Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In the temporal cultural society that we live in today, we need to have some stability.

We need to have faith and trust-and stability in a Power that is greater than our physical power.

There has to be a place we can go for stability and someone that we believe will make change will take place.

The Lord has to be the person and Church has to be the place.

As we can see and feel that Congress and Government will not be able to fix our problems they just compound the situation.

Isa

Williams Brothers

Heartaches,I've had my shares of heartaches, but I'm still here

Trouble, I've seen my share of troubles, but I'm still here

Bruises, I've taken my lumps and bruises, but I'm still here

Loneliness, I've had my share of loneliness, but I'm still here

Chorus

Through it all I've made it through

Another day's journey

God kept me here

I've made it through

Another day's journey

God kept me here

Lied on, many times I've been lied on, but I'm still here

Burdens, I had to bare so many burdens, but I'm still here

Dark days, I've had my share of dark days, but I'm still here

Disappointments, I've had so many disappointments, but I'm still here

Chorus

Chorus

It's by the grace of God, that I'm still here today

He was always there, no matter what came my way

I felt the presence of him, in my time of need

Chorus

It's by the grace of God, that I'm still here today

He was always there, no matter what came my way

I felt the presence of him, in my time of need

It's by the grace of God, that I'm still here today

He was always there, no matter what came my way

I felt the presence of him, in my time of need

Call the Roll

Jarius Daughter

3 Hebrew Boys

Lazarus from the Grave

Congregation knowing the Lord is still here

Haggai was a prophet to the Jews wo had returned from the Exile in Babylon.

His First task was to force them to see where their hearts and priorities really lay.

He urged them to do what they should have done from the start: rebuild the temple with a willing heart.

To these admonitions he added the promise of God to be with them.

With this promise, the people could return to their first enthusiasm and carry out the GOd’s purpose for them.

Hag

Commentary

[1:15b–2:1*] The 21st day of the 7th month therefore must be understood, not as October 28, 521 (see p. 74 above), but as October 17, 520.

Four weeks had past since the beginning of work on the temple foundations.

Haggai may have had a double reason for speaking a third time.

The great eight-day autumn festival (see pp. 73f.

above) was always also an occasion for remembering the day when Solomon brought the ark into the first temple, and hence the day of that first temple’s consecration; cf. 1 Kings 8:1–3*, 65f*.

In addition, we may conclude from what Haggai says that the first weeks, and the experience of laborious and tedious work on the ruins, had spread discouragement and listlessness.

The prophet seizes the traditional opportunity offered by the feast to counter the acute decline of enthusiasm.

[2:2*] The Haggai chronicler tells us that these sayings were addressed not only to the responsible leaders of the community, Zerubbabel and Joshua, as was the case in Haggai’s first discourse (1:1*).

He now also names as recipients “the remnant of the people” (that is to say, the homecomers from the gola; see pp. 51f.

above).

It is these people who are called to undertake the building.

This was not yet the case in 1:1*.

According to 1:12a*, 14*, they have shown themselves to be obedient listeners to the prophetic call, and its willing followers, and are the people who have been really legitimated out of “the entire people of the land” (cf.

2:4* and p. 73 above).

It is noticeable that here there is no longer any talk about the “whole” (כל) remnant, as there is in 1:12a*, 14*.

This already bothered the Septuagint (see textual note to 2c).

But the simple phrase שׁארית העם, “the remnant of the people,” is normal usage (Zech.

8:6*, 11*, 12*; Neh.

7:71*; cf.

Mic.

5:7*; 7:18* and H. W. Wolff, Micha, BK XIV/4, 205).

[2:3*] Haggai’s sayings begin again, as in 1:4* and 2:15f.*, in address style, as he challenges the attitude of his listeners.

Even more markedly than before, three questions, with a triple 2nd person plural address, display a passionate attempt to make contact (בעיניכם … חלא—מה אלם—מי בכם).

In each of the three questions what is under discussion is a single theme: the temple (הבית הזה, “this house”), as in 1:4* and 2:15*—or here, more precisely, its “glory” (כבודו—אתו—כמהו).

The first question challenges the people who can still remember Solomon’s temple; the second asks about the present state of affairs; the third inquires about the consequence.

Who are “the ones who are left”?

They are the survivors who were old enough for pictures of Solomon’s temple to have been indelibly imprinted on their minds before the temple burned down in 587, and who now, in the year 520, are still able to participate in the crowd gathered round Haggai.

They must therefore have been more than 70 years old.

The governor Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua were certainly not among this number, since they were both born in exile (see pp. 38ff.

above).

Whether Haggai himself was one of these old people does not emerge from his questions.

The second and third of these questions show that he was reckoning with a small group of elderly eyewitnesses; otherwise these questions would be pointless.

Ezra 3:12* seems to take up and develop Haggai’s first question: this report describes the elderly group as being composed of “priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house with their own eyes.”

According to Ezra 3:10–13*, these people wept over the beginnings of the building work, whereas the younger ones were jubilant.

Haggai is moved by the question about the כבוד, the “glory,” of the old temple.

Here he is not talking about the entry of “Yahweh’s glory” (cf. 1 Kings 8:11*; Exod.

40:34f.*;

cf.

Hag.

1:8* אכבד, “I will glorify myself”).

Here כבוד simply means the splendor of the temple building, just as the word כבוד can be used for the “glory” of a tree (Ezek.

31:18*) or a forest (Isa.

10:18*), like the forests of Lebanon (Isa.

60:13*), or can mean the “magnificence” and “beauty” of a rich man’s house (Ps.

49:16f.*;

cf. 2 Chron.

32:27*).

If the present ruins—on which the work of a few weeks had made but little impression—were compared with the former glory of the temple, the result was deeply depressing—indeed, nothing at all.

With הלא, “is not?” the questioner claims the attention of his listeners and reckons with assent.

He refers to the observations of the old people themselves (“in your eyes”).

A comparison follows with כְּ … כְּ; see textual note 3a.

Targum Rashi translates: “It” (the temple) and “nothing” are alike (L.

Tetzner, Rabbinische Kommentare, 30).

Zechariah too (4:10*) knows all about the depressing assessment of “small beginnings.”