HAGGAI
The book of Haggai was written about 520 B.C. after the Jews had returned from 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Persian king Cyrus the Great had conquered Babylon and had freed the Jews, allowing them to return to Judah and commanded that the Jews rebuild the Temple, ordering that the surrounding nations give whatever help was needed.
When Sargon II of Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 720 B.C. (the 10 northern tribes of Israel had seceded from Judah and Benjamin to the south about 200 years earlier) he had deported the Jews of the Northern Kingdom to Parthia and Elam hundreds of miles away and had imported foreigners into the territory of the Northern Kingdom who became the Samaritans.
The Samaritans had tried to join the returned Jews in the rebuilding of the city and Temple, but were refused as they were not truly Jews and worshiped pagan gods. When they were refused, they hindered the Jews as is recorded in the book of Ezra;
EZRA 4:1-5
1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel,
2 they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4 Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building,
5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
HAGGAI 1:1-11
1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” ’ ”
3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?”
5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!
6 “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”
7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!
8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
9 “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.
10 Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.
11 For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Cyrus had commanded that the Temple be rebuilt in about 539 B.C., and 19 years later, the Temple still hadn’t been built, although the Jews had built themselves houses to live in. The Lord sharply rebuked them for their indifference, especially as their fathers had been deported to Babylon for their wickedness for 70 years and now their children were too lazy to rebuild His Temple?
He points out that they have scarce harvests even though they sow much seed, their animals don’t produce enough young nor wool for warm clothing. He is withholding His blessings because of their wickedness in forgetting Him.
HAGGAI 1:12-15
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the presence of the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke the Lord’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the Lord.”
14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,
15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.
Sometimes we need to be chastised by the Lord to correct our ways before Him. He corrects us for our own good, much as a loving father corrects his children for their own good and we obey and respect them for it.
God said that He was with them and would bless them in their work.
HAGGAI 2:1-5
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying:
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying:
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?
4 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts.
5 ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’
God tells the Jews to not be disheartened by the fact that the new Temple isn’t as glorious as the previous Temple built by Solomon, the Temple that Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had burned to the ground when had destroyed Jerusalem.
He exhorts them to be strong and courageous and His Spirit is among them as He had been with their fathers previously.
HAGGAI 2:6-9
6 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;
7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.
8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.
9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
God prophesies of the distant future when He will shake both the Heavens and the Earth, just before Jesus returns, an event also prophesied by Isaiah;
ISAIAH 24:17-23
17 Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit,
and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
19 The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again.
21 It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings of the earth.
22 They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; after many days they will be visited.
23 Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His elders, gloriously.
When Jesus returns, He will separate out the wicked from the righteous. The wicked will be cast into Hell to await the Judgment while the righteous will be resurrected and will reign with Him on Earth for 1,000 years. There will be no sun or Moon as God will be the light of the world and there will be night no longer.
God also prophesied that the new Temple will be far more glorious than Solomon’s Temple, which was fulfilled when king Herod the Great expanded the Temple over a period of 40 years, starting in about 20 B.C.
HAGGAI 2:10-14
10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying,
12 “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?” ’ ” Then the priests answered and said, “No.”
13 And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.”
14 Then Haggai answered and said, “ ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
Apparently the people were merely giving “lip service” to God’s commands but their hearts were not inclined to the Lord, thus their works were unclean in God’s sight. It seems also that the priests had not followed the ritual cleansing procedures required by the Law concerning purifying themselves and the people before offering sacrifices, therefore their sacrifices and offerings were unclean before God as well.
HAGGAI 2:15-19
15 ‘And now, carefully consider from this day forward: from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord—
16 since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty.
17 I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord.
18 ‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it:
19 Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’ ”
God had afflicted Judah with calamities to try to get their attention. He had reduced crop yields, had caused hail, mildew and disease to further reduce food production, causing grain and fruit stocks to be depleted hoping to get them to turn to Him.
Some fruit trees take a long time to mature and bear fruit; olive trees can produce olives in as little as 5-8 years but some varieties can take 65-80 years before beginning stable production. Bad weather (drought, cold, hail) can retard this even further.
The Babylonians when besieging Jerusalem would have cut down all of the mature trees for wood for their siege engines, battering rams and cooking fires, and would have eaten all of the available food so the returning Jews would have had to plant new trees and grains and wait for them to mature.
HAGGAI 2:20-23
20 And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,
21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: ‘I will shake heaven and earth.
22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them; the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
23 ‘In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says the Lord, ‘and will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Zerubbabel was the grandson of Jehoiachin, the last king of Judah (captured and taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar) and had been among the first wave of Jews who returned to Judah and had been appointed by Persian king Darius I to be the governor of the province and he was one of the main people involved in laying the foundation of the Temple.
God prophesies that even though He will destroy other kingdoms, Zerubbabel and the people of Judah will be spared and God will bless Zerubbabel abundantly for His faith and work. And even though the Jews were weak after their return, none of the surrounding nations bothered them for many years until Alexander the Great conquered Judah in about 329 B.C.
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