ENERGY IN THE WORK OF GOD
[p. 142] ENERGY IN THE WORK OF GOD
Haggai 1:1 - 15; Haggai 2:1 - 9
I have chosen this book on this occasion, because it shews the immediate effect of the prophetic word. All ministry should have something of prophetic character. According to 1 Corinthians 14, it is the kind of ministry that is particularly to be desired; the one who prophesies edifies the assembly. Moreover, when the whole assembly is gathered together and prophetic ministry is there and if some unbeliever enters, he will fall on his face, reporting that “God is indeed amongst you”.
In the prophecy of Ezekiel, we see also how the Spirit shows to the prophet a valley filled with dry bones (Ezekiel 37). He is told to prophesy over these dry bones, and the bones came together, and sinews and flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them over. The result of the prophetic word is seen in the production of life, and in that which expresses life; the skin covering the body indicates how the Spirit beautifies what is there. Hence, dear brethren, you can see how important is a word of prophecy.
It says in the book of Ezra, that Haggai prophesied. “The prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem; in the name of the God of Israel”, Ezra 5:1. They did not prophesy in their own name; no true prophet of God makes himself prominent; nobody serving in the power of the Spirit has his own name before him. Moreover, it says of these two prophets, that they worked “to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem”. Their word had an immediate effect, and they took their place in the work that their own ministry promoted amongst the people. In other words, they represent servants who not only express the mind of God, but who show how to carry out His word; as the Lord Jesus said, that He was altogether that which He said unto them. The one who brings in God’s word should be the first to set an example of its effect upon us, and this is what is seen in Haggai and Zechariah.
Whilst it says in Ezra that they prophesied to the Jews, it says here that the word of Jehovah came to “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest”. What is emphasised is that Haggai’s message was for those who were particularly responsible. In Ezra, where the message was to the Jews, all the people were included, but in Haggai, as we remarked, it was for those particularly responsible, Zerubbabel who was the governor, and Joshua who was the high priest. The counterpart to Zerubbabel today would be the leading brothers who take the responsibility of things amongst us; while those corresponding to the high priest are those who sympathise with the saints, sisters being included as well as brothers. The high priest evidently had as much authority as Zerubbabel, priestly power being a matter of spiritual intelligence and sympathy. Holiness, too, should characterise priests. Aaron, the great high priest, being called “the saint (holy one) of Jehovah” (Psalm 106:16), indicating that he was a holy person. The priesthood represented by Joshua involves the most spiritual amongst us, indeed all of us. You can thus see, dear brethren, that Haggai’s message is addressed to the oldest brothers, as being the most responsible, and to all, whether young or old, who are spiritual and intelligent. The saints in their entirety are also included, as we see by what follows (verse 12), “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God”, and “Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, [p. 148] and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people”. Hence the message, while addressed to the most responsible, is for all.
[p. 144] Those who were responsible, and all the others too, had become rather negligent and selfish: they were thinking of their own houses rather than of the house of God. What a state of things! yet, alas, dear brethren, how often it is found amongst the saints. We are all inclined to be selfish, that is to say, we think of ourselves, our homes, our families, our farms, and the house of God has a secondary place with us. Where such a state of things exists, this book specially applies; in verse 4 the prophet asks, “Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?” This is a very direct question, followed by the injunction in verse 5, “And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways”. The word ‘consider’ is important, according to the note it means literally, ‘Set your heart on your ways’. We are invited to examine our ways for a moment, to give them our undivided attention, not that we should become occupied with them, but it is a matter of searching and analysing them to see if they are such as are suitable to those whom God loves, and who love Him.
As though He would help us in considering our ways, and bring us to see how defective they are, God says in verse 6, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes”. Dear brethren, God would help us to arrive at a true judgment about our ways, and would say to us, as it were, ‘Things are not going as you would like’. There are young people who set out with certain plans before them; you only think of your own interests; no doubt you have it in mind to be in fellowship, as we speak, but the fellowship and the things of God have only second place with you, and now you find that things are not all as you had thought. Why is that? Simply because God loves you. Around you, you perhaps see unconverted young people who appear to [p. 145] get what they want. One of the psalmists asked one day, why the wicked prospered like a green tree, but when he entered the sanctuary of God he understood that the end of the wicked is terrible. A child of God, a saint of God, suffers down here, and seems to be limited, or does not prosper in this world; why should this be, dear brethren? Because God loves us, and He has better things in view for us. If He gave us the prosperity we desired, we should lose the blessing and spiritual prosperity He has for us. For this reason He shows us here that those who give His interests a secondary place, and their own the first place, do not prosper; He says, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied”. Then in verse 7 Jehovah comes back to this point, “Consider your ways”; take time at once to examine your circumstances, your history, what you have in mind for yourself. After one hour’s consideration in the presence of God, you will change your mind. This is what happened according to this book; a prophetic word was uttered on the first day of the sixth month, and on the twenty-fourth day of the same month it says, “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God” (verse 12). Dear young people, twenty-four days after the prophetic word had been uttered, all these people had changed their minds. They gave the house of Jehovah the first place, and the result is described in chapter 2, verse 18. “Consider, I pray you, from this day and onward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of Jehovah’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree have not brought forth: from this day will I bless you”. You will notice that blessing is brought in when we are marked by obedience, and by listening to the word.
