Sermon Tone Analysis

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-We’ve made it to the 2nd and final chapter of Haggai’s prophecy

Invite to follow along

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