God uses the prophet Haggai to wake up His people, calling them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The people are discouraged, distracted and disgruntled, but God reminds them of His purposes in them and through them, and of His presence with them. God continues to build His church today. This study with Dave Cornes encourages us to prioritize God’s glory—and the natural outworking of that is to prioritize enjoying His presence and building His church.

Dave asserts that the church exists for God’s glory, so when we’re not interested in the church, it’s a sign we’re not interested in God’s glory. He goes on to say, ‘When your life turns from serving the God who made all things to serving the things He made, something’s gone wrong. Because neglecting God’s work is neglecting God Himself.’

Read Haggai 1:1-15

Dave Cornes begins by explaining that God sent the prophet Haggai to spur the Israelites on in their work of rebuilding the temple but God’s people are focused on their own agenda: rebuilding their lives. They aren’t particularly invested in God’s agenda: rebuilding the temple.

Dave asserts that the church exists for God’s glory, so when we’re not interested in the church, it’s a sign we’re not interested in God’s glory. He goes on to say, ‘When your life turns from serving the God who made all things to serving the things He made, something’s gone wrong. Because neglecting God’s work is neglecting God Himself.’

As we dive deeper into this series through the book of Haggai, now is as good a time as any to heed the wakeup call of our loving Heavenly Father: ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’ Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you if you’ve let the frenetic pace and scattered pursuits of life distract you from single-mindedly following Him. Allow God to stir up your devotion to Him and His ways once again. As you move through your days, mindful that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, allow Him to refresh your passion for His glory.

For deeper study you can work through the Bible Exploration and Deeper Walk sections of the Study Guide

God’s people reckon they will never replicate the magnificence of the previous temple—and so they can’t be bothered to keep going with the work of rebuilding it. But God sees their work in a completely different way.

Think about this: Have you ever looked back on a season of your life, or an achievement, and thought to yourself, ‘My best years are behind me. I’ll never be that good again. That was my peak. It’s downhill from here.’

Read Haggai 2:1-9

The Israelites didn’t yet have a temple—and yet they had God’s presence. They didn’t need the bling of a new building to attract the power, presence and purposes of God. He had already declared them to be His own precious people, and He was already with them. The same is true for us today.

The people were seeing in the natural realm—and they knew the temple they were building wasn’t going to be as marvelous as the previous one. God was seeing in the spiritual realm—and He knew the ultimate, eternal result of what the people were building in this world would be bigger and more glorious than anything they could imagine. He was accomplishing incredible things, in them and through them, and He wanted to draw their attention back to the real prize: His presence.

God reminds the people that this life is not all there is, and that ultimately everything they see will pass away. All of history will be rolled up for His glory. Dave explains that the people were looking down at their tiny glory. They were comparing it to a better glory in the past. But God wanted them to remember the best glory to come.

As we explore more of Haggai’s message to God’s people, we’re exhorted not to give up. No matter how hard the circumstances of your service to God currently feel, no matter how much comparison cloys, allow God to lift your head as you look to a splendid future where His glory will flood every crevice of reality. Be strong. You build more than you see. The future is definitely better than the past, because God in all His glory is already there.

For deeper study you can work through the Bible Exploration and Deeper Walk sections of the Study Guide

We’re not surprised when people catch contagious diseases from others. But unfortunately, when we’re ill, it doesn’t help to hang around healthy people. We don’t catch their healthiness, as a means of healing. This is the point Haggai the prophet makes. Engaging in the hard and holy work of rebuilding the temple doesn’t make God’s people holy too. Quite the opposite, in fact. They begin to take pride in their achievements, which makes them unholy, and dishonours God. Haggai wants the people to understand that the only path to holiness is the grace of a Holy God.

Very briefly think about a time when, annoyingly, you caught a stomach flu, cold, or virus from a friend, a co-worker or one of your kids. Then think about how you got well.

