Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?
The people had laid the temple's foundations, then let the work stop while they finished comfortable homes of their own. God's question through Haggai is not about timing. It asks what their building and decorating show about what they love.
The word describes more than bare shelter.
Covering the roof of a room with wood, shaped into patterns. Some panels were fir, as in 2 Chronicles 3:5; others were cedar, and painted.
The timeline makes the contrast sharper. Something had to fill the years when the work stood still.
After the first burst of enthusiasm, when the people were as one man, they lose confidence in God's power and the work stops. Fifteen years go by. Only the foundations of the temple have been laid. All building has come to a halt. During these long years the people have to be doing something. And when the Lord no longer has His place in the heart, what fills a person's time if not his own interests?
The people had said the time had not come to build. The prophet turns their own words back on them.
They had begun well, as we read in Ezra 3, when they set the altar on its bases. But now they had given up that effort. Their interest in the one thing had faded, and selfish aims took their place. They were living in luxurious houses, while His house lay neglected and in ruins. So their empty excuse was shown to be insincere.
The history seems to say that enemies stopped the work. One writer compares the dates in the prophets and blames the returned exiles — the remnant — themselves.
I have examined the prophecies that throw so much light on the history of that time, and I have compared their dates. From this it seems clear to me that the true hindrance was a lack of faith in the remnant… They did not start building again because the king's decree reached them. They started again because they feared the Lord and did not fear the king's command, as seeing Him who is invisible. God was no more to be feared in the reign of Darius than in the reign of Cyrus or Artaxerxes. Their weakness came from having forgotten God.
There is a reason the private project advanced while the public one stalled.
How could they claim this was a good moment to put their own interests first and neglect the Lord's claims? The secret was simple: building and decorating their own houses raised no opposition. Doing good to themselves would sooner win the approval of their enemies. Only testimony for the Lord — in word, work, and life — stirs up the hostility of the world. So they had chosen the path of selfish ease and self-interest, minding their own things, and not the things of the Lord.
The verses that follow show the outcome of the arrangement they had chosen.
They were diligent for themselves. And what was the result? "You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm." Bitter disappointment, as always, must be the portion of God's people who live for themselves instead of trusting Him who takes special care of the faithful. Our business is to care for His things. His gracious work is to care for us in our own things, and indeed in all things.
Another writer asks who made the holes in the bag.
In Haggai's day the people were living in paneled houses, while the house of God lay in ruins. Self was uppermost, but God was watching over His people. His hand was on them, so we read, "He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes." How did the holes get there? I believe the Lord cut them.
The same question reaches us. One writer names what our excuses hide.
Whatever excuses we make about the time not being right, the real reason we neglect the principles of God's house is that we are taken up with our own things. Even in the Apostle's day we read of believers that "they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 2:21). One has said, "It is an inevitable alternative that we must be occupied either with the Lord's things, or with our own."
- Excuse. They said the time had not come. God's question points to what they had found time to build. That showed the excuse was insincere.
- Cause. The work stopped because faith was weak, not because enemies were strong. Their weakness came from having forgotten God.
- Comfort. Their own houses went up with no opposition. Only testimony for the Lord stirs up the world's hostility, so self-interest is the cheaper road.
- Cost. They ate and drank and were never satisfied. Those who live for themselves instead of trusting Him meet bitter disappointment. One writer says the Lord Himself cut the holes in their bag.
- Choice. The choice is unavoidable: either the Lord's things fill our time, or our own do. There is no third house.
And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts Consider your ways.
These words come to people who had returned from exile to rebuild God's house. They left it in ruins and finished their own homes instead. So before God tells them to do anything, He tells them to think.
The Hebrew behind "consider your ways" is not a mild suggestion to reflect. It asks for the heart, not just the mind. And it points them to what their own experience already showed.
Then comes the exhortation to consider their ways (literally: set your heart upon your ways). Had it been profitable for them? No. Ever since they stopped building His house, bitter disappointment had been their lot. All their self-seeking brought them no gain, but steady loss.
