If you have been following me then you know I have been spending a great deal of time in the Old Testament. God has been showing me, as I said the other day, that history truly does repeat itself. And the path that Israel walked down is now the path of the majority of the church today. He has been giving me example after example that reflect where the church finds itself on the cusp of His return. Well, Sunday morning was no exception.
Hag 2:13-14 And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
The prophet Haggai was charged by God to once again challenge Israel for their unfaithfulness, and in this verse their hearts were challenged by their actions, which they believed would be blessed but were in fact just “religion” in the eyes of the Lord. Israel was in the midst of beginning to rebuild the Temple and they hoped that their effort would automatically make them holy before the Lord. They thought the “holiness” of the Temple could be transferred to them… because of their effort. God’s answer through Haggai proved just the opposite. God saw all their effort as “unclean” (foul in a moral sense; defiled; polluted; utterly unclean). God’s response to Israel is the same one He is making to the church today. Only those who are “cleansed” can serve God with clean hands and hearts. Without these, their gifts to God, no matter how costly or how frequently they are given, are unclean.
Sadly, many today are like Israel in Haggai’s time. They believe that their work in the church will bring the sanctification that can only come from the Lord. He is the One who calls, chooses, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies. The mistake being made today is that somehow our work, our attendance, our singing, etc. are what sanctifies us. Dr. Walter Kaiser summed it up well… This trust in ritualism to remedy and atone for unsanctified hearts was an anathema [loathed] in the Old and New Testaments. And it’s true today as it was for Israel in 520 BC; external religion is not a substitute for true repentance of the heart. Religious works that aren’t the result of our faith in the Lord have no effect in maturing us spiritually. Israel tainted her sacrifices and works by her disbelief and by reducing her worship to mere “functionalism.” She ignored the fact that righteousness can’t come from what you do for the Lord; it comes from what the Lord does in your heart.
We need to ask ourselves, what are the motives behind our works, our service, our worship? What does our walk with the Lord look like from His perspective…. not ours? Our we just going through the motions or are we truly serving Him with our heart, walking in faith? We need to carefully examine our motives and then consider the words of God through Haggai…
Hag 2:15 And now, carefully consider from this day forward…
It’s not only “up” to us… it is “required” of us. If nothing seems to be working in your life, you need to ask yourself some serious questions and be prepared to answer them truthfully. Are you just practicing “religion” or are you walking with your bridegroom? Do you really and truly understand and act upon what it means to Wake Up And Rest in a relationship with Jesus? I have to ask myself those questions all the time, and sometimes I don’t like the answers I get. But thank God for 1 John 1:9 and Zech 4:6.
It might be a good time to pause and carefully consider from this day forward!