Read Haggai 2:10-19

Haggai poses some complicated law riddles to the priests, about whether clean things can make unclean things clean (no), and whether unclean things can make clean things unclean (yes). He’s trying to point the people to their own fickle hearts, helping them realise that sin is way more contagious than they realise.

God’s people think their work of rebuilding the temple makes them extra special and spiritual. It’s simply not true. Their holiness has nothing to do with their work and everything to do with the fact that their gracious God has already declared them to be so. Dave explains that God has set apart His people from the rest of the world, and their building of the temple doesn’t make them any more or less holy.

Too often we fall into the trap of believing we’re saved by obedience, and blessed by faith. We think that it’s our obedience to God that puts us in right standing with Him, and that it’s our faith that generates blessing in our lives. This makes for exhausting, impossible works righteousness, and inevitably results in disappointment. We realise we can’t behave our way into perfection in God’s eyes because we let ourselves down perpetually. And when we’re not healed, or something else in our lives goes wrong, we’re chastised, by ourselves or others, for not having enough faith, which leads to shame and disillusionment. The truth is, we’re saved by faith, and blessed by obedience.

We can’t earn our salvation. At best we can say, ‘I believe! Help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9:24) We’re saved by faith. And the beautiful biproduct of salvation is a life bent on obeying God out of deep joy and abounding thanks, which results in blessing, because the commands and instructions of the One who designed all of life are always to keep us safe and set us free. Dave explains why it’s totally worth obeying God: ‘You’re fully satisfied, not by material blessing, but by living a life holy and pleasing to God. You’re building His church. You’re drawn closer to Jesus. You have joy in suffering. You let go of the temporary and grab hold of eternity.

The work of building God’s church on Earth can be intoxicating. We can quickly and easily be distracted from our Holy God—the Way-maker—and become caught up in making a way ourselves, building our own mini kingdoms for our glory, not His. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day, reminding ourselves and each other that we contributed nothing to God’s salvation plan. We can’t fabricate our own holiness. It’s by grace we’re saved, through faith (Ephesians 2:8–10), and the good works we spend the rest of our lives doing are just our love response—our living thanks—for the mercy poured out on us.

For deeper study you can work through the Bible Exploration and Deeper Walk sections of the Study Guide

There’s a reason why God says in His Word, hundreds of times, do not fear. Fear is real, and debilitating. The enemy will use fear, any chance he gets, to stop us from doing what God has called us to do for His Kingdom. Our fears around building the church are possibly subtle and insidious. They’re not obvious, nameable fears like, fear of sharks or heights or being trapped in an elevator with an accordionist. Rather, they play on our sense of identity, and our insecurities. God’s people knew all about this kind of fear as they faced the rebuilding of the temple in a hostile socio-political environment.

Briefly think about what is your biggest fear?

Read Haggai 2:20-23

Dave opens by saying there are probably hundreds of reasons why we don’t devote ourselves to building God’s church, but fear is probably the biggest reason of all.

Through the prophet Haggai, God comforts His people with two promises. The first is that He will shake everything—powers, authorities, governments, armies, everything and everyone—which sounds kind of terrifying. The book of Haggai reminds us that the world is peripheral to the church, not the other way around. Haggai encourages God’s people with the truth that they have the Almighty God on their side, and that the powers they fear aren’t as strong as they seem.

God’s second promise to His people, to alleviate their fear, is that Zerubbabel will become king. Of course, God’s people are still being ruled by the Persian king, Darius, and Zerubbabel is just a governor. He never becomes king. But Zerubbabel is a descendent of David and rightful heir to the throne. And, like David, he’s a link in the Messianic chain leading to Jesus, who is and will be King of kings forever. Jesus rules the universe and holds all authority. Even though He appeared weak in death, in that very moment He was conquering death. God’s promise to Zerubbabel and the glimpse of future victory gives him faith and energy to keep building – joyfully, confidently, determinedly and with great strength.