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.”
2. Friends, I want you to understand that this is God we are talking about. He is our CREATOR.
a. As the apostle Paul said, “In Him we live and breathe and have our very being”- Acts 17:28.
b. Without Him we are NOTHING.
COMMENT:
The greatest FULFILMENT we can find in this life is to LIVE FOR God, and yet many Christians act like they just don’t have TIME for Him or they GIVE God the LEFT OVERS.
II. OBEDIENT- Haggai 1:12-15
A. When Zerubbabel and Joseph and all the people came to REALIZE that their INDIFFERENCE and
APATHY was a demonstration of their blatant DISRESPECT for God and His HOUSE, they
immediately REPENTED and OBEYED the Lord- 1:12 (READ).
1. I love this. This so different from how the people of Judah responded to the PROPHETS before
CAPTIVITY.
COMMENT:
The prophets preached over and over, “Repent and return to God,” and the people refused. But now they’re listening to God and immediately OBEY Him because they “FEARED the Lord.”
2. Maybe the reason that many Christians today are INDIFFERENT and DISOBEDIENT is because
they no longer FEAR the LORD—they no longer RESPECT Him.
COMMENT:
I’m afraid that in recent years many PREACHERS (myself included) in stressing the LOVE of God has led many people to believe that GOD is a PUSHOVER—that He doesn’t take SIN and DISOBDIENCE serious anymore. That whether you REPENT or NOT or OBEY or NOT, God is going to REWARD you anyway. . . . . But nothing can be FURTHER from the TRUTH!
B. We see here that it was only AFTER the people REPENTED and OBEYED that God BLESSED them-
1:13 (READ) and 1:14b (READ)
1. The people were REWARDED and BLESSED by God because they took ACTION.
COMMENT:
They didn’t just TALK about it. They didn’t call a MEETING and say to one another, “You know, Haggai’s right. We DO need to start WORK on the TEMPLE again. It’s been 16 years since we’ve done anything. Why don’t we set another MEETING in a couple of months so that we can come back and TALK about when it will be a good TIME to get STARTED?”
2. God is not honored by GOOD INTENTIONS (we all have those). He is honored by our ACTIONS.
a. Haggai said, “They OBEYED the voice of God and began to WORK on the house of the Lord.”
COMMENT:
The GOVERNOR, the HIGH PRIEST and all the people were CONVICTED by God’s Word and took ACTION. They GRABBED their AXES and went up that MOUNTAIN and started CHOPPING DOWN trees.
b. And God says, “I AM WITH YOU.”
III. BLESSED- Haggai 2:1-19
A. As the people continued their WORK on the TEMPLE, there were some of the OLD GUYS like Haggai
who began to reminisce about the “GOOD OLD DAYS”- 2:2-3 (READ)
1. Those who remembered the glory of Solomon’s Temple are greatly DISAPPOINTED—it just
didn’t COMPARE.
a. 1 Kings 6 describes the magnificence and beauty of God’s Temple that King Solomon had built.
COMMENT:
Under Solomon’s rule Israel had become a MIGHTY, POWERFUL, and WEALTHY nation. Solomon had everything at his disposal to build a TEMPLE that was unmatched by any other STRUCTURE at that time. He spared no EXPENSE.
b. “But as the older generation including the PRIESTS and LEVITES who remembered
Solomon’s Temple look at the STRUCTURE before them now, they WEEP”- Ezra 3:12.
ILLUSTRATION:
Have you ever gone back to the HOUSE where you grew up to see what it looks like today? When I was 16 my Dad was transferred from Tinker Airforce Base in the Oklahoma City area to Altus Airforce Base in Southwest Oklahoma.
My dad bought a house in Altus located at 918 N. Forrest St., which became my home until I was married a few years later. I haven’t been back to Altus, Oklahoma in decades, but I was curious as to what that old HOUSE looked like today. So I went on Google Earth and typed in that address. Here is what it looks like today!
ILLUSTRATION:
It was never a GREAT HOUSE, but it was my HOME. My Dad tried to keep it up
structurally. He put a new ROOF and PAINT JOB on it, and kept up with needed REPAIRS.
There’s a lot of FOND MEMORIES in that house. It was the last house I LIVED in with my PARENTS. Brenda and I sat on the couch in the LIVINGROOM as BOYFRIEND and GIRLFRIEND smooching in that HOUSE. And to see the way it LOOKS today, SADDENS me.
2. God acknowledges that even though the current TEMPLE was new “it seemed like nothing” in
comparison to Solomon’s Temple- 2:3b.
a. And, yet, God says that “the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the
former house . . . and in this place I will grant peace”- 2:9.