Verse 5 turns God's charge against them into a demand for self-examination. The subject is the clash between our own interests and His.
After this solemn appeal to the conscience comes the exhortation, "Consider your ways." God asks the remnant, as He asks us, to consider one thing. What comes of being taken up with our own things and our own soul's blessing, while we neglect the deeper interests of the LORD and the things that concern His glory?
God does not leave them guessing what to examine. The next verse lists what their hard work produced. Each loss there has a spiritual meaning too.
The result then, as now, shows in the words, "You have sown much, and harvested little" — great activity but little return. Moreover, this neglect of the house of God leads to spiritual starvation, for, says the prophet, "You eat, but you never have enough." Again, it brings no spiritual satisfaction: "you drink, but you never have your fill." It leaves the spiritual affections cold: "You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm." And it carries no reward: "he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes."
They had explanations ready for the shortfall.
No doubt they blamed the recession, the political instability of the time, the abnormal weather conditions. It never occurred to them that God was trying to get through to them.
The strange thing is that these people were not lazy. They worked hard — for themselves — and still came up empty. One writer connects that outcome to a principle Jesus taught.
As our own blessed Lord taught, "Whoever would save his life will lose it," so it was with the remnant. They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and so they lost it, for they had left God out of the account. They made themselves, and not God, their object. They put their own things first and grew indifferent to His honour, claims, and interests. So they forfeited the very blessings they worked for.
The same writer explains what God was aiming at.
In this way God dealt with them, to exercise their souls, to wean them from their selfish aims, and to recall them to the purpose for which He had brought them back to their own land. He wanted them to lose sight of themselves and find their blessing in fellowship with the mind and heart of God.
The danger here is self-deception. We assume all is well while God's hand is already correcting us. So this weighing must be constant, and done in one place.
Considering our ways in the presence of God should in fact be our constant, everyday work. There all delusions disappear. There, in the pure light of His holy presence, the secrets of the inmost heart come to light. And there alone we discern our true condition and our failures, and receive grace to judge ourselves by the infallible standard of God's glory. So, confessing our sins, we enter once again upon the enjoyment of forgiveness and restoration.
The same command comes back later in the book, pointed at something new.
The frequent occurrence of the word "Consider" in this short prophecy is worth noting. Twice in the first section the prophet had to say to the people, "Consider your ways." In this later section the word comes three times. Now the prophet says in effect, "Consider God's ways." He is glad to recognise any measure of energy and faithfulness in His service, even when uncleanness and failure are mixed with it. And He delights to answer it with blessing.
- Consider — the word means "set your heart upon your ways." God asks for the heart's attention, not a passing glance.
- Consider the cost — work aimed at ourselves came back empty. Sowing without harvest, eating without fullness, wages in a bag with holes.
- Consider the cause — they had left God out of the account. They put their own things first, and lost the very blessings they worked for.
- Consider often — do this weighing in God's presence. There delusions vanish, and confession opens the way back to forgiveness and restoration.
- Consider God's ways — later the same word turns outward. He is glad to recognise even faltering faithfulness and answer it with blessing.
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes.
The people had come back from exile. They worked hard, yet nothing they earned stayed with them, and Haggai lists their losses one by one before naming the cause.
The verse is not one complaint said four times. Each phrase marks a different emptiness, and each one has a match in the soul.
The result then, as now, comes out in the words, "You have sown much, and harvested little" — great activity but little return. This neglect of the house of God also leads to spiritual starvation, for the prophet says, "You eat, but you never have enough." It brings no spiritual satisfaction: "You drink, but you never have your fill." It leaves the spiritual affections cold: "You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm." And it carries no reward: "He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes."
Nobody in Haggai's day was lazy. They aimed all their energy at their own comfort while God's house lay in ruins.
