Consider Your Ways

June 29, 2025|Consider Your Ways|Haggai 1:1-2

JD Cutler

Click here for the sermon audio

This morning we are going to start a short series through an interesting little Old Testament book.

It is not the smallest prophetic book in the Old Testament, but it does get the title for the second smallest.

If you have your Bibles this morning, please turn to the book of Haggai. You will find it towards the end of the Old Testament between the two Zs. Zephaniah and Zechariah. If you are having trouble, just go to Matthew and flip back two books.

For context I want to walk you through the history leading up to God’s word for his people as well as their current situation. Around 967 BC King Solomon, David’s son, completed the temple and placed the ark of the covenant there. For almost four hundred years it stood in Jerusalem until in 586 BC the temple and much of Jerusalem was destroyed and God’s people were taken into captivity and taken to Babylon. In 539 the Persian army conquered Babylon and Cyrus issued a decree that allowed those peoples who had been taken captive, including the Jews, to return to their lands and rebuild their religious structures.

A remnant of around 50,000 of God’s people returned to Jerusalem around 536 BC from Babylon. They cleared the temple court of rubble and replaced the altar of burnt offerings on its base and resumed worship of God through burnt offerings and feast days. By the spring of the next year they had laid the foundations of the temple. But, due to trouble and hostility the work was stopped and the remnant turned their attention from the corporate work to their private affairs and gradually became used to worshipping among the ruins of the once great temple. Fifteen years passed until God sent the prophet Haggai with a message to finish what they had begun. Just a few months later the prophet Zechariah would come along and encourage the people to repent and renew their covenant with God so that they would be ready to worship properly when the temple was completed.

When we read Haggai and Zechariah’s prophecies and the messages they bring, it is good to remember that their audience is made up of those who chose to reject the ease of Babylon and return to a destroyed Jerusalem in order to reclaim and rebuild where God had called them to be. This remnant, although we will see were not perfect, they did choose to return and had a desire to see the worship of God restored to its rightful place in the nation of Israel.

This morning’s sermon is a little more topical in the sense that it is part overview and part the major themes of Haggai, my prayer is that it will be not only be informative but that God will use it to prepare our hearts for our time in this book. Let’s read the first two verses together this morning. Haggai 1:1-2

Haggai 1:1–2 (ESV)

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

This morning I want to share three foundational statements with you this morning.

Not only foundational in terms of understanding Haggai, but foundational in terms of understanding much of scripture.

Like many of what we call the minor prophets, we do not know much about Haggai outside of his name and the period in which he prophesied. We know he returned with the first wave of Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem in 538 BC, and was a contemporary of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zechariah. This is the situation in which God speaks through his prophet Haggai, which is the basis for the first of our three foundational statements this morning.

I. God communicates with His people.

This is a foundational truth that pervades not only the book of Haggai but all of the Bible.

We serve a God who is not silent and communicates with His people.

In the 38 verses of Haggai, we find the words ‘the word of the Lord came’ 5 times;

‘thus says the Lord of hosts’ 5 times;

some form of ‘declares the Lord’, ‘declares the Lord of hosts’, or ‘says the Lord of hosts’ 12 times;

Plus references to his word or his voice are made.

It's pretty amazing to think out of the 2 chapters and 38 verses, over 22 references are made to God speaking.

This little book serves as a microcosm for scripture, which is both a record of God speaking as well as a record of man’s response to God’s communicated word.

Think about it like this, in the very beginning of Genesis we have God speaking to Adam and Adam’s subsequent rebellion against God’s words. At the end we have humanity reconciled back to God based on how they responded to God’s revelation of himself in Christ, his will, and his desire for mankind. In between, all throughout, we have God speaking and man responding.

Foundationally, this is important, because if God did not speak, we would not know who he was.

We need God to speak.

This is what we call, theologically speaking, Special Revelation.

In General Revelation there are things we can learn about God, but we cannot learn who God is in the sense we need to truly know Him.

