Complete notes on Haggai

Complete notes on Haggai are now available on Dundee Believer.

Haggai 2:22,23 - I have chosen you

2:22,23

There would be an overthrow of kingdoms, the strength of the Gentile kingdoms would be destroyed. The Persian kingdom would fall to Alexander the Great in 333-330 BC. The use of horsemen and chariots was one the marks of Persian warfare, but Alexander would defeat them. I think that once again we have to look at this prophecy with the partial fulfillment - later complete fulfillment lens. The apocryphal book, Sidras refers to Zerubbabel as a signet ring (Sidras 49:13).

Israel of Haggai’s day saw surrounding nations, especially Persia, as being all powerful. Today many nations are anti-Israel, and the world is anti-Christ. But these kingdoms will fall, and the reason they will fall is that “I have chosen you”. The signet ring guaranteed the contract, the agreement. We are God’s signet ring, God will work through us, we need to recognise the importance we have in God’s plans.

Haggai 2:20,21 - A whole lot of shaking

2:20,21

We now get the final recorded prophecy of Haggai. Before focusing on the text, let me make one of my criticisms of the cessationist line which sometimes, when talking about “modern” prophecy (and let me say that some of modern prophecy is rubbish, see Charisma News for a selection) is that they assume everything that is said has to be of the same authority as scripture. The sensible continuationist line is that no modern prophecy has anything like the same authority as scripture, absolutely everything is to be judged by scripture. Anyway, back to Haggai. We have in this book a few short prophecies. We know he was called “Haggai the Prophet”. So are the words we have recorded in the book of Haggai the only things he said? Certainly not. But they are the only ones preserved by God as Scripture. Prophecy is not necessarily scripture, and the only prophecy that is scripture is the prophecy that is recorded in the Bible. And the Bible is God-breathed.

Anyway, back to the book! Like the last word, this is one that is given to Haggai, giving him instructions, rather than a word to be declared directly to Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the people. Haggai is to speak to Zerubbabel, the governor, and he repeats the earlier word about God shaking heaven and earth.

Haggai 2:17-19 - From now on I will bless you!

2:17-19

Verse 17 reminds us that God actively frustrated their efforts. Yet despite this, they did not return to the Lord. Now they have started work in the temple, they have turned to God. The time that this word was given meant the harvest had passed, new seed had been planted, but as yet there was no harvest, for it was not harvest time. But now that they had turned to God, had started work on His temple, then the harvest would come. “From this day on, I will bless you”.

Remember that earlier, in v10-14, God has spoken to them about the defilement of the people. They could not make themselves clean.When we do God’s work, when we do things God’s way, we do not earn salvation, we do not earn blessing, but we are living as part of God’s kingdom, as part of His economy, and we then enjoy the fruit of His kingdom.

Haggai 2:13-16 - You are unclean!

2:13,14

One could not become holy by default, but one could become defiled by default. Haggai asks the opposite question, what happens if someone who is unclean touches something does it become unclean, and the answer is yes (Lev 11:28, 22:4-7). We then get to the point of all this, “So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, and so is every work of their hands and all that they offer”. Were the people doing all this, making offerings, building the temple, in an attempt to make themselves clean, acceptable to God? If so they were completely wasting their time. For they were a defiled people, and all that they did was defiled. What?! Should they not then build the temple? Absolutely not the case. We can be the same. We can think that our giving, praying, studying, worshipping, witnessing, helping, serving makes us acceptable to God. We could not be more wrong. It makes not one jot of difference in the acceptability stakes, but we should still do all of these things.

2:15,16

Now God calls on them to consider the facts. The gospel, the Christian “religion”, is a revealed religion, it comes from God. It is based on revelation from God, not the thoughts of man. However, that does not mean it is not logical, if we look at the facts of life they are consistent with the word of God. Man’s wisdom, man’s ways, simply do not work. For instance, man has said there is no advantage in being married, living together is fine. Well the simple facts are that the breakdown and diminution of marriage has had a disastrous effect, socially and economically. Likewise, man’s current wisdom on LGBT stuff will prove to be equally disastrous. So here God reminds them that in the days before they worked on the temple nothing worked, everything produced far less than could be reasonably expected.

Haggai 2:9-12 - The latter glory

2:9

“The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”. In Mark 13:1 we read of the disciples marvelling at the splendour of the temple. We see here, and in Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah, the importance of the temple. In Ezekiel 47 the water of blessings flows out from the temple. Yet this temple was destroyed in AD 70, and in Mark 13 Jesus goes on to warn the disciples that the temple would be destroyed. So this temple was a precursor to the real temple, which is you and me, God dwelling in His people. As it says in Rev 21:3 the dwelling of God is with men. And Jesus said that “from within you shall flow streams of living water” (John 7:38). And it is this dwelling of God with His people that will bring true peace. We need to remember that the word for peace, shalom, means so much more than an absence of trouble, it means the totality of Godly blessing. The reality if the events surrounding the building of the physical temple demonstrate the reality of the work that God will do in and through His people.

