This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Monday,
February the 23rd, and today's reading is in
Haggai 1. again. I know last week we read Haggai
1 a couple of times, and I know that Sunday we
went through Haggai 1 in the pulpit on Sunday
morning with our church family. And so once again,
I want to read Haggai 1. On the podcast, I know
I've been, I will take just a couple of verses
and just kind of pull something out. As I've
said before, and maybe you're new to all this,
maybe you're kind of new to this podcasting thing.
If you're watching on YouTube, you can kind of
see I put some scripture up on the the screen
for you. But if you're listening, maybe you're
wondering why we do this this way, but here's
what happens. So this is all overflow from the
messages and the study time that God has given
to me. And I hope and pray as you go through
this, as a church family, we've been going through
this reading plan and these journals, and the
goal is always that you would search the scriptures
and that you would allow the Lord to speak to
you. That's the goal. Don't just take what I
say and run with it and say, oh, this is what
the Lord's telling me today. I'm revealing to
you, I'm showing to you some of the things the
Lord is speaking to me. They don't all fit in
a sermon on Sunday, right? I wish I could pack
everything into a 35, 40 -minute message, but
there's just so much in the Scripture that's
so rich, I don't ever want you to think I've
discovered it all. I've figured it all out. So
this is all Haggai 1 has to say. There's more.
I hope you're reading it today with fresh eyes.
You're listening today with fresh ears. I just
want to read a couple of verses. verses to you
in Haggai 1 towards the end of the chapter. So
I want to read verses 12 and following. We'll
probably make it all the way to verse 14 is my
guess, those three verses. We'll see what happens.
So here we go, Haggai 1, beginning at verse 12.
Then 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. Then Haggai,
the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people
with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares
the Lord. Here's what is amazing about Haggai
1. Now tomorrow, spoiler alert, you're going
to be in Haggai 2. It is a... Really beautiful
conclusion to what we are talking about today
and to Haggai 1. Haggai, again, little background.
There's been a remnant of the people that have
gone from captivity. out to Jerusalem. Now they're
there. They had started out, as we read in the
first part of the chapter, I hope you read it
again today, that they took care of themselves
first before they took care of the Lord's house.
But then something incredible happens. God tells
them in the middle of the chapter there, there
in verses 7 and following, he says, listen, I,
you know, you... You took time and you built
your own stuff, but then you realized that the
land was drying up, the crop was bad, everything.
I've shut off the heavens. I have done this.
And it was obviously powerful enough that everybody
realized it, right? Everybody realized it. In
verses 12, 13, and 14, what we saw was that the
secular leader, right? You've got this guy named
Zerubbabel who is the secular leader of the time.
That means he's the leader that's in charge.
He's the elected guy, the governor. He's the
one that's in charge. He gets it. He puts it
together. He puts the idea together. God is not
happy with us. He has done this, and so we need
to honor him, right? The spiritual leader, Joshua,
the guy, the high priest, he realizes it. So
you've got the secular leader, you've got the
spiritual leader, and then it says that with
all the remnant of the people. Everybody started
to recognize God is the one that's done this.
It is not his fault. It's not his fault. It's
not his fault. It's not his fault. It is God
that has done this to bring us back to him. I
absolutely love their response. It says that
these guys got together. They said, you know
what, let's get together and let's realize what
we've done and what's happened. It wasn't just
the prophet's great powerful words. It wasn't
that Haggai was this. overwhelming orator that
stood up and convinced everybody. Haggai just
said, here's what God just said to me. He said
that you guys paid attention to yourselves. That's
why the crop's failing. That's why we're having
some problems. That's why we're never full. We're
never satisfied. That's why we can drink and
never get enough. That's why it's our fault.
God's the one that's setting us. That's the response
of these people. And then we see a reassurance.
What happens in verse 13 is God says, I'm with
you. Now, here's something that you may not catch
in this scripture if you only stick to Haggai
1. If you just read this as a singular event
and you never connect it to anything else in
scripture, you miss something. Because what happens
in Haggai 1 is also described in a place in Ezra.
Ezra was a writing scribe. He writes about what
happened with the remnants whenever they came
back. And so whenever you realize that the Jews,
whenever they began to rebuild the temple, there
was opposition that came. Now, we don't see that
in these couple of verses, but we can go and
look in a couple places in Ezra, specifically
chapter 5 in Ezra, and what you'll find is that
there was this opposition that arose, but God
says here, I'm with you. I'm with you. No worries.
I'm with you. If we've learned anything from
our reading plan in Psalm 127, if God builds
a house, we're good. If he's protecting the city,
we're good. If he's providing for our families,
we're good, right? If we lean into him and allow
him to work, we're good. It's going to be okay.
Here's what I've seen as this goes on. In Ezra,
we see there was this opposition that happened,
but it's okay. God says he's with us. What happens?
It gets ruled in favor of the Jews. Of course
it does. God's with him. He's there. He's there
to take care of it. So there's this response
from the people, the remnant and the secular
leader, the spiritual leader. There's this response
that says, God is the one doing this. We need
to come together. As soon as they come together,
God says, hey, don't worry, I'm with you. No
matter how much resistance is going to show up,
I am on your side. You're on my side. We are
going to win. There's this massive thing that
happens. A lot of things that go on in history
in this moment, but I don't want to jump into
all that today. I just want to say, If you listen
and notice what the Lord is doing, then you agree
with him and say, I'm going to be a part of what
he's doing. He says, I'm with you. Now you've
come on to my side. We're going to get this done.
Then it says in verse 14, the revival that takes
place. It says they all came together and they
came together and worked on the house of the
Lord, the Lord of hosts, their God. That's what
they did. Then verse 15, he gives the actual
day. So this is the day in which it happened,
when the revival took place. I'll tell you when
the revival takes place. When we see what God's
doing. We decide to join him in his work. And
then he says, now we're cooking together. Let's
do this together. I hope and pray you're encouraged
today by Haggai 1. I hope that you maybe spend
whatever time you spend looking at the misunderstanding
in the beginning of it, the misplaced priorities
that the people had, but then moving to a place
knowing and trusting that he's the one that's
doing it. He's in control. He's working. We're
going to respond to his. his work. We're not
going to just respond to our work. We're going
to respond to his work, to his actions. That's
what happened in Haggai 1, right? He says, you're
struggling because I've cut some supplies off.
So we respond to his actions and his work. When
we respond to his work, then he says, now that
you responded to me, let's go forward together.
You were going away from me. I've drawn you in.
Now we're going to go forward together and know
if you're with me, we're going to be okay. You're
going to be fine. So we're going to go and do
this together. Then what happens? Revival takes
place. We're working on what the Lord is doing
together. We're going to be a part of the building
of what God is doing. He wants to invite us in
so that we can build with Him. We can build for
His glory with Him alongside us. It is an incredible,
powerful passage of Scripture today. I hope and
pray you spend time meditating over Haggai 1
as we prepare this week to look into the next
chapter. Don't read ahead too far. Focus in on
Haggai 1 today. What is the Lord speaking to
you about?