And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, etc. The subject of these verses is
man's temporalities; or, in other words, his earthly circumstances, his secular condition. And the passage suggests three ideas in relation to this subject.
I. THAT MAN'S TEMPORALITIES ARE AT THE ABSOLUTE DISPOSAL OF GOD. Here the Almighty is represented as at one time, namely, the period daring their neglect of rebuilding the temple, withholding from the Jewish people temporal prosperity. But after they had commenced the work in earnest, the stream of prosperity would begin to flow. Here are the words: "Before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord: since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the press fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty." "It was I that gave you only ten instead of twenty measures, only twenty instead of fifty vessels in the vat. It was I that smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail." So it ever is. Man's temporal circumstances are at the disposal of God. Out of the earth cometh all man's temporal good; but he can make the earth barren or fruitful as he pleases. He can bind it with frosts, inundate it with floods, or scorch it with heat. Man, cease to pride thyself in thy temporal prosperity!
II. THAT GOD SOMETIMES REGULATES THE TEMPORALITIES OF MAN ACCORDING TO MAN'S MORAL CHARACTER. The Almighty here tells the Jewish people that in consequence of their neglect of his command to rebuild the temple, temporal distress would befall them. He 'smote them with "blasting" and with "mildew" and with "hail in all the "labours of their hands" But as soon as they commenced in earnest he said, "From this day will I bless you? The fact that God sometimes and not always regulates man's temporalities according to his moral obedience or disobedience suggests:
1. That the cultivation of a high moral character is important to man eves as a citizen of this earth. "Godliness is profitable to all things."
2. That even this occasional expression of God's regard for moral conduct is sufficient to justify the belief in the doctrine of a future and universal retribution. Antecedently, we should infer that, under the government of an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-just God, man's secular circumstances would be according to his moral worth. It would have been so, had man not fallen, no doubt. It is sometimes so now, as in the case before us. It will be universally so one day - the great day that awaits humanity.
III. THAT THESE FACTS OUR MIGHTY MAKER REQUIRES US PROFOUNDLY TO STUDY. "Now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward." This call to consider the facts is thrice repeated. Consider why the adversity came upon you in the first case, and why the blessing is promised in the second case. It was, in one ease, because you neglected your moral duty, and in the second because you began to discharge it. Why should these facts be studied?
1. That we may have a practical consciousness that God is in the world. In all the elements of nature, in all the seasons of the year, in all the varying temperatures and moods of nature, we see God in all things. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
2. That we may have a practical consciousness that God recognizes moral distinctions in human society. God and evil are not alike to him. The good he sees, he approves; the evil he beholds, he loathes.
3. That we may have a practical consciousness that retribution is at work in the Divine government. - D.T.
I smote you with blasting, and with mildew, and with hail, in all the labours of your hands. &&& Blasting and mildew: Very useful and important are the fungi in the world's busy household. They are working at "chemical problems which have puzzled a Liebig and a Lavoisier," converting the noxious products of corruption into comely forms and nutritious substances, absorbing into living tissues effete matters which are fast hastening downwards to join the dark night of chaos and death. Parasites, most of them, upon dead plants, they economise the gases which would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and pollute it; and conserve, for the use of nobler forms, the subtle forces of life which would otherwise pass unprofitable into the mineral kingdom. It is one of the strangest things in the world, when we seriously think of it, to see a vigorous life-full cluster of fungi springing, phoenix-like, from a dead tree, exhausted of all its juices, bleached by the sun and rain of many summers, and ready to crumble into dust at the slightest touch. Death is here a new birth, and the grave a cradle. It is one of nature's many analogies of the human resurrection. But the resemblance is superficial and incomplete. Wisely have the fungi been provided, in the rapidity of their growth, the simplicity of their structure, the variety of their forms, and their amazing numbers, for their appointed task in the economy of nature. Not a leaf that falls from the bough, not a blade that withers on the lea, but is seized by the tiny fangs of some special fungus ordained to prey upon it; not a spot of earth can we examine, where vegetable life is capable of growing, but we shall find a vegetable as well as an insect parasite, keeping its growth in check, hastening its decay, and preserving its remains from being wasted. And out of the