This is what Paul is referencing in Romans 1. Romans 1:19-20 (ESV) 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

And what he told the crowds in Lystra in Acts 14. Acts 14:16-17 (ESV) 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

And what the Psalmist says in Psalm 19:1 (ESV) 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

We can clearly see that creation demands that there be a creator. We can also infer that for someone to create something so magnificent and so perfectly designed, that creator must be beyond anything we can comprehend, and yet without special revelation, that creator would remain mysterious and unrevealed to us.

Thank goodness God did not leave it at that, but chose to speak personally to His creation.

For instance, in the book of Haggai, we see God speaking to the ruler, the High Priest, and to the people through his prophet. This is one way God communicated directly to His people, starting with Moses on Mount Sinai and continuing through John the Baptist, the last OT prophet.

We know that God spoke through dreams in the Old Testament, we know that he spoke directly to people, like Abraham.

This is the way the authors of Hebrews says it. Hebrews 1:1-3 (ESV) 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

At many times and in many ways, God is a God who communicates with His people.

For some, they conclude then that we should be listening for the voice of God today, since he is a God who communicates.

If that is your position, like many in the evangelical church then nothing is off limits.

Some claim that God spoke to them in a dream, some claim that he appeared to them in a bleeding statue or a piece of burnt toast that looks like Elvis. Others use language like God told me to tell you, or something similar.

The question is, does the foundational truth that God communicates with His people mean that we should be expecting to hear an audible voice, or have prophetic dreams, or other such things?

Some of you may says yes and some of you may say no. Rather than simply tell you yes or no, let me ask a series of questions and hopefully help you think through this question carefully.

The question is, does the foundational truth that God communicates with His people mean that we should be expecting to hear an audible voice, or have prophetic dreams, or other such things?

First, before we do that, let’s finish that verse from Hebrews. Hebrews 1:1-3 (ESV) 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

What does the author of Hebrews indicate in verse 2 with the word ‘but’?

What is the contrast?

Just dealing with the text itself, it seems that the author is contrasting God speaking ‘at many times’ with him speaking ‘in these last days’ and ‘in many ways’ with ‘by his Son’.

In the New Testament, these last days reference the time between Christ’s arrival, life, death, resurrection, and ascension and his subsequent return at the end of time. So any Christian born again between Christ’s ascension and his return are in what we would theologically call ‘the last days’.

How does the author say that God communicates in the last days? He has spoken to us by his son.

So let’s keep going? God, in these last days, has spoken by his Son.

So, how should we expect to hear from the Son today?

From eye witness accounts recorded for us in the scriptures and from his Spirit.

John 14:26 “26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

Jesus promised to his apostles that not only would the Spirit bring to remembrance all that he had said to them over the three years they spent together, but that he would teach them all things. Things they wrote down in their letters and in John’s case, their revelations.

Does that mean the role of the Holy Spirit is done?

Of course not, we firmly believe that he will illuminate what he inspired.

That is, he will guide those who have been in-dwelt by Him into understanding what God communicated through his Spirit to those eyewitness and original writers of the scriptures as well as how to understand the former communications of God in light of the revelation of Christ. To quote RC Sproul in one of his short and concise teachings on this, he says, The Spirit helps us to understand the Bible, to convict us of the truth of the Bible, and to apply the truth to our lives. He works with the Word and through the Word. His task is never to teach against the Word. It is therefore always necessary to test what we hear by the teaching of the Scripture.

Let’s continue our questions.

Is there sufficient revelation in this Bible for man to be saved?

Based on what John says in John 20, there is enough just in his gospel for us to believe and therefore have life in Christ.

Listen to what he says. John 20:30-31 (ESV) 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (emphasis mine)

Based on that, if someone has life in Christ, they have the Spirit as promised in that same book, which means they have a guide to guide them into all truth.

Furthermore, the scriptures say that God laid as the foundation for his church after Christ himself, the prophets and apostles in the New Testament, which follows then that we have everything we need to build our lives within the church.

So, we have to ask, is there anything I need God to speak to me that He has not already communicated to me in His word?

