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Patriarchs and Prophets
heavy a tax upon the resources of the people might be expected to
reduce them to poverty; but, on the contrary, the faithful observance
of these regulations was one of the conditions of their prosperity. On
condition of their obedience God made them this promise: “I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits
of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time
in the field.... And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a
delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 3:11
.
A striking illustration of the results of selfishly withholding even
freewill offerings from the cause of God was given in the days of
the prophet Haggai. After their return from the captivity in Babylon,
the Jews undertook to rebuild the temple of the Lord; but meeting
determined opposition from their enemies, they discontinued the work;
and a severe drought, by which they were reduced to actual want,
convinced them that it was impossible to complete the building of the
temple. “The time is not come,” they said, “the time that the Lord’s
house should be built.” But a message was sent them by the Lord’s
prophet: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses,
and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts;
Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat,
but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye
clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth
wages to put it into a bag with holes.”
Haggai 1:2-6
. And then the
reason is given: “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and
when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of
hosts. Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto
his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew,
and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon
the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the
new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth
forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the
hands.”
Verses 9-11
. “When one came to a heap of twenty measures,
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there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out
fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with
blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands.”
Haggai 2:16, 17
.
Roused by these warnings, the people set themselves to build the
house of God. Then the word of the Lord came to them: “Consider