There was diligence for themselves; but what was the result? Bitter disappointment, as always, must come to the people of God who live for themselves instead of trusting the One who especially looks after the faithful. Our business is to care for His things; His gracious work is to care for us in our own things and indeed in all things.
A leaking bag looks like ordinary wear and tear. But where did the damage come from?
I believe it is often proved with us, as you find it stated of Israel in Haggai's day. They were living in panelled houses, and the house of God was lying waste. Self was uppermost, but God was watching over His people. His hand was on them, and so we read, "He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes." How did the holes get there? I believe the Lord cut them.
They lost the very thing they were working for. The Lord's own teaching names that pattern.
As our own blessed Lord taught, "Whoever would save his life will lose it," so it was with the remnant. They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and they lost it, for they had left God out of the account. They made themselves, and not God, their object. They put their own things first and grew indifferent to His honour, claims, and interests. So they forfeited the very blessings they were working for... Let us never forget that there is such a thing as a present judgment of God. He notices the conduct of His people. As a Father, in His government and care, He deals with them according to their state of heart. He dealt with them this way to exercise their souls, to wean them from their selfish aims, and to call them back to the purpose for which He had brought them home.
A shrinking income always has an explanation ready to hand.
They earned good money, but it trickled away as in a bag full of holes. No doubt they blamed the recession, the political instability of the time, the abnormal weather conditions. It never occurred to them that God was trying to get through to them.
The verse sits under the command to consider their ways. That call is the way out, not just the accusation.
Again, the Lord calls His people to consider their ways. This is blessed work for His saints at all times. We always tend to deceive ourselves into believing that all is well, above all in times of decline. It can be so even when we may be under the chastening hand of God for our unfaithfulness... Considering our ways in the presence of God should in fact be our constant and habitual work. There all delusions disappear; there, in the pure light of His holy presence, the secrets of the inmost heart are revealed.
- Sown — They sowed much and brought in little. The problem was not a lack of effort. It was the direction of that effort.
- Starved — Food, drink, clothes and wages each fail in turn. Neglecting God's house starves the soul in the same four ways.
- Cut — The holes in the bag were not accidental. God's hand was on His people while self stayed uppermost.
- Forfeited — They put their own things first and lost the very blessings they were working for. Whoever would save his life will lose it.
- Considered — The remedy is the call itself. Consider your ways in God's presence, where self-deception cannot survive.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts Consider your ways.
God's people had come back from exile to rebuild His house. But the work had stopped, and they built their own homes instead. Now the same short command they had already heard in verse 5 comes a second time — and the repetition is the point.
God gives the call twice in this chapter, and the two calls differ in aim. William Kelly reads the first as a rebuke and the second as an invitation forward:
There was diligence for themselves; but what was the result? Bitter disappointment must always come to the people of God who live for themselves instead of trusting Him who especially looks after the faithful. Our business is to care for His things; His gracious work is to care for us in our things, and indeed in all things... In grace there is another call to consider their ways. The first was to reprove them; the second is to encourage and exhort them.
The command asks for more than a passing thought. One writer gives the word's literal sense:
God appeals five times to the Jews to consider their ways. The word literally means "to concentrate one's heart upon something," because man makes his decisions in the heart. These passages are in chapter 1:5, 7; 2:15, 18, 19.
The "ways" in question had left visible marks — full effort, thin returns. Hamilton Smith takes each line of verse 6 in turn:
The result then, as now, comes out in the words, "You have sown much, and harvested little" — great activity but little return. Moreover, this neglect of the house of God leads to spiritual starvation, for, says the prophet, "You eat, but you never have enough." Again, it brings no spiritual satisfaction: "You drink, but you never have your fill." It leaves the spiritual affections cold: "You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm." And it carries no reward: "He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes."
