Haggai 2:10-19 says...Bible reading week 27, day 3

On to the passage of today which is Haggai 2:10-19 which read,

10 - On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying,

11 - "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Ask now the priests for a ruling:

12 - If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy?'"  And the priests answered, "No."

13 - Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean?"  And the priests answered, "It will become unclean."

14 - Then Haggai said, "So is this people.  And so is this nation before Me,' declares the LORD, 'and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.

15 - But now, do consider from this day onward:  before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the LORD,

16 - from that time when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty.

17 - I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew, and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,' declares the LORD.

18 - 'Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the temple of the LORD was founded, consider:

19 - Is the seed still in the barn?  Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit.  Yet from this day on I will bless you.'"

We are now 2 months past our last reading of Haggai and his third message.  The fourth corresponds to the date of December 18, 520 B.C.  In the previous study we had the remnant that had come back from Babylon to Israel picking back up their tools and gathering wood to complete the building of the temple that had been set aside.  They put aside their excuses not to build and have been diligently at the task of seeing this structure come to completion.  The structure, like our church buildings, was a symbol of their faith in God.  The building did not hold the faith but those who worshiped there did.

Haggai gives them a lesson about what is clean and what is not clean.  If holy meat touches something that is not holy, will it become holy by touching it?  The answer from the priest is "no."  The point is that we can't transfer holiness from one person to another.  A righteous person can not make another person righteous by touching them.  Haggai goes on with the second part that asks if someone who is unclean touches these things will they become unclean and the answer from the priests is "yes."  Our sin effects the things and people that are around us.  When we do not take care of sin as God tells us to with repentance and confession then it impacts our surroundings.  Holiness doesn't come by touching something else but sin reproduces with its contact.  This is why we need Someone outside of ourselves to provide the holiness, the righteous, that we need to counter the sin that we perpetuate.

When the people of Israel were unrighteous, they brought sacrifices to the temple but they were not genuine.  They brought false worship to God.  It was seen in the amounts.  They thought it was 20 measures of grain but it was only 10 and they thought it was 50 measures of wine but it was only 20.  They brought their unconfessed sin lives into the temple with no intention of repenting and it had an impact.  Even though God gave consequences to their sin, they people did not return to Him with genuine repentance and confession.  They came into a holy place thinking that being their was going to make them holy but in reality coming there with no pretense to actually follow what God says, allowed their sin to spread throughout the temple.  I hate to say this but it is still true today.  Many come to church to somehow have something holy rub off on them without submission and surrender to God.  They did their duty by coming and some puffing up of self that they received a special badge from God for doing it but God says it is much less than what you think.  That hypocritical life in the midst of the assembly has a negative impact of the whole.  "A bad apple ruins the bushel."  What is the common sense thing to do with the bad apple?  You find it and get rid of it.  Sometimes we have a bad apple in the church assembly and we find it and work with it but if there is no following of what God says, then we need to get rid of it otherwise others around it will start to rot too.  This would be a whole other discussion about church discipline and following the structure that God gives us in His Word about execution with truth and love.

Haggai ends this section with a turn around.  What was once is no longer.  The people are now not living in unrepentant sin.  They are coming into the temple seeking to worship God and not themselves.  The yield of their fields and orchards are going to increase because they are in obedience to God.  They are holy because God is holy and not because they came into a holy place.  Their impact upon others is not to taint them with sin's effect but to be holy in their presence.  A transformation has happened among the remnant and it is a transformation that has come from obedience to God's Word being spoken to them.

How do we come into the assembly of God's people?  Do we come among our brothers and sisters in Christ as someone submitting to God's words or do we come among the brothers and sisters in Christ as someone holding onto sin that needs to be repented of and confession made of?  One is a positive to the body and the other is a negative.  Although you can't transfer your holiness from God unto another, it is a witness of Him.  Know that your unrepentant and unconfessed sin makes an impact on those around you.  They don't get your sin by touching you physically but its witness of allowing to be in this unrepentant and unconfessed state among them opens the door of following your example.  I have said this before, "sin is serious stuff."  Let us pray.

"Lord, may we see the difference between Your holiness and our sinfulness and especially with the focus today in the midst of the body of Christ.  We minimize sin and its affect and many times bring it in the midst of others with no intention of following Your procedure to deal with it.  We let the bad apple rot instead of throwing it out into the bushes for the good of the body and the good of itself.  Help us to guard ourselves and others against sin that remains and help us to display a holiness that only comes from You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam