Minor Prophets: Haggai 1

If you have young children or young grandchildren, let me ask you this question. What would you like them to be or do when they grow up? Young children or young grandchildren, what would you like them to be or do when they grow up?

Think about that a second.

My guess is, if we were all honest, not a one of us would want them to be or not one of us thought that we would want them to be a prophet of God.

And that's probably wise. Prophets of God have a rough life. Like Habakkuk, who asks, dear God, what on earth are you doing? But you know, the life of a prophet is very difficult. Prophets see what is yet to be.

Prophets are sent by God often to point out the sins of the people. Prophets are sent by God to pronounce judgment often on the sins of the people. And then prophets sometimes must experience the difficulty because of the sins of the people. Imagine that God called you to be his prophet. And he said, how about going to Washington, D.C., to the steps of the Capitol?

And if you would, like Jeremiah and Habakkuk and Ezekiel and Daniel, would you announce the sins of the people and proclaim my judgment upon them? What if he asked you to do that? What would he ask you to say?

well I have to speculate a little bit about exactly what he would have you say but it might go something like this thus saith the Lord why do walls of segregation surround my places of worship why do racial slurs fall from the lips of those who call upon my name why have you been silent of America when you should have been shouting about racial injustice. Thus saith the Lord, why do you build ever bigger houses for yourselves with little thought of those who have no homes? Why do you buy more and more that you do not need, yet you keep silent when 43 million in your land have no health insurance and lack adequate medical care? Why do those who bear my name fund and build ever larger, more ostentatious facilities, yet give so little to evangelize the lost or to help the poor children, 30,000 of whom a day die from malnutrition? thus saith the Lord in amassing your wealth you are storing up judgment on yourselves thus saith the Lord in your public assemblies you act like pagans and profane that which should be holy you give honor and money and recognition to those who are perverse and immoral you grab your crotches and expose your bodies as if they were your own your business executives call upon MTV yet profess shock at what they staged for the world to see.

Enough of your hypocrisy. Your popular songs and top-rated shows bear the stench of filthy sewers. You want your children to be the best, but look at what you allow them. to ingest. Thus saith the Lord, men do with other men and women with other women thinks that the Lord God has declared abominable.

Yet you march with pride and you have no shame. Thus saith the Lord, do you not remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Thus saith the Lord, you have sacrificed millions and millions of your defenseless sons and daughters altar of your own convenience or in order to cover your sins. You do that which is damnable and proclaim it was your right and your choice. Thus saith the Lord, you treat the commandments of God Almighty as if they were mere suggestions to be followed when convenient. You worship yourselves and make idols of your wealth. You speak my name in curses and profane my holy Sabbath. You dishonor me with your rampant adultery and your constant coveting. You have invoked my name and made vows before me, the Lord God Almighty, to love and cherish till death do you part and then you dishonor me with your divorces and your excuses. Thus saith the Lord, it is by my hand that you have become a great nation, yet you ignore me. You have removed my commandments from your institutions, yet you bemoan a decline in your values. You have educated your children without mention of my name, yet you complain that they lack character.

You teach as truth that people ascended from aches and then wonder why they act like animals. You have taught your children as truth that humans were fashioned by blind and godless chance. Yet in the beginning I made the heavens and the earth. I am the Lord God Almighty. I knit together your children when they were yet in their mother's wounds.

Thus saith the Lord, in your efforts to be politically correct, you have become spiritually corrupt. Thus saith the Lord, wake up, wake up. Hear America. The Lord your God is one God. you shall have no other gods before him wake up recognize what you have become and repent and by Christ I will renew your land but if you continue in your ways do not complain about my judgments for my judgments are always always just

you can see why people imprisoned the prophets,

stoned the prophets, threw them into pits, and killed the prophets because the prophets exposed what the people were. What would God say if he sent you? to Washington, D.C., to be his prophet. Well, Habakkuk complained about the unrighteousness in the land to God. And God said, you're right, Habakkuk, my people have become unrighteous.

And I'm going to judge them through the Babylonians. And then Habakkuk complains, but Lord, the Babylonians will crush your people. The Lord says, trust me. I know what I'm doing. I'm in control.

And the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of my glory. And my glory will be shown because I can raise up nations and I can conquer nations.

Habakkuk says, I understand. And in chapter 3 of the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk has an extended prayer where he does three things. He seeks God, he remembers the ways of God, and then he pronounces his trust in God. Let me begin by just reading a few verses from the beginning of Habakkuk chapter 3.

