God’s appeal could not be more obvious “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail m all the labors of your hands, yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord” (Hag 2:17)
A great principle
Of all the great principles of the law, one of the greatest was national blessing for national obedience, national calamity for national sin The words had been written on stones standing erect on Mount Ebal “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee” The great list of calamities followed (Deut 27:11 to end of chapter 28), including “blasting” and “mildew” (Deut 28:22)
Temporal exact retribution is not God’s pattern on an individual basis and never has been Righteous Abel died for his faith, Joseph suffered long m spite of great integrity, David fled before disobedient Saul, the wicked today may prosper as the green bay tree while the children of God are guaranteed chastening for the development of their characters But on a national level, Israel could tell its standing with God by the national blessings or calamities which marked its year.
God’s anger was obvious
These people should have known — ever since they had turned from building the house of God to satisfying their own wants, trouble had come “Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from fruit And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountain “(Hag 1:9-11) Nothing could be clearer if they were disobedient, “thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron The Lord shall make the ram of thy land powder and dust” (Deut 28:23-24)
Yet the people would not heed
They looked for an excuse
The problem began when the returned exiles stopped working on rebuilding the temple As soon as opposition arose to their work, they concocted the excuse that maybe “The time is not come, the tune that the LORD’s house should be built”, so they turned every man to his own house (Hag 1:2).
From our perspective, it is perfectly clear Jeremiah’s prophecies were fulfilled m the declaration of Cyrus urging the people to return from Babylonian captivity and build the temple of the Lord (Ezra 11-4) Just so in our days it’s perfectly clear that the creation of Israel heralds Christ’s soon return Maybe the people did lose their perspective for a while, the same as we sometimes do Yet the national calamities spoke to them with no ambiguity at all For 15 years it could be said “Ye have sown much, and bring m little, ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink, ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Hag 1:6)
Were there no priests?
Where were the priests? There were plenty of them, with many priests and Levites among the 43,000 men plus women and children In fact, Joshua, the high priest, was co-leader along with Zerubbabel.
Didn’t they know the law? Of course, they did, right down to the finest minutia “Ask now the priest concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh m the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No” (Hag 2:11-12) This really is remarkable the relevant laws (Ex 29:37, 30:29, Lev 6:27) are not detailed about transferable holiness Touching the altar or sacrificial flesh would transfer holiness to any person or thing, but nothing is said about the newly sanctified object being able to further transfer this condition beyond itself The priests had rightly inferred silence was significant and had come to the right conclusion They knew this detail of the law.
“Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean” (Hag 2:13) Remarkable again! The right answer is found in only one obscure verse “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even” (Num 19:11,22) Defilement was more readily transferable than holiness Direct contact with the source of defilement transferred contamination, and this newly defiled person could themselves pass it along, and so on This might be a one verse detail, but the priests immediately knew the right answer.
If minutiae why not principles?
If they knew the detail of the law, what about the great principles? How could they possibly miss that the national calamities meant national sin? Surely they would realize the excuse — “the time has not come” — was declared invalid by God How could they let a feeble excuse blind them to a great principle?
We should have some sympathy for the problem To a greater or lesser extent, we know Bible details but m-valid excuses can blind us to divine principles For example
- Forgiveness is a primary principle yet sometimes we fail to exercise it with our partners, parents or children Why? because they’re family and we’ve been hurt too much, too often How could people who know details of the gospel make such a flimsy excuse?
- Faith is the basis of our standing in grace, yet we may readily forsake it when God’s way is not obvious in our life How could we know the covenants from Eden on and forget that the whole meaning of faith is to believe God is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, even when trouble comes?
- Believers committed to the gospel must not be treated as non-believers Everybody knows that because Christ said “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13 35) With the principle so clear, how do we ever excuse strife, envy or disinterest?
Contamination by association
It’s not hard to picture the priests absorbed m the minutia of the law while missing great principles In an agricultural society, people were constantly exposed to defilement from dead animals If contact rendered them unclean for seven days, they could not present sacrifices or even extend hospitality without defiling whatever they touched, which in turn defiled whoever it touched Endless discussions would occur as to where the transfer would end and where a line of cleanness would begin.
Yet all that talk was about ritual defilement when they were living in the midst of real defilement caused by the covetousness and disinterest of the people Every work of their hands, even good works, was rendered of no account because they were walking in sin.
Here is the Bible definition of contamination by association It has nothing to do with worship while associated with a believer whose teachings or conduct are questionable1
Instead it exposes as useless the good works done by those walking in darkness Around us we see people seeking redemption by donations taken from money earned through a life of greed and exploitation Such actions will not absolve one from a life lived apart from God.
“If we walk m the light, as he is m the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7) and then the sacrifices of our lips and the works of our hands are pleasing to God But if we walk in iniquity, even our good deeds are contaminated.
We may know many details of scripture, but with these reflections before us, let us never forget the great principles of godliness which should guide our lives in the way.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One