Haggai 1:12-15 - I am with you

1:12

So the people obeyed the word of the Lord. Notice two things here. First, there is obedience from all sectors of society. Zerubbabel is the governor, Joshua is the high priest. So the civil government and religious leaders are involved, and then all the people are involved.  Next, they obeyed the word of the Lord, and this word was given through Haggai the prophet. Haggai was not spouting forth his own ideas, nor his own assessment of the situation. He was speaking the word of God. “And all the people feared the Lord.” Oh that the people of this land would fear the Lord, oh that our political leaders would fear the Lord, oh that our religious leaders would fear the Lord, oh that we would fear the Lord. What a transformation would take place in our land.

1:13

“I am with you.” This is a very short prophecy, probably the shortest prophecy in the Bible, yet one of utmost importance. First, consider what had gone before. The people have been struggling, they have been struggling because they disobeyed the Lord and because the Lord was frustrating their plans. They were sharply rebuked by the Lord. Has He forgotten them, has He rejected them? Fears that this was so would be a natural reaction. But God had not rejected them, He was disciplining them and there is a world of difference (see Hebrews 12). See Isaiah 41:9,10. We need to understand the discipline of the Lord in our lives, we need to understand His purposes for our lives.

1:14,15

The civic leader, religious leader and all the people started to work on the temple, and they did so because the “Lord stirred up the spirit” of them all. So the rebuilding is seen very much as a work of the Lord, and He works on the spirit of men. This is part of the reason why we should pray for each other, and for our leaders, be they religious or civic. We are given a precise date, as is normal in this book. The people responded within three weeks of receiving Haggai’s word. So we see that the word of the Lord is given not to entertain people, but to illicit a response.