Haggai 2: 11-14 NASB  Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Ask now the priests for a ruling: If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy?” And the priests answered, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean?” And the priests answered, “It will become unclean.” Then Haggai said, “So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,” declares the LORD, “and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.”

A few times now my son has made the mistake of putting his face, open-mouthed, on our dog’s back. It always results with dog hair in his mouth. Yuck! There is no good way to lick a dog!

Haggai told the people (on God’s behalf) that although touching something holy won’t necessarily make you holy, touching something unclean will always make you unclean. The Israelites continually made themselves unclean by turning to other gods and other nations instead of the one true God. We do the same when we hold on to our sins, and when we refuse to remove temptation and bad influences from our lives. Let’s learn from the Israelites’ mistakes. It is easy to become unclean, but it takes God to make us holy again.

-Kevi

 

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