2:10-12

This is about two months after the last word from Haggai. This time there is no indication of who it is directed to. In fact it seems that the word was God speaking to Haggai telling him to ask the priests the given question. So it is possible he was in the temple when he received the word, or he would have gone to the temple after receiving it. Holy meat is meat that has been offered to the Lord. Haggai had to ask the priest if someone carrying such meat touches other things, do they become holy. The priests, of course, answer no. You cannot become holy be default.

Haggai 2:8 - The silver is mine, the gold is mine

2:8

Economic poverty was a major problem in Jerusalem at the time, recovering from their war ravished state. A problem uppermost in their minds would be how can we get the resources to build this temple? At the same time they would see other nations, the Medes in particular, who seemed to have all the wealth. God reminds them that wealth actually belongs to Him. Moreover, we read in Ezra 6 about how Darius the king made an order that gold and silver taken from the temple was to be returned, and regions were ordered to pay taxes to fund the rebuilding of the temple. The words of this verse were not just idle words. Now, I detest what is called the prosperity gospel, but we must not throw out the baby with the bath water. All wealth belongs to the Lord, and prosperity comes from Him. We have here and in Ezra 6 a concrete example of this working out in practice. We need to know that the Lord is God and there is no other. We also see here God’s temple being funded by the state! There is nothing intrinsically wrong with churches receiving funding from governments, as long as the church does not have to sacrifice Godly principles. We also see that there are times when governments make decisions that are favourable to the kingdom, there are times when they persecute God’s people. We read of both in the Bible. In either situation we need to be secure in the knowledge that Christ is Lord, all the time, and we must remain faithful to Him.

Haggai 2:6,7 - I will shake all nations

2:6,7

Now these verses present us with a problem, namely of timing. For as far as Haggai’s temple is concerned these things never happened. So let’s look at things closely. “Once more” indicates that we should refer back to the incident referenced in v5. In Ex 19:19 it says that God answered Moses out of the thunder. Now He is going to speak to the whole earth. 2:6 is also referenced in Heb 12:26,27. Some versions have “desire of all nations” and others “treasures of all nations” (or something similar to either of these). Either translation is possible, so maybe we should take both. In Solomon’s time other nations did bring treasures to the building of the temple, so nations may again bring treasures to the temple. However, if we take the “desire of all nations” line, then Ecclesiastes speaks of God putting eternity into the hearts of men (Ecc 3:11). All men are looking for something, and this would speak of men recognising that what they are looking for is actually found in Christ. Christ is the desire of all men, if only they would recognise it, every true longing is found in Him. So we now come to timing. This certainly looks eschatological. We can also view it from an amillennial perspective and a post/pre millennial viewpoint. From the amillennial view the gospel has been going out to all nations, and people from all nations have been finding salvation. This applies to all cultures and races. This has and is happening, but this does not preclude a futurist application as well.

I also think we have to take the second temple as being a prototype, a trailer, for the real “second temple”. For the temple that was built was destroyed in AD 70. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is being spoken of. And, of course, Jesus referred to Himself as a temple (John 2:19).  This raises the question (at lease to me!) as to why did God tell them to build this temple, knowing it would not last (though it did manage a few hundred years)? I don’t know anything like the full answer, but a couple of thoughts. First, it provided a prototype for teaching lessons that we find in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai. Secondly, it provided the stage for the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. But this is where the Blog title of “Bible Musings” is appropriate, for there is much more to it than that.

Haggai 2:4,5 - Be strong!

2:4

Our natural reaction in the face of such circumstances is to become discouraged, to lose heart. God gives them a command to respond in a different way, then gives them the grounds for this command, and then gives them the promise. First of all, they are to be strong and to work, and this instruction is given to all. It is perfectly normal to have times of discouragement, but when these times arise we do not have to give in to the discouragement. Then see that value of the two pronged command, “be strong and work”. In the midst of discouragement it is difficult to change our feelings, to be strong, but it is possible to do something, to work. So regardless of our feelings, we should do the things that we know God wants us to do. The feelings will follow on afterwards.

The verse ends with the commonly used term “Lord of hosts”. Literally, this means “Lord if armies”, but it probably has a more general meaning “Lord over all powers”. These people were living in a decimated land, they had spent years under the power of other nations, at the mercy of other nations, and this had followed years of military defeats. The Lord is telling them that He is more powerful than all the forces that seem to have dominated their lives for years. The same applies to us. Whatever circumstances or forces we may think have dominated our lives, it is the Lord alone who has all power and authority.

