Pastor's notes on haggai

Here are the headings for Haggai 1:1-2:

Keep with the programme.

1. The programme is on schedule. v1

    - notice the dates in Haggai and Ezra >> 

       '70 years' from exile to restoration.

2. The LORD has kept with the programme. v1

    - notice the 'covenant' language/words/names

3. 'These people' are NOT with the programme. v2

    - not 'my people', and not working on the temple

4. The antidote to their apathy is the word of God. v1-2

    - the word of the  LORD through the prophet.

Haggai 1:3-15

It's time to look after No 1!

('No 1' being the LORD and HIS interests, not ours!)

Hear the LORD's wake up call - 

- is it a time to be making ourselves comfortable?  v3-4

  No! cos the work of building the temple for God to dwell among          them, and to prepare the stage for the Messiah to come, was not        complete.

- think carefully about our experience of life. v5-7, 9-11

  the LORD used covenant sanctions to wake them up. 

- think carefully about what needs to be done.  v8

  a reminder to do what they already knew they needed to do!

- seeing our error, have a change of heart. v12

  aware of the sanctions and where they would ultimately lead - to        ruin, they obeyed the word in the fear of the LORD.

- expect the LORD's immediate encouragement. v13-15

  no sooner did they turn to the LORD than the LORD reassured them    of his presence with them and stirred them up to the work he had      prepared in advance for them to do.

Haggai 2:1-9

Here are the headings from Sunday:

Motivation to keep building the place God will dwell with his people.

- Disheartened by how things look now. v1-3

- Keep building because the LORD Almighty:

         - is with you and among you always; v4-5

         - is making something more glorious than anything before. v6

Haggai 2:10-19

Recap: headings from Sunday

Until God is at the centre of our life, it will be endlessly frustrating.

- Consider how frustrating life is when God is not central. v10-17

       - for them then (OT)

       - for us now (NT)

- Consider how good life will be when God is central. v18-19

       - for them then (OT)

       - for us now (NT)

Are there any verses that need clarifying?

v10-14.   v10-13 is a device Haggai uses to make the point that up til the time the people started work on the temple 'for real' (i.e. cos their hearts had returned to God) all that the did and offered at the temple was defiled i.e of no value and unacceptable to God.

v15-17. The people are to give careful thought to their circumstances before they started work on the temple 'for real', to see that God had been striking them with covenant sanctions.

v18-19. But now that had changed, and from the day they had returned to him (in their hearts) - 'from this day on I will bless you'. At that time of year the crops would not have grown nor the trees be in fruit, but come the harvest they will see God's blessing.

 Is the LORD and his work central and the priority in our lives?

- to hear his strong encouragement to those for whom the LORD and his building work are central and priority: 'I am with you' and 'I will fill this house with glory...greater than the glory of the former house' and 'In this place I will grant peace' and 'From this day on I will bless you'.

- to know that God's Servant King has come (Jesus the descendant of Zerubbabel and...David!), that shortly he will return, and his kingdom alone will continue in place of all the kingdoms of the world, and that we who have entered his kingdom now by faith will live there with him forever.