Priorities-1

PRIORITIES—I—Haggai 1:1-15

Attention:

Yard Sale Priority:

A woman was taking her time browsing through everything at a friend's yard sale, & said to her, “My husband is going to be very upset that I stopped at a yard sale.”

“I'm sure he'll understand when you tell him about all the bargains you found,” her friend replied.

“Normally, yes,” she said. “But he just broke his leg, & he's waiting for me to take him to the hospital to have it set.”

Need:

Priorities in the Land or...your sphere of influence.

Priorities in God’s people.

Priorities upon a Return to God.

•Perhaps you have spent some time away from God.

•Perhaps you have withheld an area of your life from God.

Haggai exhorted those returning from exile to prioritize their relationship with God.

God’s people must prioritize their relationship with God.

How must God’s people prioritize their relationship with God?

3 assessments securing a proper relationship with God.

1—A prioritized relationship with God properly assesses...

The TIME(:1-2)

Explanation:(1-2)

:1—“In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, & to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,”

:2—““Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.”’”

:1—“In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, & to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,”

“In the second year of King Darius” places this prophecy in the year 520 BC.

•“This Darius is not to be confused with the later figure of Darius II Nothus(423-408 B.C.) of Neh. 12:12, who is referred to as “Darius the Persian.”—NAC

•“Nor is he to be confused with Darius the Mede of the Book of Daniel, a figure associated with Cyrus the Persian”[539-530 B.C.] “in the overthrow of the Neo-Babylonian empire in 539B.C.”—NAC/John W. Hamilton in ‘Chronological & Background Charts Of The Old Testament’[JWHCharts]

•“The Darius of Hag. 1:1 is Darius I Hyastaspes, who ruled over Persia from 522 to 486 B.C. He ascended the throne of Persia after the death of Cambyses”[530-522 B.C.]—NAC/JWHCharts

“In the sixth month” places this prophecy in the Babylonian month, Elul(August/September).—JWHCharts/ISBE1979

•“At different times ancient Israel used different calendrical systems.”—NAC

•“During & after the exile Israel adopted the Babylonian calendar, with the new year beginning in the spring. It is this later system that is reflected in Haggai’s usage. The sixth month(i.e., Elul) was therefore toward the end of the summer. In terms of modern reckoning the date in v.1 corresponds to August 29, 520 B.C.”—NAC

In Haggai’s day “no empire in the ancient Near East exceeded the size of this superpower. Persia controlled an area reaching from northern Africa to southern Russia & from Asia Minor” “to India.”—NAC

:2—““Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.”’”

“The LORD of hosts” is YHWH of heaven itself & of the heavenly angelic armies of heaven, & even of those of humanity who serve Him. Here He “speaks” not to ‘His people’, but rather to “this people.” “This people” designates those who are disobedient to YHWH.

•“This people” had strayed from God’s desire even after having been forced into exile for the same reason! They had long ago(upon entering the promised land) been warned that their own disobedience would cause them to serve other gods in foreign lands(Deut. 4:23-31).

Deut. 4:23-31—Moses prophesied to Israel—“Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, & make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you beget children & grandchildren & have grown old in the land, & act corruptly & make a carved image in the form of anything, & do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, “I call heaven & earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, & you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood & stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God, & you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart & with all your soul. “When you are in distress, & all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God & obey His voice ‘(for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.”