Haggai 1:3-The Prophet Haggai Emphasizes with the Remnant of Judah that His Message Originates from the Lord Lesson # 10

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.’” 3 So the Lord spoke through the prophet Haggai as follows: 4 “Is it right for you to live in richly paneled houses while my temple is in ruins?” (NET)

As we noted in our study of Haggai 1:1, this verse asserts that the Lord communicated the first message through the prophet Haggai on the first day of the sixth month of Darius’ second year as ruler of the Persian Empire.

This sixth month was Elul 1 according to the Jewish calendar, which in our modern Gregorian calendar was August 29, 520 B.C. (Hag. 1:1-11).

It was addressed to Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, the governor of Judah and Joshua, Jehozadak’s son, the high priest of the remnant of Judah.

This message accuses the Jewish remnant of abandoning the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple (1:2-6), which is followed by an exhortation for them to rebuild again (1:7-8).

The Lord asserts that this failure to complete this project is the reason why they have been impoverished since their return from exile (1:9-11).

The remnant responds to the message by beginning to work on this rebuilding project (1:12-15).

Haggai 1:2, marks a transition from the introduction of the book in verse 1 to the beginning of the first of four messages.

It 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.

Haggai 1:3 contains the following statement: wǎ·yehiyʹ deḇǎr-yeh·wā(h)ʹ beyǎḏ-·ḥǎg·gǎyʹ hǎn·nā·ḇî(ʾ)ʹ (דוַֽיְהִי֙ דְּבַר־יְהוָ֔ה בְּיַד־חַגַּ֥י הַנָּבִ֖יא), “there was communicated a message from the Lord through the agency of the prophet Haggai.”

This assertion is nearly identical to the one which appears in Haggai 1:1, namely hā·yā(h)ʹ ḏeḇǎr-yeh·wā(h)ʹ beyǎḏ-·ḥǎg·gǎyʹ hǎn·nā·ḇî(ʾ)ʹ (הָיָ֨ה דְבַר־יְהוָ֜ה בְּיַד־חַגַּ֣י הַנָּבִ֗יא), “a message from the Lord was communicated through the prophet Haggai.”

The difference between the two statements is that the third person masculine singular qal perfect form of the verb hāyâ (הָיָה), “was communicated” appears in verse 1 while the third person masculine singular qal imperfect form of the verb hāyâ (הָיָה), “there was communicated” appears in verse 3.

Therefore, we can see that this verb is in the perfect conjugation in verse 1 but in verse 3 it is in the imperfect conjugation.

Both are asserting that a message from the Lord was communicated to the religious and political leadership of the remnant through the agency of the prophet Haggai.

Haggai 1:4 identifies this message as a rhetorical question from the Lord which asks, “Is it right for you to live in richly paneled houses while my temple is in ruins?”

The obvious inference from this question 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.

Therefore, we can see that like Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:3 contains the prophetic word formula, which is the expression ḏeḇǎr-yeh·wā(h)ʹ (דְבַר־יְהוָ֜ה), “The Lord spoke this message.”

It appears 270 times in the Old Testament and fives along in the book of Haggai (1:1, 3; 2:1, 10, 20) and is used the majority of the time in the Old Testament to refer to a Word spoken by Yahweh to a prophet as a technical expression for the prophetic word of revelation.

It is the formula that gives the prophetic books of the Old Testament their distinctiveness.

This expression in the Old Testament also is an earmark of inspiration indicating that what the prophet is communicating to the people in writing is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is a revelation of God’s will (cf. 2 Peter 1:20-21).

It is the typical introductory phrase used among the prophetic books (cf. Jeremiah 1:2; Ezekiel 1:3; Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Micah 1:1; Haggai 1:1; Malachi 1:1).

This formula asserts the prophecy originates with God and not the prophet.

The use of the term “Lord” which is the proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) is significant since it is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with the remnant of Judah which returned to the land of promise from Babylon and is emphasizing the covenant relationship that existed between this remnant and God.

This word is also emphasizing the “immanency” of the Lord meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men and in this content that He intervenes in the affairs of this Jewish remnant and this revelation given to Haggai to communicate to this remnant manifests this truth.

The term yhwh, “Lord” emphasizes God’s concern for the remnant of Judah which returned from the Babylonian deportation in that He intervenes in the affairs of this nation and emphasizes the divine origin of this message Haggai received and communicated to the remnant of Judah.

Thus, this expression ḏeḇǎr-yeh·wā(h)ʹ (דְבַר־יְהוָ֜ה), “a message from the Lord was communicated” emphasizes with the reader, the remnant of Judah and her leaders that Haggai received divine authority to proclaim a message to them from God.

Therefore, this prophetic word formula in Haggai 1:1 and 1:3 is asserting that Haggai’s message to the leadership of the remnant of Judah is divine in origin and thus it brings into view the doctrine of inspiration.

As we noted in our study of Haggai 1:1, this doctrine contends that, God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human authors of Scripture, that without destroying their individuality, their literary style, their personal interests, and their vocabulary, God’s complete and connected thought towards man was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture.

The original languages of Scripture contain the very words of God, and therefore, bear the authority of divine authorship.

Like Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:3 identifies the prophet Haggai as the instrument or agency which the Lord employed to communicate this message to the leadership of the remnant of Judah.

So therefore, Haggai 1:3 is the introductory formula to the Lord’s response through the prophet Haggai to the remnant of Judah’s claim that the time had absolutely not arrived for rebuilding the Lord’s house.

As we noted in our study of Haggai 1:2, 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, however 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).

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 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 in their priorities.

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.