Haggai

The writings of Haggai cover a brief four month period in the year 520BC. Together with Zechariah he prophesies encouragement to the small community of Jews living in Jerusalem at that time. They had returned from captivity in Babylon twenty years earlier and, after initial enthusiasm, have now neglected the task of rebuilding the temple. They have allowed their own concerns and the opposition of others to distract them. Now Haggai is calling them back to this important task. Within three weeks of his first message the work had been restarted; within four years it would be complete

Consider Your Ways

Haggai starts with a challenge for the people to consider their situation and priorities. They have neglected work on the temple being distracted by the preoccupations of their own everyday lives. As a result God’s blessing is not upon them and they are struggling to make ends meet. Haggai is clear about what they must do, “Consider your ways and go…” (1:7-8). They need to reflect on their priorities and take appropriate action. God’s house and his glory must come first and then God’s blessing will be on them.

We experience the same challenge to get our priorities right today.  It is very easy to allow ourselves to get bogged down in our own little lives at the expense of first doing what God wants. Similarly, Jesus challenges us to get our priorities right when he tells us to build up treasures in heaven rather than on the earth (Matthew 6:19-21). Obeying God may involve hard work, as it did in the case of these people, but always has the reward of God’s pleasure and blessing.

God’s Grace in Our Obedience

The people listen and respond positively to God’s words through Haggai. Their confession had been negative saying “the time has not yet come” (1:2) but now they show by their actions that they are lining themselves up with what God says. Their positive response is the trigger for God to bring the encouragement “I am with you” (1:13) and he helps them even further by “stirring up the spirit” of each of them. It is typical of God’s grace that he forgives their previous inactivity so quickly and enables them to do what he asks.

A Greater Glory

Approximately a month passes between the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two. God again speaks to encourage them all to apply themselves to the task in hand but this time he widens the context. He refers back to the glory of the now destroyed Solomon’s temple – a temple which had, on occasion, been filled with the glory of God (e.g. 2 Chronicles 7:1-3). And now he prophesies that this apparently inferior temple (in construction terms) that they are currently building will also be filled with God’s glory and proclaims “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” (2:9). In a literal sense this rebuilt temple would be the setting for some of Jesus’ earthly ministry and would, in that sense, experience a ‘greater glory’. Ultimately the temple speaks of the church which was to be filled with glory through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, first at Pentecost more than 500 years later, and forever thereafter. And through his church this glory will one day fill the whole earth (Habakkuk 2:14) – truly a greater glory.

A Covenant-Keeping God

Solomon’s temple was lost because of the failure of men to keep their covenant with God. But God is not like that; he is the covenant-keeping God. He will do what he said he will do (2:5). The three times repeated command “Be Strong” together with “Work for I am with you” in 2:4 is reminiscent of God’s command in Joshua 1:9 to be strong and courageous, not to be frightened or dismayed, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”. Like those who heard Haggai say it, we too can accept and respond positively to this word knowing that God acts on the basis of his covenant promises and not on the basis of our imperfect obedience.

God’s Wonderful Grace

Haggai’s question and answer session with the priests in chapter 2:10-19 serves to underscore the fact that nothing men and women do of themselves can make them spiritually clean. Whilst impurity is all too easily passed on, holiness is not. The situation appears hopeless – they seem condemned to experience poor returns on whatever they do (2:16-19) except that God unilaterally declares, “From this day on I will bless you” (2:19). God did not have to bless them; he chose to bless them. Paul, writing to the Ephesian church (Ephesians 2:1-10), expresses and expands on this theme wonderfully. “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5, NLT). God’s grace truly is amazing. The promise of God’s peace made in verse 9 would only fully be realised in Christ.

A Coming Kingdom

Haggai concludes with God renewing his covenant promise to David (2 Samuel 7:16) with Zerubbabel who is both a descendant of David and an ancestor of Christ (Matthew 1:6-16). At this significant time in Israel’s history God draws their eyes forward to a time of even greater fulfilment of his purposes. Ultimately God’s kingdom will overthrow and destroy all other kingdoms. Man’s strength, as represented by horses and chariots, will be as nothing compared to God’s heaven-and-earth-shaking strength. Zerubbabel represents Christ who would carry the full authority of God the Father, symbolised here as a signet ring. It is Jesus whose throne will last ‘forever and ever’ (Hebrews 1:8).

This background was written by Trevor Shotter, an elder at Community Church Huddersfield.