eater, too, cometh forth meat. In carrying out the wise and gracious purposes for which they have been designed, the fungi not unfrequently overstep the limits of usefulness, and commit wholesale destruction. They purify man's atmosphere, but they also destroy man's food. If their ravages could be confined to useless plants; if they were employed solely in reducing weeds to decay, they would be welcomed by man as among his greatest helps and blessings. But nature knows no straight, arbitrary line of demarcation, such as we draw, between what is useless and what is useful. To every natural good there is a recoil of evil. The fungi are indiscriminate in their attacks. They seize upon the corn which strengthens man's heart, as readily as upon the thorns and briars which cause him to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow. In this our fallen condition, we must always count upon the blasting and the mildew; upon the years to be eaten by the locust, the canker-worm, the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, as surely as upon the covenant faithfulness of Him who promised that seed-time and harvest would never cease. Nature with reference to nature completely accomplishes her purposes; but nature with reference to man is not a perfect means to an end. Blasting and mildew were very frequent in Bible times and lands. So terrible were the ravages committed by these scourges, so sudden their appearance, so rapid their progress, so mysterious their origin and cause, that they were universally regarded not merely as a visitation of God, but as a special product of God's creative power. The cause and the effect were confounded. Fear prevented the Israelites from investigating the nature of the phenomenon. Modern science has given the true interpretation of the riddle. Blasting and mildew are conclusively ascertained to be produced by plants, to be the diseases occasioned by the growth of minute fungi. Ever since plants have existed, these vegetable parasites have preyed upon them. They appear in greater or less abundance every year. They are fostered into excessive growth by certain favourable conditions of soft and climate, and checked in their development by certain unfavourable conditions. They are the common. place everyday product of nature's laws. They are not special creations of God, but the ordinary growths of the vegetable kingdom. The miraculous element, in connection with God's judgments, was their extraordinary development and sudden appearance in immediate connection with Divine threatenings. As science advances superstition retires, and the phenomena attributed to supernatural causes are found to have been produced by the operation of physical law. But the miracles of the Bible are untouched by this principle. Science may teach us the economy of miracles, but it cannot persuade us of their unreality and impossibility. A brief glance at the nature of the fungi concerned in the production of blasting and mildew may be interesting and instructive. It will teach us that nothing is so weak and small that the strength and wisdom of God cannot accomplish great ends by its instrumentality. There are four diseases in corn produced by fungi smut, bunt, rust, and mildew. The black heads, covered with a soot-like dust, noticeable in the cornfields, are caused by a parasitic plant a true fungus, capable of reproducing and extending itself indefinitely. The seed-vessels of this plant are exceedingly minute. One square inch of surface contains no less than eight millions; and if the seed-vessels be so small, what must the seeds themselves be? Bunt is even more destructive. It has an intolerable odour, like that of putrid fish. It is one of the common diseases to which wheat is subject. It confines its ravages entirely to the grain. It is rare to find any wheat-field altogether free from rust, or Red Robin. It is some. times so abundant that a person passing among the stalks is completely painted with its rusty powder. It is found upon the wheat-plant at all stages of growth. The term mildew is vague and unsatisfactory. Properly it should be applied to a disease produced by a fungus known to botanists as Puccinia gaminis. It is derived from the Saxon words, Mehl-than, meaning "meal-dew." it makes its first appearance in the cornfields in May or June, and first takes possession of the lower green leaves, which become sickly. When the corn is nearly or fully ripe, the straw and the culm are profusely streaked with blackish spots, ranging in length from a minute dot to an inch. These evils are found all over the world, wherever corn is grown. All these blights and mildews on the corn. crops and the green crops may well be called by God, "My great army." Individually minute and insignificant, by the sheer force of untold numbers they are mightier for harm than storms and earthquakes. It is indeed a fortunate circumstance that they refuse to grow generally except in stagnant ill-drained places, and under peculiar conditions of warmth and moisture; for, otherwise if, quick with life as they are, they were to germinate wherever they alighted, the fig-tree would not blossom, and there would be no fruit in the vines, the labour of the olives would fail, and the fields would yield no meat.(
This insensibility, which prevents people from turning to the Lord, is a moral evil, and ought to be charged on the guilty.