Left alone, a people under God's discipline will conclude that nothing is wrong:
Again, the Lord calls His people to consider their ways. This is a blessed occupation for His saints at all times. The tendency always exists — especially in times of decline — to deceive ourselves into believing that all is well. That can happen even when we are under the chastening hand of God for our unfaithfulness. Heeding this call would spare us many an evil, many a breakdown, many a startling outbreak of sin among God's people. We should consider our ways in God's presence constantly. There all delusions disappear, and the secrets of the deepest heart come to light. Only there, seeing our true condition and failures, can we receive grace to judge ourselves by the infallible standard of God's glory.
The failure was not laziness. These people worked hard — for themselves. Edward Dennett applies the pattern to Christians today:
They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and they lost it, because they had left God out of the account... How common this mistake is even among Christians... You may see a child of God who is always absent from the gatherings of the saints, because of his family or business claims, as he will tell you. He has hardly any heart for the Lord's objects. He is dried up in his own soul, has little peace in his family, and not much prosperity in his affairs. And why? Not because he neglects his own concerns; as we have seen, those come first in his mind. No — it is because he is caring for his own things while indifferent to the desolation of the house of God.
The call to consider does not stop at self-examination. The next verse tells them what to do, and Dennett shows what that work was for:
They had set their hearts on their own houses, and the Lord, as it were, says to them, "My heart is on My house. Go up therefore to the mountain, and bring the wood, and build the house."... We learn from this that the true way to glorify God is to be in fellowship with His own mind. It is not found in activities we may choose, however good they are in themselves. It is not found in works of kindness and charity, however much they ease the needs and sorrows of others. It is found in working for the object God has before Him at any given time.
- Consider. The word asks you to fix your heart on something, not glance at it. God repeats the appeal five times in this short book.
- Twice. The first call convicts; the second, in the same words, encourages them to pick up the work again.
- Evidence. Much sown and little harvested; food that never satisfies; wages in a bag with holes. God puts these facts in front of them to weigh.
- Self-deception. In times of decline we tell ourselves all is well. Considering our ways in God's presence kills that delusion, so we can judge ourselves.
- Build. The considering has a destination. God's heart is on His house. We glorify Him by working for what He has before Him, not for goals we choose ourselves.
Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith Jehovah.
God speaks here to a people He had brought back from exile to rebuild His house. They had stopped, and set their hearts on their own houses instead. This verse does more than rebuke them. It gives them a job to do, and attaches a promise to it.
God tells this people twice to consider their ways. The two calls do different work.
For the second time the LORD urges the remnant to consider their ways. The first time it was in the way of reproof; now it is to encourage them to resume the work of the house of God. We know that then, as now, it was a day of small things. As we shall see, the house they built was "as nothing" compared with the former glory of the house. Yet to this feeble remnant the LORD says: go up, bring wood, build the house. He promises that He will take pleasure in it and that He will be glorified.
They had set their hearts on their own houses. God answers by telling them where His heart is — and that settles what work is worth doing.
They had set their hearts on their own houses, and the Lord, as it were, says to them, "My heart is on My house. So go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house." This was the object of their restoration. The Lord would still have them share the privilege of fellowship with His own purposes. He even stoops to say that He will take pleasure in it and that He will be glorified. By building the house, they would draw out the satisfaction of His heart and lift up His name. We learn from this that the true way to glorify God is to be in fellowship with His own mind. It is not the activities we may choose, however good they are in themselves. It is not works of kindness and philanthropy, however much they relieve the wants and sorrows of others. It is labouring for the object God has before Him at any given time.
This was a small work with little material. Commentators set it beside the temple Solomon built.
It is good to think that a few faithful hearts, with everything against them, would still build a house for God. Solomon had plenty of material in his day. But God probably found more pleasure in the devotion of these few faithful hearts than in the days of Solomon's temple.
Writers apply the same command to the church. God's people are the ones who carry the material.
God expects His people to make the church visible to all, by bringing materials suitable for her construction. The Holy Spirit uses the evangelist, pastors and teachers to build the church. But we would badly deceive ourselves if we thought that evangelising alone adds souls to the building. It is one of the main instruments. Yet this work needs all the gifts working together. More than that, every witness of Christ is responsible to bring noble and living material to the house of God.
