Haggai: A Restored Life Week Four
Haggai 2:10-19
Greet everyone and check in on how everyone’s week has been.
Spend some time in prayers of gratitude. Pause, slow down, and thank God for his goodness and the grace he has given to you. Take some time just to say thank you to God for the good that is in your life.
Ask the Holy Spirit to be present in your group. Ask him to be your helper, guide, to bring conviction and healing.
Haggai 2:10-19
Blessings Promised for Obedience
10 On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: 12 ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’”
The priests replied, “No.”
13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
14 Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. 15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. 16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. 17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
18 “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. 19 I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”
How has this story of Haggai and the people of Israel impacted you?
How dead is the one enslaved to sin? Is it possible to be partly dead? Do you ever feel like you are not fully alive to Christ?
How have you experienced frustration in your life? Have you ever questioned if God was sending emptiness and frustration to bring you back to him? Can you describe a time like this? How did God reveal himself and what change did it bring about in your life?
Have you ever tried to live for a blessing instead of living from blessing? What is the difference?
How encouraging is it to know that those who have repented and trusted in Christ are God’s “chosen ones”? How can you reflect often today on God’s compassionate love for you?
Spend some time interceding for each other. Pray that each other by name asking that you would purse living from blessing.
Pray for the needs of each other.