1. Instances and examples of this insensibility (Isaiah 5:24, 25; Isaiah 9:17, 20, 21; Amos 4:6-11; Jeremiah 5:3; Revelation 9:20, 21). Human nature continues always the same. Some vices have a local and temporary prevalence. Insensibility is the palsy of the soul; a stupor that with respect to spiritual things seizeth all its faculties. Hence in its nature it is both immoral and penal; penal, as a judicial stroke on the minds and consciences of men from a righteous and provoked God; immoral, as a course of opposition to His Word and providence, comprehending what Scripture means by stopping the ear, shutting the eyes, hardening the neck, pulling away the shoulder, walking contrary to the Lord, and in the way of our own heart. This insensibility is a reigning principle in natural men. Redemption by Christ from the curse of the law secures His people against its dominion, and yet it frequently prevails and hurts the spiritual life.
2. Investigate its cause. That is atheism, which may be either gross or refined. Though seldom avowed, gross atheism has a secretly malignant influence on manners in the middle and lower ranks of society. There is a refined atheism among persons who profess to know God, and in works deny Him. The truths they hold are not operative and holy principles.
3. Charge this insensibility upon the guilty as a moral evil, which prevents them from turning to the Lord when He smites them with material evil.
(1)Those charged with it are the Lord's people.(2)The charge is made by a man invested with the authority of a prophet.(3)The charge is made in the name of the Lord.(4)He in whose name the charge is made knew it to be just.(5)The charge was delivered publicly, in the hearing and presence of the guilty.(6)The charge was designed to bring former misconduct to remembrance, and to encourage them to present duty.Application —1. Sinners are destroyers of their own comfort.
2. The course of nature fulfilleth the purpose and performeth the Word of the Lord.
3. The Lord hath kind intentions in smiting His people.
4. Sensible and material things are uncertain property.
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There are no dispensations prosperous or adverse, with which we are favoured or chastised, but in the Word of God everything may be found that is necessary to assist our exercise and regulate our behaviour under them. When people refuse to hear, they are sometimes smitten on a tender part, and constrained to feel.1. Deal with material evil: such as blasting, mildew, and hail.
2. Deal with moral evil. This must be sin. Such as —(1) Love to the world.(2) Neglect of temple-building.(3) A notion that material powers act of themselves, independent of God. This is a branch of atheism, and a virtual denial of the Divine overruling providence.
3. Show the efficiency of God in scourging with the one for the other.(1) The Lord hath determined to smite and afflict with these evils.(2) The Lord createth this evil, and giveth its corn. mission. Till He have occasion for its service, it doth not exist.(3) The Lord hath appointed and always observeth the seasons of smiting. The scourge is neither taken up nor laid down at random.(4) Places where the evil is collected and inflicted are marked out by the justice of God.(5) A portion of evil is measured out and allotted for each body of the executioners.Consider —
1. Moral evils among us have a striking resemblance to those which prevailed among the Israelites in the days of Haggai.
2. The Lord would be just were He to smite us, as He smote them. We have given Him provocation. Our light is clearer, our privileges are richer, and our iniquities exceed theirs in number and aggravation. Material evil is still at the Lord's call, and ready to fulfil His Word.
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The scope of the second part of this sermon is to show that however God will put difference betwixt workers, and knoweth who are sincere and who are not, yet to encourage them to be diligent in it, as being a work which He approves in itself, and which He will reward with temporal blessing, and a change of His former dispensations.1. Though the Lord's dispensations be visible and felt by all, yet the right considering and understanding of them is a work of much difficulty, and to which men need serious stirring up, especially to take up the right cause of them.
