seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Haggai 1:1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak,[a] the high priest:
2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”
3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord. 14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.
In the second year of King Darius.
a. Haggai 1:1 Hebrew Jehozadak, a variant of Jozadak; also in verses 12 and 14
This is from bible-studys.org.
It is believed, by many scholars, that Haggai the prophet was born during the Babylonian captivity. In 539 B.C. Babylon fell and the Jews returned to Israel. One of the first projects was the rebuilding of the temple. They laid the foundation, and problems arose with the neighboring people. They stopped construction on the temple.
God raised up Haggai and Zechariah to prophesy to them of the need of rebuilding the temple. In Ezra's time, they began again to rebuild the temple.
Discouraged by the opposition of her neighbors (Ezra 4:1-5, 24), the people had wrongly concluded that it was not yet time for them to rebuild the temple.
With a biting query, the Lord reminded them that it was not right for them to live in paneled houses while the temple lay in ruins , and urged them to consider carefully the consequences of their indifference.
“Ceiled houses” refers to ceilings paneled with fine woods. Such a practice was common for the residences of kings (1 Kings 7:7; Jer. 22:14). In contrast, the Lord’s house lay in ruins.
Economic catastrophe, resulting from God’s withholding of the summer dew, was the price for their disobedience (Deut. 7:13). Grain, wine, and oil were the primary crops of the land. Cattle also languished because of the absence of spiritual health (Joel 1:18-20).
Haggai’s second message came 23 days after the first one (verse 15; around September 21, 520 B.C.). The Lord’s call to “Consider your ways” , caused the people to respond in repentance and obedience. This new message “I am with you” further stirred the Jews to action.
“The remnant of the people”: The exiles who returned from Babylon took the message to heart. Realizing that the words of the prophet were from the Lord, they “obeyed” and “showed reverence,” knowing that God was present.
I found this at bibletrack.org.
Haggai prophesied to the remnant who returned to Jerusalem after the Persians overcame the Babylonians. Haggai dated his prophecies, so we know they were given in 520 B.C. His prophecies are all about rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. But wait! Had they not been back in Jerusalem for 16 years or so? What's the hold up? Well, we know from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther that not everyone around Jerusalem was tickled to have the temple rebuilt. Remember the two-calf people of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) who had forsaken the worship of the one true God after Solomon's reign and moved their godless worship to Samaria (I Kings 12)? After the Assyrians conquered them in 721 B.C., foreigners were moved into Samaria to replace the Northern-kingdom Jews who were deported to Babylon. They intermarried with those Jews and eventually adopted their two-calf religion, a hybrid of Judaism and paganism. These inhabitants of the region became known as Samaritans, and are called such throughout New Testament times as well. Call it religious jealousy, but they gave the Jews fits about rebuilding the temple. So...the project got tabled, and the returning Jews concentrated on rebuilding their houses and restoring their farms. Somebody's got to do something to shake these people up! Enter: Haggai. He's got a word from the Lord, "LET'S REBUILD THE TEMPLE!" By the way, Haggai was a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah.
This first prophecy (August, 520 B.C.) does a little rebuking for the procrastination of the people in rebuilding the temple. They had gotten preoccupied with their own houses, etc. Hey folks! Your current drought is because of your disobedience to God! Yeah! That message from Haggai got the people back on track. We see in verses 12-14 that they again started working on the rebuilding of the temple. As a matter of fact, only 23 days passed after Haggai's prophetic message of rebuke until they came together to do the work of rebuilding the temple.
Isn't it interesting that the people who longed for the day when they could return to Jerusalem from Babylon could lose track of their mission in rebuilding the temple. Israel's neglect of their worship had resulted in their fall 66 years earlier, and now they were back in that same rut. However, Haggai's very direct prophecy here jolts them back into reality: You will not prosper unless you put your priority on serving God.
After the descendants of Jacob [Israel] were enslaved and marched off to Babylon...... the people got use to being in Babylon. After over 50 years.... a lot of them had grown use to being in Babylon. They had grown use to Babylonian worship. I would venture to say there were some in the number who had never seen the Temple.... 66 years is a long time.... I'm turning 70 this year.... so that's almost my whole life.
Complacency..... that's what the descendants of Jacob [Israel] were suffering from. They were busy working on fixing up their own places.... they didn't value the Temple all that much. So this guy Haggai [along with others] was called to stir the pot and get these people working on the prime mission.... showing God the respect due to Him.
The churches are closed as I write this. I hear they may not open again until July or August.
I heard it said.... if you do something 21 times in a row.... it becomes a habit. If you stop for coffee and a donut every day for three weeks.... you will develop a habit. The words.... black coffee and a honey glazed will roll off the lips without thinking. It will take effort to stop that fattening habit.
The people Haggai was talking to had developed a habit of depending on themselves.... they believed in God but they spent a lot of time in a place where there was no Temple. They developed new habits. The let the other gods into their worship. Now.... in the country of their heritage they were still in survival mode.... and they needed to remember that God was actually in control.
I am concerned this morning..... our churches are closed because of a virus. How are we going to get back to God? Will we pray to avoid complacency?
