specific aspects concerning the words of the Lord and how we should understand the messenger of the Lord, the preacher of the word.

First, the word messenger is important. The root word for “messenger,” unsurprisingly, is the same root as the word for “message” that we find a little later in the verse. While this is unsurprising, the meaning of the similarity has something important to say to us about the role of the preacher. The root of these words speaks to God’s words being given to humanity. It is intended to convey the idea that the words we are hearing are directly from God. While this definition is helpful in understanding the weightiness of the words themselves, when we turn our attention to the messenger, the definition of the word becomes even more intriguing. The same root word that gives us “message”—or words from God Himself—gives us “messenger,” only in the latter it is being applied to a human delivery system. It would appear that Haggai wants us to understand just how significant the role of the messenger and the content of his message are. They are explicitly linked together. While the messenger is not God Himself, the messenger represents God, he speaks for God, if you will. In fact, the word messenger is translated across Scripture in other contexts as “angel,” “envoy,” or “ambassador.” It conveys the idea that the messengers have no inherent authority or truth in and of themselves, but they are to be listened to and honored because they carry the weight of the One who sent them. What’s more, when they convey the message, they convey a message that is not their own, but a message that comes from God Himself.

In addition to the respect and trust that should be given the preacher, or messenger, of God’s words, there is also a very important reality that must be embraced by preachers themselves. Namely, they do not represent themselves, nor do they have the freedom simply to say what they want to say. Messengers have a distinct responsibility to represent the one who sent them—in this case, God. Preachers represent and reflect God to their audience. This is why the Bible points out to us that the preacher will carry a greater responsibility before God than others will: “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment” (Jas 3:1). I fear that too many preachers revel in the authority they believe they have without recognizing the great level of responsibility that comes with their position. Sadly, this has led to behavior that does little to represent well the character of God. Preachers, we must be careful of our position and responsibility as representatives—ambassadors—of God.

Further, not only does the messenger have a responsibility as a representative of God, the preacher also has a tremendous responsibility to ensure that the words they declare are, in fact, the words of God Himself. By virtue of the preacher’s position, he is asserting himself as a sort of spokesman for the Lord. When the messenger, or preacher, is not careful to accurately reflect what God Himself has said, the preacher is responsible for a form of malpractice, and even worse than misrepresenting himself, there is the danger that he has guided his listeners away from God because of his sloppiness with regard to his message.

The second morsel from Verse 13 that we should consider is the word delivered. The word speaks to the distribution of the Lord’s message. It literally can be translated “to hand over.” In other words, strengthening the point we have just tried to make about the messenger’s responsibility, the messenger has no right or responsibility to deliver his own message. Instead, messengers are stewards, managers if you will, of God’s message. To be a faithful messenger, or preacher, is to handle well the stewardship you have been given. This requires of the preacher an intimate understanding of the text he is declaring. It also requires a strict discipline to prioritize the content of the text and to refrain from changing the text into something else. It also expects a certain humility—that preachers would defer any praise received, as they acknowledge that it is not their wisdom, their brilliance, or their authority that is being delivered through the words of the Lord. Instead they are simply receiving the words from God and clearly passing these words along to those who are listening.

The Lord Promises His Presence to His People to Stir Them to Obedience (1:13)

The world is full of declarations. Maybe one of the most famous declarations in recent history was by Joe Namath, starting quarterback for the New York Jets, when they were preparing to play the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Namath was intoxicated and found himself facing down a loud Colts fan who was confident that the Jets could not survive the game against the Colts. So, in front of the crowd, Namath loudly declared that the Jets would win the Super Bowl. In fact, he even went so far as to say that he guaranteed the victory. This was significant because it was not just the loud Colts fan who was convinced that Baltimore would win. The Colts were favored by prognosticators to win by 18 points—a veritable landslide. Instead, the Jets would win chapter 50-7, thus fulfilling Namath’s promise from a few nights before.

Haggai 1:13 ends with a declaration. However, this declaration is more than someone simply making a statement. When Joe Namath made his statement, it was anything but a sure thing. While the outcome was what Namath promised, he was not able to know, for certain, that it would happen that way. This declaration from the Lord is different. Instead of just being a statement of confidence, this declaration actually carries the weight of a legal transaction. It is a certain promise from God to His now-repentant people. This promise is significant as it stands, but we see God make this promise again in Haggai 2:4. What is this promise that God felt so compelled to declare to His people? Simply put, He promises that He is with them. This is no small thing. This promise indicates a change in tone from the Lord. The people were disobedient, so He compelled them to obey. Then they turned from their sin and embraced righteousness, so God immediately began to affirm them and His presence among them. He is with them, and He will be with them. This is a promise of comfort, it is a promise of blessing, and most of all, it is the promise of grace.