Let us look now and see what this word is: “Go up [p. 146] to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith Jehovah”. This is the word: “Go up to the mountain”, indicating that fellowship and the service of the children of God, as well as the testimony do not allow us to be at ease, to be lazy and negligent. The things we have been called to in the fellowship of the Son of God surpass everything in this world, and compared with them, the things of this world are worthless. Nehemiah could say, “I am doing a great work” (Nehemiah 6:3), and it is the same for us, dear brethren; God has called us to the most exalted service possible. Do we appreciate it, or do we find the work irksome? God says, “Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain”. He delights to use figures which are perfectly understandable; and in saying, “Go up to the mountain”, He is alluding simply to exercise. Our hearts will certainly be tested, but it is a question of knowing whether He can support us. We must be strong, and in climbing up we shall find strength; for a healthy person exercise is strengthening. The object in mind is clearly indicated; what shall we find on the mountain? Certainly it is not to see a beautiful view; though what a beautiful view we have on the mountain in Matthew 5. We find material, so to speak, in this chapter; the Lord speaks of Himself up there; He says, “Ye have heard that it has been said ... but I say unto you”, all through the chapter He is drawing their attention to what He is saying; He always has the last word, and His words express what He is. He says, “The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away”, Matthew 24:35. How blessed it is to have to do with such a Person whose words will never pass away, who speaks with authority, whose words express who He is. This is what the wood represents here; the kind of person who was there. It says, “Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house”. The house must be built of material which is like Jesus. The apostle Paul said, “Other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 3:11. The title ‘Jesus Christ’ indicates the kind of person who was there, the One to whom our attention is drawn in the sermon on the mountain (Matthew 5 - Matthew 7). It is quite in keeping with the teaching of Matthew’s gospel, which has the assembly in mind, so here it says, “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 Jehovah”. In Scripture wood is a type of the humanity of Christ; the best illustration I can give of this is in Exodus 15, where it says that Israel came to Marah, and they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were bitter, and Jehovah showed Moses wood. Some may think that this wood is representative of the cross of Christ, but it is not so, it represents Christ. The wood was cast into the waters, and the waters became sweet. The glorious Man who came down here, who was honoured by heaven, was He who entered into death; that is what the wood represents. That is why wood had to be brought. In Nehemiah an offering of wood was required, which is very suggestive; in these circumstances the offering of wood is necessary, that is, Christ formed in us in the power of the Spirit of God.
After that it says, as we were remarking, that twenty-four days after, “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him, and the people feared before Jehovah”. In the presence of such a prophecy each one should desire to have his own heart brought to be filled with fear after twenty-four days. What a remarkable time, three weeks and three days! Not only Zerubbabel and Joshua, but all the people were brought to consider the things of God, and it says in verse 14, “Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked at the house of Jehovah of hosts”. They came and worked exactly according to the words of the prophet; they did not do just what they thought right, but what God asked for. The date is given in verse 15, “the four-and-twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king”; it is as if God would take note of a date like that. He records, so to say, the date of the day on which He spoke to you, and He is observing you to see the effect His word has upon you; in their case it was twenty-four days; that is to say, three weeks and three days.
The second chapter is for our encouragement when we begin to move in response to God’s word. About a month later, the twenty-first day of the seventh month, there was another message: What was it? “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now?” (chapter 2:3) This signifies, dear brethren, that that which we have may appear externally quite small compared with that of apostolic times, but what will become of it? Listen to what it says, “I will fill this house with glory ... The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts”. I would like this thought to sink into the heart of each one here, and of the young particularly; what we are occupied with may appear externally small, but in spite of that it says, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”. Does not this encourage us to go forward with energy and purpose of heart? We must not despise the day of small things; young people are inclined to despise the smallness of our meetings, yet according to this prophet what we are engaged with now will be greater than what the saints were engaged with in apostolic times. That does not mean, dear brethren, that we shall have large meetings, but it means that what we are engaged with [p. 149] will be displayed in the heavenly city, the most magnificent and glorious work in the universe of God; she will come from God having the glory of God (Revelation 21:10), which will be a most precious “shining”. What is alluded to is nothing less than what will be outstanding later on. That is the word for us, dear brethren, and I trust it will encourage us to “lift up the hands that hang down, and the failing knees; and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned aside; but that rather it may be healed”, Hebrews 12:12,13. We must go up to the mountain, that is, face matters in exercise and power, and in that way the wood represents ourselves as the subjects of God’s work. The building is going on and God says, ‘I am pleased with it’. How precious it is to think that God is pleased with what I am doing now. Nobody here should exclude himself from this work, for it says, “Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might”, Ecclesiastes 9:10. It does not say, ‘If thy hand findeth something to do’, but “Whatever thy hand findeth to do”. We shall find some work if we desire it. It is a matter of putting your hand to it and having part in it; God says, “I will take pleasure in it”.
The great end will be in glory, the holy city, coming down out of the heaven from God.