Two, is there anything in the word that God wants me to understand that His Spirit couldn’t illuminate for me?

If the answer those question is no, then contained within these 66 books is everything God wants to communicate with me and in the Spirit, I have everything I need to understand, in His time, what He wants me to understand.

I want you to think on those things and determine whether you need some sort of special, unique, personal revelation, or you just need to devote yourself to understanding what God has already communicated in His divine revelation.

If the answer those question is no, then contained within these 66 books is everything God wants to communicate with me and in the Spirit, I have everything I need to understand, in His time, what He wants me to understand.

I know that may feel like a detour from Haggai, but I think it is important for us, when we read about special divine revelation like this, to understand what this looks like for us today.

The second part of God communicating with His people in Haggai is one of the most encouraging lessons in the book to me. God is faithful to communicate to His people despite their lack of faithfulness and zeal towards Him.

For 16 years, the people had neglected rebuilding the temple.

For 16 years, the people had possiblyeven used materials collected for the temple to build their own homes.

For 16 years, the people were okay with the bare minimum of a foundation and an altar.

And yet, God speaks to his people.

Corrective, yes. Condemning, yes. Hatefully, angrily? No.

Even despite their faithlessness, God communicates with them, and as we will see in our study of Haggai, ultimately for their good.

Have you ever fell into the trap of thinking God was done with you because you made mistakes, because you lost the zeal you had in the beginning, because you got busy with life and have neglected your primary love? Let the opening statement of the book of Haggai be your encouragement this morning. the word of the Lord came… To people who had neglected God’s house, to people who had gotten overly wrapped up in their own lives, to people with good intentions and a bad track record.

The second foundational statement from Haggai is…

II. God desires for his people to always be considering their ways.

In verse 2 we read. 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.””

The first thing God communicates to the leadership of His remnant in Jerusalem is that he knows that the people have an excuse for not being obedient and faithful to what they should do in rebuilding the temple.

The first thing God communicates to the people is what we will be looking at more in depth next week, but twice in his message for the people in verses 3 through 11 God calls the people to ‘consider their ways’ Haggai 1:5 “5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.”

Consider- direct לֵב (mind) toward, pay attention to

Ways- of moral action and character

God commands His people to turn their minds, their thoughts, towards the way they are living their lives and what that says about who they are. This becomes a repeated theme in God’s communication with his people, his leaders, and his priests. Consider your ways.

I originally tried to pull together all of the Bible references where God’s word invites us to consider our ways and was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of them, but I did want to highlight a few of them.

We are called to consider whether our behavior matches our confession in places like Jesus’ words in Luke 6. Where he says, 46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

We are called to consider whether we have any blind spots and sin in our lives before we try and help a sinning brother when Jesus says in Matthew 7, ‘first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ..

We are called to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works in the church by the author of Hebrews.

Paul calls us to examine ourselves in regards to whether we are in the faith, in how we walk whether wise or unwise, in how we think of ourselves, whether highly or with sober judgement, and in our actions whether we are only considering our own interests or also the interest of others.

...there is always opportunity for God’s people to grow complacent, or lazy, or self-centered and we need to be constantly willing to take a long hard look into the word of God and ask ourselves what the way we are living our lives is communicating.

In many ways and in many instances, God’s word calls us to consider our ways, to turn our attention to our lives.

In many ways, this is the primary message of Haggai, God calling on His people, His remnant to turn their attention to the way they are living.

But, in many ways Haggai is not unique in this way, there is always opportunity for God’s people to grow complacent, or lazy, or self-centered and we need to be constantly willing to take a long hard look into the word of God and ask ourselves what the way we are living our lives is communicating.

Another well known place in scripture where this is clear is one of the oldest books in our Bibles, the book of Job.

In one of the most intense conversations with God, beginning in chapter 39 and spanning 3 chapters, God rapid fires questions at Job designed at calling Job to consider not only his ways, but his words concerning God. Where God begins by telling Job to ‘Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ God asks Job things like… Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?In essence, God asks Job to consider his littleness in light of God’s infiniteness.

