Haggai 1:2-The Lord Presents His Complaint Against the Remnant of Judah Lesson # 9

Haggai 1:1 On the first day of the sixth month of King Darius’ second year, the Lord spoke this message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak. 2 The Lord who rules over all says this: “These people have said, ‘The time for rebuilding the Lord’s temple has not yet come.’” (NET)

Haggai 1:2, marks a transition from the introduction of the book in verse 1 to the beginning of the first of four messages and records the Lord ruling over the armies quoting the remnant of Judah as saying that the time for rebuilding His temple has absolutely not arrived.

This presents the God of Israel’s complaint against this remnant.

In Haggai 1:2, the term ṣābāʾ 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.

This expression “the Lord ruling over the armies” indicates that the God of Israel was the Lord “over” the armies and therefore, it speaks of the God of Israel’s sovereignty over all creation and every creation, both human beings and angelic beings.

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, the expression “the Lord ruling over the armies” 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 the 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 one will be able to stop this task from being accomplished if God is sovereign and ruling over human and angelic armies and rulers.

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).

In 516 B.C., the temple was finished and dedicated (Ezra 6:15-18).

So therefore, the God of Israel sends Haggai to deliver the four messages to the spiritual and political leadership of the remnant of Judah in order to command, encourage and persuade them to rebuild His temple despite the political opposition from their neighbors.

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 at 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 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.

In fact, the theme of the book of Haggai is one which the church can readily make application here in the twenty-first century, namely priorities.

The Lord and in particular obedience to the Lord was not the number one priority for the remnant of Judah upon their return from exile and this was demonstrated by their complete failure to complete the task of rebuilding the temple, which would serve as the place in the nation to worship the Lord.

The Lord through the prophet Haggai confronts the priests regarding the ceremonial uncleanness of the remnant which demonstrated their disobedience to His Law (cf. Hag. 2:11-19) and so the Lord implores them to consider their priorities.

Therefore, the book of Haggai teaches the church as it did Old Testament Israel that God’s people must prioritize their lives so that obedience to the Lord’s commands and prohibitions is their number one priority rather than placing priorities upon self.

Now, when the temple reconstruction was completed in 586 B.C., it fulfilled the prophecies recorded in Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10-4 and 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, which predict the remnant of Judah would be exiled to Babylon for seventy years.

In other words, the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem marked the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy and thus the end of the exile in Babylon for the remnant of Judah, which is indicated by two events.

The first is that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s in 586 B.C. and deported the population to Babylon.

Secondly, a remnant of the kingdom of Judah returned to their homeland and restored Jerusalem and the temple was restored by 516 and this would be seventy years.

Thus, when God through the prophet Haggai commanded and persuaded and encouraged the remnant of Judah to complete the rebuilding of the temple, His purpose was to fulfill His Word He communicated to the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah.

Therefore, this would indicate the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem could not be considered as the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy because it was not completed in the sixth century B.C. but rather the fourth century B.C.

So therefore, the completion of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in 516 B.C. marked the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10-4 and 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 which predicted that the remnant of Judah would be exiled in Babylon for seventy years.

Thus, we can see why the God of Israel sent Haggai as well as Zechariah to the remnant of Judah to command, persuade and encourage them to complete the rebuilding of the temple since this would fulfill His Word to this remnant through the prophet Jeremiah.

This demonstrates the faithfulness of God to His promises, which is one of the attributes of God as related to moral beings (Deut. 7:9; 32:4; Lam. 3:23; Isa. 49:7; Hos. 11:12; Ps. 25:10; 33:4; 89:1-8; 91:4; 96:13; 98:3; 100:5; 119:75; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 2 Tim. 2:13; Jn. 1:9; Heb. 10:23; 1 Pet. 4:19; Rev. 19:11).

Now, why did God consider the rebuilding of the temple to be completion of Jeremiah’s prophecy and thus the end of the Babylon exile of the Jewish remnant and not the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem?

The answer is simple since there is no nation of Israel or kingdom of Judah without God’s presence in the nation because the nation of Israel was chosen by God to represent Him to the unregenerate Gentile world surrounding them and eventually be the vehicle used by God to bring in the Savior of the world.

The Jewish nation was to represent God to these nations by the manner in which they worshipped their God and also by the way that they conducted their lives which was to be governed by obedience to the Mosaic Law and they could not accomplish this task without a place to worship God.

The temple was the location in which God wanted the Jewish remnant to worship, which localized His presence.

Once, this was completed, they were considered by God to be a national entity again with borders and political and religious leadership since their sole purpose for existing as a nation was again to represent God before the unregenerate world and to be the instrument to bring in the Savior of the world.

So therefore, this is why the rebuilding of temple received first priority and then the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Now, what if the Jewish remnant did not procrastinate and finished rebuilding the temple in a timely fashion, wouldn’t this mean that God did not fulfill His Word to the remnant of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah since this would mean that the nation would be restored before the seventy years was completed?

This question is irrelevant for the simple reason that God from His omniscience figured this procrastination of this remnant into His divine decree and Jeremiah’s prophecy was communicating this decree to the remnant of Judah.

Jeremiah’s prophecy of this seventy year exile in Babylon like all prophecies in Scripture are a manifestation of the divine decree and also reveal the will of God.