22: 8) the book containing the mind of God, and it was put into the hands of Shaphan the scribe, who carried it to the king, and it was read in the presence of the king. I only speak of it as emphasising this fact, that there was a wonderful revival, and that revival had its beginning in the interest which there was in the heart of the young king with regard to the house of God. He seemed to wake up to the fact that God’s house was not what it should be, and in connection with this the book was found which contained the mind of God, and it became the occasion of a wonderful turning to God on the part of the people of God.

Now that was so then, and it has always been so. We find it with regard to the blessed Lord when He was here. Of Him you know it had been written in one of the psalms, and the disciples were able later on to recall it to their memory, in connection with the Lord’s action, when He went into the temple (John 2: 17), how it was written concerning Him, “The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up”. When the Lord was here, He took up every interest of God, and there was a perfect answer in Him to the mind of God. I have already alluded to that action of the widow woman, Luke 21. I do not suppose it attracted any public attention, but the Lord Jesus Christ saw it, it came under His eye. He took great account of it and He declared that she had put in more than they all. So you see how the house of God became a test; if there was spiritual decline that decline was manifested in neglect of the house of God, and if on the other hand there was a work of God—if there was anything like what would lead to a revival, there was great interest taken in the house of God.

Hence, I think it is a touchstone at this present time: it is a great test for us, we might well put the question to ourselves and to one another: “What is your interest in the house of God?” Are you so concerned about the house of God and that there should be among us that which would answer to going up into the mountain and getting the wood and building the house, Hag 1: 8? This work was not official; it was common to all the remnant at that time; the word of the Lord to them was, “Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house”. It was Jehovah’s house then, and God’s house now is the “assembly of the living God”. We have nothing in scripture about little models or reproductions of it, it is the house of God. It is true that the remnant in Haggai’s time were only a little handful come back from Babylon, but that was for God’s house; and the handful were interested in the house of God; and it is a great question for us—how far are we interested in the condition of the house of God? how far is there in any of us that spiritual energy in regard to it so that there is getting the right material so to speak, and building it up?

I should like to call your attention to the encouragement the Lord gives them. He appeals to them; He says, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little”. Of course we have to take this up in a spiritual way. There may be great activities which do not come to much. You may see people busying themselves in various directions; and the people in Haggai’s time had busied themselves; they had sown, they had eaten, they had drunk, they had clothed themselves, had earned wages, there were all these activities, but it had amounted to nothing—the Lord says, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes”. There was no satisfaction in that! I hope you will bear with me, and not misunderstand me. I am often asked the question what about this and that; what about Sunday schools, &c. But I say, have you got satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction? It is no use going on with bustle and stir in religious activities merely to keep going. When we turn to the Lord as to it He lets the light in; He says, “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it, Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house”. There is no premium upon laziness, but what is the use of going on with an endless round of religious activities when the house of God lies waste? God withholds blessing from His own people sometimes because they are wholly concerned and occupied with their own activities. You know a person may be very religious, very active, and may bustle and stir in a religious way and yet have no concern for the house of God. It is goodness of God not to let you find anything in this way; He withholds blessing, and there is the sense of disappointment, dissatisfaction steals over your spirit and it is good that God allows it.

Well now, I want to go back to the first point, because there is wonderful encouragement in it: “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house”. There is not only the suitable material but there is the suitable place where the suitable material can alone be found. The house of God was not built with wood that was found in the valleys or by the river-side; it was in those mountain heights—in those high altitudes that the material was found. I am sure there is a word for us in that. The house of God is not composed of earthly material, it is composed of heavenly material. The house was built here, but if I might be bold enough to say it, it was built from heaven and of heavenly material. It was the Holy Ghost who came down from Christ in glory that put the house together; and God has not changed His mind about the material that is to enter into the practical building of His house, for although it is not building it in the sense that Christ builds the house, it is building it in perfect keeping with that; it is the practical building of it. Jude 20 says, “Building up your selves in your most holy faith”. It is that side of things. There is the earnest seeking and desire to promote in our souls and in the souls of each other that which comports with the heavenly character of the house of God; you go up into the mountains. It requires some energy to go up into a mountain, and there must be spiritual energy. But I say that only by the way: I pass on to what I wanted to draw your attention to. God 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 the Lord”. It is your privilege and mine to contribute to that which gives pleasure to God. There is nothing outward about Philadelphia (Rev 3), but in the message to Philadelphia the Lord says, “I know thy works”. How that ought to stir us up; how it ought to animate our souls! And so Jehovah says to the remnant, “I will take pleasure in it”. It is not only that God will take pleasure in it now, but in connection with the building up of the house of God it will be for the pleasure and glory of God for ever. How wonderful! How the honours of this world, the approval or disapproval of man, how it all sinks into utter insignificance, it really is not worth our consideration for a moment in the light of this.

