July 26, 2026
Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, AL
James Jackson, Pastor
Good morning! Today we come to the seventh book in our series, Short Books, Long Shadows. Please open your Bible to the book of Haggai.
Question for you: How many of you have ever seen one of these [image of TUIT on screen]. This is A Round Tuit.
The first time I ever saw one was when I was a kid and my mom asked me when I was going to clean my room. I told her I would do it whenever I got around to it. And it was like my mom had been waiting for this moment. Because as soon as I said it, she grinned mischievously and handed me one of these. And she said, “There. Now you have a round tuit. Now go clean your room.”
I learned this week that you can get these in packs of 100 with your business name and logo on them. You know who loves to hand these out? Insurance agents. Gym clubs. Dentists. The Home Depot. All those areas where people say, “Yeah, I need to fix that, or I need to take care of that, or I need to get in shape. Eventually, I’ll get…
[congregation: “Around to it.”]
So when we come to the book of Haggai, this is exactly where we find God’s people.
They had returned from exile to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. They rebuilt the altar. They laid the foundation. Then opposition arose, and the work stopped.
For sixteen years, the Temple sat unfinished.
And I’m sure they probably looked at each other and said, Of course we’ll repair the Temple… whenever we get around tuit.
And God said, “You want a round tuit? Fine. I’ll give you one”.
Let’s hear His words, from Haggai 1:1-5
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
[pray]
Now, to understand how they got to this point, we need to rewind a little.
In 586 BC, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. Solomon’s magnificent temple—the center of Israel’s worship—had been reduced to a pile of rubble, and the people had been carried away into exile.
Then something remarkable happened. In 539 BC, the Persians conquered Babylon. The following year, King Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jewish exiles to return home and rebuild the temple.
About fifty thousand of them made the long journey back to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel. They rebuilt the altar. They laid the foundation for a new temple. There was excitement. There was celebration.
But there were also tears. Ezra 3:12 tells us that many of the older men who had seen Solomon’s Temple wept aloud because they knew this new temple would never compare to the old one.
After that, the people met opposition. Ezra 4:23 says the surrounding peoples discouraged them, intimidated them, and eventually brought the project to a halt.
But then, the political situation changed. The opposition faded away. The people could have started building again.
Only, they didn’t.
Sixteen years passed.
Life happened. God’s people just got caught up in other things. They built houses. They planted crops. They started businesses. They raised families.
The temple, meanwhile, remained exactly where they had left it: unfinished.
In other words, they never got around to it.
Now listen carefully. Haggai isn’t addressing people who hated God. He isn’t preaching to idol worshipers. He’s speaking to people who had simply learned to live with God’s house in ruins.
They had a slogan:
“The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
Not, “Never.” Just… “Not yet.”
And isn’t that one of Satan’s favorite phrases?
Not yet. Maybe …
• When things settle down
• When the kids get older.
• When I’m done with this project at work.
• When I have a little more money.
• When life isn’t so hectic.
One day. But “not yet” has a way of becoming sixteen years.
That’s why Haggai opens with one of the most penetrating questions in the Old Testament:
“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
The issue wasn’t construction.
The issue was priorities.
And before we’re tempted to point fingers at ancient Israel, we should probably ask ourselves:
What in my life has been neglected because something else has taken first place?
Maybe it’s your prayer life.
Maybe it’s your marriage.
Maybe it’s your witness.
Maybe it’s your stewardship.
Maybe it’s simply your walk with God.
Haggai has one message for all of us:
Verse 5: Consider your ways.
When first things are no longer first, it’s time to consider our ways.
There’s another word we use in church for considering our ways. The word is repent.
1. Repent of misplaced priorities (Haggai 1:6-11)
Let’s continue to verse 6:
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”
Doesn’t that sound exhausting? They worked hard, but never seemed to get ahead. Every paycheck disappeared. Every harvest disappointed. Every success seemed just out of reach.
Then in verse 7, God again says:
“Consider your ways.”
It’s as if He’s saying, “Stop for a moment. Look at your life. Something isn’t right.”
Repentance always begins there. Before God asks us to change, He asks us to examine. He invites us to step back from the frantic pace of life and ask some honest questions.
How’s my soul?
What has my attention?
What has first place in my life?
