Have you ever wondered why it is that we don't always experience the fullness of God's grace in our daily life? Something stands in the way of that experience. Of course, the Israelites knew all too well what it was like not to experience God's full grace. God used Haggai to convey a reminder to the people who had returned to Jerusalem from the exile to rebuild the temple. Consider the passage.
There is a sense that something was still wrong in the character of the people. Two months earlier, they had been encouraged to stop looking in the past and comparing to the present, but to look forward to the future that God promised would prove that at a point in the future when He was ready, the temple would become more glorious than it had ever been in the past. So, God was calling the people to turn away from the past, and start focusing on the future. The point being that even though they would not get to see that future promise fulfilled, they would surely be instrumental in the progress toward that time provided they got back on track in rebuilding not only the physical temple, but also the temple that resides within each individual.
Two months passed, and something was still not quite right in the character of the people. As we shall see, God is going to issue the people a promised blessing, but there was something else that needed to be addressed. Remember when the elderly priests who were part of the old temple before the exile who came back and saw the ruins wept according to Ezra? Remember that? Priests have the very profound and unmistakable responsibility to live a set apart life. They are to be leaders in the cause for God’s kingdom. To weep because they saw the temple in ruins was not conducive to the responsible leadership example they were called to exemplify. Priests of the Old Testament were chosen by God to lead the people in all matters of their spiritual welfare. Priests were the educators among the Jewish people. A great responsibility lay upon them to ensure that children were educated in the ways of God according to the Torah, and spiritually educate all the people in the ways of God. They also issued sacrifices and were to be the prime examples godliness.
Today, things are much different. Because of the blood sacrifice made by Jesus, priestly responsibility no longer falls on a particular group of people. Priestly responsibility falls on all followers of Christ. Peter tells us that we “are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Peter 2:5). That puts all disciples in a different place from the world. Set apart to live differently, to speak differently, to interact with neighbors differently. The sacrifice of Christ puts Christians in the priesthood of the saints. And according to Hebrews, we have a high priest appointed over us, “inasmuch as He is also Mediator” over us. We know that to be Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament period, priests were born into their positions. Priests married and had families and all those things, but priests were not all called to become preachers in the same way as they are today, because they were born into the priesthood. When a person accepts Christ as Savior, they become born into the priesthood. We don’t all have the same gifts. Not all believers in Christ are called to preach and teach the word of God. Some are to sing; some are to maintain the structure; some are called into ministries of various capacities, but not all to preaching. But all have something instilled within them by God which is awakened by the Holy Spirit that is useful for kingdom building. Like the priesthood of believers today, the Old Testament priesthood had many ministerial duties. The difference being that Christians are reborn spiritually; whereas, Old Testament priests were physically born into the priesthood.
Priests in that time held a wide range of responsibilities. Not all of them had the gift of preaching. It only makes sense that some taught, some performed the sacrifices, some were administrators, but all of them, not unlike today, had the responsibility to live godly lives as examples for others. Sound familiar? It should. All believers in Christ Jesus have the same responsibilities that the Old Testament Jewish priests had – with the exception of course that we don’t do animal sacrifices. But, we are called to live the sacrificial life in Christ. We ourselves are to live a life set apart from the ways of this world for the purposes of God. Since all believers are in the priesthood, all believers are to educate others through the testimony of life to express the presence of God and dependence on Him in everyday life.
So, apparently, there was a very important issue God needed to address to the people, and He wanted to use the priests, but he needed to remind the priests of a couple of things first. So, the issue concerned more with the people than with the priests, but the priests nonetheless needed to be reminded of something, because they were the spiritual leaders of the people, just like we are today. So, God is addressing the priests here, but not in a way that tells them to do anything, but He wanted to remind them that His grace cannot be displayed properly through His chosen people, because there was still something standing in the way.
God had to remind the priests what the law constitutes as being unclean. There are certainly more Old Testament laws that explain what uncleanness entails, but for God, this was sufficient to for His purpose. So He asks the priests in verse 12, “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?” The priests answered with a “No.” Already, they are reminded of Leviticus 6 which explains that everyone who touches the holy meat must be holy themselves. If the garment that the priest is wearing touches what is not holy, the garment then becomes unholy, and so does the meat. “Consecrated meat made the garment “holy” because it was in direct contact with that garment (see Lev. 6:27), but the garment could not pass on that holiness to another object (Ezek. 46:20). In the Old Testament, ceremonial uncleanness is transmitted much more easily than holiness. Anything touched by an unclean person becomes unclean (Num. 19:11-13,22).
It is the same thing with sin. We are all guilty of sin in some way. It does not matter if we think it, say it, or act it out, we are all guilty of sin in some way every day. Remember what 1 John 1 tells us? “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we [however] confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sin is a form of uncleanness, and stands in the way of authentic grace. The grace of God we are given cannot be displayed in the presence of uncleanness within the heart. But, if we go to Christ, ask for his forgiveness, we are cleansed from that sin, and therefore we can have the capacity to manifest grace through our lives. That doesn’t mean we can keep on sinning and sinning knowing that all we have to do is ask Jesus to forgive us, even though he will every time. That’s the problem with many so-called Christians today. They think they have a license to sin, but they don’t realize that all followers of Christ have a unique responsibility that sin distracts us from accomplishing. We cannot display God’s grace through our lives if we are not living to authentically remove sin from it. Likewise with the church as a body of believers, as a family of God, cannot express authentic grace displayed unless each individual strives toward holiness.
