Haggai 2:1-5 (3)
Notes
Transcript
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-We’ve made it to the 2nd and final chapter of Haggai’s prophecy
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We’re going to go ahead and read through verse 9...
(And that’s because those verses clearly form a unit of thought)
…but, we’re going to break up our study...
…into two parts.
I hope we can make it through verse 5 this evening.
These are (in my opinion) profoundly deep verses.
Let’s read them together...
…and ask for some much needed help.
Haggai 2:1–9 (ESV)
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
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Pray
Review:
I know it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been here...
…but try to remember what we’ve covered so for.
-The scene is in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Because of Israel’s idolatry:
The Kingdom had been divided
Both “houses” were eventually given over to foreign invaders
Jerusalem had been razed (to the ground)
The Temple was destroyed
The People were carried away into exile.
Now, it has been almost 70 years...
And just like God had promised through His prophets...
He has returned a remnant of His dispersed people...
…back to Judah and Jerusalem...
…and commanded them to rebuild the city...
And more importantly...
…to rebuild the Temple in the midst of the city.
-Remember that the project had initially gotten off to a good start...
But, they faced some hardship and opposition...
And it had come to a screeching halt.
-It was in this context that God had sent Haggai to prod the people to:
Repent
Continue the work of rebuilding.
The last we had seen...
…the people had responded faithfully to Haggai’s admonition...
…and had reconvened their work!
-Chapter two picks up almost a month later.
Again, we see an unusually precise time marker being given...
Haggai 2:1 (ESV)
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:
Here too, (like we saw in chapter 1)...
...the date of this oracle is very significant:
Tishri 21
This was a day on which the people were gathered together...
…for yet another holy convocation.
It was the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Remember:
The final of three annual feasts
Spring, Summer, and Fall
Required the pilgrimage of all adult males
The K&D Commentary summarizes its significance:
The twenty-first day of the seventh month was the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles (cf. Lev. 23:34ff.), the great festival of rejoicing...
...on which Israel was to give practical expression to its gratitude for the gracious guidance which it had received through the wilderness, as well as for the blessing of the ingathering of all the fruits of the ground — Keil and Delitzsch
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So, this was a time of :
Remembrance
Thanksgiving
Celebration
Worship
-Now, Not only did it remind the people...
...of God’s faithfulness during the period of the Exodus...
It also marked the anniversary...
...of the dedication of Solomon’s Temple!
Before the construction of the Temple...
…God’s presence among His people was seen as:
Transient
Temporary
-Solomon’s Temple was supposed to indicate...
…a permanent dwelling place for God among His people.
This should have been a time of great rejoicing.
But, of course, these reminders of the glories of the past...
…only served to further reveal the horrors of the present for these folks.
Ian Duguid (do-good) explains:
The celebration of the Festival of Tabernacles, with its overtones of the days when Israel wandered in the wilderness, would have been particularly poignant and meaningful for the people of Haggai’s day because those taking part had themselves only recently experienced a “second exodus” from Babylon.
For them, the experience of dwelling as strangers and aliens in an unwelcoming world and being given the land promised to Abraham was not simply something to be recalled from the dim and dusty pages of history.
It was the story of their own lives. — Ian Duguid
Here, they have:
No real City
No Temple
No bountiful harvest...
…with the arduous task of rebuilding before them.
And this time...
…rather than sending an oracle of rebuke...
…the Lord graciously sends them a word of:
Encouragement
Hope!
-It begins in Verse 2.
Notice (both) the:
Similarities
Differences...
…in the addressees:
Haggai 2:2 (ESV)
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,
This is what He says:
Haggai 2:3 (ESV)
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? . . .
Think about the history, here.
Man had been expelled from the Garden Temple because of their sin.
Then, After near total annihilation (The Flood — also because of sin)...
God began to communicate with one family of men.
Centuries later, He began to condescend to meet with one of them...
(far away from the rest)
...in a little tent, known as the “Tent of Meeting.”
Eventually, God graciously moved the meeting place inside the camp...
…into the much larger tabernacle:
(Show: Size of Tabernacle Complex)
(Show: Tabernacle Construction)
-Under King David the Nation was finally able to put down roots.
Solomon was charged with building a “permanent” meeting place...
…wherein God could dwell among his people.
It was magnificent!
It required (literally) hundreds of thousands of workmen...
…over the course of seven years to build it.
