The Word of God may offend us. Notice Haggai 1:12: they listened to the voice of Yahweh, their God, and to the words of Haggai, the prophet. Notice how they are identified. That is one reason why we believe in the inspiration of Scripture: that you have something like the words of men that can nevertheless be the Word of God. You see how they are identified: it is the voice of Yahweh, their God, and yet those are the words of Haggai, the prophet, so the voice of God comes through the words of Haggai, the prophet, and they are essentially identical in the text. That may offend you. It would have offended the people of Judah. You notice that back in Haggai 1:1, it does not say that Haggai was anybody in particular. It just says he was Haggai, the prophet. Sometimes it introduces prophets by saying Haggai, the prophet, the son of…. and that means probably that they have a certain social rank. They were somebody already, and they were also God's prophet. Haggai didn’t have that. People could say,
Who is this guy? He is just one of us. He is a commoner. He is nobody in particular. What does he think he is doing, bringing the Word of God to us?But they did not. It was the voice of the Lord, their God, and the words of Haggai, the prophet, and they received it as the Word of God.But you see, the Word of God may offend you because you may look at the vehicle for conveying the Word of God, and you may say, in that kind of wrapping there can be no treasure of God's Word. That is part of what Advent is all about in part, right? Is it not true that at Advent that's what we found out? As John says in John 1, in the beginning was the Word; the Word was in fellowship with God and the Word was God. And then John says, that Word that was God himself became flesh (John 1:14): became human flesh, became Jewish flesh, became Nazareth flesh, and dwelt among us. And then when you have the Word, who is always God, becoming flesh and dwelling among us, here is the kind of reaction you get:
Dale Ralph Davisthe crowd said, isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother, we know?(John 6:42). The people say,How can he say, I came down from heaven. What is so special about him? We've known him all our lives! He did some woodwork for my family. He's been among us all the time. He is just common like the rest of us,So, looking at Christ—God in the flesh—you can be offended.1
12 Zorobabel, fils de Schealthiel, Josué, fils de Jotsadak, le souverain sacrificateur, et tout le reste du peuple, entendirent la voix de l'Eternel, leur Dieu, et les paroles d'Aggée, le prophète, selon la mission que lui avait donnée l'Eternel, leur Dieu. Et le peuple fut saisi de crainte devant l'Eternel.