October 27 Sermon Bones (just the skeleton of the message)

·         Scripture: Haggai 1:1-11 and Ezra 3:10-13

·         Message/Theme: The futility of self-interest.

·         This week the message relied heavily on Scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier for all background materials

Introduction: Signet Rings - an Identifying Mark

·         Signet rings were typically made entirely of gold or featured carved gemstones, 

with identifying marks like a coats of arms, monograms, family seals or initials.. 

They were really used as a signature would be used today, as a way of leaving your 

mark and a way of assuring authenticity, they stood for someone/something.

Like a signet ring - people recognize a Church, a tall steeple.  It is an identifying mark, a 

symbol of sorts for the presence of God's people. Without the Temple in Jerusalem there 

were little identifying marks.  The temple was in ruins, the city in ruins, the people in disarray.

I) The Ruined State of the Temple

Read Ezra -he records the first and second wave of Israelites returning to Jerusalem.

·         After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, the first half of the Book of Ezra records the 

first wave to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel's administration.  

·         In Ezra 3 is the dedication of the altar.  After the Altar and renewed sacrifices were

 underway, they committed to work on the foundation and walls of the Temple.  Haggai 

comes about 18 years later in the year 520 BC and fervor to rebuild has waned.  

Nothing is being accomplished.

·         (Ezra and Nehemiah lead the second wave/return to Jerusalem in about 458 BC. 

The second half of Ezra is dated to these times.  Esther takes place in between the first 

and second parts of Ezra.)

The Temple was unrecognizable - it was the symbol (signet) of chaos

·         Haggai 2:1-9  Verse 3- "Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? 

How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?"

·         Reminiscent of Ezra 3  Verse 12 "But many of the older priests and Levites and 

family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the 

foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy."

·         Those who had seen the former glory of the Temple wept for its current state - 

it was nothing like it had been.

·         Illustration of 26 year old man leaving Australia and finding his way back to his 

home in India that he left when lost at age 5. He used Google Earth to locate identifying 

marks from childhood memories of his home town.  

II) The Problem and the Hardships

·         Haggai 1:9 - "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house." 

·         The hardships of Judah that are detailed in this passage are technically known 

as covenant curses. In Deuteronomy Moses prepares Israel to enter the Promised 

Land by renewing Covenant with God.  There blessings and curses for succeeding/failing 

in this regard are listed in chapters 27 and 28. 

·         Curses will come upon those who forsake the covenant to pursue other gods, blessings 

will be given to those who love the Lord with all their heart and soul and might 

(Deuteronomy 6:4). 

·         Moses clearly outlines the way that Israel should walk with the Lord. Haggai 1:7 says, 

"this is what the Lord Almighty says, give careful thought to your ways." Literally in the 

Hebrew 

it reads, "put to heart the paths you have walked." Throughout scriptures, faithfulness to 

God is a matter not of outward show but of the inner devotion of the heart that responds 

in obedience.

·         Haggai 1:6 - You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have 

enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn 

wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." This restates Deuteronomy 28 perfectly.  

Without faithfulness to God, you will not prosper or be allowed to succeed.  

We have choices to make... What comes first in our lives?  Moses says in 

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

15See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

16For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

18I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19...Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

III) Choices - what will be our home?

·         To be sure, Israel is undergoing hardships, and it seems natural that they would 

scurry about to find some sort of security for themselves. A few apparently prosper and 

are able to build for them some comfortable dwellings, with rich cedar paneling. But most 

of those in Judah have to scratch out a living. That is the focus of their intention and efforts. 

Thus, when it is suggested to them that they should be concerned about rebuilding the 

temple, their reply is "later." This is not the time to worry about that. In short, prosperous 

or poor, their relationship with God occupies no place in their thoughts and deeds.

·         Pictured in this passage is a people who resemble much of American society. 

They are busy people, but they concern themselves only with their own self interest. 

"My house lies and ruins," God tells them through the prophet, "while you busy yourselves 

each with his own house." The concentration of activity are directed toward taking care of 

themselves and looking out for number one.

·         Note that the prosperous and the poor both choose say "Later" to rebuilding 

God's house... because we will never have enough to feel comfortable... if you are 

waiting until life gets easier - it will never happen.  When do people ever get enough?  

Where will we make our home and the Role of the Temple

·         Read the book carefully, because this is not a tit-for-tat - you build the temple and God 

will bless you.

·         But the Temple is an outward sign of what is important to the people.

Think of the young man who finds his way back to India -- he went home, but it was not to the 

tin roof he spotted on Google Earth, it was to his mom and two siblings.  e

IV) Our home is in God, our home for God is secondary (a sign of where our real home is).

·         At the Dedication of the Temple in 2 Chronicles under Solomon we read about his 

attitude toward the Temple building:

2 Chronicles 6:18 - "But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

·         Devotion to rebuilding the Temple was indicative of their pursuit of God - "later."

I love the correlation and connection of Solomon's dedication language and that of 

Ezra. Ezra mirrors his attitude hundreds of years later.

·         2 Chronicles 7:1 - When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.  3When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord , saying, "He is good; his love endures forever."

·         Ezra 3:11 - "With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord : "He is good; his 

love to Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the 

Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid."

·         What were they really celebrating?  The Temple building/foundation - but that 

exceeded by far by the goodness of God! His enduring Love. Our home is in God.

V) God's Enduring Love to us is said this way in Haggai - "I Am With You"

·   Haggai 1:13 and 2:4 - I am with you

               That promise of the Lord of Host punctuates the preaching of Haggai, but God 

speaks it not only in Haggai's time. The promise runs like a silver thread through the whole 

story of the Bible. It was that promise that assured even the scoundrel Jacob that God will 

keep him wherever he went (Genesis 28:15). It was that promise alone that accompanied 

the shepherd Moses as he returned to Egypt to face the Pharaoh with the plea to let his people

 go (Exodus 3:12). It was that strengthening word that was given to Joshua as he prepared 

word that prepared the youthful Jeremiah to prophesy, though the whole of Judah would turn 

against him (Jeremiah 1:8). Psalmists celebrated that comforting promise (Psalm 46:7), exiles 

found new hope in it (Isaiah 41:109). And Paul continued his preaching in Corinth because 

God spoke to him those words (Acts 18:10). 

               Is that not the one comfort in life and in death that makes it possible to live Christian 

lives? Before his ascension, Jesus Christ made that promise to all of us who are his disciples, 

"Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20). Christ is with us always, 

in good times and bad, in sickness and in sorrow, at the moment of our birth and at the gates 

of death, and he will never leave us or forsake us. That is the one assurance given to us as we 

follow him. That is the one certainty we have when we marry and raise our kids, when we 

pursue our callings and earn our livings. That is the shared promise that is with us still when 

our hair turns gray and are limbs feeble. But through all the joys and agonies of this life, and 

the days of eternity to come, God's word, Christ's word, is enough, "I am with you." 

Conclusion: God's Signet Ring is us

·   The very last verse of the book is Haggai 2:23 -  "On that day,' declares the Lord 

Almighty, 'I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the Lord, 

'and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the Lord 

Almighty." 

·   God is going to do His work through Zerubbabel... he will be like God's signet 

ring... a very real sign of God

·   The Tall Steeples are not really the signet ring... it's us.

Devotion results in Obedience

·         We all know people who are hurting. 

·         We all know people who need healing. 

·         We all know people who are struggling, I need wisdom. 

·         We know people who need compassion. 

·         Visit

·         Shoes

·         Food

God is going to do His work through us... we will be like God's signet ring... 

a very real sign of God's presence and work being done.