Thursday with Tabitha - Haggai

Haggai Hello, welcome back to our minor prophets series. This week we are looking at the book of Haggai. This is another short book, consisting of just 2 chapters. As with several of the other minor prophets, we don’t know much about Haggai himself. We can be quite sure about the dating of the book though, because Haggai included precise dates for the oracles he received from God. These details place the book in the year 520 BC, and between the months of August and December. Haggai was a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah. In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered and overthrew Babylon. One of the first things Cyrus did was make an edict that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple. This action was predicted by the prophet Isaiah and recounted in the first two chapters of the book of Ezra About 50 000 Jews, including Ezra, returned to Jerusalem in 536 BC and they began to rebuild the city. Ezra encountered significant opposition to his work and the building work stalled. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem 13 years later to spearhead another major push to rebuild the walls. His building team managed to complete the building of the walls but they also faced hostile opposition and the population of Jerusalem was still relatively small and vulnerable. The people had a dramatic experience of repentance and revival under Nehemiah’s leadership but after he’d left them to go back to his job in Babylon the people quickly slipped into sinful ways. By the time we reach the prophecy of Haggai, 16 years have passed since the origin return of the first exiles to Jerusalem. King Darius is ruling the kingdom of Persia, which now includes the territory of Judah. The people of Jerusalem have settled back into their city and they have built houses for themselves. But there is a problem. They have left the temple in a state of decay and ruin. God sends his word via Haggai to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” (Haggai 1:2) The people have busied themselves in the building of their own houses but they have procrastinated about rebuilding God’s house, the symbol of God’s presence amongst them. God explains to the people that because of their indifference and neglect of his house, he has frustrated their efforts to be fruitful and productive in their farming and manufacturing. They have been working hard to produce clothes and food but yet they cannot seem to get warm or satisfied. God cannot stand by and allow his house to be neglected in this way whilst the people simply pursue their own interests. Once the people hear this and realise the source of their failure, they obey God and commence the work on the temple. They have physical work to do and also emotional work to do, turning their hearts back towards God. The people respond with respect and fear of God and God reassures them: Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.” (Haggai 1:13) Some of the people of Jerusalem would have been old enough to recall Solomon’s temple in the days before the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon. Once the building work got underway it became obvious to them that the rebuilt temple would be nothing like the old temple; it would be much plainer and far less glorious. So God sends word to Haggai again to encourage the people. ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. (Haggai 2:3-5) God speaks with great comfort and love to his people and assures them that he is not going to leave them and they have no need to be afraid. God promises that he will fill the temple with the treasures of the nations and, more than that, he will fill it with his very presence, making it more glorious than the first temple. God’s next word is to the priests, three months after the rebuilding began. He reminds them that something that is ceremonially clean cannot make an unclean thing holy by touching it, but something unclean is capable of defiling something holy. In the same way, the ruin of the temple has rendered all of the offerings of the people unholy and inadequate. Although God has punished his people by limiting the fruitfulness of their produce, he promises to bless them again, once the temple is rebuilt. The final part of the book is addressed to Zerubbabel the governor. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the...