The COVID-19 virus upended our daily lives for over two years. We were all instructed how to avoid catching the virus because there were no vaccines available. People died by the millions (6 &1/4). Over 1 million eight thousand died in the United States according to the CDC. We were advised to avoid shaking hands and having close contact with people. We practiced “touching elbows and “social distancing.” We had to wear mask to avoid breathing in viral droplets or touching surfaces covered with them. We wiped down the bathroom and kitchen counters and for a while everything that came in the house from the stores. We were using chemicals that would kill “99% of the viruses.

Why did we do all that? We did so to prevent catching the virus from those infected and to not infect others. After adjusting to strict guidelines, many Americans got vaccinated and started to resume a more normal life. However, those who were healthy and free from the virus could they pass on their health. That is question raised by God’s Prophet- Can one catch health? The answer is obvious, no! Folks, you cannot catch good health no more than you can catch being holy. This is at the heart of the message today. Holiness is not contagious.

I. Holiness is not contagious. -Haggai 2:10-14

1. It must be deliberately sought out and cultivated in an intimate personal relationship with God. God instructed Haggai on December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s rule, to sent this message: “Ask the priests concerning the law: In essence; ‘If a priest carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and it touches bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ The priests answered and said, ‘No’” The principle is—you can’t catch holiness! No more than you can catch someone’s good health. Holiness is not communicable.

2. In these verses God uses an illustration from the ceremonial law. Most of those laws had to do with understanding what was holy and what was not. Holy things were objects that had been set apart for God’s use, usually in the Temple worship. We know that God is holy, only holy objects could come into His presence. Yet, being in the company of godly people will not make you godly.

3. Why did God use that illustration? Most Bible authorities believe a mistaken view was growing in the minds of the Israelites. Their thinking was, since they were building the temple they were right before God because of their close proximity to the temple. They believed that the temple gave them a sort of spiritual protection and blessing. That’s exactly what the people thought right before the Babylonians captivity. Yet, Jerusalem, the city and the temple were destroyed. Jeremiah 7:4 says: Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

Application: Let’s examine this truth. You are not a Christian because your mother was a Christian or because your grandfather was saved and a deacon. Yes, I believe there are benefits to being raised in a Christian home with godly parents. Yet, people, even some professing Christians, seem baffled when we say, coming from a Christian family does not make one a Christian. Salvation is not by your associations! Being born in a bakery doesn’t make you baker. Going to church services doesn’t make you a Christian. Blessings only come after obedience. We are blessed when we obey – gospel. Salvation is not transferable; you can’t “catch” salvation. Sanctification is not contagious; holiness doesn’t rub off but sin does.

4. In verse 13 a second question is asked to the priest. It basically states: If a person is unclean by touching a dead body and touches others shall these be unclean? And the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean. Sin contaminates you and it affects others. If someone walks on your clean carpet with dirty shoes, what happens? The dirt on the shoes stains the carpet. Sin is like dirt. It spreads quickly. Just as it’s hard to keep a house clean, it’s hard to keep a life clean because sin stains everything.

5. Sin is like a contagious disease. “Sin will take you farther than you were planning to go, cost you more than you wanted to pay and keep you longer than you were planning to stay.” The conclusion is the Jewish people were unclean Haggai said to them, “so is the work of their hands. God wanted more than a Temple built. He wanted the hearts of the people to be fully devoted to Him. God didn’t want a big house filled with empty hearts.

II. Obedience affords God’s Blessings vv. 15-19

1. Haggai picks up the theme that he hammered home in the first chapter as once again we’re told to “give careful thought.” This is really the major message of the book and is unique to Haggai, occurring five times in two chapters: in 1:5, in 1:7, in 2:15 and twice in 2:18.”Consider your ways, idiomatically it means, “To lay your heart on the road.” The Hebrew phrase is literally “put your heart on your roads.” Haggai asks God’s people to consider what direction their life is headed, and if they really want it to continue that way. The New Living Translation puts it like this: “Look at what’s happening to you!”

2. Let’s look at verse 15: ‘He is saying give careful consideration to this from this day on and consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple.’ Haggai is asking them to carefully consider how life was working out with the Lord not at the center of it. For almost two decades, they focused only on themselves and things fell apart. In verse 16 he says “When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.” The grain harvest was down 50% and the grape harvest was down 60%. God brought His chastening because they were chasing wrong things. God was not blessing and he won’t amidst sin and disobedience.

3. Now note in verse 17 God tells the priest that He was behind this: “I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail…” The blight came from the east winds that whipped out of the desert. Mildew came from the moist Mediterranean winds to the west. And hail came down from heaven which crushed what was left of the crops.

4. In verse 18, the people are told to give careful thought: “From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought.” God was calling them to focus not on the time they had stopped working but to remember the day they got back to work.

Application:
We’re called to give careful thought about ourselves and our relationship to God. Is He withholding blessing or pouring them out. We see this in the last part of verse 17: “‘…yet you did not return to me,’ declares the Lord.” It’s interesting that even though their hands were back at work, their hearts were far away.
The issue is always the heart. Psalm 51:17 tells us what God is after: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

5. We see this in verse 19: “Is the seed yet in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit…” There was not much seed in the barn because they had planted it in the ground, hoping for a harvest that would be bountiful. These four crops were essential to their economy and involved food (fig tree), drink (vine), fuel (olive tree), and dye (pomegranate).

We are blessed when we obey but we don’t always notice Hos blessings right away. After delaying the Temple work for 16 years the Jews had finally started to rebuild the temple. But they had a long way to go and their fields were still barren. It’s now the month of December and they won’t see any harvest until May or June. Just because you’ve returned to God doesn’t mean that He will take away all the consequences. Consequences do happen.
You can be forgiven but mistakes can still mess with us years later. Turning to God does not immediately undo the results of our rebellion. Some of you know exactly what I mean.

Conclusion:

The harvest will eventually come. The “Harvest Principle” is spelled out in Galatians 6:7-8:
“Be not be deceived: God is not mocked. or whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.