2. Famine and scarcity is one of the public scourges whereby the Lord chastises the sinful contempt and negligence of His people in His work and service; and He will be conspicuous in inflicting of it.
3. As it is the usual plague accompanying common judgments that they do not work upon the hearts of men, to draw them nearer God, but rather harden them; so such an impenitent disposition when God strikes, is a ground of further controversy; therefore He marks by the way their stupidity. "Yet ye turned not to Me, saith the Lord."
4. However temporal things are not to be looked on as the chief reward of serving God, nor as absolutely promised, nor yet are they to be so much looked to under the Gospel, as the Church of the Jews might under their pedagogy; yet in this the promise, even concerning these things, holds good, that following God, hath the promise of this life, in so far as it is for the followers' good; that God's changing adversity into prosperity when a people set about His work, should be a confirmation to their faith, and strengthen their hands; that whatever adversity come on the Church, it is not to be fathered on God's work, as if it had been the cause of her woe; that as neglecters of God's work are real losers in their own affairs, and will prove so in the end, so followers of His work have a real advantage in it; and, in a word, that God's work is never followed without a blessing evidenced some way or other to the godly's satisfaction.
5. It is a profitable study to remark the advantages of following God, and to study encouragement in that duty. So much are we taught by the Lord's exciting them to consider the change of His dealing, as trysting with the very day of their amending their fault.
6. God is so sovereign and absolute a Lord of all things, and hath times and seasons, blessings and cursings so in His hands, as He may undertake to do things, whereof there is no visible probability or certainty in the second causes, and can certainly perform them: therefore doth He undertake to bless them, when second causes and the season could speak no such thing.
7. It is the prerogative of God only to know future contingent events, which depend on times and seasons, and uncertain second causes, and their influences, but only by immediate revelation; this is held forth as God's prerogative, by His extraordinary prophet, to foretell in the midst of winter, what the succeeding harvest should produce.
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People
Darius, Haggai, Jehozadak, Josedech, Joshua, Shealtiel, ZerubbabelPlaces
Egypt, JerusalemTopics
Affirmation, Blasting, Blight, Burning, Declares, Didn't, Hail, Hands, Ice-drops, Labors, Labours, Mildew, None, Products, Rain, Return, Says, Smitten, Smote, Struck, Toil, Turn, Wasting, Wind, Works, YetOutline
1. He encourages the people to the work,
4. by promise of greater glory to the second temple than was in the first.
10. In the type of holy things and unclean he shows their sins hindered the work.
20. God's promise to Zerubbabel.
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Haggai 2:17 4802 blight
4828 hail
4839 mildew
6194 impenitence, warnings
Haggai 2:15-19
5224 barn
8479 self-examination, examples
Haggai 2:16-17
5973 unreliability
Library
Brave Encouragements
'In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. 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, 3. 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? 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Yet this 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. G od shook the earth when He proclaimed His law to Israel from Sinai. The description, though very simple, presents to our thoughts a scene unspeakably majestic, grand and awful. The mountain was in flames at the top, and …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1
The Abiding of the Spirit the Glory of the Church
By the mouth of His servant Haggai stern rebukes were uttered, and the whole people were aroused. We read in verse twelve of the first chapter, "Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord." All hands were put to the work; course after course of stone began to rise; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886
The Desire of all Nations
"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."--Haggai 2:7. THE second temple was never intended to be as magnificent as the first. The first was to be the embodiment of the full glory of the dispensation of symbols and types, and was soon to pass away. This comparative feebleness had been proved by the idolatry and apostasy of the people Israel, and when they returned to Jerusalem they were to have a structure …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915
The Overturning which is visible on Every Hand.
