Rebuilding the Temple IV

What was the response of God to the work of the people in Haggai Chapter 1?  How did he respond to their hearing of His word, their fearing of His presence, their repentance of their agendas above His, and then their obedience in coming to work on the temple?  We find the record in Haggai Chapter 2:

"'And now, carefully consider from this day forward:  from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the LORD - since those days, when one came to heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty.  I stuck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labor of your hands, yet you did not turn to Me,' says the LORD.  'Consider now that from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid - consider it:  Is the seed still in the barn?  As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit.  But from this day on I will bless you.'"(Haggai 2:15-19)

God again takes them back to chapter 1:  do you remember, He asks, what it was like before?  You looked for yield from your crops and your labor, yet you found little.  Why?  Because I struck you because of your lack of obedience to me.   But behold, you were obedient to Me on the 24th day of the 6 month - 3 months ago.  From this day on , go look:  you have not yet planted and the trees and vines have not yet yielded fruit.  There is no outward sign that this year will be any different than last year.  But you can now date your prosperity to this day, when you completed your obedience by building the temple.

In other words, God directly invited the people to draw a clear relationship again - not like the first time, where their lack of obedience and concern about themselves led to economic ruin, but instead the relationship of being obedient to God and honoring Him above their own concerns and seeing the results.  This is similar to what God speaks about the tithe in Malachi 3: 9-11: 
"'You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this' says the LORD of Hosts, 'If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive.  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field', says the LORD of Hosts."

Again, says God, obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings cursing.

But do we believe it? 

That is one of the questions that leaps out at me as review the text - indeed, we could include Malachi in there as well since it is a similar record of how God's people came to value their own needs and goals above God's.  It is a recurring theme in the Old Testament - but it is a recurring theme in our own lives as well:  who do we believe and what will we do about it?

God values obedience to His word.  Scripture is replete with it, from the Fall to the faith of Abraham to the failure to enter the Promised Land because of a lack of obedience to the success of entering the Promised Land because of obedience.  The opposite of obedience, says the Lord in 1st Samuel 15:23, is rebellion, and that is repugnant to the Lord.

The New Testament is no different.  Christ is the ultimate example of obedience, showing perfect obedience to the Father's will.  And the writers of the Epistles constantly find themselves calling the people to seek greater compliance and conformance to God's law and God's will through the example of Christ.

But do we live like we believe it?  Do we live in such a way that we demonstrate that we know that being obedient to God brings blessing - perhaps not always temporal blessings seen in the agricultural world of the Israelites, but always spiritual blessing and God's favor?  Or do we, like the remnant of the people of Israel in Haggai's day, seek to be more about our own business and remember God when it is convenient to do so - oftentimes never?

God's record is clear, His expectations certain.  Are we willing to obey?