COMMENT:
It is true that King Herod some 500 years later added onto this TEMPLE and it became a massive CONSTRUCTION, even far greater than Solomon’s TEMPLE. (Model built to SCALE of what is believed Herod’s temple looked like with surrounding court yards.) But I believe that the prophet is speaking of something of even GREATER significance than Herod’s TEMPLE.
b. Many scholars believe, and I agree, that Haggai is giving us a glimpse into “God’s Spiritual
House”—the church of Jesus Christ.
COMMENT:
The church is of “GREATER GLORY” because it is ETERNAL and OPEN to all people of every NATION (not only to the JEWS). The HEAD of the CHURCH is Jesus Christ the Son of
God through whom we have PEACE.
The name of Solomon who BUILT the first temple meant “PEACEFUL.” But the BUILDER of the ETERNAL TEMPLE is the “Prince of Peace.”
B. Haggai wants the people to remember that God’s BLESSINGS is contingent upon them continuing to
LIVE their LIVES for God- 2:10-19.
1. By this time three months had passed since they started the RECONSTRUCTION of the TEMPLE.
a. They had been PROGRESSING right along, but God knows that we HUMAN BEINGS have a
tendency to SLACK OFF or even QUIT in our SERVICE to Him.
b. Concerned that they may once again become COMPLANCENT and DISOBEDIENT, God has
Haggai to ask the PRIESTS a couple of questions- -2:11-13
-FIRST: “If a person carries holy meat (the flesh of animals used for sacrifice) in the fold of his garment and then that garment touches other food, does it mean that whatever the
garment touches is holy as well?”- v. 12. The answer is: “NO.”
COMMENT:
God wants the people to understand that just because you are back in Jerusalem and rebuilding
MY HOUSE, doesn’t make you automatically HOLY and RIGHTEOUS in my sight.
Billy Sunday, a former athlete turned preacher, once said in a sermon: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.” It’s by giving our LIVES to God and LIVING for Him that SANCTIFIES us—makes us HOLY.
-SECOND: “If one becomes unclean by touching a dead body, and he touches other persons or things, will these become unclean?”- v. 13 According to the law in Numbers 19:11-22, the
answer is “YES.”
COMMENT:
God is reasoning that being in a HOLY PLACE does not automatically make you HOLY, but SIN and its INFLUENCE can SPREAD throughout the entire CITY. So God is urging the people to remain FAITHFUL and OBEDIENT to Him.
2. God goes on to remind them of their past DISOBEDIENCE and how He had withdrawn His
BLESSINGS from them in hopes that they will never RETURN to that life again- 2:15-19
COMMENT:
I know that as Christians we are not to DWELL ON and FRET OVER our PAST SINS. We have given our LIVES to Christ and we are FORGIVEN. Christ PAID for our SINS on the CROSS. But I think it is HEALTHY sometimes for us to just STOP and REMEMBER how
AWFUL it was when we were not WALKING with God.
I don’t know about you, but I just don’t want to GO BACK to the time when I allowed Satan to USE me and ABUSE me and to HURT the people I love because I chose SIN over God. I don’t
want to FORGET what that was like, because I never want to REPEAT it again.
a. God is saying to the people, “Don’t forget the misery of your disobedience. Don’t forget how
I withdrew my blessings from you. Continue to do my WILL and OBEY Me!”
b. Then God adds in v. 19b- “FROM THIS DAY ON I WILL BLESS YOU.”
COMMENT:
Now, those are the WORDS we want to HEAR from God.
CONCLUSION:
A. Haggai concludes his prophecy with a MESSAGE from God personally directed to Zerubbabel, the
governor of Judah- 2:20-23.
1. Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jehoiachin who was the King of Judah during the Babylonian exile.
COMMENT:
Since he was a direct descendant of the King, it was only natural that he be appointed as GOVERNOR over the reestablished nation of Judah.
2. But what is most significant about “Zerubbabel is that he is now the oldest living patriarch that will
continue the ancestral line of Abraham and King David to the coming Messiah”- Matthew 1:12-13
a. Listen to what God says to Zerubbabel- 2:23 (READ)
COMMENT:
The SIGNET was a ring or cylinder engraved with the owner’s NAME or special EMBLEM specific to that person. It was often worn by KINGS. It signified OWNERSHIP and SEAL
APPROVAL.
b. Zerubbabel was God’s “SIGNET RING.”
COMMENT:
The nation of Judah was in CAPTIVITY for 70 years, but during that time God kept the
MESSIANIC SEED LINE pure and intact.
God chose Zerubbabel to CARRY ON the lineage of David, through which Jesus Christ was born and crowned the King of kings.
3. Zerubbabel represents the MESSIANIC HOPE that had been RENEWED to the children of Israel and ultimately FULFILLED with the COMING of Jesus Christ into the WORLD.