"I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is" (Ezek. 21:27). In close accord with this prophecy through Ezekiel is the word recorded in Haggai 2:6, 7--"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." Note carefully the coupling of these two things together--the coming of the Desire …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return
The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
"The Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified."--John vii. 39. We have come to the most difficult part in the discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit, viz., the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the tenth day after the ascension. In the treatment of this subject it is not our aim to create a new interest in the celebration of Pentecost. We consider this almost impossible. Man's nature is too unspiritual for this. But we shall reverently endeavor to give a clearer insight …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
His Throat is Most Sweet, Yea, He is Altogether Lovely. This is My Beloved, and this is My Friend, O Daughters of Jerusalem.
The good qualities of ordinary things may be sufficiently well expressed by ordinary phrases of commendation, but there are some subjects so above expression that they can only be worthily admired by declaring them above all praise. Such is the Divine Bridegroom, who, by the excess of His perfections, renders His Bride dumb when she endeavors most worthily to praise Him, that all hearts and minds may be attracted to Him. Her passion causes her to burst out into the praise of some of the excellencies …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon
"Wash You, Make You Clean; Put Away the Evil of Your Doings from Before Mine Eyes; Cease to do Evil,"
Isaiah i. 16.--"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil," &c. There are two evils in sin,--one is the nature of it, another the fruit and sad effect of it. In itself it is filthiness, and contrary to God's holiness; an abasing of the immortal soul; a spot in the face of the Lord of the creatures, that hath far debased him under them all. Though it be so unnatural to us, yet it is now in our fallen estate become, as it were, natural, so that …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
The Christian Business World
Scripture references: Proverbs 22:29; Romans 12:11; Psalms 24:1; 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8; Psalm 49:6,10,16,17; 62:10; Matthew 13:22; Mark 10:23,24; Job 31:24-26; Proverbs 3:9; Matthew 25:14-30; 24:45-51; 6:19-21; Luke 12:16-21. THE IDEAL IN THE BUSINESS WORLD There is often a wide difference between the methods actually employed in doing business and when they should be. Good men who are in the thick of the battle of competition and rivalry with other firms in the same line of trade, are the quickest …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian
Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God
The Cities of the Levites.
Concerning them, see Numbers, chapter 35, and Joshua chapter 21. "The suburbs of the cities of the Levites were three thousand cubits on every side; viz. from the walls of the city, and outwards; as it is said, 'From the walls of the city and outwards a thousand cubits: and thou shalt measure from without the city two thousand cubits' (Num 35:4,5). The former thousand were the suburbs, and the latter two thousand were for fields and vineyards. They appointed the place of burial to every one of those …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica
"All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
The Beginning of Justification. In what Sense Progressive.
1. Men either idolatrous, profane, hypocritical, or regenerate. 1. Idolaters void of righteousness, full of unrighteousness, and hence in the sight of God altogether wretched and undone. 2. Still a great difference in the characters of men. This difference manifested. 1. In the gifts of God. 2. In the distinction between honorable and base. 3. In the blessings of he present life. 3. All human virtue, how praiseworthy soever it may appear, is corrupted. 1. By impurity of heart. 2. By the absence of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion
"For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." You know there are two principal things in the preceding verse,--the privilege of a Christian, and the property or character of a Christian. He is one that never enters into condemnation; He that believeth shall not perish, John iii. 15. And then he is one that walks not after the flesh, though he be in the flesh, but in a more elevate way above men, after the guiding and leading …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. Exod 20: 8-11. This …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments
Mount Zion.
"For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them: for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews
Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's …
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People
Haggai
The post-exilic age sharply distinguished itself from the pre-exilic (Zech. i. 4), and nowhere is the difference more obvious than in prophecy. Post-exilic prophecy has little of the literary or moral power of earlier prophecy, but it would be very easy to do less than justice to Haggai. His prophecy is very short; into two chapters is condensed a summary, probably not even in his own words, of no less than four addresses. Meagre as they may seem to us, they produced a great effect on those who heard …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament
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