Reverse Expectations
I’ll be the first to admit that the Old Testament can feel too boring, too weird, and way too far removed from my life to keep reading sometimes. Let me show you what I mean.
Samuel set a large stone between two towns and named it “Ebenezer” (1 Samuel 7:12). What? What am I supposed to do with that? How does that apply to my week?
In Exodus 28:30, Aaron is told to add Urim and Thummim to his priestly vest. We still do not know what Urim and Thummim are. Gems? Minerals? Sticks? Magic tokens from the priest’s lost-and-found bin? The Bible never tells us. And yet somehow these mysterious objects get worn over Aaron’s heart, and God uses them to reveal His will? Even I, a Bible teacher, read that and think, How does that even work?
Oh, and then one of my favorites. In Hosea 1:2, God tells His chosen preacher, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.” To be clear, Newstart’s Marriage Ministry team does not encourage you to do this!
So when my co-pastor assigned me to teach on Haggai 2:10–14 this week, I groaned. And you, reading that I’m about to teach from Haggai, you may groan too.
So let’s work through this together and see what the value is in reading passages that feel so far removed from us.
Okay, here we go.
Haggaia 2:10-11, On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law:
This supports the groaning point I made, and is not helping at all!
Let’s keep reading and see if it gets better.
‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’”
The priests replied, “No.” —Haggai 2:12
What am I supposed to get out of that? Do not carry sacrificial meat in my pockets? Holy steak does not make holy stew? Seriously. This has got to get better. Let’s keep going.
Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.” —Haggai 2:13
Okay, great. Now we are talking about dead bodies and contaminated casseroles. Fantastic. So, avoid funerals? Stop touching food? This is not getting easier.
It goes on, “Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin.” —Haggai 2:14
At least this makes it clear that this refers to the Israelite people in 520 BC. This definitely had meaning for their week, 2,545 years ago. That is just great. What does that have to do with me?
Then I remembered this time in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus said, “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” …
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.” —Mark 7:18b-20
That’s practically the opposite of what Haggai 2:10-14 is telling us. So, what changed?
What changed is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. That is the shift. In Haggai’s day, impurity spread like spilled paint. It taints anything it touches.
But Jesus flips the entire system of sacrifice and holiness. Instead of impurity spreading from us to everything we touch, His holiness spreads from Him to everyone He touches.
Touch a leper, and you were unclean. Jesus touches lepers, and they become clean (Mark 1).
A ceremonially unclean woman, through her issue of blood, touches Jesus, and she becomes clean and healed (Mark 5)!
The problem was never the food, the robe, or the stew.
The problem was their heart.
My heart.
Your heart.
And Jesus knows that no ceremony or ritual can fix what is broken inside us. So He does the most unexpected thing imaginable. He gives us His purity. His righteousness. His life.
Holiness does not rub off on us from doing holy things.
We will be well served to reflect on what this means for our lives!
We can sit in church services, and although that can greatly benefit us, it does not make us holy.
You can cut a $10,000 check to the ministry of the church, and we’ll gladly deposit it. But, you will not be even an ounce holier.
You can carry a Bible into a friend’s house for Bible study—no holiness points.
That was the wrong spiritual expectation the Israelites had.
They thought rebuilding the temple made them holy.
Holiness does not leak out of the church walls.
It grows in people who draw near to Him.
So the question is not, “Am I doing enough Christian things?”
but,
“Is my life actually leaning into Christ so His holiness can purify my contamination?”
Proximity to Christian things is not the same as intimacy with the Savior.
ADVENT
And this is why we want to keep returning to the Old Testament, even when it feels strange or difficult to read. When we stay with it long enough, it deepens how we live out our faith in Jesus and helps us interpret and apply the New Testament correctly.
Haggai 2:10-14 shows us we cannot make ourselves clean by building the temple or doing Christian things. Israel tried it. But Haggai shows us their offerings were defiled because they were still defiled.
And that is exactly the mindset most people bring into December 2025. Just be kind. Be decent. Do some good. Light a candle and assume God is pleased. I call that spiritual Febreze. It smells nice, but it does not change the heart.
And this is why Haggai 2:10–14 matters to us this Christmas season.
Advent is the moment holiness does not stay in heaven, far away from our mess.
Advent is God’s holiness dwelling among us in Jesus and now living in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Advent is Jesus entering a world in which impurity always prevailed and defiled everything.
Now, holiness spreads through Jesus. His purity purifies us.
This is Advent.
COMMUNION
This is where communion hits home. We are not living in the sacrificial system of Haggai’s day, thank God. But Haggai 2:10–14 shows us exactly why communion matters. Because when we take the bread and the cup, we are receiving what only Jesus can give — His purity, His holiness, His life.
Communion reminds us that holiness never starts in us. It starts in Him. And it grows in us because He gave Himself for us. So we come to the table this morning as people who know we cannot make ourselves clean, but we know the One who can.
PRAYER
Jesus, this week I am reminded that I cannot make myself clean.
I cannot behave my way into holiness or earn my way into Your presence.
I come to You with a heart that needs what only You can give.
Thank You for bringing your holiness that does not shrink back from my mess but moves toward it. Toward me.
Thank You that Your purity is stronger than my failure,
stronger than anything that has ever defiled me.
Teach me not to settle for being around Christian things
while missing closeness with You.
And this Advent, as I remember Your arrival,
let Your holiness touch the parts of me I keep hidden.
Let Your grace cleanse the places I cannot fix on my own.
Make me a person who carries Your hope,
Your purity,
Your life
into every conversation and every room I enter.
Amen.
