Consider how contagious sin can be and look to God for blessing

Date 15 October Text Haggai 2:10-23 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We have been looking at the little Book of Haggai on Wednesday nights. We have noted that it describes events that took place over a very short period, a matter of a few months in the second year of King Darius - from the first day of the sixth month to the 21st day of the ninth month.

We know this because Haggai dates each of his four prophecies.

The first prophecy is given on the first day of the sixth month. Some 23 days later the people begin to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God.

The second prophecy comes On the twenty-first day of the seventh month. This is the prophecy we looked at last week.

There are two more after this, both come on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month and we want to look at them this evening.

In the very first prophecy Haggai is urging the people to get to work on building the Temple in Jerusalem which has been long neglected. By the end of the first chapter they have begun the work. In the second chapter he is seeking to encourage them to go on working. He does this by encouraging them to see what lies ahead.

In 2:1-9 he urges beleivers, despite outward appearances, to be strong, work hard and not to fear, for God is with them. Further, there is the encouragement to go on because of the coming last days. when God will be active, when his glory will increase and he will grant peace.

So the context here is that Haggai has given the people a glorious vision of the future. But given that it is in the future what about now, when things are not so obviously encouraging?

We can divide the final verses of the book (verses 10-23) into three sections.

1. A warning against the contagious nature of sin

We read in 2:10 that On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, once again in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: There are three parts to this word - the first two parts by way of illustration and then the third part by way of application. So

1. Illustration 1

Verses 11, 12 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Ask the priests what the law says: If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?'" The priests answered, "No."

So a question is put to the priests. They were the experts in Temple ritual and part of their work was to instruct the people in matters of the law. Here the scene is imagined of a person who has been involved in sacrifice at the Temple coming away from the Temple and carrying consecrated meat in the fold of their garment - no pockets in those days, you carried things in folds. This would happen when, say, a person went to make a peace or fellowship offering. A certain portion of the sacrifice would be theirs to take home and eat. Now what if that fold of their garment touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does the bread or stew or wine, olive oil or other food become consecrated? Well, no. Ritual purity or cleanness is not transferrable like that.

Yes, there are some cases where it can happen. In Exodus 29:37 Moses is told, when setting up the Temple or Tabernacle For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy. The same goes for the basin and its stand. This is unusual, however, and normally ritual cleanness does not transfer like that.

It's like dirt. If you have a little bit of dirt at the bottom of a glass jug, you can pour clean water into it to the very top and it still won't become clean water.

So, as a general rule, ritual purity is not transferable. It is not contagious.

2. Illustration 2

Haggai then comes to the corollary to that in verses 13 and 14

Then Haggai said, "If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?" "Yes," the priests replied, "it becomes defiled."

As for ritual uncleanness or impurity that works the opposite way. Say a person had touched a dead body. Under Old Testament law that made them ritually unclean. More than that, if they then touched someone or something else then the person or thing touched would become unclean too.

Again think of dirt. Think of a white wall or a white shirt. If someone with dirty hands touches it, it will become dirty. Or to go back to the jug of clean water, just a bit of dirt will make it murky. Clean hands won't make a dirty wall or dirty shirt clean but dirty hands will make a clean shirt or a clean wall dirty.

So, as a general rule, ritual purity is not transferable. It is not contagious.

Ritual impurity, on the other hand, is transferable. It is contagious.

3. Application

Verse 14 Then Haggai said, So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,' declares the LORD. 'Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.

Just as ritual purity is not transferable, not contagious and ritual impurity is transferable, it is contagious so the sin of this people and this nation in God's sight - what they do and even whatever they offer ... is defiled. It is defiled because their sins are seeping into everything. This is the nature of sin. It is contagious. It is easily passed on. Yes, there is a limited sense in which holiness can be contagious, it is true, it can be caught but not like sin can be. When we sin we must realise that and remember how easily it is passed on.

When a person has a highly contagious disease then great efforts are made to keep it from being passed on. Sometimes a well person is placed in quarantine to prevent contagion. Think of the way they isolate people sick with ebola, say.