First, it is a promise of comfort. In a time when the Israelites were still most likely aware of their recent Babylonian captivity and their return to Jerusalem, it would have been easy for the Jewish people to think that God had forgotten them. He had not. This is a theme that we see across the whole of Scripture. God’s people find themselves in painful or lonely circumstances, and the desire is often to complain or be angry with God for the circumstances. Instead, God’s promise to us is that He will never abandon us, and that commitment should compel us to be strong and faithful. “Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deut 31:6). However, although we see this pattern communicated by God to His people over and over throughout Scripture, we continue to see the people of God forget it and attempt to abandon God.

As we walk through life today, we should not assume that we will be any different. Much like Peter in the courtyard when Jesus was on trial, we will be tempted to believe that God is not what we thought He was and that He is not able to do what He promised He could do. Then our natural response will be to reject the image of God that had, at one point, captivated our attention, and to turn to ourselves as our source of hope. In the face of that, God’s promise to the Israelite people here rings true for you and me today. We see this same sort of redemptive promise on display through the prophet Jeremiah.

I am about to gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in My anger, rage and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them live in safety. They will be My people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way so that for their good and for the good of their descendants after them, they will fear Me always. (Jer 32:37-39)

Furthermore, this is the lesson of Jesus’ life. Quite possibly the most beautiful title for Jesus is that of Immanuel. “God with us,” it means, and the truth that it communicates is stunning! This is the breathtaking lesson of the gospel, on display in these words of this often-overlooked minor prophet. God is our God and we are His people, and we should be comforted that He does not leave us and He is not changing. He is Immanuel, the God who is with us.

Second, it is a promise of blessing. These people, as the first 11 verses of Haggai 1 remind us, had been planting, drinking, dressing, and earning and yet were never satisfied; they never had enough. In the face of this, God promises His presence. It is a reminder that they will succeed and that they will persevere. They can be confident because of God’s great affection for them and His advocacy on their behalf. John Calvin once said, “Nothing more inspirits men and rouses them from torpor, than, when relying on the promises of divine aid, they have a sure hope of a successful issue” (in Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Commentary, 825). There have been times when Christians have, somewhat flippantly, stated that they had read the end of the book (the Bible) and they have seen that the Christian, in Christ, has won. While it is not helpful to approach that concept flippantly, it is absolutely true, nonetheless. God is with us, and He will conquer evil in the end. This confidence allows Christians to be like no other group throughout history and to thrive even when we are seemingly being defeated. The third-century lawyer, Tertullian, once said, “That’s why you can’t just exterminate us; the more you kill the more we are. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” (The Apology, chapter 50).

Christians are able to persevere in a way that the rest of the world cannot for two primary reasons, both of which are intimately connected. First, we persevere because we have the promise, the hope, of resurrection. Paul said this well:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He abolishes all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For God has put everything under His feet. But when it says “ everything” is put under Him, it is obvious that He who puts everything under Him is the exception. And when everything is subject to Christ, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:20-28)

Not only are we reminded in this passage that the resurrection is our guarantee, but we are also encouraged to persevere because of the second, and equally important, truth: we will experience resurrection because Christ will conquer and He will reign eternally. We are adopted into Christ’s family through our union with Him in His death and resurrection. Because of this great truth, we can have confidence. Therefore His declaration of His presence is more than just a statement of proximity, it is a statement of Jesus’ victory and our share in that triumph!

Third, and finally, they were recipients of God’s grace. The response of God to their repentance is a foreshadowing of God’s response to our repentance today. They believed God’s word, they turned from their sin, and God affirmed His presence among them. It is a reminder of God’s consistent and unfailing love in the face of our own disobedience and unfaithfulness. There is no more precious truth in all of Scripture than “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them” (1 Tim 1:15). While we stand as perpetually unfaithful, unforgiving, unloving, and ungrateful, God stands, with affection and grace, ready to usher us into His family through the redemption that is offered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and all because of His radically sufficient grace. This statement from God that He is with them is not just a statement of presence or just a declaration of victory. It is, maybe most breathtakingly, a declaration of love. It is a message that points us forward to the message of Jesus, taught to us by the apostle Paul: “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Rom 5:8).

