that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”“This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for Yahweh’s house to be built.’”Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for Jehovah’s house to be built.
5 sermons cite this verse
… Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Remember, after a good start, the work on the temple has been stalled now for about two decades. Verse 4, but God says, is it really a time for you to yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Paneled houses was considered a great luxury back then. It would be like saying a house today with granite countertops. We're not talking about people just trying to get a roof over their heads. These people are installing wood paneling and pools and saunas and pickleball courts on their properties. Meanwhile, God's house still lies in ruins. I want you to hear me very clearly. God does not object to them working on their houses, but the temple was supposed to be the center of their lives. The temple was to be the place where they would hear from God, the place they could teach their families about God, the place where strangers from other nations could learn about God's salvation. …
… into what I believe is one of the most dangerous traps for the believer, and that's apathy. They've fallen into apathy. Look at verse two with me again. Thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying, this people says, the time has not come. The time that the Lord's house should be built. This is something that we as people who dwell in the land of Manana can relate to it. I'm not going to do it today. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll work on that later. That's the attitude that they had adopted when it came to building the temple. They'd kind of given up. They kind of said, hey, we'll get to it. It's not the right time. The circumstances aren't quite right. We don't really have anything we need. We'll wait. We'll wait for a later time to get back to that temple thing. Discouragement turned into depression and depression over time settled into apathy because time moved on. They had jobs. They had children. They had jobs. …
… But there is a portion of this book that describes exactly what we're talking about. Haggai chapter one, verses two says this. The people are saying, the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. So the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai. And he asked the people, why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? Look at what is happening to you, God says. He says, you have planted much, but harvest little. You eat, but you're not satisfied. You drink and are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you're putting them in pockets filled with holes. Look at all the metaphors we see here. You plant, but you don't harvest. You eat, but you're not satisfied. You drink, but you're still thirsty. You put on clothes, but you're not warm. You earn money, but you put it in pockets like there's holes in it. And these images are a really good picture what so many relationships feel like. …
… facing our wounds. This is not the machine gun. This is the moldy bread. This is how it gets us, right? Because avoiding, delaying facing pushes it off into the future. In fact, Haggai 1 verse 2 puts it this way, thus says the Lord of hosts, this people says, the time has not come. The time has not come. We haven't built God's house yet, but the right time's not here yet. Hear me, the right time to do the right thing is right now. But the enemy will say, just say he'll do it later. I will deal with that. I will get into counseling. I will go to rehab. I know I should, but I will eventually. I will when I'm older. I will when I'm done having my fun, right? We push it off into the future. That's another choice we can make with our wounds. Here's one. We can numb. Every time our wounds hurt, number four, we can choose to numb. That is to say we can do something to not feel the pain. …
… Now look at the problem, verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say, the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Ah, well, there's an insight we didn't have just from Ezra. We might have thought, well, the reason that the building stopped is armed guards were just hovering over them all the time, telling them, nope, not today, not today, not today. But now we read, Haggai says, the people are saying, nah, not yet. I don't think so. There's other things to do. Too much of a risk. Well, look at what Haggai continues to say in verse 3. The word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. it? Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses? Well, this house lies in ruin. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much, harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. He who earns wages does so, but puts them into a bag with holes. That's likely a reference to some inflation. You got a bag with holes. Your money is just not worth anything. …