Haggai 2:13-16 - You are unclean!

2:13,14

One could not become holy by default, but one could become defiled by default. Haggai asks the opposite question, what happens if someone who is unclean touches something does it become unclean, and the answer is yes (Lev 11:28, 22:4-7). We then get to the point of all this, “So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, and so is every work of their hands and all that they offer”. Were the people doing all this, making offerings, building the temple, in an attempt to make themselves clean, acceptable to God? If so they were completely wasting their time. For they were a defiled people, and all that they did was defiled. What?! Should they not then build the temple? Absolutely not the case. We can be the same. We can think that our giving, praying, studying, worshipping, witnessing, helping, serving makes us acceptable to God. We could not be more wrong. It makes not one jot of difference in the acceptability stakes, but we should still do all of these things.

2:15,16

Now God calls on them to consider the facts. The gospel, the Christian “religion”, is a revealed religion, it comes from God. It is based on revelation from God, not the thoughts of man. However, that does not mean it is not logical, if we look at the facts of life they are consistent with the word of God. Man’s wisdom, man’s ways, simply do not work. For instance, man has said there is no advantage in being married, living together is fine. Well the simple facts are that the breakdown and diminution of marriage has had a disastrous effect, socially and economically. Likewise, man’s current wisdom on LGBT stuff will prove to be equally disastrous. So here God reminds them that in the days before they worked on the temple nothing worked, everything produced far less than could be reasonably expected.