Sermon Tone Analysis

As I have opportunity to preach on Sunday mornings over the next couple of months, I hope to look at the four sermons given by the prophet Haggai.

These sermons addressed a particular situation, but they are as relevant for us today as they were for those who first received them.

They highlight the importance of establishing clear priorities and following through with them.

To appreciate Haggai’s message, we have to understand its historical background.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in a series of three raids made in the late seventh and early sixteenth centuries BC, at which time he also carried the people of Judah away captive.

The prophet Jeremiah had predicted that this captivity would last seventy years.

When it was over, King Cyrus permitted more than forty-two thousand Jews to return to their homeland in 538 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest (Ezra 1:1–4).

Two years later, they began rebuilding the temple but this work did not last long due to the interference of some of their neighbors who wanted to have a part in the work (Ezra 4:1–4, 24).

For the next fourteen years, no more work was done on the temple, yet the people managed to build comfortable homes for themselves.

They could have legitimately continued rebuilding the temple, but they really had no interest in doing so.

Into this situation, God sent the prophet Haggai.

In his four sermons (one in chapter 1 and three in chapter 2), the Lord’s servant both reproved the people for their neglect of this important work and encourage them to take it up.

Because of the poverty of the people, no one expected the rebuilt temple to have the physical beauty of Solomon’s, but that would be okay because their temple would have an even greater glory.

It would be the temple to which the Messiah himself would go.

In fact, in God’s providence they rebuilt the temple specifically in preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Haggai delivered all four of his sermons within a four-month period.

The Lord used them to move the people to do the work, which was completed four years later (Ezra 5:1–2; 6:15).

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The Main Characters

Haggai’s first sermon introduced three men to us.

These three men are the main characters of the story.

The first is the prophet himself.

Haggai (חַגַּי), whose name means “festive” (probably indicating that he was born on a holiday), was the earliest of the three post-exilic prophets (Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).

We know nothing about his personal life, except that his name appears twice in the book of Ezra (5:1; 6:14), where we learn that he was a contemporary of Zechariah the prophet.

Zechariah was probably his younger assistant.

Some Old Testament scholars also conclude from Haggai 2:3 that Haggai may have seen Solomon’s temple before the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC.

If so, this would mean that the prophet was quite old when he preached to the people of Judah.

Haggai himself tells us that he began his prophetic ministry on the first day of the sixth month (Elul) in the second year of the Persian king Darius.

This gives us an exact date for his first message, viz., August 29, 520 BC.

He chose this day on purpose.

Being the first day of the month, i.e., the new moon, it was a day of celebration and special observances.

The people were gathered together, which meant that the prophet could speak to all the people at once.

This was important since this was the very first prophetic word given to them since their release from captivity.

Haggai described his message in verse 1 as /the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet/.

Note how he stated the whole truth of the inspiration of Scripture in just a few words.

First, he affirmed the divine authorship of his message.

It was not his message to the people, but the Lord’s.

It originated with God and belonged to God.

Further, its divine origin implies its absolute authority.

But this is only part of the story.

The message belonged to God, but that God did not speak it directly in the ears of each man.

It didn’t come as a message in a bottle or even as an e-mail.

Rather, the Lord chose to speak through human agents.

Not everyone was permitted to speak in the name of the Lord — only the prophets who had been commissioned by God for this purpose.

Throughout his book, Haggai reminded us repeatedly that he spoke for and in the name of God.

Note how often he used phrases like “Thus saith the Lord” (1:2, 7, 13; 2:4, 6-9, 11, 14, 23), plus each of his four messages began with a clear statement of the fact that he spoke /the word of the LORD/ (1:1; 2:1, 10, 20).

When Haggai spoke God’s word to the people, he began by addressing it to specific leaders — Zerubbabel and Joshua.

These are the other two main characters.

Zerubbabel, who in other passages bears the Babylonian name Sheshbazzar, was a grandson of Jehoiachin, one of the last kings of Judah before the Babylonian captivity.

The fact that Jehoiachin was such an evil man only demonstrates God’s sovereignty: he can cause a good plant to grow out of the foulest soil.