This is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, and then there's a fancy word, on shigenoth. Apparently this was a psalm that came to be part of the ritual of the children of Israel. They sang this third chapter as if it were a psalm. And it begins, Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.

renew them in your day, in our time make them known, in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk seeks God to display in the present awesome deeds he has performed in the past and he asks of God to show mercy to his people even as he sends his judgments on the people. Habakkuk now recognizes God has spoken Habakkuk is one in a long line of prophets who have come warning the people and the people have time and again rejected the words of the prophets and Habakkuk now knows that judgment is coming but he says Lord let us see deeds of all from you in our present day even as you pour out wrath on your people and judgment, which they so justly deserve. Remember, they had even gone to the point of sacrificing and slaughtering their sons and daughters in pagan worship.

The basis of Habakkuk's request to God is his remembrance of God's past dealings with his people. He knows that in the past God has shown awesome deeds of His glory and power to His people. He knows that in the past God has been merciful. And he cries out to God to show that in his own day. And in verses 3 through 15 he begins to go through a series of remembrances about what God has done in the past among His people.

And he talks about in verse 3, if you see in your text there, He talks about the Lord coming from Timon, the Holy One from Mount Paran. I've given you a map here to see. What he is remembering is the area where the children of Israel went when they were on their exodus from Egypt. They traveled to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula where Timon would be, and they traveled through the area of Paran where the Mount of Paran would be. And it is here that God's great power and His mercy was shown to His people.

It was shown in many ways. Remember the plagues He sent on Pharaoh to let His people go and the Pharaoh repeatedly refused to let the children of Israel leave Egypt. so God sent plagues on Egypt that Habakkuk remembers in verses 5 and 6. Do you remember that as they left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased the children of Israel? And they get to the point that their backs are to the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh is descending upon them.

And then the Lord comes and he parts the sea. an act of power and glory and mercy on his people. And Habakkuk remembers that past act. Habakkuk remembers the defeat of Pharaoh's army. You remember the army crossed through the sea.

The most powerful army on earth at that time. And who beat it? Who beat it? The Lord God Almighty.

Habakkuk also remembers other acts of God's mercy going up into the days of Joshua there's a reference in verse 11 of Habakkuk 3 to the sun standing still and if you go read in the book of Joshua chapter 10 in a battle with the Amorites when it was crucial for the Israeli army to be able to continue the battle so that they could achieve victory It stayed light for a whole extra day. In other words, according to the text, God did not let the sun set. The sun stood still. And the light continued to shine at a time when normally it should have been night and dark, which would have given a chance for the Amorite army to escape. the Lord by his power and to show his glory and his mercy had the sun stand still.

Do you hear? Habakkuk is remembering. You know, when our Lord takes us through dark valleys, sometimes he says the first thing he wants us to do is remember what I've done for you in the past. Don't let this moment of a dark valley They make you turn your back on me. Sometimes I have to take you through dark valleys, the Lord says, because I am a righteous and just God.

But always remember what I've done for you in the past, because I will yet show you my power and my glory and my mercy again. And that's what he says to Habakkuk. And that's what he says to some of us this morning. Some of us, some of us in this class have walked through a dark valley. Some are still walking through dark valleys.

The Lord says, don't let the darkness overwhelm you. Remember who I am. Remember what I have done. And trust that I will yet again renew you. And that's what Habakkuk does.

One of the great prayers of all of Scripture is Habakkuk 3, verses 17 to 18. Let's read that together. your Bibles. This is worth marking here. Where Habakkuk prays, well let's just start at verse 16. I heard and my heart pounded. My lips quivered at the sound. Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. He's probably trembling because he knows the judgment that is coming that the Lord is going to send the Babylonians to defeat his people and he's trembling yet he says I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us so he's also anticipating that the Lord is going to judge Babylon and then he goes on with this great prayer though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, pretty bleak, pretty bleak, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. Go on the heights.

What are the good gifts that God has given you? Apart from your salvation and your relationship with Christ, what are the good gifts He has given you?

Children?

Health? Health? a wise husband who has a wonderful spouse

others

freedom to worship the scriptures

friendships

grandchildren those children and grandchildren they're great

he's given us homes He's given us food. He's given us incomes. Now let me ask you, what if he took, what if he took, what if he took all the gifts away?

Would we praise him?

Would we be joyful in God our Savior?

God or do we love his gifts?

It's easy to praise God when things are going good, but it seems like we don't. Do you notice that? When things are going good we seem to forget God. But it's kind of easy at that time to say, Lord, you're great. I love you. How about when he takes it away or allows it to be taken away?