Holiness is only accomplished through individual effort. What that means is that a church cannot be holy, it cannot display God’s grace, it cannot do what it is called to do, or be the example of Christ unless each individual member determines to become holy. So, when the priests answered Haggai’s question with a no, they were right, because holiness is an isolated virtue accomplished through individual disciples.
Holiness is also not infectious. If you are living out your life in such a way that your goal is to become a contagious Christian, what you are really accomplishing is the expression and truth of the gospel according to God’s word. It is God’s word people should desire to catch, and it is only through God’s word that holiness is achieved in as far as the Holy Spirit wills. In other words, it is not by contact of a Christian today that another person can become holy. I wish it were that easy. It is through what others see in the Christian that becomes the contagion. Likewise, a Christian cannot display that kind of grace unless he or she is transforming themselves on the inside and expressing that transformed life outside.
Then, Haggai asks a second question addressing contamination. The first question God asks the priests involves holiness, whereas this question centers upon what is unclean. Whatever is unclean cannot be holy, and vice versa. It is far easier to contaminate people by spreading evil than it is to spread virtue. For many people, evil is more appealing than virtue. I saw a program recently about young women who were gang bangers in an area of Chicago. They lived in well to do areas, went to good schools, were raised in good families, but were magnetically drawn toward gang activity. Gangs are exciting to them. They confessed that there was something about that kind of lifestyle that appealed to them. The atmosphere, the violence and drugs, and all that goes with those things are more appealing to many young people across our nation and right here at home because the excitement that ensues the behavior of gang activity is a constant adrenaline rush to them. If there is to be any sort of blame, it falls upon the parents, but even before they should be blamed, Christianity should be blamed first. Christianity has been historically unfaithful to the cause of Christ, because people have been involved who never fully grasped the truth that they too are fallible. Only the word of God is not. Seeing how Christians have always been charged with the responsibility to live out loud their faith in God by displaying His matchless grace, and failing to do so miserably, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We should apologize to the world for the failure of our brothers and sisters before us, and commit to really becoming what we have been called to be.
Today, it is especially easy for young people to fall prey to evil, to become corrupted by what is not of God, because those kinds of activities are the most exciting aspects of their lives, especially in rural areas like ours. Not much else for them to do around here. The pressures of school and peers act as catalysts for our young people today. I believe the priority of this community should focus on our young people, and find some sort of avenue for them to come to a point whereby they are so influenced by followers of Christ that the desire for them is to put away corrupted ways and turn to God in a natural way. In a way that draws them toward the displayed grace of God. The spiritual state of many young people in our community encompasses an issue I am very concerned about; it is an issue we should all be concerned about. Our young people after all are the future of this community. We don’t have the right to be the Christ centered example, we have the responsibility.
God explains that it has been like that with Israel. He tells them to “consider from this day forward” the blessing He has in store for them. He wanted them to remember the fallacies of the past, and look to toward the future. In a manner of speaking, you might say God was telling the people to consider the past by not repeating it.
They have been living in a contaminated state due to their inverted priorities, and as a result, everything they touched had been contaminated. Just because the people were back in the holy city of Jerusalem did not mean that they were clean, or that they were holy and pure. They needed to obey God. Something else we can see is that God did not withdraw all of His grace from the people, but just enough to call their attention to the need of God’s full grace. Because of the unclean spirit of the people, everything they did only had partial gain. This is a consequence of uncleanness. We cannot, nor should we expect to experience the fullness of God’s grace working through us when we have so far to go in our journey toward the goal of holiness. We can see bits and pieces. We can experience some of God’s grace. But, the grace we are to display in our lives is not fully expressed when sin is within. And when others can’t see Christ in us, then why would they want Him in them?
So, God instructs the priests to consider their ways from this day forward. The responsibility, or course, fell upon the priests to pass that information on to the people. The people were to look at their state before they began to put the work of God first, and they were to look to their state after they began to put God’s work first. Then, they needed to compare the two. By comparing the two they were to see that they had nothing but trouble, frustration, and disappointment when they put their own work first. When we put ourselves first, we put God behind us. He is not at the forefront of our thoughts, our daily lives. But when God is first, we/ they experience peace, fulfillment, and blessing as soon as the determination to serve God first above all else is realized. Not that we won’t slip. Because we will. But God knows that. The wonderful truth of this lesson is that God does not take away His blessing upon us, but He does expect us to get back on track with His agenda when we realize our failures by first repenting of them, putting them behind us, and then getting on with what we are to do in the name of God.
Usually, we are not bold enough to believe that God will bless us if we put him first and are convinced that if we did act this way, our faith would be shaken. So, we become afraid to be bold. We retreat into a spiritual world over against the real material world. We can be utterly down in the mouth. But if someone asks, “How are you?” and we reply, “Well, God has certainly blessed me spiritually this week,” no one can question that. If you claim that God had blessed you spiritually, who can prove you wrong?
But if you say, “I’ve determined to put God’s interests first, and I am counting on God to bless me in tangible, material ways, because this is what he has promised,” then you really put your faith on the line. That is something that both you and others can see, and the issue is whether God is real or not and whether or not his work can be trusted. That is God’s matchless grace displayed in your life.
This is a very bold challenge. You may have been going your own way, putting yourself first. You may have said, “Well, I have to do that. If I don’t look after myself, no one else is going to do it. I have to look out for number one.” But then God asks, “How does it work out when you do it life that way? Don’t you see that when your priorities on yourself and not on me that you have it pretty rough?” Listen. You acknowledge that God should be number one in your life. So, make the necessary changes to make him number one. Put him first above all things. Live as a Christian, a follower of Christ is supposed to live. Be matchless grace displayed. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Make that commitment today. |
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