It was much larger: (Show graphic)
Exponentially taller
It was much more ornate: (Show graphic)
Overlaid with Gold, cedar, precious stones, etc.
It was breathtaking!
-But what was more important than the grandeur of the architecture...
…was the fact that the glory of God indwelt it!
2 Chronicles 7:1–3 (ESV)
1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.
3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped...
This (the combined grandeur)...
...is the “former glory” to which Haggai is referring.
To those who witnessed the Temple in it’s former splendor...
…he says this:
Haggai 2:3 (ESV)
3 ...How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
Remember what had happened when they had laid the foundation...
…many years before?
Ezra 3:10–13 (ESV)
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward . . . to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord . . . And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
I’ve always assumed that this was because...
...the footprint was so much smaller.
And while I couldn’t find out for sure...
...what it ended up being...
…This is what it was supposed to have been:
Ezra 6:3 (ESV)
3 ...Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits,
Now, that doesn’t make it sound that small, does it?
So, what is the cause of this disappointment?
Well, there are a lot of opinions on that...
But I think the Reformation Study Bible may be the most helpful:
Although the rebuilt temple is similar in its dimensions to the old one, it lacks the physical splendor and the political significance of Solomon’s temple.
It also lacked the spiritual glory (Hb. kabod) of the Lord, which departed from Solomon’s temple in the days of Ezekiel before its destruction by the Babylonians (Ezek. 10). — R.S.B.
I think they’re on the right trail.
Remember what all Ezekiel contributed...
…to their eschatological perceptions of the future Temple.
To begin with, he had pronounced ichabod upon it!
Ezekiel 8:1–3 (ESV)
1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
3 ...the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
Ezekiel 8:4 (ESV)
4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
Ezekiel 8:6 (ESV)
6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
Ezekiel 9:3 (ESV)
3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house...
Ezekiel 10:18 (ESV)
18 Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
Ezekiel 10:19 (ESV)
19 And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out . . . And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
Ezekiel 11:22–23 (ESV)
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
23 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
Ezekiel 11:24–25 (ESV)
24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.
25 And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.
Ichabod!
But, he also saw this:
Ezekiel 40:1–5 (ESV)
1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year . . . the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city.
2 In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south.
3 When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand...
4 And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you . . . Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”
5 And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area . . . So he measured...
And he measured...
And he measured...
And he measured some more!
He came up with this: (Show Graphic)
And not only that...
He saw this:
Ezekiel 43:1–9 (ESV)
1 Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east.
2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.
3 And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face.
4 As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east,
5 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple,
7 and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name...
8 ...They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger.
9 Now let them put away their whoring . . . and I will dwell in their midst forever.
We’ll talk more about this eschatological Temple next time...
…but suffice it to say that:
Their inglorious circumstances
Their meager footprint
Their powerlessness against their enemies
Their blatantly obvious extant sin...
…was enough for the older, wiser, and more informed folks among them...
…to realize that THIS WASN’T IT!
Yet… The Lord tells them this:
Haggai 2:4–5 (ESV)
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
We’ll flesh out the details of Verse 5 more next time...
But understand the basic principle.
It serves as a fine application for us.
The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible says this:
The fact that God is present with his people means that he approves of the work, and that he will support and protect them.
To God’s people this makes all the difference between despair and rejoicing, defeat and victory. — E.C.B.
Brethren, it is easy for us to despair at the present time.
We too, have great and glorious eschatological promises!
But often times the work we’re called to do...
…doesn’t seem to be bringing about those glorious ends.
We need to take heart from our text.
We need to take heart from a parallel passage:
Zechariah 4:6–10 (ESV)
6 . . . “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel...
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Brethren, they didn’t see the greater reality behind their work.
They knew it couldn’t be the full fulfillment...
...of the promise of Restoration.
But they were called to soldier on anyway.
They were called to walk by faith...
Even though they would never have the benefit of sight.
They couldn’t understand God’s purposes in this lackluster Temple.
But they were called to build it anyway.
And brethren, God was working toward that full and final restoration.
And it would come to fruition.
But not in their lifetimes.
They would only see “the small things”
But they must not despise them...
…but remain faithful.
And this is our calling as well...
…as we labor to build Ezekiel’s Temple in it’s fullest expression...
…even though:
It’s often fraught with difficulty
We probably won’t live to see it completed (naturally speaking).
We must, nevertheless, put our hands to the gospel plow...
…and never look back!
Let’s pray for grace and strength to do that.