The verse ends with two promises about God Himself. Commentators see the building as a picture of worship.
The Lord declares that He will take pleasure in it and that He will be glorified. How kindly He longs for His people to be wholehearted and fully devoted to Himself. It is in worship, pictured by the building of the house, that we glorify Him. It is worshippers the Father seeks, worshippers in spirit and in truth (John 4).
Commentators trace this failure to its root. Then they point past it.
As with the remnant of old, so with ourselves. The low spiritual condition we so often have to mourn comes from doing our own pleasure and seeking our own glory. Self-will and self-importance lie at the root of our failure. Still, is it not the deepest joy and encouragement to know this? In a day of weakness, and despite all our failure, we can still judge our ways. We can still do what pleases God and what brings Him glory.
- Consider — the same call that first exposed their neglect now sends them back to work. God's second word to a failing people encourages; it does not only reprove.
- Go up — His heart is on His house, so the way to glorify Him is not the good work we pick, but the work He has before Him now.
- Bring wood — plain material carried by a weak people. The devotion of a few faithful hearts may please Him more than all Solomon's plenty.
- Build — no one is a spectator; every witness of Christ is responsible to bring living material to the house of God.
- And He is glorified — He promises His pleasure and His name lifted up, and the promise still stands after real failure.
Ye looked for much, and behold it was little; and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it. Wherefore? saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste, whilst ye run every man to his own house.
The exiles were back in their land and settled in their own homes, while God's house — the temple — still lay in ruins. Their harvests kept failing, and in this verse God names the reason Himself.
The people were not lazy. All that effort went into their own affairs.
There was diligence for themselves; but what was the result? Bitter disappointment must always come to the people of God who live for themselves instead of trusting Him who especially looks after the faithful. Our business is to care for His things; His gracious work is to care for us in our things, and indeed in all things.
"I blew it away" makes God the cause of the shortfall. That is what the people never suspected.
They had returned to the promised land. God had been faithful and gracious to them, but they were settling down in comfort while God's house still lay waste. No wonder things went wrong! God's word to them, and perhaps also to us, is "Consider your ways." They earned good money, but it trickled away as if into a bag full of holes. No doubt they blamed the recession, the political instability of the time, the abnormal weather conditions. It never occurred to them that God was trying to get through to them.
God asks "Why?" and then answers His own question, so no one has to guess at the cause of the drought.
In the next three verses (9-11) the Lord reminds the people that He is chastening them because of their indifference to His house. God was drying up the source of every earthly blessing. He "blew" upon their crops and withheld the dew. He called for a drought on the land, the mountains, the grain, and everything the earth produced. The drought fell on men, on cattle, and on all the work of their hands. And why did He send this universal blight upon all their work and all their expectations? Let us write the answer on our hearts: "Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house." Is there no voice in these words for believers today? God is still God, and He has His objects now as He had then. If His objects are not ours, is it any wonder that we suffer from spiritual drought and barrenness?
The excuse was that the time had not come. What was filling the time instead?
We may excuse ourselves by saying the time is not right. But the real reason for indifference to the principles of God's house is that we are occupied with our own things. Even in the Apostle's day we read of believers that "they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 2:21). One has said, "It is an unavoidable alternative — we must be occupied either with the Lord's things or with our own."
So whose house are we building?
Notice, too, that our own houses often come into competition with the Lord's house... So we need to think much about this truth: all our "building" is completely in vain unless we do it as the Lord's work.
The lost harvest was discipline, not rejection.
Many among us feel ashamed, and with good reason, at the exaggerated importance we attach to our own things. Meanwhile the interests of the house of God — the church of the living God — occupy so little of our attention. The Lord often shows us where we fall short. He lets us see that even with all our concern for self we still miss what we aimed at... The Lord deals with His people on a principle of retributive justice. These words express it: "whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). This way of dealing takes nothing from the believer's perfect acceptance in his person through grace. It does not touch his standing in grace either.
