Haggai- King James Version- GETTING PRIORITIES STRAIGHT
“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled 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. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. 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 labour of the hands. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”
-Haggai 1 (KJV)
“In the second year of Darius the king.” The prophecy of Haggai gives us specific chronological marking points. The prophecy begins in September, 520 B.C.
This makes Haggai the first among the post-exilic Minor Prophets. Of the 12 Minor Prophets, the first 9 spoke before Judah was carried away captive, exiled to Babylon. The last 3 Minor Prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) each spoke to those who returned from the 70-year exile.
"Gone was the glory of the former kingdom and temple. Gone was the great population. All that was left was the rubble of Jerusalem, the remnant of the people, and the task of restoration."
-J.C. Boice
In 538 B.C. Cyrus King of Persia allowed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity. Two years later (536 B.C.) construction on the temple began, led by Zerubbabel. The work stopped after two years (534 B.C.). After 14 years of neglect, work on the temple resumed in 520 B.C. and was finished four years later in 516 B.C. as we read in The Book Of Ezra:
“And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”
-Ezra 6:15 (KJV)
We notice the dates are reckoned by a pagan king because there is no king over Israel. Yet the date is still important to God.
"There is a set time for each of his messages to come to men, and God would have them give heed to every message as soon as it is delivered to them. If they do not, he keeps count of the days of their delay."
-C.S. Spurgeon
“The word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet.” In the difficult years of the return from exile God spoke to His people through the prophet Haggai.
Haggai is also mentioned twice in the Book of Ezra, the priest who oversaw the work of rebuilding the temple:
“Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.”
-Ezra 5:1-2 (KJV)
“And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.”
-Ezra 6:14 (KJV)
The name Haggai is probably an abbreviated form of the phrase, "Festival of Yahweh." Some speculate that he was born on the day of a major feast in Israel.
“Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua.” Haggai introduces us to two leading figures in Jerusalem during these difficult days of rebuilding the temple. Zerubbabel was the governor of Jerusalem, and a descendant of the last legitimate ruler of Judah (Jechoniah). Joshua was the high priest.
“The time is not come.” Haggai gave this first word in September, 520 B.C. At that time the exiles had been back in Jerusalem for 18 years - but the work of rebuilding the temple laid idle for the last 14 years.
The work started gloriously:
“And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”
-Ezra 3:10-11 (KJV)
Despite the glorious beginning, after two years the work stopped, mired in discouragement and derailed by a lack of focus. When Haggai prophesied the foundation to the temple was laid and the altar was rebuilt but the temple wasn't yet rebuilt.
“This people say.” God's people, the citizens of Jerusalem, told themselves that it wasn't time to resume work on the temple. There were some good reasons why they might say this, and why the work of rebuilding the temple was hard:
- The land was still desolate after 70 years of neglect
- The work was hard
- They didn't have a lot of money (Haggai 1:6) or manpower
- They suffered crop failures and drought (Haggai 1:10-11)
- Hostile enemies resisted the work (Ezra 4:1-5)
- They remembered easier times in Babylon
“The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.” The people made their excuse sound spiritual. The couldn't speak against the idea of building the temple, so they spoke against its timing. "It isn't God's timing to rebuild the temple."
Because of the great obstacles against the work, God's people began to rationalize and decided that it wasn't time to rebuild after all. "If it's so hard, evidently, God doesn't want us to do it, at least no time soon."
“The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.”
They may have said "the time is not come" because they thought that the 70 years of captivity mentioned in had not yet been fulfilled as we read in The Book of Jeremiah:
“And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.”
-Jeremiah 25:11-13 (KJV)
“For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”
-Jeremiah 29:10 (KJV)
According to Usher's chronology of these events, they were in the 69th year since the last siege of Jerusalem. Even in this, the people of God lacked faith. There were three "waves" of captivity - 605 B.C., 597 B.C., and 587 B.C. In Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9, he was bold enough to ask God to take the earliest starting point to determine the 70 years - and God did. Unbelief made these returned captives think that God's mercy might not come to Israel until 18 years later.
We never like to hear God speak to His people this way- saying, "This people" instead of "My people." He said this because He saw their excuses and poor priorities and noticed that they were not living like His people.
We should remember that these weren't "bad people" - they were the remnant that returned from Babylon. Hundreds of thousands of people went into the Babylonian captivity and only about 50,000 returned. Those who did were the most committed to the Lord and to the restoration of Jerusalem.
“Then came the word of the Lord.” God saw and heard their excuses and poor priorities - and He had something to say to them through “Haggai the prophet.”
“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses.” The people said that it wasn't time to rebuild the temple, but their actions said that it was time to live in nicely rebuilt houses.
"Solomon first built a house for God, and then for himself."
-V. Trapp
“And this house lie waste?” This was the real problem, not that God's people lived in paneled houses, but that they lived in such personal comfort and luxury while the temple was in ruins.
The problem was simply wrongly ordered priorities. They were content to let the cause of the Lord suffer at the expense of their comfort. Instead, they should have felt no rest until the work of God was as prosperous as their personal lives, and been as willing to sacrifice for work of God as they were for their personal comfort and luxury.
