Through the prophet Isaiah the LORD had foretold, “‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD.” (Isaiah 39:6). That prophecy had been fulfilled. But the LORD had also prophesied through the prophet Jeremiah, “For thus says the LORD: ‘After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.’” (Jeremiah 29:10).
Cyrus the Great ascended to the throne of Persia and in the 20th year of his reign crushed Babylon, establishing Persia as the Super Power of the day. Cyrus, as God’s chosen instrument of grace, permitted the Jews to return from captivity to the Promised land in 536 B.C. Yet only a handful left the relative comfort of captivity in Babylon to return. Under the leadership of Joshua the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor, this remnant settled in Jerusalem and began rebuilding.
Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon lay in ruins. Despite the devastation, Ezra records that the people began to prepare for work on the house of the LORD immediately. “Some of the heads of the fathers’ houses, when they came to the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God, to erect it in its place: According to their ability, they gave to the treasury for the work sixty-one thousand gold drachmas, five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred priestly garments” (Ezra 2:68-69). In the seventh month they restored the altar so that daily sacrifices could resume (Ezra 3:1ff), and six months later the foundation for the temple was laid (Ezra 3:8ff). But the surrounding nations set out to stop the progress on the temple rebuilding as Ezra reports, “Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, 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” (Ezra 4:4-5). Finally, discouragement took hold and the people grew weary. The work on the temple slowed to a crawl and finally stopped altogether, “Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased, and it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia” (Ezra 4:24).
Fifteen years later the LORD called Haggai to prophecy to the people on His behalf. Two months later Haggai would be joined by the prophet Zechariah, and together they would labor among a discouraged remnant. As a result of their message, the people rallied. Building resumed almost immediately and continued on through Tattenai’s investigation (Ezra 5). In response to Tattenai’s report, Darius granted permission to continue the reconstruction as King Cyrus has declared, and even granted financial support for the project from the royal treasury (Ezra 6). Ezra records the result, “So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius” ( Ezra 6:14-15).
The book of Haggai is made up of four different messages from the LORD to His people, neatly divided by the exact date on which each sermon was given.
The LORD introduces Himself to His people as both the LORD (21 times) and the LORD of hosts (14 times). The name LORD (Jehovah) refers to the God of Covenant and promise, and the name LORD of hosts refers to the God of power, ruler of the heavenly armies. Especially now, the people needed to be reminded of both the LORD’s grace and His power. They were weak and discouraged, and had begun to abandon the LORD and His work. But God is the Savior and ruler of all things, who is gracious to save and powerful to sustain the seemingly impossible work of rebuilding which lay ahead.
The LORD issues a verbal rebuke and then brings the weight of the law to bear on the lives of His people. Their selfish labors were proving fruitless because God was frustrating their self-servitude. Haggai proclaims, “Consider your ways! 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” (1:5-6). In His mercy the LORD frustrated His people so that they would turn and put their hope in Him alone. The LORD made sure that their continued pursuit of earthly gain proved vain. Twice the LORD calls out, “Consider your ways!” It was a call to the people to examine their priorities and realize that they were misplaced. They should put the LORD as the number one priority in their lives. “‘Consider your ways! 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” (1:7-8).
The people hear the LORD’s rebuke, consider their sinful ways and repent, turning instead to do the will of the LORD. The LORD responds by comforting His repentant people with the wonderful Gospel promise, “I am with you” (1:13). The LORD moved the spirit of His people to follow Him.
Three weeks later the LORD sends His prophet Haggai back with another word of encouragement for His people, giving several commands: “‘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. ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’” (2:4-5). He reminds them of His grace in delivering them from the bondage of Egypt which had been far more severe than this, and tells them to “be strong” and “do not fear.”
Then the LORD closes His second message with a promise of future glory, promising to “shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory” (2:7). This is a promise of the coming Savior, the Desire of All Nations, who would fill this new temple with the glory of His presence in the form of Jesus Christ. It was Christ Himself who would bring spiritual peace to all men through His death and resurrection (cf. Eph. 2:13-18).
Another two months pass and the people need to be warned again. The LORD tells them that nothing has yielded fruit because they are still unclean. Yet the LORD gives grace instead of a curse, promising once again, “From this day I will bless you” (2:19).
Later that same day, the LORD expands on the Gospel conclusion of the previous message. How would the LORD bless His people as promised? “In that day” (a phrase often used in the prophets to point ahead to the New Testament era) the LORD would make Zerubbabel like a signet ring. God would use Zerubbabel as a clear stamp of His intervention in history on behalf of the Promise. Zerubbabel, a forefather of Jesus (cf. the lineages of Joseph in Matthew 1:12 and of Mary in Luke 3:27), was preserved alive in captivity, returned to Judah with the remnant, and now lives there so that his royal seed, Jesus Christ, might be born as long foretold. Zerubbabel stood as the stamp of God’s longsuffering covenant of grace toward this stubborn people and toward those of us who would follow long after. God closed His prophecy with pure Messianic Gospel. It’s no wonder that the people completed the temple only four years later.
I. First Homily: “I am with you” to rebuke you (1:1-15)
II. Second Homily: “I am with you” to encourage you (2:1-9)
III. Third Homily: “I am with you” to bless you (2:10-19)
IV. Fourth Homily: “I am with you” in the promise (2:20-23)
Note: This study was prepared for the Bible Class at Zion Lutheran Church,
Lawrenceville, GA by Pastor Nathanael Mayhew