Haggai 1:1-2

Introduction:

*Start Timer*

Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Haggai, Chapter 1.

If you need help finding it...

…it may be easier to find Matthew...

…and work your way backwards 3 books!

Now, the fact that it is so hard to find...

...is very telling.

It tells us that:

1.) It is short

a.) second only to Obadiah (of the O.T. prophets)

2.) It isn’t often read or preached.

This is a shame.

A shame that I myself bear.

...Because as one commentator observes:

“The truth is that few prophets have succeeded in packing into such brief compass so much spiritual common sense as Haggai did” (Frank E. Gaebelein, Four Minor Prophets: Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai, p. 199).

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This little book is LARGE with:

Eschatological significance

Practical, Spiritual Application!

It really is a gem.

-We’re going to read through verse 5...

But we’re really only going to cover the first couple of verses.

That’s because this is going to be a very lengthy introduction.

Haggai 1:1–5 (ESV)

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,

4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

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Pray

( minutes)

Verse 1:

-Part of the reason for Haggai’s obscurity is that...

…it takes place in a seemingly...

obscure

inglorious...

…time in Israel’s national history

Haggai (along with Zechariah and Malachi) prophesied...

…during that period of rebuilding...

…that Ezra and Nehemiah chronicled...

…following the decades-long Babylonian captivity.

-If you’ll remember, When God had established Israel...

…He had done so under certain:

Promises

Conditions.

(We call them stipulations... “covenant stipulations”)

Leviticus 26 (ESV)

1 “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.

2 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,

4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.

11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,

15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,

16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.

18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,

19 and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

20 And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.

23 “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me,

24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,

28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.

31 And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas.

32 And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.

33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.

38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,

41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,

42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

43 But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.

45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

46 These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

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(13 minutes)

-Within a few hundred years...

(despite their lackluster performance)

…God had blessed Israel immeasurably.

Under King David’s leadership she had:

Conquered her enemies

Taken possession of her lands

Entered into an era of peace.

-Under David’s son, Solomon...

…Israel assumed the equivalent of “superpower status.”

It became unparalleled in:

Wealth

Culture

Political influence

Military strength

It was said that gold was so abundant in Solomon’s empire...

…that silver was not considered as anything!

Dignitaries would come from far and wide to...

Behold Israel’s glory...

Pay tribute to Israel’s supremely wise king.

Much Like our own political nation appeared to be just 20-30 years ago...

...Israel appeared to be unstoppable!

-So, How did they get from being that “city on a hill” . . .

…To lying in ruins and needing to be rebuilt...

…like we see in the book of Haggai?

Well, it didn’t happen overnight.

It began with the sinful pragmatism of King Solomon:

1 Kings 11:1–4 (ESV)

1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.

3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

1 Kings 11:9–13 (ESV)

9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

-And so Israel became a divided kingdom

The Ten northern tribes

Judah and Levi (for the most part) in the south.

But we read this later on:

2 Kings 17:21–23 (ESV)

21 When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin.

22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them,

23 until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

-It happened between 724 and 722 B.C.

(a few centuries after the kingdom had divided)

It’s chronicled in 2 Kings:

2 Kings 17:6–18 (ESV)

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria...

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God . . . and had feared other gods

8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel...

9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns...

10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger,

12 and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”

13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes...

14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them...

16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images . . . and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.

17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.

But then we read:

2 Kings 17:19–20 (ESV)

19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.

20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

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(11 minutes, 26 total)

-But before all of this had occured...

...God sent messenger after messenger...

...Imploring them to repent...

…in order that these great evils might be turned away from them.

-Jeremiah (the weeping prophet) is perhaps...

…the prophet most closely associated with these pleas.

The 25th chapter of the book that bears his name...

…shows us how it all came to a head.

Jeremiah 25 (ESV)

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah...

3 “For twenty-three years . . . the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.

4 You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,

5 saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds...

6 Do not go after other gods . . . or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’

7 Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words,

9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

10 Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

And that is, of course, exactly what happened:

Nebuchadnezzar attacks in 605 B.C.

