Haggai: Haggai 1:7-8-The Lord’s Exhortation to Rebuild the Temple

Haggai 1:7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 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. (NIV84)

Haggai 1:7 repeats Haggai 1:5 but not verbatim.

The reason for the repetition of this command is obvious, namely, to drive home the point to the remnant of Judah that they must repent of this sin of failing to complete the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple in which to worship Him.

In other words, the repetition is designed to emphasize the urgency that this remnant repent of this great sin and complete the work of rebuilding the temple.

Therefore, as was the case in Haggai 1:5, the Lord through the prophet Haggai here in Haggai 1:7 issues a command directed at Zerubbabel, governor of the remnant of Judah and Joshua, the high priest and ultimately the remnant of Judah.

Also, as was the case in Haggai 1:5, the command here in Haggai 1:7 requires that each and every one of the citizens of the remnant of Judah 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.

The command in Haggai 1:5 is an inference from the rhetorical question in Haggai 1:4, which is posed by the Lord through Haggai to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and Joshua the high priest and ultimately remnant of Judah.

This rhetorical question demands an emphatic negative response.

The Lord asks, “Is it time for each one of you, yes each and every one of you to live in your richly paneled homes while on the other hand, this temple is in a state of disrepair?”

However, here in Haggai 1:7, this command is an inference from the five declarations in Haggai 1:6.

So therefore, the command here in Haggai 1:7 is an inference from these five declarations which basically are asserting that the remnant of Judah was being disciplined by the Lord for not completing the rebuilding of His temple.

The purpose of this command is to motivate this remnant to repent by confessing their sin of not making it a priority to rebuild this temple and then obeying the command in Haggai 1:8 which required that they complete this project.

In other words, this command is designed to remove the discipline they were experiencing so that God could bless them instead.

Now, as we noted in our study of Haggai 1:4-6, Haggai 1:7 is paralleled by or corresponds to Haggai 1:5 because of the chiastic structure Haggai 1:4-9.

This also indicates that the emphasis of Haggai 1:4-11 is Haggai 1:8 in which the Lord commands the remnant of Judah to complete the rebuilding the temple by procuring lumber for the project.

Haggai 1:8 contains two commands and three statements.

These commands were issued by the Lord through the prophet Haggai under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as well as the three statements.

These two commands and the first statement form a single unit.

They were addressed to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak.

However, ultimately, they like the rest of this first message from Haggai, are addressed to the remnant of Judah as a corporate unit.

Haggai 1:8 consists of five verbs with the command to rebuild the Lord’s temple at the center of this passage.

The first command required that this remnant go up to the hill country of Judea.

The first statement identifies the purpose for doing so and states that the Lord wanted this remnant to bring back timber.

The hills of Judah were thickly wooded in Old Testament times.

In fact, Nehemiah 8:15 asserts that olive, myrtle and palm were available in the hill country of Judah.

We must remember that all the timber of Solomon’s temple was burned in the last invasion of Judea by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

Therefore, it was necessary that the remnant of Judah obtain large quantities of timber from the forests on the nearby hills surrounding the city of Jerusalem.

The second command which appears in Haggai 1:8 presents the purpose of the remnant of Judah going up to the hill country in order to bring back timber to Jerusalem and required that this remnant complete the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple.

So therefore, the Lord was commanding the remnant of Judah to go up to the hill country in order to bring back lumber for the express purpose of completing the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.

As we noted, for fifteen years, the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple had been abandoned by the remnant of Judah.

If you recall, under the leadership of Sheshbazzar, 50,000 Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to begin work on restoring Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple.

Approximately two years later in 536 B.C., they completed the foundation with much rejoicing (Ezra 3:8-10).

However, their success disturbed the Samaritans and their other neighbors who lived in fear of the political and religious implications of a rebuilt temple in a restored Jewish state.

Consequently, they stridently opposed the project and were successful in temporarily stopping the restoration but in 522 B.C. Darius Hystaspes (522-486 B.C.) became king of Persia (Ezra 4:1-5, 24).

During this monarch’s second year, both Zechariah and Haggai exhorted the Jewish remnant to rebuild the temple.

Tattenai, the governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and their colleagues attempted to interfere with the rebuilding efforts, however, Darius Hystaspes ruled in favor of the Jews after investigating the matter in the royal records (cf. Ezra 5:3-6; 6:6-12) and in 516 B.C., the temple was finished and dedicated (Ezra 6:15-18).

We must remember that the work had begun on the temple but was not completed when the Lord issues these commands in Haggai 1:8.

Ezra 3:2-3 assert 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.

Therefore, the temple was not in ruins but rather was still in a state or disrepair.

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.

The second statement in Haggai 1:8 presents the result of the remnant of Judah obeying the previous directive to go up to the hill country and then bring back lumber and then complete the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple.

It asserts that the Lord would be delighted because of this obedience by the remnant of Judah.

The concept of being a God pleaser is found in Ephesians 6:6, Colossians 3:22 and 1 Thessalonians 2:4.

Paul’s sole ambition in life was to please the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:9) who also stated that He always does those things that please the Father (cf. John 8:29).

Pleasing God and His Son Jesus Christ are related to experiencing sanctification (cf. Rom. 12:1; Col. 1:9-10; 1 Thess. 4:1-3) which is living one’s life by obedience to the Spirit’s teaching in the gospel (cf. Rom. 8:6; John 4:24) and it is also related to obedience (cf. Col. 3:20; Titus 2:9).

The believer who is single can be devoted to pleasing the Lord unlike the married believer who also has the responsibility to please their spouse (cf. 1 Cor. 7:32) and the believer who worships the Lord by giving thanks to Him is pleasing to the Lord (cf. Ps. 69:30-31).

The third and final statement in Haggai 1:8 presents the result of the second and asserts that the Lord would be honored because of this obedience to these commands.

As we noted in our study of Haggai 1:4-6, the emphasis of Haggai 1:4-11 is the commands which appear in Haggai 1:8 because of the chiastic structure Haggai 1:4-9.

By obeying these instructions from the Lord through the prophet Haggai as recorded here in Haggai 1:8, the remnant of Judah would demonstrate the fact that they repented from their collective sin of not completing the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple.

Consequently, this would bring to an end the Lord disciplining them for such disobedience.

So therefore, the commands here in Haggai 1:8 like the command in Haggai 1:7 are designed to remove the discipline the remnant of Judah was experiencing so that the Lord could bless them instead.