Message in Haggi

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Christina

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There are many prophecies in this book of Haggai, and those who study God's word in depth, will find much more of God's message to them here. Though Haggai is directing his words to get God's people back to work on the temple, it is also directed into the future, to the temple of Christ's body, His church. Have you been tending to the building of that temple, or have you become lazy also?Haggai 1:1 "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,"This book of Haggai records the first time God has spoken to man, following the captivity. The Jews are out of Babylon now; and Haggai is speaking to "Zerubbabel", which in the Hebrew tongue means "born in Babylon", or "sown in Babylon [confusion]". The name "Shealtiel" in the Hebrew means, "Asked for from God". Haggai 1:2 "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This People say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."These people are just plain lazy; they have put off building God's house for fifteen years.Haggai 1:3 "Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,"Haggai 1:4 "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?"Their houses were "cieled", or paneled, which was used to line the walls and arches of their houses, yet they could not find even the most basic materials to completer God's house. Today the temple of God is His many membered body of believers, who care about His Word, and what God is saying to them.Haggai 1:5 "Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; consider your ways.""Consider thy ways", in the Hebrew means much more that in the English. It means to stop, and give your full attention to this matter. Set your heart and mind to the full understanding to what is being said. God is asking you and I today, as He was asking those Jews 2,400 years ago; "What have you done to add to, or finish My temple". Since you became a Christian, have you planted one seed of the gospel into the mind of another soul? This is just asking you to consider what these words are saying. Think and learn God's Word, so you will and can be useful to the Heavenly Father. Become skilled in His Word.Haggai 1:6 "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."Haggai is talking about those people that are just not satisfied with life, regardless of what they have. It seems like most Christians are that way. They are that way because they don't stop to consider their ways. When we don't put God first, then God sees to it that our money bags have holes in them. When you forget the Lord, you will always come up short.Haggai 1:8 "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."God is telling them to go to the "Mountain" or "hill country", in the Hebrew text. There you cut down some trees, and make Me a house. He is telling them, just make the house of wood. God is not demanding them to build a temple like the one King Solomon built, but something simple. Give forth an effort to please me. If you do this, "I'll take pleasure in it", and then I will get my honor back, as it reads in the Massoretic text. God will be glorified, even it it was timber, instead of marble, in the structure of His house. To apply this to prophecy, the trees in the north country [Lebanon] are the "Cedars of Lebanon". These cedars are the "House of Israel", His people, also called "the sons of the Living God" in Hosea 1:10. Jesus Christ is the Living God, and those sons of His are called Christians. So in the spiritual prophetic sense we are to go, and gather these trees, or people, to make up our Fathers temple. The temple of God today is made up on people, who are the timbers of God's earth temple. If we call Christ the "tree of Life" [symbolic], then in the same sense, we call His children the trees. Christ's temple is made of of people who believe, love and have received Him; and that is what gives Him pleasure, while His glory He gets is through the works we do for Him. We are to build on the temple foundation that has already been laid; and that foundation is Jesus Christ.