Sept. 10 - Haggai 2:10-23

Seeking the Kingdom above all else

Haggai 2:10-23

10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 11 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling: 12 If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of one’s garment, and with the fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered, “Yes, it becomes unclean.”
14 Haggai then said, So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the LORD; and so with every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean. 15 But now, consider what will come to pass from this day on. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the LORD’s temple, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. 18 Consider from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider:
19 Is there any seed left in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you.
20 The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade. 23 On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts.

The last two prophecies in the Book of Haggai occurred on the same day – the 24th day of the ninth month. The people had been re-building for 3 months. They were working hard at getting the house of God in order.

The opening illustration seems strange – but it boils down to this. When the people of Israel were more worried about their own houses than with God’s temple, when they were inward focussed rather than thinking about God’s pattern – they were making everything around them “unclean” – nothing around them was being blessed – the crops were failing, the food in storage was going bad. Things were economically difficult. But God, recognizing their commitment to work on the temple, promises the people that from the 24th day of the 9th month on they will be blessed. The people took the step of being faithful, took the step of risking for God and God will honour that risk, that commitment, that faithfulness. They turned their eyes from themselves and towards God and God’s mission and God promised to take care of their needs for food and housing, etc. Jesus himself said similar words in Luke 12:29, 31 “Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink, do not worry about it….But seek God’s kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” We are invited to turn towards God, and trust the things like food and drink to God’s hands as we seek to work of His kingdom.

A note on genealogy: Zerubbabel and Shealtiel are in the ancestral line leading to Jesus. (Luke 3:27) In other words, their descendant would be the ruler of all things. Haggai 2:23 carried then a double ring – the signet ring is sign of Zerubbabel’s authority, but it is also that Zerubbabel is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ coming.

PRAYER:
Lord God, we have often spent too much time and energy focused on ourselves and our wants and needs, we have not looked for your kingdom above all else, we have not oriented our lives towards your kingdom. Teach us to put you first, to seek your kingdom above all else. In Jesus’ name. Amen.