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."