Now sin is infectious or contagious, we ought to remember. When we say that we mean that it is likely to spread or influence others, often in a rapid manner. The people had begun to build the Temple, which was good but it was not going to mean some automatic sort of blessing. Same for us - simply being a Christian, praying, coming to church does not mean automatic blessing. Our sins are much more likely to spread. We are all more likely to lead people astray than to do them good, if we do not take care. A sobering thought.

2. More promises of present blessing

This is not all that Haggai has to say in this prophecy. From verse 15 he is more positive. In verses 15-17 he says to the people "'Now give careful thought to this from this day on - consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD's temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,' declares the LORD.

Up until this point everything has been going wrong. What he says here is similar to what we have in Chapter 1:6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Also there (1:7) is the same phrase as we find here in verse 15 - This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways."

So once again we say we must give careful thought to our ways. Think of how when we sin it so often leads to trouble for us - not uniformly, it is true, but again and again we see that same pattern.

All that was about to change for the Jews. Why? Because they had given up their rebellion and begun again to serve the Lord by starting again to build the Temple. That is why he says (18, 19) 'From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit. "'From this day on I will bless you.'"

He is urging them to look out for the blessings that will surely come, now they have committed themselves to the work of the Lord. They can date it from this very day. At this point there was no seed left, it had all been sown and the vines, fig trees, pomegranates and olive trees were yet to produce their fruit. But they had no reason to be anxious. All would be well.

Now again in applying this we must be careful. Under the old covenant things were more this worldly. There are definite promises of earthly blessing for obedience and earthly troubles for disobedience. It is very clear in Deuteronomy 28. If you obey (3ff)

You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you .....

If you disobey (verses 16ff)

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish, etc, etc, etc.

The new covenant is much more spiritual in its arrangements and so we cannot always be sure that obedience will bring the same material rewards. (Even in the Old Testament that was true to some extent, hence the Book of Job).

Here is a great promise of present blessing, however, if we are obedient. Do what is pleasing to God. You will not regret it.

3. More promises of future blessing

In the final verses of the book we read that The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month:

This time the message is (21, 22) "Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother."

We have had something like that already back in verses 6,7a This is what the LORD Almighty says: In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations,

The promise there is quite a general one. God is going to do something. He is going to act. Often the coming of God is described as him shaking things up. Here is the promise of the whole world being shaken up.

In 2:21, 22 there is more. God says he will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother. Like Sodom and Gomorrh the nations will be overturned, like the Canananites they will shattered, like the Egyptians God will overthrow their chariots and their drivers. The nations will fall, each by the sword of his brother as in the confusion God brought in the time of the Judges and later.

That is exactly what has happened with the coming of Christ. At this time the Persians were in power but soon aftr this it would be the Greeks beginning with Alexander the Great's amazing transformation of things. The Romans would come next and then the Messiah would come and everything would change.

The more explicit reference to Messiah is found in verse 23 "'On that day,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the LORD, 'and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the LORD Almighty."

This takes us back in part to Jeremiah 22 and the prophecy there against the wicked King Jehoiachin. There we read

You who live in 'Lebanon,' who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labour! "As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear - Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians. I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.

God, as it were, pulled off the signet ring - the sign of his authority and ownership - in the case of Jehoiachin but now in the case of Zerubbabel he puts him on.

What is the message? Not that Darius the Persian King is to be overthrown but that there is a coming Messiah, a chosen one who God calls my servant who will be owned by God and have his authority and be effective.

This is Psalm 2. God will rebuke the nations in his anger and terrif(y) them in his wrath, saying, "I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain."

What a glorious future Haggai pictures for the returned exiles. We do not see all of what he spoke of but the main part is already done and there is reason to rejoice. God has put on his signet ring Christ and he has begun to act.

The very last phrase in the book is the LORD Almighty. Haggai uses it every two or three verses, fourteen times all told. Never forget the LORD Almighty. With him all will be well.