When is the right time to build a new church building?

(Vv. 7-9). For the second time the LORD exhorts 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. Nevertheless, the LORD says to this feeble remnant, "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified says the LORD."

As with the remnant of old, so with ourselves, the low spiritual condition that we so often have to mourn, is the outcome of doing our own pleasure and seeking our own glory. Self-will and self-importance lie at the root of our failure. Nevertheless, is it not the deepest joy and encouragement to know that, in a day of weakness, and in spite of all our failure, it is still possible to judge our ways and do that in which God can take pleasure and, through which, God can be glorified?

It was then to meet this condition of things that the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house to lie waste?" etc. (vv. 4-11.) Every word of this message is fraught with instruction, and contains principles of the utmost value, applicable to the people of God at all times. They had said, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. "Is it time, then," said the prophet, "for you to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house to lie waste?" This was indeed a challenge for their hearts, and one that raised an issue that could not by any ingenuity be evaded. For on what ground could they pretend that it was an opportune moment to give the preference to their own interests, to the neglect of the Lord's claims? The secret lay in the fact that building and decorating their own houses raised no opposition. Doing good to themselves would rather elicit the commendation of their adversaries. It is only testimony for the Lord — testimony in word, work, and life — that provokes the hostility of the world. They had chosen therefore the path of selfish ease and self-interest, minding their own things, and not the things of the Lord. They knew nothing of the spirit of the psalmist who "sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." (Ps. 132.) They were rather like those of whom Amos speaks, who lay upon beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches … but were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. (Amos 6.) For not only were they diligent in caring for their own comfort, but they were also indifferent to the fact that the Lord's house was lying waste. God's eye and heart were upon His house (see 2 Chr. 6:28); their thoughts were upon their own habitations, and they thus showed that they were utterly out of communion with the mind and heart of God.

Hence to carry forward the house of God could be easily deferred to a more convenient season, though urgent call was for their own wants as men — their ceiled houses. "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little." There was diligence for themselves; but there was the result, and what? "Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm." Thus bitter disappointment, as always, must be in the people of God who live for themselves instead of confiding in Him who specially looks after the faithful. Our business is to care for His things; His gracious work is to care for us in our and indeed in all things. "And he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes." In every way there was vexation for the selfish heart. In grace there is another call to consider their ways. The first was to reprove them; the second is to encourage and exhort them. "Thus says Jehovah of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says Jehovah. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? said Jehovah of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house."

The subject of this prophetic word by Haggai might lead us to observe how perfect in their seasons the divine thoughts and purposes are, though so various and different. David proposed to build a house for the ark of God, a house of cedars, costly and stable, but the word of a prophet forbad him; the time had not come. There would have been moral unfitness in the ark taking its rest before Israel had reached theirs; or seating itself in a sure dwelling-place in a land as yet unpurged of the blood of the sword of battle. But in the day of Haggai, we find the contrary of all this. Israel are rebuked by a prophet for not building the house of the Lord. David erred in saying that the time had come for such a work; the returned captives now err in saying that the time had not come. And the Spirit of the Lord knew the times, and what Israel ought to do, whether to build or not to build. "God is a rock. His work is perfect." He is true, though every man be a liar.

Mistakes of this kind are very old mistakes. David was erring this way when he purposed to build a house for the Lord; but it was an error, though committed with a right desire of the heart. The time had not come for building the Lord a house because the Lord had not yet built David a house. The land was still defiled with blood: and till it was cleansed there was no place for the rest and kingdom of the Lord. David therefore greatly erred, yet not through double-mindedness but through ignorance. David's error was this, that the Lord could take His throne in the earth before the earth was purged. The servants in the parable erred on the other hand in this, that the church was made the instrument of purging the earth or the world.

Elisha let them have their way and graciously went with them, just as we know today that the Lord often blesses those who are building in their own way. It was not Elisha who suggested or directed this project, though he did not oppose it. But rather than ambitiously building for ourselves, is it not wiser to be content with what the Lord Jesus says, "On this Rock I will build My church" (Mt.16:18)? Since believers are a vital part of His church, it is inconsistent of us to be building another church. Yet in the Lord's sovereign wisdom and grace, He does give His blessing to those who have some good motives, though mixed with selfish motives.

“The assembly which is in thine house”

There are fourteen such assemblies referred to in the New Testament and nine of these references are outside the book of Acts. It would appear that the use of domestic buildings for assembly meetings persisted for a long time. Nowhere in the New Testament are special buildings for Christian worship called for. An apparently incidental remark in our second verse shows how much has changed in relation to the present testimony.

The practice of the early church coincided with and confirms this principle. For those who had boldness to enter into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, the Great Priest over the house of God, what mattered the mere place of assembling themselves together? Alas! indeed, that a place of earthly splendour must cloud the truth and moral glory of the cross. An upper room, a private house, however obscure the quarter, or (if occasion required as here) 'the school of Tyrannus', any place, small or great, according to the exigencies of the time, sufficed for the assembly. If numbers grew in a large town, they might for convenience meet in many rooms, but never so as to jeopard the characteristic truth that it was 'the church', not 'churches', in that town. Where unity is abandoned, save for the foundations, it is no longer God's church, but man's.

In our pilgrimage let us be content to hire a needed room or building. To pay the rent is the witness that we are content with a tent and an altar in spirit. Let those who do not wait for Christ possess and build for ever. What if there be difficulty here or there? Have we not God to lean on and expect from? Is there not brotherly kindness on the part of those who have to help those who have not? Besides, those who walk in a spirit separate from the world have far fewer claims than those who love the world and its things. Rare will it be that they cannot pay the rent of a suitable room. In the case of a very few, has no one the grace to the use of a private room? How much true worship has often gone up thence? How many souls have therein heard and received the word of life, to say nothing of the open air and its almost unlimited opportunities?

He has to help in the provision of a suitable place to meet in, and for the proper upkeep thereof, that all may be done decently and in order, and he will help as to this those who have no means, but he himself will benefit, though the expenditure is for the Lord.