You will find the answer to it in verse 12, and in verse 13 we read: “Then spoke Haggai Jehovah’s messenger, in Jehovah’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith Jehovah”. What has made the difference? There was a kind of distance between God and the people in the beginning of the prophecy—He has to expostulate with them, and has really withheld His blessing from them, but the moment there is an answer to His appeal to them, Jehovah sends a special message through Haggai and says: “I am with you”. We ought not to be content to rest short of that. I am sure I should be very sorry to say a word that would encourage pretension in any shape or form among the people of God, but do you not think there is danger on the other side of the question, and that we are ready, so to speak, to give up? We ought not to give up; He says: “I am with you”. You remember when Moses came down from the mount and found that Israel had made a golden calf, he said to Jehovah: “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence ... wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us?” I know it is a day of ruin and failure, but there is such a thing as being unduly occupied with the ruin and the failure: we ought not to be content to go on in a day like this without the blessed sense of His presence.

Then we get in verse 14 the going on of the work: “And they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts”; and then there are further communications, and a little later on comes the appeal of the Lord to the prophet, “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts”, chap 2: 2-4.

You know elsewhere we get a very touching account of the scene that took place when this building was completed; some wept and some shouted; there were these various feelings; the older ones who recollected, as it were, what that house was in her first and pristine glory, they could but weep; others shouted. Yet here is the wonderful word again, “Yet now be strong, all ye people of the land ... for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts”.

If you are not working on the line of the house of God, God will not help you. He will not encourage you. He will not say: “I am with you”, He will not bid you “be strong”.

Every thought of God is linked with the house of God. His glory is there ... and when you come to the habitable world to come all the wonderful things that are embraced within the wide range of the purpose of God are linked up with that house, so that if I am really building in connection with the house of God it is not only that I am promoting so far the present spiritual prosperity and blessing of God’s people, but I am really working in view of a day that is to come, and that is the principle of the passage here. “Yet now be strong ... according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not”. God is able to go back to the very beginning when they came out of Egypt; that is to say, God is prepared to place us now according to the word that He first covenanted with us—He is able to set us now as to our souls, however feeble we may be and however ruined the ordinary condition of things, in the present spiritual good—not of some later revelation—but of that which God really set up in the beginning of Christianity in the power of His Spirit. “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace”.

What a range there is in the thoughts of God! How they reach on into the future when all the ways of God will find their completion and will come out in the most magnificent display in glory in that coming day. The Spirit of God connects everything with Christ. “The desire of all nations” is Christ. God reaches on to the future in this statement when everything—all that God is interested in now will find its completion in that wonderful day of display: and God would encourage us if we were interested in His house, I repeat there is a good deal said about the ruin and the failure which is true, but, beloved, we must not stop at that; we are privileged to look on to that future day when all will be displayed in glory, and if we, like Zerubbabel and Joshua, were set for the interests of the house of God, it would so absorb us that we should not have much time to fall out by the way; I am sure of this, that we should get on better with one another if we were occupied with the house of God—with the promotion in a spiritual way of that which is true in connection with God’s house. I would that I had more ability to tell it out.

But I want just to touch in a practical way, upon one point more, and that is—that as soon as you get interested in connection with the house of God, God will raise the question of holiness. He has His own way, and it is for Him to raise it; and you will bear with me if I say that I think at the present time we need to have the question of holiness raised amongst us. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean”. All this questioning of the priests has its origin in the mind of God, and you may depend upon it, it expresses the marvellous interest in God’s mind in what is connected with the spiritual interest of His people here, and with His own house. So there is a word for us in it and a very practical word. I ask, What are we touching? What about our associations? Are we exercised about them? We cannot maintain practical holiness and not be concerned about what we are touching. Do you think that by touching, that is, having association with people who are in unclean associations that you can impart the sanctity of the holy flesh that may be in the skirt of your garment? If you do think so you are wonderfully mistaken. The priest answered, “No”. You will become unclean yourself. Uncleanness can be imparted but holiness cannot be imparted. “Holiness becometh thine house, O Jehovah, for ever”, Ps 93: 5

If we go back to the history of Jacob, when God said to him, “Go up to Bethel and dwell there” (Gen 35: 1), he got a sense of all the holiness that belonged to Bethel and he turned to his household and had a regular clearing-up time. He had an instinctive sense that there were things in his household that would not stand the holiness that belonged to Bethel—the house of God.

I do believe the Lord would speak to us at this time in a very practical way. People are inclined to go here and there, but if you touch the unclean thing in any way, instead of your imparting sanctity or help to that unclean thing that unclean thing will impart its uncleanness to you.

It has been a matter of exercise to me to speak to you of these things in a simple way so that there might be spiritual profit, and if the Lord is pleased by His Spirit to bring these things home to us, I am sure that our consideration of them will not be without spiritual profit to each one of us.