Fear of The Lord

June 13, 2025|Busy With Your Own House|Haggai 1:12-15

Will Davis

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This morning we will be continuing our study through the book of Haggai. 

For context if you have not been with us these last few weeks, Haggai is a prophet to the remnant of about 50 thousand Jews who have been allowed to come back to Jerusalem from captivity by the Babylonians.  Just a reminder that it was Darius of Persia that had let the Israelites return and build the temple. 

When the remnant had returned they hadn’t spent much time devoted to the work of the Lord and rebuilding the temple, instead they were focused on building their houses and lives. 

Last week we saw how the prophet Haggai told them to consider their ways in order that they might get their eyes off the world and fix them back on God. 

The God that had brought their fathers out of Egypt and now had brought them back to the promised land from exile. 

They had grown complacent in their worship of God and had neglected the work of the Lord. 

They had become hypocritical in their attitude saying that the time had not yet come to build the temple, all the while they were living in paneled houses. 

As Pastor JD pointed out last week that this remnant had been obedient to God and left a life of ease in Babylon to come home and rebuild.  They had demonstrated a right fear of the Lord, in that they trusted and obeyed God. 

This morning we will be looking at how the people responded to the prophets' call to turn from their sin, a call to return to the right fear of the Lord. 

So, what has happened to allow all these years to go by and for the temple to stay in ruin? 

The people had become complacent in their fear of the Lord.

But what does it mean to have a fear of the Lord? 

Is it to be scared of, or terrified of, or distrusting of God? 

RC Sproul says this quote “the fear of the Lord is the only basis of true knowledge. This fear is not a distrustful terror of God but rather the reverent awe and worshipful response of faith to the God who reveals Himself as the Creator, the Savior, and the Judge." 

Proverbs 1:7 says The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

Proper fear of the Lord is not merely having a fear of God, rather it is the right acknowledgement of who God is and who we are. 

That He alone is Creator, Savior, and Judge and our understanding of that leads us to awe and worship of Him and His sovereignty.  

What does the right fear of the Lord look like practically? 

Look at Job 42:1-6 we will see Job express this holy fear or reverence of the Lord as he responds to God: 1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

You see  how Job’s right understanding of who God is leaves him in a position of awe and worship, causing him to repent of his arrogance.

Compare this answer Job gives God that is full of fear of the Lord to what Job said in chapter 31, his final appeal to the Lord.  This is Elihu responding to Job in 33:8-14 8“Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words. 9You say, ‘I am pure, without  transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me. 10Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy, 11he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’ 12“Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. 13Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’? 14 For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.

Elihu calls out that Job has thought too highly of himself. Elihu closes his remarks with this in Job 37:23-24 “The Almighty- we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant in righteousness he will not violate. Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.” 

It is with this definition we need to keep in mind as we approach this text this morning as we see a people who have become numb to their position in terms of who God is and who they are. 

A people who have become comfortable enough to grumble that they simply do not have enough time for the proper worship of God. 

A people who have taken their eyes off of God and placed them on their situation around them. 

There were crops to plant, homes to build, and rumors of war as Persia was getting ready to battle Egypt.  Israel being a vassal state would be expected to send men to fight.  I think this hits very close to home for us here this morning, this attitude of complacency masked in business.  This idea that God knows what is going on in my life and He understands why He and His commandments can’t be the focus of my life right now. 

Like the commercial during the super bowl says “He gets us”, right?

Like He gets that I have a life and if I can get to it, God I will go and make disciples but only when I have time or I am in a better place in my life.  Right?

…they are not unfaithful to God, they are not worshiping idols, they are not spilling innocent blood in the name of God, they simply have become comfortable or complacent in their walk with the Lord. 

We have all heard this or said or felt this way before, this is no different than what we see here with this faithful remnant.  God we know what you have called us to do and we will do it, but we just don’t have time right now…they are not unfaithful to God, they are not worshiping idols, they are not spilling innocent blood in the name of God, they simply have become comfortable or complacent in their walk with the Lord.  Their fear of the Lord had become dull to them a mere afterthought, but God, through His prophet, would call them to repent and return to a proper reverence or fear of the Lord.

With this understanding of what fear of the Lord looks like let us look now to verse 12 and see how the people of Israel responded to God’s word, in a call to Fear the Lord!