It is easy to see how this happened over 14 years. At first you stop the work because it is so hard and some obstacle in the construction prevents progress.
- "We can't get much done at the temple, and I'm tired of living in a wreck. Time to start the remodel at home."
- "God wants me to give attention to things at home - home comes first."
- "I would fund more construction at the temple but all my money is tied up with my home renovation."
- "I'm not living extravagantly - look at the other houses in my neighborhood! Look at the chariots in their driveway!"
- "Someone should get to work on the temple. I hope someone steps up to the job - I've got to finish paneling my living room."
- "The temple hasn't been open for business for well more than 50 years - a little while longer won't matter."
- "This isn't the right time - later will be better."
- "The altar is there and we can at least sacrifice to the LORD. We're getting by."
The excuses sound familiar- but God saw through them in the days of Haggai, and He sees through them today. The prophet Haggai was like an alarm clock - unwelcome but necessary.
"Many Christians are like those ancient Hebrews, somehow convincing themselves that economy in constructing church buildings is all-important while at the same time sparing no expense in acquiring their personal luxuries."
-A. Alden
"It seems to intimate some of them had more than one house, a city and a country house, and whilst God's house lay waste; they thus lavish out their wealth on private worldly conveniences, but grudge their charge against God's house … Do you owe so much to yourselves, and so little to your God?"
-D Poole
“Consider your ways!” The Hebrew figure of speech for this phrase is literally "put your heart on your roads." Haggai asks God's people to consider what direction their life is headed, and if they really want it to continue that way.
“Ye have sown much, and bring in little.” The cause of their financial difficulties was their wrong priorities. They suffered setback after setback because the blessing of God wasn't on their pocketbook.
Haggai describes a double curse. Instead of much, little was reaped; and the little that was brought home melted away without doing any good; “earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”
"I do not know of any passage in the Bible that better describes the feverish yet ineffective activity of our own age."
-JC Boise
These judgments are a fulfillment of promises God made hundreds of years before in the time of Moses:
“Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.”
-Deuteronomy 11:16-17 (KJV)
The people of Israel were being judged and they didn't even know it - they probably wrote it all off as bad luck or tough economic times, but God was trying to tell them something.
Sometimes our priorities are out of order and we seem to suffer no financial hardship. In such times we should never presume on the mercy of God. We should turn to Him and re-order our priorities before He needs to use crisis to get through to us.
“Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink.” If our priorities are wrong, nothing will satisfy us. Each accomplishment soon reveals that there must be something more, something that can really satisfy, Nothing fills the God-shaped void in our life except putting Him first.
"Had your little been as the righteous man's little, you might have lived on it, and rejoiced in it; but it had not such a blessing upon it; it was blasted, and so was weak, and empty, and profited little."
-A. Poole
“Go up to the mountains and bring wood.” God calls them to work. Sometimes God's cause needs work, work that is supported by prayer, not work that is neglected because of pretended "spiritual" service.
It was work to be embraced by individuals without thinking, "Someone else will do it." When David Livingstone applied to a missionary society in Scotland because he wanted to bring Jesus to Africa they told him, "Young man, when God sees fit to evangelize Africa He will do it without your help." This is not the case at all - God will do it, and He wants and often will wait for our participation.
“I will take pleasure in it and be glorified.” It was time for God's people to start being concerned with pleasing Him instead of themselves. In their nice houses and prosperous lives they took pleasure and were glorified; now it was the Lord's turn.
God is also telling them to do it with the right kind of heart; a heart that wants to please and glorify God
“Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little.” When God was neglected, nothing worked right. They were able to accomplish some things (like building their own houses), but it didn't bring the satisfaction that it should have.
“The heaven over you is stayed from dew.” We can imagine the people of God depressed and discouraged because of the drought. They thought it was all an attack of Satan, and they prayed fervently against "Satan's plot." All the while it wasn't Satan's doing at all, but it was the Lord who called for a drought on the land. The problem wasn't Satan, but their priorities.
“Upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil.” Because they neglected the Lord, He neglected to bless their three basic crops.
“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord.” Obedience had to begin with the leadership. This wasn't a sermon just for the people, but also for the highest leaders among God's people.
“The voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet.”
"For the word of God is not distinguished from the words of the Prophet, as though the Prophet had added anything of his own."
-J. Calvin
In pointing out both, Haggai is distinguishing between the author of the doctrine, and its minister
“The voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.” Their respect for Haggai was based on his office (prophet) and his commission (God had sent him).
“The people did fear before the Lord.” Their fear of God prompted obedience. This was more than basic respect; it was recognition that God is a judge who deals with us righteously.
“I am with you, saith the Lord.” God was there to encourage them, and to strengthen them for the work. He always empowers and encourages us to do what He commands.
“So the Lord stirred up the spirit.” The Lord God needs to stir the spirit among His people today! This stirring begins with the leadership (Zerubbabel … Joshua) and extends to the people; “all the remnant of the people.”
“They came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.” The stirring of spirit didn't come and go just as a spiritual experience. The stirring of spirit flourished into a stirring of the work.
Christian brothers and sisters, what kind of work are you doing in His house today to prepare for His Kingdom tomorrow?
-God bless!
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