Haggai: Rebuilding The Temple Series

A. Have you ever started CONSTRUCTION on a project and never FINISHED?

ILLUSTRATION:

You decide to build a DECK or a FENCE or add a ROOM to your house, so you go out and buy the LUMBER and all the MATERIALS needed for the PROJECT. The DAY you decide to start, something comes up and you put it off for another DAY. And then that DAY comes around, but it’s still not a GOOD TIME to get started so you put it off again. Finally, all the LUMBER you purchased just SETS OUT in the BACK YARD rotting.

B. This was a problem that Haggai addresses in this prophecy in regards to the RE-BUILDING of the Temple

of God. Haggai is also mentioned in Ezra 5:1-2, 6:14-16. Background to Haggai- Ezra 1-6.

1. Haggai’s name means: “FESTIVAL.”

2. Haggai was written around 520 BC.

a. By this time the “Nation of Judah had been in Babylonian Captivity for approximately 70 years,”

as Jeremiah had prophesied in Jeremiah 25:8.

b. Babylon has now been defeated by a new EMPIRE, as God told Habakkuk they would, the

PERSIANS under the rule of King Cyrus.

COMMENT:

In fact, it had been prophesied by Isaiah over 150 years earlier that “the Lord would raise up one named Cyrus, who would allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God”-

Isaiah 44:24ff

King Cyrus gave the Jews (as well as other CAPTIVES) a choice to either REMAIN where they were since many had grown into a quiet and comfortable life OR they could return to their HOMELAND and be allowed a measure of self-government and could REBUILD their Temple.

3. The first of the EXILES that returned to Jerusalem were a comparatively small number from the

THOUSANDS whom had been taken CAPTIVE by Babylon.

a. The prophet Haggai was among the first to RETURN.

COMMENT:

Now remember by this time over 70 years have passed since the DEFEAT of Judah. The majority of the original CAPTIVES are DEAD. Those who remain, their children and now their grandchildren,

are allowed to return to Jerusalem.

It is believed that Haggai was just a young boy when Jerusalem was destroyed. But he remembers the MAGNIFICENCE of the CITY and the SPLENDOR of Solomon’s TEMPLE.

b. You can imagine how the prophet’s HEART sank when they RETURNED to Jerusalem only to

see the CITY in complete DESOLATION and the SACRED TEMPLE of God in RUINS.

COMMENT:

Although the Jews were given permission by King Cyrus to rebuild the TEMPLE and were probably even given MATERIALS to do so, hostile neighbors made the RECONSTRUCTION a difficult task. “The work sat idle for 16 years, and only the foundation had been laid”- Ezra 3.

C. The book of Haggai presents a PROGRESSION in the ATTITUDE and CONDITION of the people as the prophet SPURS them on to complete what they have started so that “GOD’S HOUSE” can once again be FILLED with His GLORY.

MESSAGE:

I. INDIFFERENT- Haggai 1:1-11

A. God speaking through the prophet says to Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and Joseph the High Priest,

“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.’”- Haggai 1:2.

1. Really? “THE TIME HAS NOT YET COME?”

a. These people had waited for 70 years, waited in a foreign land, waited for the PROMISE to be fulfilled to RETURN to their HOMELAND so they can freely WORSHIP God again. And

now they say, “the TIME has not yet come…”?

b. This was God’s PLAN for the Babylonian Captivity in the first place—to finally purge out IDOLATRY so that His people will return to Jerusalem and once again WORSHIP Him and

Him only. And now they just can’t find the TIME to finish God’s House.

2. Interestingly enough, they were able to find the TIME for more SELFISH endeavors- 1:3-4 (READ

& COMMENT)

a. Doesn’t this sound a lot like Christians today?

b. We don’t have time for God, but we can certainly find the time to DO what we want.

COMMENT:

We don’t have time to come to WORSHIP, to READ our BIBLES, to PRAY, to SERVE in a MINISTRY, to SHARE Christ, but we always find the TIME to do the THINGS that are IMPORTANT to us.

B. God said to the people, “CONSIDER YOUR WAYS”- 1:5-9 (READ)

1. Haggai is wanting the people to know that the Lord is not BLESSING them because they are not

GIVING Him their very BEST.

COMMENT:

He kept them safe for 70 years in CAPTIVITY as He said He would, and they do nothing to show their GRATITUDE. Since they refused to rebuild the TEMPLE, God says: “Okay, I’m just going to SIT BACK and withhold my BLESSINGS until MY HOUSE is complete.”