The blight was never the last word. The moment the priorities changed, the message changed with them.
Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the remnant of Israel came back from captivity in weakness. They at once busied themselves with God's house. They set up the altar as their protection, and then they laid the foundation of the house. But opposition discouraged them, they stopped building, and sorrow and trouble came upon them... But as soon as they began to build the Lord's house, God commissioned the prophet to say, "From this day on I will bless you."
- Cause. The poor returns were not weather, politics, or bad luck — God said He blew the harvest away, and He named the reason Himself.
- Choice. Two houses compete for one heart. Commentators call it an unavoidable choice — the Lord's things or our own.
- Cost. People who put their own interests first lose the very thing they chased; building is in vain unless it is the Lord's work.
- Care. Our business is to care for His things, and His gracious work is to care for ours — reverse the order and both suffer.
- Cure. The discipline touched their circumstances, never their acceptance. When they started building, God said, "From this day on I will bless you."
Therefore over you the heavens withhold their dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit.
This drought was not just bad weather. The word "therefore" ties the shut heaven and the barren ground back to one thing — a neglected house.
Verse 9 gave the reason; verse 10 gives the result. God no longer had a throne in Jerusalem, yet He was still dealing with His people.
A royal throne in His name as a witness to the nations was no longer the question. It was thrown down. For the time being, the throne of Jehovah was not in Zion, nor anywhere else on earth. Of course His purpose is not given up. But He still governed morally, and that is the thing now made plain... It was Jehovah who blighted their selfish efforts. He was dealing with the unbelief, and the neglect that followed it, in the remnant who had returned.
The verse names dew, not rain. In that land, dew was the difference between a harvest and dust.
Dew was the familiar sign of God's favor. It was largely what made the land fertile; without it the land would be parched and barren. Isaac uses this picture when he blesses Jacob (Gen. 27:28). Moses repeats it in his closing blessing on the tribes (Deut. 33:28). Elijah shows God's judgment on the land by declaring that no dew would fall (1 Kings 17:1).
Verse 11 widens the list. One commentator names the cause.
God was drying up the source of every earthly blessing. He "blew" on their crops and withheld the dew. He called for a drought on the land and on the mountains, on the grain, on everything the earth brought forth, on men, on cattle, and on all the labour of the hands. And why did He send this blight on all their work and all their hopes? Let us write the answer permanently on our hearts: "Because of My house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house."
Another writer puts it from God's side.
Because of their neglect — neglect of Himself and the honor of His Name, centered in the house — He could not give the blessing He is so willing to give His people.
The people were not lazy. They were busy — on themselves. That is why the harvest failed.
They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and so they lost it, because they had left God out of the account. They made themselves, and not God, their object. They put their own things first and grew indifferent to His honour, His claims, and His interests. So they forfeited the very blessings they worked for.
Withheld dew looks like rejection. One commentator is careful to say what this dealing does not touch.
The Lord deals with His people on a principle of justice that repays like for like, as these words convey: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). This way of dealing does not touch, in the least, the believer's perfect acceptance through grace, or his standing in grace. These, thank God, are settled points, and nothing can unsettle them.
The drought had a limit, and it did its work. (The words "fear before the Lord" below come from an older translation of Haggai 1:12.)
"Then the people did fear before the Lord" — note the words, "fear before the Lord." And as a gracious result the Lord said, "I am with you," and again, "My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not." He produced a better condition. True, there was drought, but they were not destroyed. God had regard to His gifts and calling. In wrath He remembered mercy.
One writer turns this into questions for us.
God is still God, and He has His objects now as He had then. If then His objects are not ours, is it any wonder that we suffer from spiritual famine and barrenness? that when we have sown much, in preaching the Word, we bring in little? that we feed constantly on what teachers give us, and still do not have enough? that we are neither "warm" nor satisfied, and that a drought seems to run right through the assembly of His saints?
