In Haggai 1:9–11 Haggai says, there is the withholding of blessings, and this is because of my house that is in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house (Haggai 1:9). He said, that is why the heavens have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce and I have called for a drought upon the land and upon the new wine and the fresh oil (Haggai 1:10–11a). I am withdrawing these blessings. Well, that is the form which in God's chastening took and his Providence took towards the people here. Now we need to say that that is precisely what he told Israel earlier in his Word. In Deuteronomy 28:22–24 and Deuteronomy 22:38-40, God had said to them essentially this: now should the time come when you are faithless to me, then this is what I will do, and it is precisely these kinds of matters that he would bring upon them in the form of chastisements or judgments. As for Haggai here, he is also saying something to Judah, and he is not talking to necessarily one or two persons or one family, he is addressing all the body of Israel or Judah at this time. Haggai is not saying that this is what the Lord has done in this particular case and not in others, but he is saying this is true across the board for you all as a body. He is saying, this is what the Lord has been doing. Do you not understand how he is trying to get through to you that something is really amiss? So you need to balance that, as well as to realize this is not just an individual matter. This is something that is true of God's people across the board at that time, and the Lord was bringing these chastisements to bear upon them. When we get to the end of it all, the Lord says, set your heart upon my providences, and some of my providences are adverse providences. Don't jump the gun and think that God is necessarily chastising you for some sin, or some unfaithfulness. But when we say everything, we still have to say this, that in the Scripture and in Haggai, there is such a thing as God's chastening hand upon his people. If he is a faithful Father, he cares to keep his people faithful, and sometimes he does operate in chastening to us. My concern is that you not draw hasty inferences from that, but he does do it and some of you could testify to it, I think. Cannot some of you say that sometimes at some point in your life, the Lord awakened you by putting you through some particular kind of scourging, and you saw it later? Is it not true that for some of us the chastening hand of God was what it was that brought us to himself?1
Dale Ralph Davis
9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.