1In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:2This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD'S house to be built.'"
3Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" 5Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
7This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 8Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. 9"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11I 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 labor of your hands."
12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.
13Then Haggai, the LORD'S messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. 14So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.
As mentioned in the previous issue, in 538 B.C., with the approval of Cyrus king of Persia, Zerubbabel led some 50,000 people from exile in Babylon back to the promised land in order to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. When they arrived, initially they enthusiastically began work on the Temple. However, as a result of some opposition they faced from the Samaritans who were living in the promised land at the time, construction on the Temple languished, and then came to a halt in 530 B.C. (see Ezra 4:24). Ten years later, in order to exhort the people to resume work on the Temple, God spoke to the people through the prophet Haggai: "In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest" (vs. 1).
As far as we know, this is the first voice of prophecy from God to the people after they returned from the exile. And it was much needful. The people of God were strangers in their own land. They did not have the leadership of a king, the support of a kingdom, the protection of a king's army. The Temple was destroyed, so they had to worship the Lord at a makeshift altar. A subtle indication of how far the people of God had fallen from glory can be seen in the first verse of Haggai's book, in that the year was marked in terms of the reign of a pagan king: "In the second year of King Darius..." The people had no recent key events of their own by which to mark time.
The time of year of this first message through Haggai was "the first day of the sixth month." Being the first day of the month, it was a new moon day, and therefore a feast day, on which a sacrifice was offered to the Lord (see Num. 28:11). Thus, the word from the Lord concerning the construction of the Temple came on an appropriate day, a day when the people would be acutely aware of the absence of the Temple.
Note that the word of the Lord was addressed specifically to Zerubbabel (the governor who was appointed by Cyrus, see Ezra 5:14) and Joshua (the high priest). And so, both the civil and religious leaders of the community were directly spoken to by the Lord. It was the responsibility of these leaders to heed the word of the Lord, and encourage the rest of the people of God into service of God.
The Lord, through Haggai, first noted what the people were saying concerning the rebuilding of the Temple: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'These people say, "The time has not yet come for the LORD'S house to be built."'" It had been ten years since the people had actively worked on the Temple. Yet, the people were still saying, "The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built." There was some serious procrastination going on here! And yet, the people were probably rationalizing their procrastination by saying things like, "Well, I just don't feel that the Lord desires that I work on the Temple right now. After all, I'm busy with my work, my kids are young and they need my time,... and besides, there's opposition to the building of the Temple. Doesn't that mean that now is not the right time to serve the Lord?"
The Lord responded by asking the people a telling, and convicting question: "Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 'Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?'" (vss. 2-4). The Lord pointed out to the people that they had the time, resources and ability to build themselves fine, "panelled", houses. They were able to overcome any obstacles they faced in building their own houses, but were unwilling, at that time, to commit themselves to do what it would take to finish the Lord's house. With His question, the Lord revealed that the people's problem was that they had inverted priorities. The Lord's work took the back seat. It seems that they only served Him when they had nothing else to do, and then only when the way was smoothed for them.
And things haven't changed much, have they? Don't we have the same problems? It seems that there is never time to serve the Lord. And when we do find the time, it seems that nothing goes smoothly, so what's the use? And yet, we find time to chase after pleasures. We go to great pains to prepare for and take that ski trip. We find time to watch three or four hours of television a night, but there is no time to serve the Lord. So we see, the Lord is speaking through Haggai to us, as well as to Zerubbabel and Joshua. We too have our panelled houses next to a Temple in ruins. We need to heed the words of Jesus: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt. 6:33). I have found that if I seek to serve the Lord first, He returns to me great happiness and fulfillment, glorious God-given panelled houses, as it were.
As for the people in Israel, they had panelled houses, but they were unsatisfied, unfulfilled: "Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it'" (vss. 5-6). The key message in this book is: "Give careful thought to your ways." They worked hard. They had plenty of food and drink. They were making good wages. But they remained unfulfilled. The material possessions, their "panelled" houses, did not satisfy them. They "never had enough." My, my, this sounds familiar. Things have not changed much in these last 2000 years, have they?
God had a solution for them: "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,' says the Lord" (vss. 7-8). To be fulfilled in life, do what the Lord of the Universe may "take pleasure" in, do that which brings "honor" to Him. This is the surest way to a rich, fulfilling life.
It is noteworthy that God tells them to "go up into the mountains and bring down timber" for the Temple. They had already done this. In Ezra 3:7, we are told: "Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia." So, we might ask: What happened to the "cedar logs" that they imported from Lebanon? Could it be that they were used for their "panelled" houses, instead of for God's Temple?
God next revealed to them the source and cause of their frustration: "'You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?' declares the LORD Almighty. 'Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops'" (vss. 9-10). God Himself was working against their prosperity, against their fulfillment. "What you brought home, I blew away." God works against you when your work separates you from Him. We think we have more spare time when we neglect to serve God, but the opposite is true. We think that we will have more fulfillment in life if we pursue our careers to the neglect of God's work, but the opposite is true.
To the great credit of the people of Israel, they responded to the word of the Lord: "Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD" (vs. 12). Note here that the people in Israel are called the "remnant". This is the "remnant" that was prophesied about in the book of Isaiah: "A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return" (Isa. 10:21-22). They were chosen specifically by God to return to the land. But their special status, being the remnant of the people of God, required more than their just "being there" in the land. They were there to serve the Lord, rebuild His Temple, reinstitute the proper worship of God in the promised land. In the same way, each one of us, as a child of God, is invested with more responsibility than just "being here". It is not enough for us as a child of God to just attend a Bible-believing church. We are here to serve the Lord, rebuild His Temple, reinstitute and encourage the proper worship of God.
God, in turn, responded to the obedience of the people: "Then Haggai, the LORD'S messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: 'I am with you,' declares the LORD. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius" (vss. 13-15). God responded both in word and in deed. In word, He told them: "I am with you." This was a short, but, oh so precious message from the Lord of the Universe to His people. What more could one want, than for God to say, "I am with you"? In deed, God "stirred up the spirit" of the leaders and the remnant. With their spirits on fire, they began anew "work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God." May we respond in like fashion to God's call to us to serve Him. Lord, stir up our spirits to serve You.