Haggai 1:1,2 - These people say ...

1:1

As mentioned in the introduction, with Haggai we get very precise dating, so much so that we know the fifteen week period in which he gave his messages. The message was given to Haggai and he had to pass it onto Zerubbabel the governor and Judah the high priest. If God gives you a word then it is give for a purpose, it is given to be acted upon. Sometimes it might be given to you for application in your own life, sometimes it might be given for you to give to other particular people, as here, and at other times it might be for a group of people. For us  “receiving a word” will normally be God opening our eyes to something in Scripture, or impressing some aspect of scripture upon us, and certainly nothing from God will ever contradict Scripture, but will be perfectly consistent with it. Whatever the case, the word of God is given to be acted upon.

1:2

“These people say the time has not yet come ..” This attitude was perfectly understandable, even reasonable by human standards. The country was a mess. It had been desolated by the Babylonians, with many people dragged off into exiles. Some had now returned. The natural reaction would be to get their own lives sorted out, to start to rebuild the economy, rebuilding the temple would have to wait. We can do the same in our own lives, we can do the same as churches. But, as we will see, this will not work.

Let’s consider the centrality of the temple for a moment. We often say that “the church is not a building”, yet here we see the emphasis on the physical temple. Yet in the New Testament emphasis is not put on a physical temple. In Hebrews the imagery is largely taken from the tabernacle. The temple is a shadow of what was to come, it is kind of a demonstration project. In 1 Cor 6 we read that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are central to the fulfillment of God’s plans on earth, what He will do He will do through His people. So we need to focus on rebuilding the desolated temple within us. We might say that we have other things we need to sort out first, and we can say this as individuals and as churches, but we are wrong. We need to “seek first the kingdom of heaven”, and then “all these things will be added unto us”. Conversely, if we seek ourselves first then God will actively work to frustrate our plans, as we will see later.