Obedience leads to blessing

In this passage we find the prophet telling the people that they have become defiled because of their sin … disobedience. He uses illustrations to show how contact between foods does not convey consecration but contact with a dead body causes defilement. He then carries the analogy over to the people and the nation … their disobedience in not completing the work on the temple has defiled their worship offerings to the Lord.

The relevance for God’s people today is parallel to this. Christ’s sacrifice makes his people holy but this needs to be lived out in obedience … grace must not be taken for granted.

The reason God did not bless the people in Haggai’s time was that he wanted to bring the people back to himself. The people had wanted the things they received but not God as the provider of them. It was a problem of worship. We find that, when the people had rightly responded to God’s word, he blesses their obedience. Faith without obedience is dead.