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for all this. I am doing all I can--but I can't pay for this--it
takes ALL OF US!
When I asked you brethren to PLEDGE definite amounts, about
two years ago, there were only a little more than HALF AS MANY of
us as there are today. With nearly TWICE as many members in God's
Church, it is simply not right, Brethren, that you should be able
to send in only HALF as much money as you then pledged and sent.
I wonder if we realize God has a message for us, through the
prophet Haggai. One of the vital KEYS which open up the prophecies
to our understanding is the principle of DUALITY. The original
prophecy is merely the type, or forerunner, of the latter
fulfillment in OUR DAY--and the years immediately ahead. Also,
these Old Testament experiences were written as examples for us--of
how God deals with us.
It was 70 years after the invasion and captivity of Judah. As
Jeremiah had foretold, King Cyrus of Persia gave order for a
certain portion of the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the
Temple. Under leadership of Zerubbabel, who was made governor over
these Jews, and Joshua, the high priest, they returned to
Jerusalem. But enemies of Judah first tried to join them, under
pretext that they, too, were seeking Judah's God; then, being
rejected from participating, they did everything in their power to
discourage and frustrate the Jews, until they became discouraged.
The work on rebuilding the Temple came to a standstill. The
prophecy of Haggai begins at this point.
God does not want his people to let the people, or the
interests, or the cares, of this world turn their hearts and
energies from His work. The people of Judah were saying (Haggai
1:2) the time had not yet come to rebuild the Temple. They were,
JUST AS HALF OR MORE OF GOD'S PEOPLE ARE DOING RIGHT NOW, shirking
this responsibility.
Then came GOD'S WORD! "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in
your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?" (verse 4.) First of
all these Jews built nice permanent houses for themselves. They
were putting their labor, their money, their hearts and interests,
on THEIR OWN POSSESSIONS. They were putting themselves and their
wants and desires FIRST. The building for GOD'S CAUSE was being
neglected. Yes,--just as many of YOU, professing to be God's
people today, are doing!
God asked them to look at, and stop to consider THEIR WAYS
that they were doing (verse 5). They were under a CURSE. They
were SEEKING their own wants, and prosperity--but God was not
blessing them! "Ye have sown much, and bring in little," says God
(verse 6); "ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are
not filled with drink" --or, as Moffatt translates it: "You never
can drink your fill." "You clothe yourselves, but you cannot keep
warm" -- "and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a
bag with holes."
"You looked for much," says God (verse 9), "and lo, it came to
little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it" (spoiled