1. A Call To Fear the Lord

Haggai 1:12 12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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 feared the Lord.

So, this is the normal response of the people of Israel when God sends a prophet right? 

No of course not right, maybe only Micah had some success getting the people to repent and turn to the Lord. 

Look back at Jeremiah 36, in short Jeremiah writes down on a scroll the judgment of God and it is given to King Jehoiakim and the king burns the warning of God. 

What happens next is that the people of Judah are taken into captivity by the Babylons because King Jehoiakim had no fear of the Lord and had forgotten the warnings of the Lord. 

While Deuteronomy 27:1-14 talks about the blessings of obedience, and verses 15-68 talks about the curses that would come from disobedience. 

Zerubbabel, a descendent of Jehoiakim and of David learned from those before him and he obeyed the voice of the Lord. 

Not only does Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest obey, but all the remnant of the Lord obey Him. 

This shows us that the people were not hostile to God or His commandments as their forefathers were, they really did wish to please God. 

They fully understood what disobedience to God would result in and instead of resting in their own wisdom they instead turned their eyes to God and sought to obey Him. 

This wasn’t just a fear of dread like oh no not again Lord, this is a reverence that moves them to faith driven action.  No longer would they make themselves the main characters in this story, but they would make God the main character. 

He would be who they would consider in all their ways, He would no longer be an afterthought, but the first thought. 

This is an obedience that is driven by faith in a God that moves amongst them and has called them to be His own. 

He has called them to worship Him not on their terms with what makes them comfortable or complacent, but in His sovereignly ordained manner. 

So, what does this mean for us here this morning?  I mean we are not called to rebuild a temple so what does this call to fear the Lord have to do with us, with me?

Jesus calls us to go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. 

For us this morning this means in the same way this remnant heard and obeyed the voice of the Lord, so are we. 

We are to abandon our weak and feeble excuses for not obeying the Lord. 

Excuses that sound like; people might think I am weird, I just don’t have time, I am not pastor/sunday school teacher so I can’t teach anyone anything. 

Do we see the same self focused problem that this remnant had? 

That our thoughts, our opinions, other people's thoughts, others people’s opinions mean more to us than the word of God. 

We are not called to put our fear, our reverence, our hope, and our trust in anyone but Christ, yet constantly we run to society as the main authority in our life rather than God and His word.  We allow whatever situation we are in to dictate our obedience rather than our love and reverence of God.  God called this remnant and us to get our eyes off the troubles of the world, get your eyes off your enemies, get your eyes off yourselves and put them on Him. 

Church, we have a luxury this remnant never had, they had to wait to hear the voice of the Lord from a prophet while we let God’s complete and full revelation of Himself sit and collect dust. 

Their faith was moved by the hearing of God’s word and sadly many Christians sit around in doubt and self pity because they refuse to pick up God’s word and read it.   Only by hearing were the people stirred up in order that they would obey and fear the Lord.  Only through knowing and being in God’s word will we find the beginning of wisdom through fear of the Lord, knowing who He is and who I am in light of Him.  

We live in a culture that doesn’t even understand the purpose of life and sadly many in the American Church are in the same boat waiting to hear from God all the while God’s full and complete word sits neglected for self help books or Christianised self help books.  Looking to the world only to find the answers that God has given us is simply foolishness.

...sadly many in the American Church are in the same boat waiting to hear from God all the while God’s full and complete word sits neglected for self help books or Christianised self help books.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism question one is what is the chief end of man? 

Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.

How do we know how to glorify and enjoy Him? 

Do we look to what society says is ok, do we look to our own thoughts and opinions, to what my favorite social media teacher says? 

Well what does question 2 say…question 2 says what rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him? 

The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. 

There it is, the word of God, both OT and NT is the only rule or as Proverbs 1:7 says is the beginning of wisdom.  

I love that the phrase, and the people feared the Lord, appears at the end of the verse.  We see that they obeyed God and would rather live in holy reverence and fear to Him than whatever situation was going on around them.

Is this not the call of Christ to us today, in Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  

Our response to Jesus’ call should be the same as the remnant, a response of obedience because He who is worthy has called us to trust and act in faith even in the midst of our so called busy lives.  He has not called us to complacent comfort but to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow after Him.  The Lord Jesus has not called us to sit and consume church services, but He has called us to follow Him in obedience and faith.