The primary captivity begins around 587/586 B.C.

Again, the Chronicler of the Israel’s Kings records it:

2 Kings 25:8–21 (ESV)

8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.

18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold;

19 and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army . . . and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city.

20…and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

Yet, even now… as bleak as it was...

…God had not left them without hope.

Jeremiah had foretold:

Jeremiah 25:11–14 (ESV)

11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation...

13 I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.

14 For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

(7 minutes, 33 total)

-And, not only that...

…He promised to restore the fallen nation.

Jeremiah 29:10–14 (ESV)

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The Prophet Isaiah put some particular feet...

...upon the promise of restoration.

He wrote (in the 8th century B.C)

Isaiah 44:24–28 (ESV)

24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who...

26 who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; . . .

28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”

And just as it had been foretold by both prophets...

…it came to pass!

Ezra records it:

Ezra 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

(4 minutes, 37 total)

This took place between 538-536 B.C.

50+ years after Nebuchadnezzar...

…had carried away the people into captivity.

The book of Haggai commences:

Haggai 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month...

Darius was the second successor of Cyrus.

He began to rule in Persia in 522 B.C.

That would put Haggai’s ministry as beginning around:

August of 520 B.C.

-Why the obsession over dates and times that we see here?

It’s because (as this commentary tells us):

They serve not merely to locate the activities of Haggai’s generation against the background of world events but also to remind his hearers of the ticking theological clock, counting down the seventy-year period that Jeremiah had prophesied for the exile - Duguid and Harmon

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You see, it had now been around 16+ years...

...since Cyrus had given the decree to rebuild.

At first it had gone well:

The altar had been rebuilt

The foundation of the new temple had been laid...

But, then they faced some opposition:

From their old enemies the Samaritans

And others...

And as a result of that, their zeal for :

The house of God...

(ultimately) God’s manifest presence among them through it...

…Diminished!

And the construction of the temple came to a screeching halt!

Then, our most gracious, patient, and long-suffering Lord...

…sends them the prophet Haggai.

-Notice, to whom he is sent (specifically):

Haggai 1:1 (ESV)

1...the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

Here’s why that’s such a big deal:

Zerubbabel is the governor of Judah, and Joshua is the high priest’s son.

Zerubbabel is a descendant of King David, grandson of Jehoiachin (the last king of Judah) and heir of the royal line. - The Bible Guide

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The presence of these men represents hope.

It intimates that despite:

All the carnage of Babylon

All the death

All the corrupting influences of:

Intermarriage

Pagan culture...

…that God had preserved a remnant!

And that ULTIMATELY speaking...

…there remained a hope of Israel’s glorious restoration...

…that was to come through the hands of the Messiah!

Who would be the ultimate and final:

Prophet

Priest

King.

But, of course, as was always the case...

This restoration and eternal establishment would only come...

…when there was faithfulness on the earth.

And in that, we begin to see (already)...

…that this rebuilding of:

Jerusalem

The Temple...

Might fall short of that great eschatological restoration....

…That God had promised to bring about.

We see a portent of that in verse 2:

Haggai 1:2 (ESV)

2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

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You see, they’re just making excuses.

They’re scared of the opposition...

They’re busy with other things...

(as we’ll see soon) they were preoccupied with their own “houses”...

So, they say:

“it’s only been 66 years”

“we’ve got 70”

“this can be put off for a little while longer!”

Brethren, that’s:

wicked unbelief

Idolatry:

desiring the blessings of God...

(temporal gifts)

Over the worship of God

Over his own abiding presence.

The Reformation Study Bible explains:

The people’s lack of concern to build the temple showed their deeper lack of desire for God’s special presence. They were under the curses of the covenant . . . but did not realize it - The Reformation Study Bible

We’ll finish with this point of application:

Those are strangers to their own interests who prefer the conveniences and ornaments of the temporal life before the carrying on of God’s work in the community.

If we would have the real comfort and continuance of temporal enjoyments, we should make God our friend by putting His interests first, otherwise that which we gain is put into a bag with holes. - Keith Brooks

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