Do we still love him and trust him? Do you remember Job who suffered illnesses and lost his family and lost his wealth? And what does Job declare? Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. Do you remember when the king was about to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace?

They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, King, our Lord is able to deliver us from the fire, but even if he does not, even if he does not, we will not bow down and worship the golden image. We're still going to be loyal to God.

God is greater than all his gifts, and maybe sometimes he takes away the gifts to see how much we truly love him.

and Habakkuk would say though he takes away the crops though the livestock may die and that was going to happen when the Babylonians invaded they were going to lay siege to the land the people would not be able to harvest their crops the livestock would die there would be famine in the land when the Babylonians invaded and Habakkuk is anticipating that and what does he say I will yet trust in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. Because he knows in the end, the Lord will set everything right. May we be like Habakkuk. Trust him even in the darkness.

Because the light will yet come, folks. It will yet come. Here are my lessons. Well, I need to tell you the end of the story. Judah would be defeated by the Babylonians.

besieged for two years by the Babylonians, famine would be rampant in the city of Jerusalem. The people would resort to cannibalism, eating their own children when the children died. The city would be ransacked. The king Zedekiah would have to watch his sons be executed before his eyes by the Babylonians. And then Zedekiah's eyes would be put out.

He would be blinded by the Babylonians and taken into captivity. The children of Israel are taken into captivity and the temple of God is burned by the Babylonians. That was God's judgment on his perverse and immoral people. But then the Babylonians would be judged about 70 years later when the Persians would come and defeat them in 539 B.C. Here are my lessons for life.

confession is good for the soul folks we need to be people who go before our Lord to confess our sins he expects more of us who call his name than those who don't and it's easy for us as God's people to look at those in the land who are not God's people and be critical of them and sometimes very rightly so but I say we should look at ourselves first and confession will be good for our souls. Secondly, confession requires recognition, repentance, and return. You know, all this stuff with MTV and NFL halftime shows has caused a lot of hubbub. They're talking about criminal prosecutions against some of the people and so forth. You know what I hope comes of it?

I hope we recognize what we have become. and maybe, maybe, maybe time will tell the Lord will use that event as a wake up call to help us recognize what we have become but it's not enough just to recognize what you've become what we've become we must then repent of what we have become and return to the Lord himself recognize, repent and return their sin. There are some who say, oh, I'm sorry. Mainly they mean, I'm sorry I got caught. But how many return to the Lord? It takes all those steps if there's going to be genuine spiritual healing in the land. Thirdly, we should be more intentional about sharing the gospel. We are in a lost nation. America, the United States, is not a Christian nation these days. We are in a minority, folks.

Evangelical Christians are in a minority in this country. There are many who say they're Christian. But George Barnard, I think, has demonstrated through much polling there are very few who hold to biblical truth who believe that Jesus Christ is the way of salvation, who believe there's the reality of heaven and hell. So we need to be sharing the gospel more intentionally. Right, Shelton?

amen let's share the gospel fourthly we should thank God for his patience and mercy

should we not as a nation as his people good grief just think if you were God what would you have done to people who act like our nation so often acts

fifthly let's rearrange our priorities God first, others second, us third we've got this turned around it's usually us first and then we'll think about everybody else later God comes first, others come second and we're third sixthly let's protect our children from our own hands the most dangerous place For a child to be in this country is where? The mother's womb.

From the harmful philosophies of our culture, and let's teach them the truth. Folks, there's a battle for your children. And the enemy wants to suck them up and destroy them. don't let it happen but it means you've got to be willing to get in your children's faces and your grandchildren's and help them see what is right and what is wrong what is good, what is evil what is truth, what is error the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death and it is a battle don't doubt it, it's a battle put on your body armor and get ready for the battle. And then fight.

Do not let them go. They are your children, and no one will protect them better than you other than the Lord God himself. But he puts you there to save them, and you do it. Do not let them go. Even when they want to turn from you themselves and they say they don't want to listen to you, they don't want to hear what you have to say, you don't quit.

Do not let this generation go.

Always, always trust in the Lord. Because by His grace, things can be set right. And one day will be. Let's pray. For your grace and mercy, Lord, we give you thanks.

But I come before you acknowledging the sins of the nation are immense. but I pray for your mercy Lord and your grace open our hearts and minds to see what we have become but then pour out your spirit open the hearts and minds of people who have hardened themselves to the truth who love darkness rather than light evil rather than good who would rather have that which is bitter than that which is sweet and may you change their taste buds for the sweetness that is found only in Jesus Christ in whose name we pray Amen