Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2023

HAGGAI 1 VERSES 7 – 11

If there was one word you could use to describe the condition God’s own people were in at this particular time, it is disappointment.  God had given them over to oppression by their Babylonian enemies.  After 70 years God brought them back to their own land.  How disappointing it must have been to see no change in his own people in their own homeland.  Previously we seen that the people were called on to consider their priorities, possessions and produce.  The Lord once again challenges them to “consider your ways” verse 7.  It is enough to speak once but when he had to speak twice it was a dangerous place for anyone to be in.  It reveals disobedience and rebellion.  The encouragement that God gave to the people to rebuild the temple.  There are 3 points I want us to consider.

 

The results of the commission. Verse 8 “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified saith the Lord.”  God was commissioning his people for an important task.  He wanted them to rebuild the temple, the place where he would be worshipped.  For that to be possible the people would have to take action, to supply themselves with materials.  They had the advantage that the great architect of the universe would help them, instruct them where to go and what materials to bring back and rebuild the temple.  The Lord asked them first to go up onto higher ground, to go up to the mountain.  It was there they would find resources for building the house of worship.  They were to bring the wood and build the house.  There might have been wood in the valley eligible for building but that was not the Lord’s choice.  He knew the people could have gone elsewhere for wood but it was not the place the Lord wanted them to.  There was a specific place for them to go – up the mountain.  We have all heard the expression “the mountaintop experience.”  Have we all been there at some point in our lives?  Or is it more “an expression”, we have never experienced it for ourselves?  Going up to higher ground would be far from the low ground.  Are you on higher ground than last year?  Have you made progress in your walk with God?  It might be this morning you are going downwards rather than upwards, backwards rather than forwards.  Samson was a man who went downwards in life and it ended up in disaster.  3 times in Judges 14 we read “Samson went down” (verses 1, 5 and 7).  I am sure that none of us want to end our lives with a testimony like Samson – he went downwards.  To avoid such a way we must aim for the mountain top.  We must go up.  That is the secret of ending our life well not badly.  The higher one climbs the mountain the clearer the view because when we climb with God we have a clearer view.  O that God would take us higher up the mountain.  Then we might have fellowship with God, intimate and personal fellowship.  It should be every believers need but also his desire.  Maybe you went so far up the mountain and stopped.  Will we not aim for the peak?  Strive until we get there?  We cannot settle for half way.  Whatever it is hindering you making progress, in your walk with God you must get rid of it.  God does not want half way, half hearted attitude.  He wants us to go all the way with him and gain the higher ground.  There on the mountain they would receive the materials to reconstruct the temple.  Their unwillingness left them unequipped for the work God was asking them to do.  They wouldn’t have received the wood for rebuilding the temple.  There had to be a willingness to go, to bring back and to build.  Maybe what Jesus said in Mark 16 verse 15 is important to hear again “Go ye into all the world”.  There must be a willingness to go up the mountain and bring back what we have received.  Only then will we able to build.  Only when we go up the mountain with God will we be equipped to see God’s commission fulfilled.  The results – God will take pleasure in it.  When the people would have returned with the materials they would construct the temple and the Lord would be glorified because he would be worshipped in it.  He would be delighted because he would be worshipped and glorified.  When we are equipped for the commission God is pleased and glorified in the outcome.  Our ultimate goal should always be to please the Lord and bring glory to his name.  The results of the commission – go up, bring wood, build the house and worship the Lord then he would be glorified.

 

The reason for the correction.  Verse 9 “Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it.  Why? Saith the Lord of hosts, Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.”  After the commission to the people and the results for obeying the Lord, he went on to give them a reason for the position they found themselves in.  They were still living the kind of life that needed to be corrected by God.  They were still living lives for their own self-interest.  In many ways they would have to re-till the ground for crops.  That would have taken weeks of labour.  For over 70 years the arable ground was deserted of its work and produce.  One can imagine the look on their faces as they beheld their father’s land with every acre destroyed.  They knew the land they left would have changed dramatically with so many years of deprivation.  It was unrecognisable.  They would have been wondering in their hearts whether they were in the right region.  They had to accept the facts and bear the results of previous generations waywardness.  There were those who had left the promised land and never returned.  They died during the captivity.  There were those who were born during captivity.  In some ways there was a new generation returning to the land of Israel, bearing in mind 70 years had passed.  Verse 6 “ye have sown much and bring in little.”  Verse 9 “ye looked for much and lo it came to little.”  Their expectations were high.  They were pretty sure of themselves.  They did not sow half of what they had.  The people were so expectant but they would not reap satisfactorily.  They did not reap a good harvest because they were not doing what the Lord asked them to do.  When they brought it home the Lord had blown on it so that it became little and little became nothing.  The returning captives were bitterly disappointed but if the truth be told it was their own fault.  Rather than doing things God’s way they were doing them their own way and what are the results of that – disaster.  They were looking to see the benefits of sowing which became little and then nothing.  This shows us that high expectations can become very low when God is left out.  It was a miracle in itself that the people had seed to sow returning from the land of Babylon.  God provided them with much seed to make a new beginning but it was wasted because of their disobedience.  Many blessing from God have been wasted because of disobedience.  Could it be we are missing out on blessing from the Lord because we are being disobedient?  There can be no blessing from God if we are not being a blessing to God.  Exodus 19 verse 5 “now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine.”  The explanation for why the people were facing so much loss is seen in verse 9 “Because of mine house that is waste and ye run every man unto his own house.”  The reason for the correction was because the people were reluctant to construct the temple.  It all comes back to priorities.  What about our priorities?  Perhaps the Lord would have to correct our lives because our priorities are wrong.  May we not wait until God corrects.  May we come afresh and consecrate our lives to him.

 

The ripples of contention.  Verses 10 and 11 “Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.  And I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oil and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labour of the hands.”  The controversy would be between God and his family and it would have lasting effects on the ground.  Dew from heaven would be withheld and the fruit would not be produced.  The children of Israel were to realise that there was something much bigger to be reckoned with.  When they did not produce a bountiful crop it was because of the timing.  They were out of sequence with God.  What use was their land if they could not control the clouds?  They could do nothing without God.  That is what God was making the turning people to know.  God has to bring us to our seasons by showing our constant dependence on him. When we have nothing and cannot do anything it is only then we realise that Jesus Christ is everything.  God not only closes up dew from heaven but called for scorching heat.  It caused the fruits of the earth to burn up. This drought was called upon by God.  It had a universal effect and could be seen for miles around.  If they went up to the mountain they would see it there first.  The pasture land was filled with flocks but there was no grass to eat.  It affected the corn, the wine and the oil.  They all failed because of the hot weather.  This was the rippling effects of the condition between the people and God.  All controversy has lasting effects.  Controversy with God is on another level.  What a lesson we need to take heed and learn from.  Let us search our own hearts and make sure our relationship with God is good. 

 

We commenced by looking at the results of the commission.  God commanded the people to go up, take them to higher ground, to find the resources to equip them for the commission.  May we go higher up the mountain with God today.  May we gain progress in our walk with God.  We looked at the reason for the correction – God always has a reason for his actions.   Their priorities were al wrong.  The ripples of contention – all controversy has lasting effects especially with God.  May we desire to go up the mountain, may we not receive correction from God but be consecrated to him when we go higher with him.  Then we will become closer to God and there will be no contention with God.