One thing is apparent, whenever we have doubts about God’s goodness or hesitate to obey His commands, or wander into centeredness, the Biblical answer always seems to be the same. Consider your ways.

Think about the last book in our Bibles. The Book of Revelation.

Towards the beginning of this book, we find seven letters to seven churches.

If we had to summarize all of these individual letters, would ‘consider your ways’ not be the summary of every one?

To Ephesus- Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV) I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

To Smyrna- Revelation 2:10 (ESV) 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

To Pergamum- Revelation 2:14-16 (ESV) 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent.

To Thyatira- Revelation 2:20 (ESV) 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols

To Sardis- Revelation 3:1-3 (ESV) “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

To Philadelphia- (ESV) Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

To Laodicia- Revelation 3:18-19(ESV) 8 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Remember your first love and your first works, be faithful in the upcoming trials, repent of the teachings you have let creep in, repent of the false teachers you have accepted, wake up and repent, hold fast during the coming tribulation, listen to me and repent.

Following Christ, living obedient lives, is as I have said over and over again, is not a one time decision, but a lifelong endeavor. Everything in our sinful nature, everything in the world of man apart from God, and a clever, ruthless enemy is constantly trying to lure us away or lull us into complacency. Church we must be willing to fight. One of our main battles is not out there, but in here, and one of our main strategies will always be self-examination of our lives in light of God’s truth.

Everything in our sinful nature, everything in the world of man apart from God, and a clever, ruthless enemy is constantly trying to lure us away or lull us into complacency.

As we study Haggai and hear God’s confrontation of His people who needed to consider their ways, may it serve as a reminder that what we need is often exactly the same thing.

As we think about the ridiculous nature of their excuse for disobeying God, because the time wasn’t right, may God expose the ridiculousness nature of our own excuses for disobedience and laziness in the things of the Lord.

As much as we are comforted by the reality that our God speaks, may we be confronted by what he says to those who are making excuses for obeying Him.

The third foundational statement from Haggai is…

III. God blesses the obedient.

This foundational truth is important for us to understand, because about half of this little book is God saying that not only is their blessing on the other side of their obedience, but in their disobedience God has actively been working against them so that they would turn to Him.

Because they had neglected the building of the temple, God says they had sown much and harvested little, that it was like they were depositing their wages into a bag with holes in it, what they did bring home God blew away.He says that the heavens have withheld the dew and the earth its produce. When they went to heap up twenty measures, it only came to ten, when they went to their fifty measure wine vat, they only drew twenty.

The other interesting thing that God seems to say in these verses is that although they have drink they are never satisfied, although they eat, they are never full, although they have clothes, they are never warm. Not only do they not have an abundance, they cannot even enjoy what they do have. They are busy with the cares of life but ultimately are working all the time to never enjoy any of the rewards of their labor.

I’m willing to bet that hits home with some of you this morning, especially among our adults in the full swing of life and careers. You feel like you are working all the time just to scrape by and find more often than not you have no satisfaction even in the things you do have.

Haggai shows us that God may be trying to get you to turn to him, to consider your ways, to repent, and turn back to Him, making Him the priority of your life and the kingdom of God the pursuit of it.

For the Israelites here in this period, it was to rebuild the temple so that proper worship of God would be restored, by His chosen people, in His chosen location, in His chosen temple. For us today, who are not bound by a nationality, or a localized area, or even something as specific as a temple, what does this look like for us?

If Jesus’ words to the churches in Revelation are any clue, then it looks like, a renewed passion and love for Christ, it looks like a renewed steadfastness in the midst of persecution and difficulties (leaning more heavily on Christ and his truth in difficulty, not less), it looks like a renewed commitment to sound Biblical teaching and teachers and a rejection of false teachers and teachings, it looks like a renewed commitment to displaying the works of God in all areas of our lives, it looks like a renewed understanding that true wealth comes from being united to Christ and His Kingdom and not worldly means.

Ultimately, we see in Haggai that God blesses the obedient.