In any case, Zerubbabel’s royal lineage entitled him to be recognized as the prince of Judah during the captivity, to be appointed governor of the exiles when Darius authorized their return, and to be an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is, of course, the promised seed of David.

Zerubbabel was a son of David, but Jesus Christ is the son of David.

We know less about Zerubbabel’s biological father.

Several passages of Scripture say that his father was Salathiel or Shealtiel, Jehoiachin’s eldest son.

However, I Chronicles 3:19 says that Pedaiah, Jehoiachin’s third son was his father.

There are three ways to resolve this.

First, it’s possible that Shealtiel may have adopted Zerubbabel after his biological father Pedaiah died.

Second, Zerubbabel may have been his levirate son according to the provisions laid out in Deuteronomy 25:5–10.

In this case, Pedaiah would have raised up seed for his deceased brother through his brother’s wife.

And third, if Shealtiel died childless, Zerubbabel may have been granted the rights of sonship as his next of kin.

Considering how often Zerubbabel’s name appears with Shealtiel’s, it’s highly likely that Shealtiel was also a man of great faith and most likely had a hand in shaping Zerubbabel’s.

The third man in Haggai’s prophecy was Joshua, the son of Josedech (also known as Jozadak and Jehozadak; cf.

Ezra 3:2 and I Chron.

6:15).

Josedech was the high priest when the Babylonians carried Judah captive, which meant that Joshua was the next in line for this honor.

All of this means that God had his leaders and place.

Zerubbabel was the political leader of the Jews and Joshua was their religious leader.

It’s possible, even probable, that these two men had been appointed by the Persian government to their positions of leadership, but that doesn't really matter.

Their ancestry demonstrates that they were rightfully chosen.

After all, the Lord controls the hearts of the kings.

Proverbs 21:1 says, /The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will/.

This demonstrates one thing more.

The messages that Haggai preached not only originated with and belonged to the Lord, they also recorded God’s acts.

Darius would not have let the people return, Haggai would not have preached, Zerubbabel and Joshua would not have led the restoration if God’s sovereign providence had not ordered it to be so.

The Lord was building the kingdom of his dear Son through these men, just as he builds the same kingdom today through us.

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Instructions to Build

The first matter that Haggai addressed in his first sermon was what the people were saying about rebuilding the temple: according to verse 2, they said that the time for rebuilding it had not yet come.

This may seem like a strange thing for the Jews to have said, but they had a reason for it.

The prophet Jeremiah had predicted that the Babylonian captivity would last for seventy years (Jer.

25:11–12; 29:10).

The Jews applied Jeremiah’s seventy-year prophecy to the temple itself.

Since it was destroyed in 586 BC, it could not be rebuilt until 516 BC, which meant that it had to lie in ruins for another three or four years.

But there were two problems with this.

First, Jeremiah predicted a seventy-year captivity of the people, but said nothing about how long the temple would be desolate.

Second, the number seventy is itself a rounded number.

Nebuchadnezzar’s first raid on Jerusalem took place in 605 BC and Cyrus’ decree to let the Jews return to their land came in 538 BC, i.e., after sixty-seven years.

It’s fairly clear that the Jews were using Jeremiah’s prophecy only as an excuse for not doing what they should have done.

Some excuses are legitimate.

If a man is late for work because his tire blows out on the freeway, this circumstance has hindered him from fulfilling his duty.

On the other hand, there are no legitimate excuses for outright disobedience.

Was God impressed when Aaron said that the people just threw their gold into the fire and out popped a calf for them to worship?

Or was it any more acceptable when Uzza tried to steady the cart transporting the Ark of the Covenant by touching it contrary to the clear commands of Scripture?

Of course not.

God cannot and will not approve of sin.

So, why did the people of Haggai’s day not want to rebuild the temple?

A lot of commentators assume that the people were afraid.

It hadn’t been that long since the Samaritans and others used legal means to halt the work.

It’s possible that the people were somewhat motivated by fear.

But that’s not what Haggai told them.

He said that they had their priorities all wrong: they were more interested in making their own homes and extravagant and glorious than in restoring the Lord’s house.

In verse 4 the prophet asked them, /Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?/

The Jews had improved their outward circumstances significantly.

When Haggai says that their houses were /ceiled/, he meant that they were decorated with the finest and most exotic woods.