Haggai 1

To them that are defiled is nothing pure. Under the law, if a man who was unclean by a dead body had carried a piece of holy flesh in his skirt, the holy flesh had not cleansed him, but he had polluted that (Haggai 1:12-13). An emblem of a sinner's polluting his holy offering.

I made haste, and delayed not to keep your commandments. Many people are convinced of the necessity of looking after the kingdom of glory, but they say as those (Haggai 1:2), The time is not yet come. They adjourn and put off, till their time is slipped away, and so they lose th…

25. A subtlety of Satan in tempting is to persuade men to delay their repenting and turning to God. He says, as in Haggai 1:2, "The time is not yet come." Now youth is budding, or you are but in the flower of your age, it is too soon to repent, the time is not yet come.

God's blessing is riches, says Solomon (Proverbs 10:22). You may eat and not have enough, be clothed and not warm, earn wages and put it in a broken bag (Haggai 1:6), if God does not bless you. This blessing of God is called the staff of bread (Isaiah 3:1).

Those that by unlawful means get up to honor and wealth, seem to have accepted the devil's offer, they think he is lord of the world, and all the kingdoms and the glory thereof. Do not look upon wealth as the devil's gift, as a thing to be gotten by fraud, flattery, corruption,…

The meaning of the text is, that they dranke liberally, or that they dranke of the best together. For the word (shakar) signifies not onely to be drunke in drinking, but also to drinke liberally, or to drinke of the best drinke, Hag 1:6. Obiect.

And he calls that which is bestowed upon the ministers of the word, seed, which being sown, does recompense the cost, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold: that so they might not think their labor lost, nor their cost bestowed in vain, seeing they were to receive, that which they laid…

In regard of which, Haggai takes up a bitter complaint against those of his time; Is it time for yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house to lie waste? Again, You suffer this house to lie waste, and you run every man to his own house (Haggai 1:4, 1:9). And yet i…

It is not every degree of scarcity of bread that presently makes a famine, but a general failing of it; when no bread is to be had, or that which is, yields no nutriment. For a famine may as well be occasioned by God's taking away panis nutrimentum, the nourishing virtue of brea…

These are full of pain, trouble, and disappointment. Haggai 1:6. We earn Wages, and put it into a Bag with holes, and disquiet our selves in vain; all our Relations full of trouble. The Apostle speaking to those that Marry, says, 1 Corinthians 7:28. Such shall have trouble in th…

Affliction is sanctified to this end, to open the eyes, it brings us to ourselves. So (Haggai 1:5-7), Now consider your ways, now [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], lay your hearts upon your ways: when they sowed much, and brought in little, and what they earned was put into a bag wit…

(Psalm 4:4) Commune with your own heart upon your beds. (Haggai 1:5) Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. God's complaint was, They would not consider his ways (Job 34:27; Isaiah 1:3) — my people does not consider.

But men in love with their lusts, make a woeful use of this consideration, hardening themselves in their conceit, that there shall never be a change, and so sin more securely. See the like in other things: (1 Corinthians 7:29), (1 Corinthians 15:32), (Jude 24), (Romans 6:2), (2…

14. And upon this account there is required a deadening of our hearts to shipping and trading with diverse mighty nations, as we see in the case of Tyre (Ezekiel 27), of Babylon (Revelation 18:11-13; Jeremiah 51). So are we to be mortified to fair houses (Isaiah 5:8), stately ci…

'Tis natural to us to procrastinate and put off Repentance. We say as (Haggai 1:2). The time is not yet come.

I will send you wine and oyl. Sin blasts the fruits of the earth, (Haggai 1:6). Ye have sown much, and bring in little.