Haggai 1:13-15, The Divine Enablement for Obedience

There is a beautiful passage in Philippians 2:13, which says (my translation), “For it is God who produces in you both the willing and the working of His good pleasure.” God makes us willing to do His good pleasure and makes us able to do His good pleasure. Here is the Old Testament equivalent of Philippians 2:13.

¹³ Then Haggai, Yahweh’s messenger, gave this message of Yahweh to the people: “I am with you,” declares Yahweh. ¹⁴ So Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of Yahweh Almighty, their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (Haggai 1:13-15)

We were told in Haggai 1:12 that the people obeyed the voice of Yahweh and began building the temple. Now Haggai tells us that Yahweh stirred up the spirit of the people to do this. Their willingness to obey and their ability to obey came from Yahweh, who stirred their spirits.

This strongly suggests that though we are responsible for obeying, the reason we obey is God working in us. This in turn suggests that we are not able to obey unless God is at work in us. The God who saves us is the God who keeps us saved. The God who requires obedience is the God who makes obedience possible. He rescues us from first to last.

When God tells the people in Haggai’s day and tells us in our day that He is with us, He is really with us.