Haggai 1.2-6-The Lord's Accusation Against the Remnant of Judah (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday May 28, 2023

Haggai: Haggai 1:2-6-The Lord’s Accusation Against the Remnant of Judah

Lesson # 4

Haggai 1:1 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: 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.’ ” 3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” 5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 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.” (NIV84)

Haggai 1:2-6 presents the God of Israel’s complaint against the remnant of Judah who had returned from a seventy year exile in Babylon for their unrepentant disobedience.

In Haggai 1:2, the term ṣābāʾ is not translated by the NIV and means “armies” since it pertains in this context to a military congregation as a large fighting or combat unit and refers to both human and angelic armies because we are speaking in the context of God.

Now, the expression yĕhwâ ṣĕbāʾôt (יְהוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת) means “the Lord ruling over the armies” and would be a reminder to this remnant that the God of Israel was in control and not the human rulers on the earth who might be hindering this rebuilding project or preventing them from performing this task.

If God is the Lord ruling over angelic and human armies, then this remnant has no excuse for not rebuilding the Lord’s temple.

If the God of Israel wants this remnant to rebuild His temple, they should waste no time in doing so since no human or angelic army will be able to stop this task from being accomplished if God is sovereign and ruling over these armies.

In Haggai 1:2, “these people” expresses the God of Israel’s displeasure with this remnant which He expresses His great detail in Haggai 1:3-6.

Now, notice in Haggai 1:2, the remnant of Judah did not say that they will “never” rebuild the temple but rather the time had not come implying some other time they would perform this task.

They were in effect procrastinating so that the work of rebuilding the temple was not completed.

They had economic stress, drought and opposition from their enemies as Haggai 1:3-11 and the book of Ezra reveal, however, they had no excuse when God Himself was sovereign over their enemies and their circumstances.

Furthermore, Haggai 1:3-6 reveals that the remnant of Judah failed to complete the task of rebuilding the temple because of wrong priorities meaning that with them doing the Lord’s will did not take precedent over what they wanted or in other words, what they wanted came first followed by what the Lord wanted.

So, these verses make clear that the reason why the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple was not completed was not because of the enemies of the remnant of Judah or any nation, but rather it was they did not have their priorities right.

Haggai 1:4 contains the first of seven rhetorical questions, which appear in the book of Haggai.

Here in Haggai 1:4, the Lord through the agency of the prophet Haggai begins to voice His complaint against the remnant of Judah by posing a rhetorical question which demands an emphatic negative response.

The obvious inference from the first “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” is that the remnant of Judah was wrong to put off the completion of the rebuilding of the Lord’s house while they lived in luxurious homes.

Therefore, if we compare this rhetorical question with the assertion by the remnant of Israel in Haggai 1:2, there is a contrast between God’s will and the will of the remnant of Judah or in other words, God wants the rebuilding of His house completed while the remnant of Judah refuses to do this.

Haggai himself could have provided the emphatic negative response asserting “it is emphatically not the time for each one of you to build and furnish your own homes while the Lord’s temple continues to lie in a state of disrepair!”

Therefore, this rhetorical question is clearly used to rebuke the remnant of Judah for failing to complete the rebuilding of the temple while they sat in their richly furnished homes.

Thus, this question reveals that the remnant of Judah led by Zerubbabel, their governor and Joshua their high priest were putting their own comfort first in their set of priorities before rebuilding the Lord’s temple.

The text of Haggai nor Ezra identify how many private homes were elaborately decorated as described here in Haggai 1:4.

Now, we do know that this first message was addressed specifically to Zerubbabel the governor of this remnant and Joshua the high priest.

Thus, these two could have very well been living in mansions which were elaborately furnished.

In fact, Haggai 1:6 and 2:16-17 indicate that the majority of the population was in poverty since the Lord was preventing them from prospering agriculturally.

These verses indicate they were suffering from drought, crop failures, food shortages and inflation and thus economic failure.

However, Haggai 1:5-15 make clear that this first message was directed toward the entire remnant of Judah and not just their political and religious leaders.

Now, Haggai 1:4 contains an interpretative problem which revolves around the meaning of the adjective ḥā·rēḇ (חָרֵב), which is translated “ruin” by many translations (NET, TNIV, NLT, NRSV) and by some “desolate” (LEB, NASB95).

It is my conviction that the adjective ḥā·rēḇ (חָרֵב) here in Haggai 1:4 is expressing the idea of “unfinished disrepair” and pertains to a structure being in need of repair and not brought to an end or completed state.

It does not mean “ruin” which pertains to the remains of something destroyed, nor does it mean “desolate” since this word expresses the idea of being devoid of inhabitants.

Ezra 3:2-3 asserts that the priests were offering sacrifices on a rebuilt altar.

In fact, significant work had already been done to rebuild the temple since Ezra 3:10-11 asserts the builders had established the Lord’s temple, which resulted in the priests and Levites giving thanks and praise to the Lord.

However, Ezra 4 reveals that the project never came to completion because the enemies of Judah successfully persuaded the Persian monarch Artaxerxes to stop the projection.

So therefore, Ezra 3-4 make clear that significant work had already taken place in rebuilding the temple, but the project was never completed because the remnant of Judah was forced to stop by King Artaxerxes at the behest of Judah’s enemies.

Thus, this adjective ḥā·rēḇ (חָרֵב) in Haggai 1:4 is expressing the idea of the temple being in a state of disrepair.

In Haggai 1:5, the Lord through the prophet Haggai issues a command directed at Zerubbabel, governor of the remnant of Judah and Joshua, the high priest and ultimately the remnant of Judah.

This command is an inference from the rhetorical question in Haggai 1:4 and required that each and every one of the citizens of the remnant of Judah must examine carefully their hearts with regards to their ways.

The obvious implication of this statement is that the remnant of Judah was totally and completely wrong to not complete the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple when they themselves lived in richly paneled homes.

In other words, this statement is designed to get them to reconsider their attitude towards the rebuilding of this temple and thus their priorities.

Now, in Haggai 1:6 the Lord through the prophet Haggai solemnly presents the consequences of the remnant of Judah not making the completion of the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple the number one priority in their lives.

This verse contains five statements which are directed at the remnant of Judah and would make clear to the remnant of Judah that the Lord was disciplining them for failing to make the completion of the rebuilding of His temple the number priority in their lives.

Therefore, by asserting that they sowed an abundance of seed but harvested little, the Lord is making clear to them that this is result of His discipline of them for refusing to complete the rebuilding of His temple.

Correspondingly, when He asserts that they had eaten but were never satiated and that they had drank but their thirst was never satisfied, and they had put on clothes but were never warm by doing so, this was all result of His discipline.

Lastly, when He asserts that when they earned wages, they earned wages for a money bag pierced with holes, this again was the result of His discipline.

This is clearly indicated by the Lord’s statements in Haggai 1:10-11.

This discipline is based upon the warnings found in Leviticus 26:18-20, Deuteronomy 11:17, 14-15 and 28:38-40, which taught Israel that the Lord would discipline them for unrepentant disobedience to His commands and prohibitions.