2:5

“According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt”. We are going back hundreds of years now, but God’s covenant remains. Circumstances and time do not change God’s covenant, His settled purpose. “My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!” The people needed to rely on God’s promises and to know that He was with them.

Haggai 2:1-3 - Who remembers the former glory?

2:1

In the first chapter we read about how God rebuked the people, and related how He had been frustrating their efforts because they had focused on themselves and not God. Then the people repented, the rebuilding work began and God declared that He was with them. We are now about four weeks since this last prophecy and in this chapter two real problems are dealt with, and dealt with by God. Ie the answer came from God, not from the people. The first problem is that the task seems hopeless, the second is the unworthiness, the defilement, of the people. When we start to walk in God’s light one of the things that happens is that we become more aware of our sinfulness. This chapter addresses both of these issues.

2:2,3

The message is given its common introduction, being addressed to Zerubbabel, Joshua and the people. Or more precisely, the remnant of the people. In actual fact a relatively small proportion of the exiled people had returned from Babylon. Remember the conditions under which the first temple had been built. It was under Solomon, just after David. The nation was sort of living God’s way, the nation was on the up. Solomon was incredibly wealthy, was respected by all the surrounding nations, and received much help (including slave labour) from other nations. Now Israel was a war torn land, just beginning to recover from its ravished state. All this had happened because of her persistent sin against God. She was not respected by other nations, and would receive little help, she was poor. “Who is left among you ..” It was some 67 years since the destruction of the temple. There may have been one or two among them who had childhood memories of the first temple, and what they had now would indeed seem as nothing at all. Others would have heard stories of what they used to have. In Dundee there was the McCheyne revival of 1839, but today there is nothing like that. It is easy to be discouraged by memories or stories of past victories. This is a very human problem, and this part of the prophecy deals with that issue.

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.

Haggai 1:10,11 - I have called for a drought

1:10,11

We now get a full description of the things that God did to frustrate the Israelites. God actively brought a drought upon the land. Now the modern mind recoils from such a notion, but this is what the Bible says. So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to put modern man’s wisdom above God’s wisdom? Are we going to deny the authority of the Bible, and say that this is just what the people thought God did, but they were wrong? And there are plenty who go under the name of Christian who would say yes we must adopt one of these lines of thought. Or are we going to accept this as the word of God and see what we can learn? This latter approach is the one we will take and is bound to be the most fruitful.

If having food and material wealth was the chief end of life , if a man’s life was indeed made up of the extent of his possessions, then if God was a God of love His primary aim would be to  give His people good harvests. But a man’s life is not made up of his possessions (Luke 12:15), we are called to a higher purpose, Israel had a higher purpose. We need to recognise what our true purpose in life is, and that is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And God’s love is such that He will act so that we find that higher purpose, that deeper infinitely more meaningful life.

Haggai 1:7-9 - Consider your ways

1:7,8

In v 5 God called on the people to “consider your ways” in order to realise the failing of their present approach (ie seeking first their own needs, rather than the kingdom of God). Now He calls them to consider their ways  in terms of how to put things right, how to do the right thing. So God calls on them to go up to the hills and collect wood so that the temple, God’s house, could be built. This was so that the Lord could take pleasure in it and that He would be glorified. Now part of us may react, and the atheist almost certainly would react, against God’s desire to be glorified, thinking it was rather selfish and self-centered! But let’s look at this more closely. Let’s use my rough and ready definition of “glory”, which means moral excellence, significance and splendour. Who or what was the most important, the most significant, thing in life for the Israelites? They were acting as if getting their own needs was the most important thing, and they could best do this by their own efforts. The truth was that this was not working, and it is actually God who supplies all our needs. So only if they gave glory to God would life work out. And the same applies to you and me.

1:9

Their present ways were not working, but look at what it says “I blew it away”. It was not just that things were not working, God was actively frustrating their plans. We can think that if only politicians follow the correct policies and methods then things will work out, but if a nation is in abject rebellion against God it may be that God is actively frustrating the plans of a nation, and only when that nations repents will things start to work out. This is not to say that policies and methods don’t matter, they do, but our moral state matters as well. At present the West, including the UK, is a moral mess and the seeming inability of anything to work (eg Brexit?) is at least partly down to this. In Israel the people were focused purely on their own lives, not on God’s house.

Haggai 1:3-6 - You have sown much, but harvested little

1:3,4

“Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” The previous verse says “Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet”. He has just talked about the people saying the time is not right to build the house of the Lord, a very human reaction. We are now going to get a stinging rebuke from the Lord. This response did not come from the cleverness of Haggai, but from the mind of God. When it says “paneled houses” this can mean, and probably does mean, “roofed-in”. Ie they had repaired the roof, rather than that they had decorated their houses with some elaborate decor. So God’s question is “is it right that we patch up our own lives while God’s house is left a ruin?”

