Haggai 2:10-19: I Will Bless You

The last study left off with Haggai encouraging the people to persevere by reminding them that God was with them and lifted their eyes to the surpassing glory to come. God now calls His people to genuine holiness and promises to bless them. Haggai’s message comes two months and three days after the last message.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: 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.” 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.” 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.
—Haggai 2:10-19

The timing of this message is significant as it comes around the end of the sowing season, so seed had been planted but no harvest had yet sprouted. This detail will become important later.

At this point, the people had been building for three months and now the foundational stones of the temple had been laid. They were faithfully doing what God called them to do. Now, Haggai addresses the priests in order that the people would understand the seriousness of their spiritual impurity. Haggai begins with a question about consecrated meat:

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.”
—Haggai 2:12

Holiness is not transferred by second-hand contact. Where is God going with this message? Then comes the next question:

“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.”
—Haggai 2:13

Impurity spreads by contact but holiness does not. From these two questions, the summary is essentially: sin is learned more easily than holiness.

The priests were answering correctly. They understood the law. They knew that ceremonial impurity could spread. Maybe the people were nodding along. Then, record screech. Haggai essentially says, “That’s you.”

“’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.
—Haggai 2:14

The Defilement of Good Works

God exposes their hearts with these questions. The good work of rebuilding the temple was spoiled! The people assumed because they had continued working on the temple that their work would automatically earn them God’s favor. The work and offerings, even if good, were defiled because they had unrepentant hearts. Their outward activity did not match their hearts. The people were struggling after the exile, but one of the sources of their struggle was their disobedience. They may have thought, “God, I’m doing this for You so why aren’t things going better?” See how we do that at times?

We can do something good and then assume our good works somehow make us right with God. We can have impure motives, point to what we are doing and say, “Look at what I’m doing for You, God.” But what we offer to God cannot compensate for an impure or unrepentant heart.

They could offer sacrifices, participate in worship, and work on God’s house, yet still have hearts that were far from Him. They were doing a good work, but they still needed a work done in their hearts.

Holiness is not transferable the way defilement is. Polluted hearts taint good works. Outward religious activity cannot cleanse internally.

It is also interesting to note that God refers to them as “this people” rather than “My people.” Perhaps this was intentional to point out the distance their disobedience had created between them and Him.

What the Religious System Cannot Do

This brings up a great reflection for us today. The religious system of our flesh says, “Work for it.” The true gospel says, “Jesus finished it.”

We can do works “for God” while our hearts remain impure. We can even use good works to try to earn our salvation or cleanse ourselves. Look at what 1 Thessalonians 1:3 says:

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice, our work is produced by faith, not our faith is produced by our work. Our labor is prompted by the love of God, not our labor earns the love of God.

Our works should flow naturally from our right standing with God, from His grace. We don’t work for God in order to earn His blessing, His favor, or our salvation. His grace is unmerited favor. We surrender our hearts to Him, and from that relationship our lives begin to bear fruit.

Jesus revealed the problem with outward religion that leaves the heart unchanged. Years later, He would confront the religious leaders of His day:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
—Matthew 23:27-28

The outside can look clean while the inside remains unclean and full of hypocrisy. The Pharisees could follow religious rules, but their outward obedience could not make their hearts clean. Similarly, we can do religious things today: go to church, read our Bibles, serve, give, sing, and still miss the heart of the matter—a genuine intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that comes from a surrendered heart.

We see a similar pattern with the people of Israel in Jeremiah 7. Israel had begun trusting in the temple itself rather than in the God who dwelled among them. Because the temple bore God’s Name, they believed they were safe. They were living in disobedience, worshiping other gods, while placing their confidence in the fact that they had the temple. God confronted them through Jeremiah:

Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD…Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not know, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?
—Jeremiah 7:4-10

They had begun treating the temple as though its construct gave them permission to live however they wanted. Do we not see something similar today? Many live with unrepentant hearts while simply showing up to a building called “church,” and so believe they are “safe.” We can attend every Sunday and still live for ourselves the other six days of the week. We can point to our church attendance, our service, our giving, our involvement and think those things somehow make us right with God. Religious activity cannot substitute for genuine faith in Christ. It cannot wash us clean.

Hebrews gives us an even clearer picture of this:

This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order. But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
—Hebrews 9:9-14

Jesus Christ reversed those very laws of contamination through His New Covenant of Grace. Haggai’s message about defilement and holiness points forward to Jesus, our great High Priest, who offered Himself once for all. When we turn to Him with repentant hearts, He cleanses us from the inside out.

From Defilement to Blessing

Now Haggai brings the people back to the foundation.

“’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. 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. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the LORD. From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 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. “’From this day on I will bless you.’”
—Haggai 2:15-19

The phrase “from this day on” is significant. The people had experienced the consequences of their disobedience. God had withheld blessing from their crops. Remember, God had brought a drought (Hag 1:10-11). But now God tells them to look back and consider what had happened, and then look forward.

The very day the foundation of the temple was laid became a turning point for the people. Remember the timing. This message comes around the end of the sowing season. The seed had been planted, but there was no visible harvest yet. Haggai 2:19 essentially asks, “Have the crops produced anything yet?” The answer is no. They couldn’t yet see the blessing. But God promised it.

“From this day on I will bless you.”

The blessing was promised before the harvest could be seen. The blessing was promised the moment their hearts turned back to God. Earlier, God had told them that because of their disobedience there had been a drought and poor crops. But now there is a shift. The drought that had characterized their disobedience was giving way to God’s promised blessing, even though they could not yet see the harvest.

This was a new beginning for the people, and gives us a beautiful picture of grace: they didn’t earn it; they simply turned their hearts toward God. This is unmerited favor; the grace we have received from Jesus Christ. This is also a beautiful picture of faith: faith in God’s faithfulness, confident assurance in what is hoped for. God begins something before we can see the fruit of it. We can plant the seed without seeing the harvest. We can obey without immediately seeing the outcome. We can trust God’s promise before we see its fulfillment.

Our spiritual drought ended the moment we were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We don’t work our way into God’s blessing. In Christ, we have an imperishable inheritance. And from His grace and the gift of faith, we do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. Paul gives us a similar encouragement in Galatians:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
—Galatians 6:9

We may not see the harvest yet, but we can trust the One who promised it.

Haggai 2:10-19 shows us once again that God looks at the heart. Ultimately, these verses point us once again beyond the temple and beyond the sacrifices to Christ the High Priest, who would come to cleanse His people once for all. And the next and final post of the series will take us somewhere else. As we close in Haggai, God speaks again to Zerubbabel and gives a promise that points us toward Christ the King. The High Priest who cleanses. The King who reigns.