Rebuilding with God's Blessing
Notes
Transcript
1. Purity Precedes Presence, 2:11-14.
1. Purity Precedes Presence, 2:11-14.
10 – twenty-fourth day of ninth month in second year of Darius = December 18, 520 B.C. In the Jewish Lunar calendar this was exactly three months after the work on the temple was renewed. This month was later given the name Chislev. Between the date of Haggai’s second message and this one, the prophet Zechariah began his prophetic ministry with a call to the people to repent in Zech. 1:1-6
In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying,
“The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.
“Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the Lord.
“Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
“But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us.’ ” ’ ”
11 God’s word came to the prophet Haggai, to ask for a ruling from the priests that were present. This was one of the functions of the priests, Deut.17:8-12
“If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
“So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.
“You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.
“According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.
“The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.
12 – Holy meat is meat consecrated through an offering to the LORD. The robe carrying the meat is holy because the meat sanctified to the LORD through sacrifice is holy. If then the robe were to touch other food after the meat has been removed, it cannot make the other food holy. The ruling is that that which is holy cannot by touching other food make the other food holy. Ceremonial holiness is not transmitted by touching.
13 – A second ruling is asked by Haggai: Can defilement be transmitted indirectly? One who has become unclean by touching a corpse, then touches any other food, will the food become unclean? Yes, is the answer. Defilement is transmitted, making other things unclean/defiled. Unclean means ritually impure, temporarily unable to take part in the worship of God. Haggai shows that sin, not holiness, is contagious and spreads.
14 – “So is this” refers to the principle of holiness and defilement taught by the priests in verses 11-13. The LORD declares through Haggai that this people (remnant) and this nation (Judah) are unclean before Him. Because they are unclean, the work of their hands (the agricultural work) and their offerings are also unclean. This defilement arises from their previous slackness in rebuilding the Temple, and from the worldly attitude of mind which caused it. AS long as the LORD’s Temple remains incomplete and their worship and service is half-hearted, everything is tainted and unclean.
2. Reflect, Renew, and Rejoice, 2:15-19.
2. Reflect, Renew, and Rejoice, 2:15-19.
15 – Do consider, call to mind, think carefully about what had happened before the work began to rebuild the temple,
16 remember how things were: there was poor harvests of grain, poor harvests of the vine resulting in a lack of food and wine. This is a look back at the LORD’s chastisement
17 this was because of the LORD, who did this to turn His people back to Him. They suffered blasting wind (probably that hot east wind which would cause the growing grain to shrivel up), mildewing crops (possibly associated with damper winds from the Mediterranean Sea), and hail (associated with the north winds) destroying their crops. This describes a series of crop failures over a period of time. Yet with all this evidence of God’s working against them, they did not repent and return to the LORD.
18 – Do consider, call to mind what had happened up to today the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month from the day when the temple of the LORD was founded, consider
19 – Haggai asked if the seed is still in the barn. The LORD has enabled them to take the seed for next year’s harvest and plant it. They have nothing left to plant. The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not born fruit, yet the LORD promises from this day on He will bless them with better harvests. This is the promise of future blessing because of their obedience.
3. An Unshakable Kingdom Promised, 2:20-23.
3. An Unshakable Kingdom Promised, 2:20-23.
20 –21 - The same day, another message from the LORD is proclaimed by Haggai, addressed to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. This message is different in emphasis, a message of encouragement in the difficult times the Persian Empire was experiencing
The LORD promises that He is going to shake the heavens and the earth. As we have mentioned, historically, this was a time of upheaval in the reign of Darius. There were various revolts and uprisings in the eastern parts of the Persian Empire which Darius was gaining the upper hand, consolidating his reign.
22 He will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations, overthrow the chariots and their riders, destroying each other with their own weapons. These may have been evidences to Haggai that the LORD was about ready to step in and set up the kingdom of the Messiah. The chariots were in those days one of the more advanced forms of military hardware, yet even they would be unable to resist the LORD’s power.
The idea of the enemies of God’s people killing each other has happened before, Judges 7:22
When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
This Judgment is seen in the OT, Ezekiel 38:21
“I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.
It is also seen in the NT, Matthew 24:7
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.
23 - The LORD further declares that on that day, “Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant” will be taken by the LORD and made like a signet ring, or seal, because the LORD has chosen him. The authority of the LORD is given to His representative, represented by the signet ring or seal of the king. It also identifies ownership. This
There is uncertainty in this verse, since it did not happen historically…
But this may be tied in with Jeremiah 22:24
“As I live,” declares the Lord, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off;
Jeremiah spoke of Zerubbabel’s grandfather, Jehoiachin as being like a signet ring that the LORD would take off and give to his enemies. Haggai is in effect saying that the LORD will reverse this judgment and restore royal authority to a descendant of David.
Zerubbabel himself was a partial fulfillment of Haggai’s Messianic hopes as he oversaw the rebuilding of the Temple and the re-establishment of the nation in its own land.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
“But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”
Cf. Matthew 1:12
After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.
the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
Zerubbabel in the messianic line of Jesus Christ.
What are we to do with this message from Haggai? We are to do our work with unwavering faith and steady perseverance in spite of any opposition. If we wait for the right time, we will make no progress at all in the work God has called us to do. Like the remnant who returned under Zerubbabel, our foundation is already laid, 1 Cor 3:11
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
This foundation remains for us to build upon it, being
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.