Not only does the Lord call us to obedience and to trust in Him, in His goodness He encourages the repentant.  He doesn’t leave us on our own but promises to be with us in this life.  This brings us to our next point this morning which is God encourages the repentant.

2. God Encourages The Repentant

Haggai 1:13-14 13Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,

Now you let me know if you can think of any better words to hear from God at this moment than I am with you! 

Remember this remnant has just come back from exile and not only are they having issues with the neighbors, but God has now sent a prophet to them to call them to repentance. 

The last time this sort of thing happened it didn’t go well for them. 

The last time the prophets called them to repentance they were taken into captivity.

You know as I do there had to have been, even if for only a second, the thought of oh no here we go again, we have angered God and He is going to deal with us.  Then they hear Haggai tell them the words of the Lord, they hear a beautiful encouragement.

I am with you! Oh what a blessing to hear these words to know that God did search their hearts and found that the fear of the Lord resided in their hearts over all things.  That in the midst of growing persecution, lack of food, and all other hardships of rebuilding the physical nation God promises that He will be with them. 

What a hope that the very same I Am that created the heavens and the earth is with them.

That the very same I Am is the I Am who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and them out of captivity was going to be with them still. 

Like in Genesis 22:14 God provided a ram for Abraham and now God or Jehovah jireh would provide a way for His people. 

It is this same God, this same I Am who would provide sacrificial atonement on the cross and provide a way of salvation for sinners at this very moment. 

This promise that God gives to the remnant He gives to us in Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age

What a promise of encouragement that at the moment of my salvation at the very moment that Christ imputed His righteousness unto me and my sin was imputed unto Him, He has been with me and if your faith is in Him He is with you. 

Oh Church, what a hope, what an encouragement, that even as I try to walk out the rest of this life here to know He is with me.  That God doesn’t abandon those who turn to Him, that as we seek to glorify God, He is always with us.

While we may never know what it is like to be a remnant coming back from exile you may be sitting here and feel lonely, you feel discouraged, you feel like a remnant at work or school, know that the Lord your God is with you. 

Take heart and be encouraged and remember what God told Joshua 1:9 have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

While we are not called to go and take the promise land like Joshua we are called to take the Gospel to a lost and dying world that hates Jesus and because they hate Jesus they hate you as well. 

Jesus did not promise us that it was going to be easy, but He did promise that He would always be with us.

Paul gives this encouragement to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies

Walking in step with the Spirit is not going to be easy, but rest in the fact that you will never be alone, that Jesus is with you, that He is your assurance, not any work you could do or fail to do. 

Paul in Eph 1:11-14 says 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Jesus is the guarantee of our inheritance, not our works, not our good deeds, not even our obedience only Jesus. 

Remember back in the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit would come on people and leave like we see with men like Samson and Saul, see verses Judges 16:20 and 1 Samuel 16:14. 

In the New Covenant only through Jesus do we receive our guarantee or seal of salvation in the form of the Holy Spirit. 

Because Jesus’ work on the cross is sufficient for our salvation the Holy Spirit doesn’t come and go because we are imputed or given Jesus’ righteousness. 

In John 10:28 Jesus says I gave them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. God’s word not only gives encouragement, we see that the Holy Spirit does a great work in us.   Now notice with me who is the agent that stirred up the Spirit of the people?  It was the Lord who moved in and amongst them to do this good work.  In the same way Paul tells us in Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  It is God that moves us to the good works if we are faithful to walk in obedience according to His sovereign word. 

It is the work of the Lord that creates in us a new Spirit or makes us a new creation in Christ. 

Jesus says in John 3:5-6 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

This second birth of the Spirit is only a work of God and not one that any man has the power to accomplish in himself. 

Then we have the promise that Jesus will be with us until the end of the age so that in all that we do like Paul says if he has plenty or nothing, He can do all things in Christ why? Because it is Christ who is with him that gives him the strength to obey all that the Lord has commanded him to do.  The Lord doesn’t give him strength to score touchdowns, or win some game, the Lord Jesus is his source of strength to bring the Gospel to the world and to make disciples. 

Paul does not look to his religious training, or to his skill as a tentmaker; instead he fully and completely rests in the Lord to provide for him the strength he needs to be about the work God has prepared for him.  Paul knows that in his flesh he will fail like the wretched man that he is, he thanks God that through Jesus he is delivered from this body of death.  What a hope that in Christ there is no condemnation only a God calling His children to obedient faith that gives us the power to walk in the good works that He has set before us.  