- Cause — The "therefore" ties the shut heaven to the neglected house. God still "governed morally," even with His throne in Zion thrown down.
- Gift withheld — Dew was "the familiar sign of God's favor." Take it away, and the land is parched.
- Reach — The blight ran through crops, cattle, men and "all the labour of the hands." God was "drying up the source of every earthly blessing."
- Reversal — Chasing their own comfort, they "forfeited the very blessings" they worked for. A man reaps what he sows — yet his acceptance in grace stays untouched.
- Result — The drought had a limit: "there was drought, but they were not destroyed." It drove them to fear before the Lord, and God answered, "I am with you."
And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon man, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
God had held back rain and harvest from Judah, and here He says the failure was His own doing, not bad weather. That raises two questions: why He struck their ordinary work, and what the blow says about His heart toward them.
The kingdom was gone. No throne of God stood in Jerusalem. Yet the harvests still answered to Him, and one commentator explains why.
What made this all the more striking is that God was no longer maintaining His throne in Israel. Even so, He did not relax His moral government... It was Jehovah who blighted their selfish efforts. He was dealing with the unbelief of the returned remnant, and with the neglect that came from it. It was not because He did not love them, but because He did. "For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives."
The blow ran from the hills down to the cattle and then to human work. One commentator gathers the whole sweep of it, and names the reason God gave.
God was drying up the source of every earthly blessing. He "blew" on their crops and held back the dew. He called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain, on everything the earth brought forth, on men, on cattle, and on all the work of their hands. And why did He send this blight over all their work and all their expectations? Write this answer permanently on our hearts: "Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house."
The verse names the new wine among the things struck. That has raised a question about the Hebrew word behind it.
Some point to Haggai 1:11 as a stronger objection. They argue that a drought could only affect growing fruit, and so that tirosh must mean grapes, not wine. But the rest of the verse refutes this wooden literalism. If the drought could affect men, cattle and the work of their hands, why not wine and oil?
They worked hard, but they worked for themselves.
As our Lord taught, "whoever would save his life will lose it," so it was with the remnant. They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and so they lost it, because they had left God out of the account. They made themselves, and not God, their object. They put their own things first and grew indifferent to His honour, His claims, and His interests. So they forfeited the very blessings they worked for.
Another writer traces the same failure back to its root in the heart rather than to the circumstances.
The low spiritual state we so often have to mourn comes from doing our own pleasure and seeking our own glory. Self-will and self-importance lie at the root of our failure. And yet, is it not the deepest joy and encouragement to know this? In a day of weakness, and in spite of all our failure, we can still judge our ways. We can still do what God can take pleasure in, and through which He can be glorified.
The drought was severe, but it was not the end of them. It produced the fear of God, and God answered with a promise.
God called for a drought on the land, and on all the labour of their hands. Then "the people feared the Lord" — note those words, "feared the Lord." And as a gracious result the Lord said, "I am with you," and again, "My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not." He produced a better condition. True, there was drought, but not destruction. God had regard to His gifts and calling. In wrath He remembered mercy.
One writer turns the same question on readers today.
If His objects are not ours, is it any wonder that we are suffering from spiritual famine and barrenness? that when we have sown much in preaching the Word, we bring in little? that we feed constantly on what teachers give us, and still have not enough? that we are neither "warm" nor satisfied, and that a drought seems to lie over the whole assembly of His saints?
- Cause. God Himself called the drought. His moral government still worked, even after His throne in Israel had fallen.
- Reach. It touched hills, grain, wine, oil, men, cattle and all their work. God dried up the source of every blessing they lived on.
- Reason. One sentence explains it all: His house lay waste while each man ran to his own.
- Cost. They put their own things first and lost the very blessings they worked for. Self-will is the root.
- Mercy. There was drought, but not destruction. The people feared the Lord, and He answered, "I am with you."