1:5,6

Now why is it essential to get God’s house in order when our lives need putting together? Or to put it another way, why should I give to God when my own finances need attention or are in such a mess? Indeed, not only why should I give to God, how can I possibly give to God when my own needs are so great? We are going to get part of the answer here, and part later on. The part given here is “consider your ways”. They had devoted efforts to getting their lives in order but they weren’t working! So why must we give proper attention to God? Because our lives are completely dependent upon Him. He created us in the first place, He created the universe in which we live, and we are completely and utterly dependent upon Him for every moment of our being. So it is foolish not to give proper attention to Him!

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.

Haggai - Introduction

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.

Seek first the kingdom - a sermon on Haggai

Seek first the kingdom - a sermon on Haggai.

Haggai 2:20-23 - A whole lot of shaking

This final message was given on the same day as the previous one. It is addressed to Zerubbabel, the Governor. God is about to shake the heavens and the earth. We live in a world where there are both human and spiritual powers. We like to neglect the spiritual powers and view life as purely human, but this is not the case. Christ is Lord of both the heavens and the earth, and what happens in the heavenly realms affects what happens here on earth.

Many powerful kingdoms would be overthrown. The language of v22 is reminiscent of language used elsewhere in the OT when talking of the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt and other nations. It is the Lord who overthrows kingdoms.

So why does God tell Zerubbabel this? What was the immediate context and what was it a foretaste of?

The reign of Darius involved much upheaval, but Zerubbabel was no messiah. So what is going on? Is Zerubbabel one of the many who looked forward without receiving what was promised (Heb 11:13)? However, Zerubbabel is thought very highly of by later generations (eg Ecclesiasticus 49:11). Maybe he is representative of the nation, and maybe he is a type of Christ.

Haggai 2:10-19 - The root of prosperity

Another precise dating of the next message, the date is actually 18th December, 520 BC. 

Haggai gives this message in terms of a riddle or a parable. First he asks what happens in consecrated meat touches normal food. Now the garment the meat was wrapped in would become holy (Lev 6:27), but the everyday food would not.

Then Haggai asks what happens if a person who has been defiled by touching a dead body touches the food, does the food become defiled? The answer this time is yes, for anything that touched by an unclean person becomes defiled (Num 19:11-13, 22).

Then the Lord declares that the people are like the defiled man, anything they do becomes defiled. So even though they were back in Israel, in Jerusalem, that did not make them clean. They needed a change of heart. Without Christ we are defiled and no matter what we do, we will defile it.

Now that they had started to rebuild the temple things would change. Up until that point nothing had worked properly, nothing had borne proper fruit. Now it would, now things would change, for "From this day on I will bless you". 

So let me reiterate a point I made a post or two ago. The success of what we do is dependent upon God. Now some prosperity teaching is wrong and dangerous, and I have made comments on this on various occasions, but it is true that our turning to God, and a nation's attitude towards God, are the crucial factors in determining well being and true prosperity. If we adopt a simplistic approach to this we will be frustrated (see the book of Job!), but nevertheless, this nation will prosper if it turns to God. If it persists in its rebellion then the nation will suffer. The way we are carrying on just now means that we as a nation are ripe for judgement.

Haggai 2:1-9 - A greater glory

We now come to the second message, and again the precise date is given. Just as a reminder that the chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original, the second half of Chapter 1 verse 15 seems to belong more logically to Chapter 2 verse 1. Perhaps those who originally assigned verse numbers thought the King Darius bit belonged to the date that work restarted.

The people had been told to restart the building of the temple, but this must have seemed like a daunting task. How could they ever restore things to their former glory? Sin and the consequent judgement had devastated the land and the people. 

God reassures the leaders. Leading is difficult, it means carrying on in the face of difficulties, overcoming all sorts of obstacles. The people also need to be encouraged. God reassures them that He is with them. This is what we need to know above all, that God is with us. His plan had not changed, He goes right back to the time He took them out of Egypt. All sorts of things happen but God's plans do not change. Moreover, His Spirit remained among the people. So they did not need to fear. There will be many things that causes us to fear, but we should not be intimidated.

God also has greater plans. He is going to shake the heavens and the earth. He is doing things among the nations. Note that He says that the "what is desired by the nations will come". Today we see secular governments getting what they want, an increasingly godless society. We should not despair when we see this happening for at the same time God "will fill this house with glory". At the same time as darkness covers the earth, light will shine from the house of the Lord.

The whole world belongs to the Lord, not to the nations. This is a fundamental truth. So the glory of the present house would be greater than that of the former. God's plans are going forward, not backwards. It is in His house that we will find peace.