Day #263

Sermon - Audio
Haggai - Audio
Haggai - Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Haggai

Chapter 1 – The seventy year Babylonian captivity was over. A group of Jewish people had come back to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel. They began rebuilding the temple. However, sixteen years later the temple was still not finished. Haggai urged the people to finish the work they had started. The people started to rebuild the temple. The work stopped and the people made excuses why they could not finish. God took away His blessings and held back the rain needed for crops and animals. God spoke to the people through His prophet Haggai and they obeyed and began rebuilding the temple again.

v. 6 – This describes the hard work the people have done and the frustrating yield. God has not blessed their crops because of their preference for personal comfort over the rebuilding of the temple. Their efforts to care for themselves and their families lead only to frustration. So God wants them to consider their ways.

v. 13 – As the people repented of their sin, they received the greatest assurance possible: the presence of God. The prophets emphasized that God’s presence was an essential facet of the renewal of the covenant after the exile.

v. 14 – God awakens in the people an intense desire to repair His house. Progress on the house comes only by the enabling power of God.

Chapter 2

v. 1-9 - Almost a month after Haggai’s first message, God again spoke to the people through His prophet, but this time He encouraged them to continue building. Apparently the reports about the magnificence of the former temple were a source of discouragement. Haggai reassured them about the future in terms of the goal of the present project. The glory of this temple would far outweigh that of Solomon’s temple. Their present building would lead to the glory of the last days.

v. 3 – Among those who remained were some in their 70s or older who could remember Solomon’s temple that had been destroyed 66 years earlier.

v. 5 – “My spirit remains in your midst”. This is one of the strongest statements in the entire OT of God’s ongoing presence among His people. As the people gave willingly of talent, time and goods in the building of the tabernacle, so now they are exhorted to fulfill their covenant obligations in contributing to the current temple restoration.

v. 9 – Haggai could talk about the glory of the temple with confidence because this was to be the temple of the last days. Yet this promise of a greater glory is ultimately realized in Christ, the greatest manifestation of God’s presence and glory. Accordingly, Eph. 2:21 and 3:20-21 teach that Christ’s glory is seen in His church, the temple of God. “Peace” implies more than the absence of conflict. It suggests prosperity and a sense of total well being. Peace was the goal of the restoration effort. According to the NT, Jesus gives peace to believers now, but the ultimate fulfillment of this promise awaits the time when God and the Lamb will themselves be the temple of the New Jerusalem.

v. 10-19 – The third speech pointed out that before the people had begun to obey God and put His house first in their priorities, their very blessings had become a curse. Now God promised that obedience would bring great blessing. From now on, God would abundantly reward their labors.

v. 11-13 – People and objects could not be consecrated accidentally by touching other things that had already been consecrated. In contrast defilement was contagious; people and objects became defiled when they came into contact with something that was virtually unclean.

v. 14 – Haggai applied the lesson learned from the preceding questions to his hearers. The fact that they were doing sacred work did not exonerate them from their sin: rather, they defiled the work of the temple and the offerings.

v. 20-23 – Haggai said that in the future, God would judge the nations and reward those who have been faithful and Zerubbabel who led the first return to the city, will be honored.

v. 23 – A signet ring provides evidence of authority and ownership. Like a king sealing legal documents with his ring, God will set His impression upon the world through His royal representative. Zerubbabel was God’s chosen representative to accomplish His work. Isaiah spoke of a greater servant who would come, one whom Zerubbabel foreshadowed. Jesus is the perfect descendant of Zerubbabel (Matt. 1:12) and the final royal servant of God.