The Prophet Haggai

Many of the prophets can be considered independent prophets because they dealt with the kingdoms of Israel or Judah.

These prophets spoke words of condemnation to:

• The Political leaders that led people from God

• The Priesthood that led people from God

• The Nations that had turned people from God

All the prophets spoke of the day when the nations would be destroyed. The times of destruction did come as they prophesied. For example:

• In 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell at the hands of the Assyrians

• In 606 BC, the kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians

This began the great tragedy of the exile, the most pivotal event in biblical history since the exodus.

All the leading citizens of the kingdom were taken away, and led into the city of Babylon. The Temple in Jerusalem was completely destroyed and the nation became divided.

• They lost their independence to govern themselves

• Their place of worship was gone

• They lived in this condition for 70 years

Eventually, the Babylonians were defeated and conquered by a new empire, the Persians. The Persians did not have a policy of exiling the leading citizens of conquered lands, so they offered the exiles a choice.

(1) They could remain where they were because many had assimilated themselves into this culture

(2) They could embark on the journey home, where they would be allowed a measure of self-government, and be permitted to rebuild their temple

Many chose not to make the return trip to Judah. They knew:

• It would be a difficult journey

• It would be a difficult life in the impoverished land

Those who returned, saw it as the opportunity God had given them to be part of the remnant of the New Kingdom of Israel. They returned with this grand vision for their homeland.

The building of the temple work began immediately! Things were going great for a year, but eventually things began to get difficult and the focus of the people turned from the temple to themselves. The temple was left unfinished on mount Zion.

Into this era comes the prophet Haggai, the first of the post-exilic prophets. Let’s look into the scriptures and look at the life of this great man of God; the PROPHET HAGGAI!

We see -

I. THE MAN

Haggai means “festival, feast, festive.”

We get the impression from reading this book that Haggai was one of the OT prophets with a heart of love.

The prophet was most likely born in exile, in Babylon, where the Jewish people were held for a 70-year period before a group returned to Jerusalem led by Zerubbabel.

WHO WAS ZERUBBABEL?

• Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jehoiachin, King of Judah.

• Zerubbabel led the first band of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia.

• Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem the next year. Little else is known about him.

Haggai comes 16 years after Zerubbabel led the Jews back to Jerusalem, and he noticed that the temple was not completed.

During Haggai’s four months of ministry, he gave four prophetic messages that dealt with God’s priorities for the lives of His people.

(1) He gave a call to rebuild the house of God (Haggai 1:3-15)

(2) He gave a call to have courage in the Lord (Haggai 2:1-9)

(3) He gave a call to clean up their lives before the Lord (Haggai 2:10-19)

(4) He gave a call to confidence in the Lord (Haggai 2:20-23)

We have looked at THE MAN, now look at -

II. THE MESSAGE

As God speaks to him, He shows Him His displeasure because after sixteen years the temple of God has not yet been rebuilt.

Look at Haggai 1:1-2. We read, “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.”

Haggai recognized that these people returned with good intentions, but they had been sidetracked with their own SELFISH PLANS!

When they were rebuked for carrying out their own SELFISH PLANS instead of the PLAN OF GOD to rebuild the temple, they simply said, in verse 2, “… The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.”

Often today we still hear people talk about things they should be doing, but they say, “THE TIME IS NOT RIGHT!”

These people had waited for 70 years in a foreign land and now they offer these words, “THE TIME IS NOT COME!”