Help Wanted: Finding God's Help in Our Efforts
A conversation on Haggai
Today we are continuing our conversation through the book of Haggai, a super-short book that is a window into God’s words to His people. And although the words were to a specific audience, there is still so much we can gather from it, about God and how He relates to us, and about how we are to relate with Him.
I want to briefly review the context of this book again. The Israelites had been taken into exile about 90 years earlier. They lived in exile for 70 years, but Jeremiah had promised that exile would end, that God had a plan for them, that there was hope and a future.
In Ezra 1, we see that the 70 years are over and the new king, Cyrus, has released the people to go back and rebuild the temple. They go and get the foundations laid and the altar built, but when the Samaritans come and ask to help, the Israelites tell them NO. (This is a complicated moment. Jesus addresses this brokenness when He shares the parable of the Good Samaritan and also when he interacts with the Samaritan woman at the well.) This refusal turns the Samaritans from wanting to help, to wanting to hinder. They did everything they could to stop the progress and eventually succeeded. Work stopped for almost 20 years.
This is where we pick up the story of Haggai. He calls the people out right away in chapter 1, saying that some were claiming it’s not yet time to rebuild the temple and were putting fine paneling in their own homes while the temple lay in ruins. He says, “Give careful thought to your ways!”
And remarkably, they leaped into action! We talked about this last week, how part of their leaping back into action was the reality that they had been “on the bench” for 18 years. So we gave space to process the question of what we have been called to and have been on the bench about. What have we set aside? What is lying dormant? This is a valuable thing to be evaluating.
Again today, the story isn’t going to be over, but we will keep moving forward in it. As we do so, I want us to continue to keep our focus on the general call of the book: Give careful thought to your ways.
In our processing, in week one we gave a moment to just listen. Give careful thought to your ways. In week two, we focused in on what we have been called to in the past—what has grown cold. Give careful thought to your ways. This week we will give careful thought to God’s help in our ways.
Let me tell you right where we are going today. In the story, the project of rebuilding the temple has kicked off again, and it is only going okay. Their capability and resources were not going to restore the temple to what it had previously been. It was just okay. But here God declares that in a little while, HE will help take it to the next level; He will provide, beyond their capability and resources. So today, we will be looking at where our efforts fall flat and where we need God’s help, and then we will seek to walk in that “us + God” equation.
What if relationship with God comes with His help? Let me ask you a two-part question about asking for help.
What makes it difficult for someone like you to ask for help?
What obstacles arise in you in answering the question, “How can I help?”
Life comes with lots of moments where help could be helpful! But this doesn’t necessarily mean that help happens. And it’s not always because help isn’t available. Sometimes WE are the obstruction to help!
So let’s think about this for a moment. Here’s a list of 10 times when help might be helpful. I want you to go through these and write the first word that comes to mind for each one.
Starting a new project ______________
Failing at something ______________
Making plans for the weekend ______________
Receiving constructive criticism ______________
Hearing bad news ______________
You can no longer avoid a difficult conversation ______________
A friend cancels plans last minute ______________
An unexpected opportunity ______________
An unexpected challenge ______________
The state of the world ______________
Write the first word that comes to mind as you hear each of these things.
What did you write? Maybe words like these: Starting a new project: hopeful, overwhelmed, paralyzed, expectant, fearful, insecure, overconfident, confident, excited. Failing at something: ashamed, refocused, impatient, inadequate, challenged, challenged, fearful, defeated, invigorated. Making plans for the weekend: excited, overwhelmed, insecure, hopeful, stressed, aimless, focused, at peace. Receiving constructive criticism: Focused, challenged, encouraged, broken, insecure, afraid, invigorated. Hearing bad news: sad, closed off, fearful, depressed, anxious, faith, trust, desperation, hope. You can no longer avoid a difficult conversation: anxiety, opportunity, fear, hope, sweaty, angry, defensive. A friend cancels plans last minute: opportunity, loss, insecure, rest, peace, fear, sadness, relief. An unexpected opportunity: excitement, anxiety, fun, frustrated, hopeful, fear. An unexpected challenge: frozen, unsupported, frustrated, blindsided, chaotic, invigorated, pain. The state of the world: hopeful, frustrated, nostalgic, crushing, loss, depressed, optimistic, pessimistic.