What a gift that in repentance as if it is not enough that God forgives our sin but that He also gives us encouragement or a hope that does not disappoint and this hope this encouragement produces faithful action in us.  This brings us to our last point this morning: repentance produces faithful action.

3. Repentance Produces Faithful Action

Haggai 1:14b-15 And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

I want to first focus on the date that we get in verse 15, that is just 23 days from verse 1. 

In 23 short days the remnant had heard the call of repentance, the call to fear the Lord, the call to consider their ways and they had acted and acted boldly. 

We see from the end of 14 that they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God! 

We see a people who were caught up in themselves, a people who had put themselves as the main character in their life be changed by the power of the word of God. 

This remnant took the word of the Lord seriously and really considered their ways and saw that they had let God fade into the background of their lives and were complacent to worship Him amongst the rubble of the temple. 

Their repentance produced in them a new Spirit, one that would no longer allow them to sit by and not put action to their faith in God. 

These same people who just 23 days earlier were grumbling and complaining that there was just too much going on in their lives, considered their ways, and found the strength to be about the Lord’s work. 

This is what faith produced works look like, works that are not born out of the flesh, those selfish works are seen in their paneled houses, but a work that is for the kingdom of God. 

A work that God is glorifying to God and God alone. 

For them it was building a temple, but what does that look like for us?

Really stop and consider your ways, do they bring glory and honor to God or to self? 

Is your repentance leading to active obedience? 

Barbara and I tell our kids all the time delayed obedience is disobedience and when I hear it it makes me consider my ways, am I delaying my obedience to not give up my comfort? 

Am I waiting until my kids are this age, or am I in the financial position to do what the Lord has called me to do. 

I am not saying that the only way to know if you are following the Lord is if it costs you money, but it will cost you the desires of your fleshly heart. 

Paul says those who belong to Christ have crucified our flesh with its passions and desires Gal 5:24. 

This remnant’s desire was to live as comfortably as possible even if that meant ignoring reverence for the Lord, living with God in the background of their life as if He was just something they added to their day, something that they were expected to do.  But the mercy and grace of God would not leave them in their sin and in 23 days their desires were changed and the comfort that seemed so important to them melted away replaced with a desire to serve the Lord their God. 

I pray that God would melt away any desires we have that would keep us from being about His work and that He would stir in us a Spirit of repentant obedience, that produces faithful actions. 

That we would not be able to be just mere hears of the word, but doers of the word as well. 

That not only would our words testify to the hope that is in us, but our actions as well. 

That we would love one another as we have been called to, that we would rejoice and weep together as we have been called to, that we would pursue unity in the body as we have been called to, that we would share the Gospel bodley and then invest in people through discipleship as we have been called to do, that we would seek to be a healthy body stirring one another unto good works to God may be glorified and that the gospel would faithfully go forth in truth.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 says this 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Paul is telling them that there was a moment that he was worried a previous letter was to harsh and they would push Paul away, but he rejoices that their grief over the sin called out in their life drove them to repentance and it was not that they were sorry they got caught in their sins, but that they feared the Lord and knew that they had sinned not against Paul, but a thrice Holy God. 

This repentance in them was not just a change of words but of the way they lived. 

They stopped living in their sinful flesh and have instead crucified the flesh; Paul writes this in verse 11 for we see what earnestness the godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

The church at Corinth’s repentance produced faithful action in that they sought to be holy as God their father is holy.

As we close today we have seen in these 3 verses in Haggai a call to fear the Lord, God’s encouragement to the repentant, and Repentance produces faithful action. 

We see that God is a just God, but He is also full of mercy and grace calling His people to seriously consider their ways in light of who He is and who we are. 

It is my prayer that as individuals and corporately we would consider or examine our ways and if they are not in line with scripture that we would turn from them or repent and be about the work the Father has called us to knowing that Jesus is always with us.

In closing this morning I would like to end with this question from the commentary, it asks this question;

Is my own comfort of greater importance to me than the work of God? 

Am I making increasing efforts to get ahead financially but finding greater and greater disappointment in my life? 

If the answer is yes, just turn around and get on with God’s business. Obey Him. Put Him first in your life.