8th Bible Study: I Am With You

Today’s Bible study continues with the prophet Haggai. Haggai’s first message was delivered on the first day of the sixth month. Nearly a month has elapsed and God moves on Haggai to give a second message to encourage the Jews in their efforts to finish the construction of His Temple. Some of the people were discouraged because the new Temple would not be as beautiful as the first one. Discouragement was sitting in. God always has an answer for discouragement.

The first section is “I Have Covenanted.” God tells Zerubbabel to, “be strong” in verse 4. We are not to faint and give up just because the way seems hard. The reason we are not to give up is found also in verse 4: “for I am with you.” This is a renewed promise of God’s faithfulness. I learned years ago, that you should move into the future like you were rowing a boat. When rowing a boat, your back is facing in the direction you are going while you are looking back to where you are coming from. As we walk this life, when uncertainty is before us, we are to look back to the faithfulness of God in the Bible, as well as in our lives. “Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6 Looking to the promises of God will help eliminate discouragement.

The second section is “I Will Shake.” God told the people to be strong. God is telling His people that He will cause a great shaking of temporal things. It would only be “a little while.” Some of the people in Haggai’s day had seen the splendor of Solomon’s temple. There was much gold in the first temple. Verse 8 was a statement to the people about the gold: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.” The people did not need to worry about the lack of gold in the new temple because it would be filled with the radiant glory of God Himself. God would bring all this about in His time. We are to keep God’s long range plans in view and when the world seems to be falling apart, look up because the Messiah is coming! One question we should ask ourselves: are we building a material temple or a spiritual temple?

The third section is “I Will Bless.” The people had been working on the temple for three months. Verse 18 speaks of the time prosperity returned. It was not sixteen years earlier when Zerubbabel set the foundation. It was when the decay from that foundation was cleared away and the work resumed. God was saying your prosperity had returned. God leads their thinking by asking, “Is the seed yet in the barn?” While it was not a harvest time in the natural, it was in the spiritual because God said, “From this day will I bless you.” The old saying is: God said it, I believe it, that settles it. This is shouting ground. God had promised that prosperity would return to His people. As Matthew Henry the commentator wrote: “When you begin to change your way towards God, you will find God changing His way towards you.”

Joshua 1:9: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

My summary points:
1. God wants to encourage us when we are obedient to Him.
2. No matter what temporal circumstances look like, we are to look upward spiritually for deliverance and assistance.
3. We should ask what are we building: a material temple or a spiritual temple?
4. When we walk in obedience to God, He will bless you, guaranteed.

Next week: Joshua Cleansed and Clothed.

Don’t forget to read the Sunday School Beacon. If you know someone who would like the Bible study materials, please contact me. They are free of charge.