Let’s process for a moment. Here are two questions that will walk us into Haggai and where we are going today. Our list of phrases were the same—moments where help might be helpful. But I’m confident that our responses were all different. I’d like to talk about this. As you look at the words you wrote,
What prompted your responses?
Now we get to the really good stuff—the foundation that will walk us into Haggai. How do those initial responses impact our ability to be helped? You can use our list of moments or think in more general terms.
How do our initial responses impact our ability to be helped?
Before we go on in Haggai, I want to look at a few times in Luke 5 where Jesus helped people.
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:12-16)
What a beautiful moment of being helped—but it came out of the most radical desperation. The man was in need, isolated, probably abandoned, hopeless, and fearful. He asked if Jesus was willing—and He was!
One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.” (Luke 5:17-26)
The paralyzed man needed help. His friends didn’t just help—they went the extra mile. Things didn’t go as they’d planned, but they didn’t let it stop them. They got their friend before Jesus, and He helped with the deep need, not the obvious need. And then Jesus healed the man. Wow.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:27-32)
On the outside, Levi didn’t appear to need any help. He had a job and money and power. He had chosen his path and was walking it out. People thought he was a terrible person, but not one with needs. And as Jesus walked by, Levi wasn’t asking for it—but Jesus said, “Come.” And Levi left it all to follow Jesus.
There was a need: the leper pleading for help; the paralyzed man lowered before Jesus; the sinner Levi called to follow Jesus.
What do these moments in Luke 5 show us about how Jesus helps?
Back to Haggai. The call of God came through the prophet Haggai to rebuild the temple, and they leaped into action. Here are the last words of Haggai 1:
on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (Haggai 1:15)
And the first words of chapter 2:
on the twenty-first day of the seventh month (Haggai 2:1)
They have been working for a month. Is there progress? How is it going?
on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” (Haggai 2:1-3)
How do we take these questions from God? Is He disappointed? Does He want them to stop? But here are the next words:
“But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’” (Haggai 2:4-5)
How is it going? Just okay. If we’re honest, not so great. Be strong. Be strong. Be strong. I am with you. Do not fear. I am with you. And then, the next words:
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:6-9)
Through Haggai, God calls them to work and declares that He will help. Our efforts and God’s help lead to the dwelling place of God.
In Haggai 2, the word translated as "glory" in verses 7 and 9 is the Hebrew word כָּבוֹד (kabod or kavod). This word is frequently used to describe God's presence, such as in the tabernacle or temple (e.g., Exodus 40:34-35: "the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle"). It represents God’s majesty and divine nature revealed to humanity. It also carries weight and importance and can be translated as “heaviness” or “burden.” Here in Haggai, kabod refers to the future magnificence of the temple, which God promises will surpass the glory of the former one. This points forward to the presence of Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of the temple's glory.
To walk one step further, the glory of the temple also points towards us as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul unpacks this in his first letter to the Corinthians:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The glory of God comes to humanity in the tabernacle, in the temple, in the new temple being built in Haggai… and then in us.
He works with and through His people, which brings power and glory—and also burden and responsibility for us. But He doesn’t end there. The glory of the future house includes a promise for God’s peace. The glory (burden, majesty) of God brings with it peace.
Leaning on that and remembering our earlier conversations about the complexity of help,
What does it show us that God is calling the people (us) to help build where His glory resides and that He is helping and will help?
In this series we have been given a moment to pause and hear and process. Week one: Give careful thought to your ways. Week two: What is God calling you back to? Now today:
How does God want to help you?
What is your part in being helped?
Let’s have one final moment of conversation:
What surfaces as you pause and hear from God?
Take It Deeper Questions
Read Haggai 2:1-9.
Would you rather build a birdhouse, compose a poem, or write computer software? Why?
What are some attributes of a person who is helpful to you?
What are some personal attributes that make you easy to help? Difficult to help?
How does God want to help you?
What is your part in being helped?
How are you challenged, encouraged, focused, and/or confused by this text?
Bible Reading Plan
Haggai 1
Haggai 2
Luke 5
1 Kings 8
Exodus 40
1 Corinthians 6