God Inspects the Materials Used for Rebuilding

Scripture: Haggai 2:15

But now, do consider from this day onward: before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord,

Insights: In today’s verse the Lord tells us to consider from this day onward what kind of stones we are placing before Him at the temple.  To understand this context you have to go back to verse ten and read through verse fourteen.  In this section the Lord is asking about holy objects and defiled objects.  The illustration runs like this: the Lord is the One who makes an object holy, but the holiness of the object does not make whatever touches that object holy.  The reason for this reality is because only the Lord can make it holy.  On the flip side, however, if you have a defiled object and it touches another object, then the object that was touched does become unholy.  After explaining this you come to verse fifteen and the Lord tells us to consider what we are offering to Him.  In other words, the Lord is inspecting the materials of the heart to determine if they are defiled or holy.  If our hearts are defiled, then it affects everything we do and offer to the Lord.  In our lives it gets played out this way: we enter into our corporate worship services without any planning or preparation.  In fact, many times, we have fought with our family all the way to church.  When we arrive, however, we put on our happy faces and go in and “worship” the Lord.  Now, we have not prepared our heart through prayer and confession because we were too rushed to put that in our plans.  As a result, we bring all kinds of defiled thoughts and attitudes into worship, and as a result, defile our worship before the Lord.  All we had to do was stop and pause for a moment and ask the Lord to examine our hearts.  If He revealed anything that was unholy, we then ought to confess it and then, and only then, enter into corporate worship.  At that point our offering would be inspected and received well because it reflects a heart truly set apart for the Lord.  Beloved, let me encourage you to slow down on Sundays.  Think and pray with the Lord before coming to church.  It may require you to get up fifteen to thirty minutes earlier, but it would be well worth it.  Slow down and prepare good materials to be offered to the Lord.

Questions:

1.  What does your heart reveal about the types of materials you are offering to the Lord?

2.  If you are offering defiled materials, are you willing to repent and begin offering materials of holiness to your Lord?

Prayer: Father, You inspect the offerings I bring to You.  You search my heart and know the truth of all I am and all I bring to You.  May my heart be pure and blameless.  May my offerings bring You honor and glory.  Amen.