The Lord Stirs the Spirits of the Leaders and the People to Encourage Them and Equip Them to Obey (1:14)

Leadership matters. It is not insignificant that the cascading order of obedience in verse 14 is first, the spiritual leadership is enabled; second, the political leadership responds; and finally, the people obey. God certainly does not need to use leaders to accomplish His purposes; for that matter, He does not need anyone to help Him accomplish His purposes. However, in His wisdom and sovereignty, He has ordained humanity to accomplish His purposes, and He has specifically chosen to use leaders to move His people to accomplish His purposes. In this verse, not only does leadership respond, however, but we see leadership respond as God stirs up their hearts. This verse reminds us of a series of important principles that should guide all leaders and leadership processes. First, leadership leads as God enables them. Second, everything is theological. And finally, people generally only respond as their leaders call them.

First, leadership leads as God enables them. We are a fairly helpless lot. By “we” I’m referring to humanity. Our sinfulness and our finiteness limit our ability to do what God has called us to accomplish. Paul’s words in Romans 3 speak to our depravity, but they paint a fairly hopeless picture:

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. (vv. 10-12)

Thankfully, because of Jesus’ redemption, the possibility of honoring God can be realized. Even then, however, it will only happen as God enables it. Paul also addressed that issue in his letter to the church at Colossae:

We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me. (Col 1:28-29)

Leadership is unable to lead rightly unless God enables them by supplying His power. Acknowledgment of our weakness and need is a necessary component to faithful and successful spiritual leadership.

Not only is leadership dependent on God’s supply, but this passage reminds us that everything is theological. Notice that the people had a problem. Their problem was their lack of progress on the building project. In spite of that, though, the answer is not viewed as primarily a physical problem but as a spiritual problem. Their lack of physical obedience was a direct result of their unwilling and disobedient hearts. All physical acts, both good and bad, initiate in the heart. Therefore, every behavior is ultimately a spiritual issue. Ultimately this means that every behavior is rooted in some sort of theological position. Everything is theological. Everything a person does reflects the relationship of that person’s heart to God. Why does this matter, then, to leadership? It matters because, not only is leadership dependent upon God’s supply to provide them with the strength to lead, but all leadership begins with the condition of the heart. Good leadership leads the heart first, recognizing that changed hearts lead to changed actions.

Finally we see one more leadership lesson, and that is the truth that every leader is in a position of authority for a purpose. People generally only respond as their leaders call them. God has designed the human heart to follow the leaders placed over them. Leaders lead and people follow. While there are certainly exceptions to that rule, generally speaking this pattern is the way life works, and this pattern honors God. Romans reminds us that all leaders exist in their positions because God placed them there: “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God” (Rom 13:1). Leaders are not a functional necessity, they are a God-ordained reality. When we understand this, we are enabled rightly to emphasize the importance of godly leadership, and leaders are able to comprehend the weightiness of their task. All leaders are stewards, or managers, of the responsibility that God has given them, and ultimately all leaders should lead like Paul, who told the Corinthian church, “For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

These three patterns, or lessons, are emphasized in this passage to highlight God and the way He works. As important as the leaders are in God’s economy, this passage does nothing to highlight the leaders. They are recognized as part of God’s plan—an important part, mind you—and as part of God’s plan, like everything else in this passage, they reflect the goodness and glory of God. As is true of everything in life, good leadership is rooted in the goodness of God who enables us to lead. He allows us the privilege of leading so that others will follow us in such a way that God is honored and His purposes are advanced. This, in fact, is the crux of Paul’s point when he calls us to “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). This is the point of verse 14. Leadership matters, but only so far as it is empowered by God to lead others to honor God and advance His purposes. May it be so of each of us.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How do you give evidence in your daily life that you believe God’s word to be powerful?
2. Does your church rightly recognize the authority of the preacher, without elevating him beyond where any person should be?
3. Are you a regular repenter? If not, is it possibly due to your lack of time in God’s Word?
4. In what ways does your life and worship reflect “the fear of the Lord”?
5. Are you recognizing the importance of biblical preaching by placing yourself under it on a regular basis?
6. Do you examine the preaching you hear to make sure that it stands up to biblical scrutiny? Is it an accurate reflection of the preacher serving as a steward of God’s Word?
7. How might the truth that God is with you encourage you to Christian faithfulness today?
8. Are you trusting in God and His grace as your only hope today?
9. Are you trying to lead today in your own strength? How might you be able to rest in the strength that only God can supply?
10. What situations in your life do you view as having little or nothing to do with God? What might change in your life if you understood that everything is theological?