The book of Haggai is very helpful as it gives very precise details of when Haggai gave his messages. Some of the prophets do this, others don’t. Given that God is in control of what goes into the Bible we can assume that if details are given then they are important in interpreting and understanding the prophecy. If they aren’t given it does not mean something is amiss, but that the details are not essential for understanding.
Haggai is known as “the prophet”. This is also the epithet he is given in Ezra 5:1 and Ezra 6:14. Haggai prophesied between 29 Aug 520 BC and 18 dec 520 BC, or rather the prophecies in this book occurred between those dates, a fifteen week period.
The situation is that some of the Israelites had returned from exile in Babylon. The economic situation was weak, for Israel was a defeated nation, and religion was in a mess. The temple had been destroyed. The key message is that they should get on with rebuilding the temple. Now there were many good reasons why other things should have priority, rebuilding their own lives for one! Today the church is in a mess in the West, we can find many excuses for just keeping things together. We can also find reasons why we must focus on our own lives and those of our families. In Haggai’s time God pointed out that their efforts to rebuild their own lives were proving futile, and it was God that was frustrating them! The same applies to us, we may find that our efforts to sort out our own lives and those of our families are just not working. In Israel’s case they needed to put their efforts into rebuilding the temple. In our case we need to put efforts into building the kingdom. When we do this we will encounter obstacles. The ones Israel encountered were twofold: the task seemed so great, even impossible; and their own sin. These are much the same ones as we encounter. God encourages them that in Him they will succeed.
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