HEBREW WORD STUDY – SOWN – ZARA’ זרע Zayin Resh Ayin

Haggai 1:6: “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourself but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

I recently heard someone say that they were going to give an offering as “seed money.”  He needed a new car and had heard some preacher say that if he would give a little bit of money as see money God will give a great return.  That was about a year ago and the person is still chugging around in his old Ford Focus. 

I am not commenting on the effectiveness “seed money” only that there is a real is a second part to this offering.  Note, Haggai says: “you have sown much and bring in little.”  The word sown has multiple understandings in the Hebrew and I believe there is a unlaying message in this word.   Sown in Hebrew is zara’ which means to scatter seed, but it also means to become pregnant. It is used as a metaphor of distress prior to joy.  Sowing seed is difficult work but you sow the seed with the idea of a future joy. 

The reason why the Jews were not experiencing the joys of their labors was because they were not building and maintaining the temple of God. Now preachers like to latch onto this and say that the reason you end up living from paycheck to paycheck is because you are not giving your tithe to the church to maintain the House of God and pay the preacher’s salary. However, that is taking this verse out of context by comparing the church building to the temple. There is no comparison.  

Throughout my life I have heard the book of Haggai quoted during church building programs where the building of a church is likened to the rebuilding of the temple and if one does not tithe the result is seen in verse 1:6.  However, let us just take a look at Haggai from an historical context and see if an application can be made today. 

The temple was the central place of worship. Without the temple and the altar true Levitical worship could not take place. While in captivity the Jews were separated from their temple, in fact the temple was destroyed so they established synagogues to discuss the law and would pray every day toward Jerusalem, as a substitute for worship, but not true worship. If you want a comparison of the church to that day, compare it to the synagogue, not the temple. Synagogues did not receive tithes and offerings to maintain itself.  Secondly, to compare our local church building to the temple would not be accurate because the Apostle Paul made a statement in I Corinthians 3:16 that shows the distinction between the temple in Jerusalem and our local church buildings.  “Know ye not that you are the temple of God and the Spirit dwells in you.” Hence if there is any building program to compare to the temple it is in us. We no longer have to build a building for God to dwell in as that building exist in us.  As long as you are alive, the temple is there, but that does not mean it is well maintained.   

So since this verse speaks of the Jewish people neglecting to rebuild the temple, can this verse apply to us today since the temple of God dwells within us and we cannot be separated from our temple like the Jews taken into captivity.    

My mother’s favorite story is one I had often heard her tell in church and Sunday School. It is called “My Heart Christ’s Home” by Robert Munger. In this story Mr. Munger likens his heart to a home that he has invited Jesus to live.  He walks through each room and finds things that would not be pleasing to Jesus.  He sees magazines books and pictures from his imagination that are embarrassing to him in front of his new Guest. He serves Jesus his best meal in the dinning room. A meal of money, stocks, academic degrees, and service to mankind, but Jesus does not seem hungry, He only says that He has food to eat that people have never heard of. It is food that is not filled with desires, pleasures or satisfactions.  

Mr.Munger walks through each room of his “house” finding things that he knows are not pleasing to his Guest and invites his Guest Jesus to do some house cleaning.  Perhaps that is our present day application to Haggai 1:6. We do not need to build a temple as that exist in our bodies, but that doesn’t mean that this temple does not require a lot of maintenance work and house cleaning. Perhaps our modern day application is to invite Jesus to do some house cleaning in His temple.