At this point, Haggai isn’t connecting this to sin. He’s simply describing what their lives have become.
He’s saying, “The reason you feel like you never have enough is because you have made your first priority “more.” More crops, more food, more drink, more money.
And God says, don’t make “more” your first priority. Make Me your first priority.
Sometimes God loves us enough to frustrate the things we’ve put ahead of Him.
In verse 8, God reminds them that His work and His glory had been pushed aside. They were living for their own priorities instead of His.
That’s still our calling today—to live for the pleasure and glory of God. And when we fail to understand the assignment, He can and will frustrate our plans. Notice the subtle shift in verse 9.
“You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.”
Did you catch that? God says, I’m the one that is frustrating your plans. In verses 10-11 He goes on to say that He will withhold the rain, and the earth will withhold the produce. There will be drought and famine on the land.
Why? Because God’s house lay in ruins while the people busied themselves with their own houses.
That’s the second “consider your ways.”
For sixteen years the people had found time, money, and energy for everything except God.
Does that sound familiar? Most people who stop going to church, or stop reading their Bibles, or stop tithing to the church don’t turn their backs on God and reject Him outright.
Instead, they just get busy.
Work gets busy.
Kids get busy.
Ball gets busy.
Vacations get planned.
The house needs attention.
The yard needs mowing.
Before long, instead of worshiping with God’s people three or four times a month, you find yourself here once or twice. Instead of reading your Bible every day, it sits on the shelf except on Sundays. Instead of asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do with what You’ve entrusted to me?” we start asking, “What do I want?” Even our giving shifts. Rather than giving God the firstfruits, we give Him whatever happens to be left over.
So let me invite you to do the same thing God commanded Judah to do:
Consider your ways.
Is there anything in your life that has quietly taken first place over God?
Has your walk with Christ become something you’ll get around to… someday?
The first step in rebuilding your life is not picking up a hammer.
It’s considering your ways.
Because you can’t put first things first until you’re willing to admit they aren’t first anymore.
2. Rebuild what lies in Ruins (v. 12-15)
Repentance is never meant to stop with conviction. It always leads to obedience. Look at what happened next.
Haggai 1:12 ESV
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.”
Then, in verse 13, they get God’s encouragement: “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
Notice, God encourages them before they even sawed the first log. Verse 13: That’s grace. God doesn’t wait until there’s measurable progress before He assures them of His presence.
That’s the Gospel. God is not present with us because we are doing work for him. We are empowered for the work because God is with us. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But the same grace that forgives us also motivates us.
Twenty three days after God delivers His message through Haggai, verse 15 tells us that the people got to work.
All of them. From Zerubbabel, the chief architect, to Joshua, the high priest, to all the remnant of the people, they came together and worked in the house of the Lord.
Real repentance always produces action. It’s more than just saying you’re sorry. It’s saying, “Lord, what would you have me do now?”
For Judah, the answer was simple: Go to the hills. Bring wood. Build the house.
For us, the application will look different, but the principle is the same.
If your marriage has been neglected, don’t just apologize. Start rebuilding it. God is with you.
If your relationship with your children has drifted, don’t just feel guilty. Rebuild it. God is with you.
If your walk with Christ has become an afterthought, don’t just promise to do better someday. Open your Bible tomorrow morning. Get back into a small group. Set up a recurring donation for your tithe so that it comes out of your paycheck immediately.
God is with you.
Rebuild the habits that put God back at the center. And know that when you take that first step, God is with you.
I want to point something else out to you:
They started immediately, but they didn’t finish immediately.
Chapter 2 opens almost exactly four weeks later. They’ve been working less than a month.
Can you imagine what that construction site looked like? Some stones had been moved. Some walls had begun to rise. But it must not have looked like much, because look like much.
In fact, God asks in Haggai 2:3,
Haggai 2:3 ESV
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
The older members of the community remembered Solomon’s Temple. They remembered the gold. The grandeur. The beauty.
This new temple looked…small. Underwhelming. Disappointing. Maybe some of them wondered, “If God’s really with us, why haven’t we made more progress?
Have you ever felt that way? You repent. You begin to obey. You take the first steps.
