Be Strong And Work Series

Let’s recap. The Israelites came back from 70-years of captivity in Babylon.

• They rebuilt the altar and started work on the Temple but the local Samaritans opposed them (cf. Ezra 3).

• They were so discouraged they stopped work for some 16 years. Nothing was done to God’s house while they busy themselves with their own houses.

God sent prophets Haggai and Zechariah to get the people back to the work.

• Haggai delivers God’s Word in 4 messages over a span of 4 months.

• Through him, God stirred the hearts of the people and got them to resume the work on the Temple of God.

• The first message was a rebuke and a wake-up call. The people neglected God’s house and hence suffered the consequences of not having God in their lives.

It was not the physical building that was the issue. It was God’s place in their lives.

• Without the Temple it would mean no proper worship. With no worship, it would mean God would be out of their minds and hearts.

• The context of the first message tells it all. We need God for the harvests. Ultimately He is the One who provides and blesses, even the labour of our hands (1:11).

• 1:11 “I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labour of your hands.” A drought on all their labours!

• Prayer of Moses in Psalm 90:17 “May the favour of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands.”

• As farmers, the Israelites would understand this more acutely than us.

I liked the way God puts it: “Give careful thought to your ways” (said twice). Think. Think carefully and consider. They were not coerced into it.

• And it took them 23 days to think. The message came on 1st day of the 6th month, and “14…they came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15on the 24th day of the 6th month in the 2nd year of King Darius.” (1:14b-15)

Let’s continue with Haggai 2:1-5.

They started work on the 24th day of the 6th month, and now we have a 2nd message from God on the 21st day of the 7th month, barely a month since the work started.

• And hearing what God said - “Be strong, Zerubbabel”, “Be strong, Joshua” and “Be strong, all you people of the land and work… Do not fear.” - we can almost read the sentiments on the ground.

• They were discouraged and fearful (lack of courage). The Lord was responding to what they were thinking and feeling.

• God asked Haggai to ASK THEM rhetorical questions to surface what the people were already thinking and feeling.

• It shows us God knew and understood. God knows what you are going through.

• It was precisely because God knew that He spoke. The Word came to address their concerns.

Clearly the new Temple was nowhere near as splendid as the old one, the Solomon’s Temple. God knew it, the people knew it, and the leaders knew it.

• The book of Ezra records that later when the new Temple was dedicated, shouts of joy were mixed with sounds of weeping (3:10-13).

• The older returnees from exile, possibly including Haggai himself, remembered the original glory of Solomon’s Temple.

It was a stark contrast. The previous Temple was obviously bigger and grander and glittering with gold, literally.

• If we take a glance at the accounts of how Solomon builds the Temple in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chron 3, we can understand why.

• On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, Solomon carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the Temple with gold.

• The interior of the temple was made with imported cedars from Lebanon, decked out with precious stones, and the whole place was overlaid in gold.

But this was not the point. The size and beauty of the Temple wasn’t the important part. God wasn’t concerned about the facade.

• He could have provided the gold if He wanted to. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” the Lord said (2:8).

• In fact, both times in the rebuilding, at the start and now at the resumption of the rebuilding, resources have been provided for by King Cyrus and King Darius.

• God would move the Persians to give if that was what is truly required.

But pessimism set in when the people began to compare.