Without a doubt, that statement, although it stands by itself as a biblical truth, leaves so much room for abuse and misunderstanding.

For instance, people within the false prosperity gospel movement would say amen to that, but they do not mean what God’s word means. Primarily, because obedience is not ‘sowing a monetary seed of faith’ to a shady religious organization.

For instance, people who think they can earn their salvation or maintain their salvation through works, would say amen to that, but they do not mean what God’s word means. Blessing here is not the same thing as salvation. The Bible is abundantly clear you can not follow a set of religious rules and regulations and earn salvation.

But even though it can be and has been abused it is a principle nonetheless, similar to how the principle of sowing and reaping has been abused within certain so called Christian circles and yet is a foundational truth.

Let’s start with what we know first about the situation in Haggai where God makes these statements.

First, he makes them to His covenanted people. This is not a blanket statement for all people at this time.

Second, he does not call them to be simply religious but to respond to his specific commands and honor Him as their God in the specific worship he has spelled out.

So first, for the statement God blesses the obedient to be true for you, you must first belong to Him.

The Bible says that the only way to do that in the new covenant, whether Jew or Gentile is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Second, we do not get to make up which things we are obedient to and which ones we are not. Either we are being obedient to the level of our understanding or we are not. What I mean is you can’t ‘forsake the assembly’ regularly for selfish reasons but think because you regularly give to the church you are being obedient. You can’t be careful not to forsake the assembly’ and be living in sin the other six days and think you are being obedient. And on and on we could go.

God’s blessing is for those who are living their whole lives with their eyes on Christ, their hearts in Heaven, and their minds on the glory of God while here on Earth.

Thirdly, when we talk about blessings here, we must keep in mind that we are talking primarily in terms of physical blessings.

All the spiritual blessings we could possibly have are ours in Christ. Paul says it this way. Ephesians 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,”

But watch this. That is only possible because this foundational statement is true.

Listen to what Paul says in his letter to the church at Philipi and see if you can hear the relation between Christ’s obedience and his exaltation.

Philippians 2:8-11 (ESV) 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Titus 3:3-7 (ESV) 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Christ’s obedience has been credited to us and because of God’s grace we are now heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We now have access to the Father, an intermediary in Christ, and the assurance of our salvation, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be anymore spiritually blessed than we are right now if we are in Christ. But in as much as we live our lives here on Earth in alignment with that spiritual reality we will experience the blessing of God.

But what about those who are living obediently to Christ and are martyred for their faith?

What about those who are living obediently to Christ and suffer sickness?

I don’t have all the answers but I know that there is nothing that we could experience this side of heaven that is even worthy to be compared to what God has prepared for those that belong to Him.

I also know that what may not seem like blessings to us now, in light of eternity may be some of the biggest blessings God bestowed on us.

In the end, if we are honest, we must stand, like Job, with our mouths closed and our attention on the one who is infinitely more holy, righteous, just, powerful, and sovereign than we can imagine and trust that He will bless his obedient children in ways that are genuinely good for them.

God is going to promise some material blessings to His people in the book of Haggai on the other side of their obedience, and as we study this little book, may it remind us that obedience precedes blessing.

Christ’s obedience preceding our spiritual blessings and our obedience will precede any blessing we are looking for from heaven.

As we turn our attention over the next few weeks to the book of Haggai, may these fundamental truths undergird our understanding. If you belong to God, God is not done speaking to you… If you belong to God, you must be willing to continually consider if your life is reflecting that truth… If you desire blessings from God, obedience precedes blessing…

Here is where I want to land this morning. The people’s excuse in the days of Haggai was the time had not yet come for rebuilding the house of the Lord. As we begin to think about our own lives in light of God’s call to consider our ways, ask yourself have you been making excuses for not obeying Christ in your life?

Is it not the right time?

Are you too busy?

Is life too hectic?

Do you not know enough?

Whatever your personal excuse it, understand it is just that, an excuse.

God is calling His children to consider their ways through his Word this morning. I pray that you will be among those who choose to do so that with us.

Let us pray.