But after a few weeks, it feels like nothing has changed. You’re still fighting the same temptation. Your marriage isn’t magically fixed. Your finances aren’t suddenly healthy. Your spiritual life still feels ordinary.
And so God reassures them of His presence.
Haggai 2:4–5 ESV
4 Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
This is the second time God has said “I am with you.” The first time was before they started building.
The second time is after they’ve been building for almost a month and they’re discouraged.
The first “I am with you” got them started.
The second “I am with you” kept them going.
God doesn’t promise that the work will be easy. He doesn’t promise they’ll rebuild Solomon’s Temple overnight.
He gives them something better.
His presence.
Sometimes we measure success by how quickly things change.
God measures faithfulness by whether we keep building.
Don’t get discouraged when progress seems slow.
Recovering addicts have a saying:
One day at a time.
One prayer. One act of obedience. One day in God’s Word. One conversation. One paycheck you tithe on.
One stone laid on top of another.
That’s how God rebuilds lives.
3. Rest in God’s Promise (2:6-9, 20-23)
So let’s get back to the story. In verses 4-5, God reassures the people that he is with them, “according to the covenant He made with them when they came out of Egypt.”
Which all sounds very encouraging. But there was still one problem. As they are looking at the construction site, some of the older people still remembered the first temple. Ezra tells us that when the foundation of this new temple was laid, many of them actually wept. They remembered the gold, the cedar, the grandeur of Solomon’s Temple. Compared to that, this looked…ordinary.
So God gives them an incredible promise.
Look at Haggai 2:6-9.
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.
Imagine standing in front of a half-finished construction site and hearing those words.How could this temple possibly be greater than Solomon’s?
The temple Zerubbabel built was modest compared to Solomon’s. Remember what Ezra said: some of the older people wept because they remembered the former temple.
Now, by Jesus’ day, King Herod had transformed this modest temple into one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world. Herod was famous for monumental building projects designed to immortalize his own name. But Haggai wasn’t talking about the glory of Herod’s architecture.
The glory wasn’t what Herod added to the temple. The glory was Who entered the temple.
Haggai foreshadows that. Skip down to verses 20-23. God says through the prophet that there will come a day when God will shake the heavens and the earth. The strength of all the kingdoms of this world will be brought to nothing. All their armies will be defeated.
Then verse 23:
Haggai 2:23 ESV
23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
Now, that probably doesn’t mean much to us at first glance. But to Zerubbabel, those words would have echoed something God had said about his own grandfather nearly eighty years earlier.
At the beginning of the exile, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to Zerubbabel’s grandfather, King Jehoiachin. He said, “Though you were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off.” (Jeremiah 22:24).
The signet ring was a symbol of the king. But because of Judah’s rebellion, it looked like the line of David had come to an end. The crown was gone. The kingdom was gone. The promise now seemed impossible to fulfill.
But now, as the people return from exile, God speaks another word to another descendant of David.
“I will make you like a signet ring.”
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel would never wear a crown. He would never reign as king.
But God was saying, “I haven’t forgotten My promise.”
And if you turn to the very first page of the New Testament, you’ll find
Matthew 1:12–13 ESV
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud…
Nine begats later, we get to verse 16: “… Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Now Haggai’s promise begins to make sense.
The latter glory of this temple wasn’t greater because it had more gold than Solomon’s.
It was greater because one day, the Son of David would walk through its courts.
The greatest glory of the temple was the presence of God, in the person of Jesus, who is called Immanuel, which means God with us.
Even Herod’s temple was ultimately destroyed. But God still is with us, because His Holy Spirit is in us. Today, believers themselves are the temple.
That’s why you can rest in God’s promises.
Response time:
Some of you walked in today looking at the unfinished places in your life.
• An unfinished marriage.
• An unfinished relationship.
• An unfinished battle with temptation.
• An unfinished walk with God.
Haggai reminds us that God specializes in unfinished things.
He wasn’t finished with the temple. He wasn’t finished with David’s family. He wasn’t finished with His people.
And because of Jesus Christ…
He isn’t finished with you.
So yes, repent of misplaced priorities.
Rebuild what lies in ruins.
But don’t carry the weight of thinking everything depends on you.
Rest in God’s promises.
Because our hope has never rested on what we can build for God.
Our hope rests on what God has already accomplished for us in Christ.
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