Confronting a Dilatory People (Haggai 1)

The ministry of Haggai in his book covers a period of about four months. The first reference to a date is to the first day of the sixth month (1:1) and the last reference to a date is the twenty-fourth day of the nine month (2:20), both in the second year of Darius. The second year of Darius was 520 BC.

 

The first wave of returning exiles from Babylon occurred in 538 BC. We can read about this return in Ezra 1–4. In that year, they re-erected the altar of burnt offering and resumed regular sacrifices. They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Early in the following year, 537 BC, they laid the foundation of the temple (Ezra 3 describes the celebration that was held).

 

Opposition arose, and it is described in Ezra 4. Opponents of the Jews persuaded the new Persian emperor to announce that work on the temple project should cease, and it did not resume for seventeen years, until the second year of Darius, in 520 BC. At the end of the prophecy of Haggai they resumed work on it. They faced further opposition, but Haggai does not mention it, but it is recorded in Ezra 5 and 6.

 

Ezra 6:15 says that the temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius, which means it took four years to complete, after the people responded to Haggai. This happened in 516 BC, which was twenty-two years after the first wave of returning exiles had come to Jerusalem from Babylon in 538 BC. 

 

The theme of Haggai is the importance of the people of Israel resuming the temple project. It is not about what they achieved afterwards; instead it is about how they recovered spiritually to become God’s servants. 

 

Why study Haggai? (1) Describes how a discouraged people can be encouraged. (2) Shows how God works in providence on behalf of his cause. (3) A change can come quickly.

 

The situation

The Jews who had returned from the exile had come back with great expectations. On the human level, they had the power of the Persian empire on their side. Persia did not follow the Babylonian and Assyrian method of forcing peoples to leave their homeland. Instead, they allowed them to stay where they were or to return to their homeland if they had been removed. Indeed, in the chapters in Ezra which cover the period of the Book of Haggai, we can read about how the Persian empire sided with the Jews against those who opposed them. So we have in this political policy an example of how God can use decisions of governments to further his cause and help his people.

 

On the divine level, their return had been a fulfilment of prophecy. The prophets had been told by God that the Jews would be in captivity for seventy years. We know that Daniel had used this prophecy in his prayers for his people because he knew that the time was near for its fulfilment. The people would have been expecting great success when they set out. After all, they had God and the emperor on their side. They would have assumed that within five years, things would be up and running in Jerusalem.

 

When the people returned, they had worked on the temple site. They had removed rubble and re-erected the altar of burnt offering, so sacrifices could begin. They also put the foundations of the temple in place. So that was a good start, but no further progress was made. There were reasons for that, including local opposition and changes at the head of the Persian government.

 

God finally speaks

We move on eighteen years to 520 BC and we come to the situation described in Haggai 1. One good feature of Haggai’s account is that God has decided to speak about the situation. Probably, the people had assumed that the silence from heaven indicated his approval of things. Or maybe they thought he was not that interested. But it was a good sign when God decided to speak through his prophet Haggai.

 

The Lord’s words were addressed to the political and the religious leadership. We should not be surprised by this because Israel had been designed to be a theocracy over which God rules. Israel did not have the separation of church and state as we have, or even as the Jews had in the captivity in Babylon. In Israel, God would address all levels of power because all had been chosen by him. Zerubbabel was in the royal line and Joshua was in the high priestly line.

 

At some stage, the decision described in verse 2 had been made: ‘These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ Why did they come to this conclusion? Perhaps they looked at providence and observed the various hindrances that were occurring (mentioned in Ezra 5 and 6). It is easy to read an adverse situation as suggesting progress should discontinue. Of course, the statement indicated that they intended at some stage to build the house of the Lord, although it was imprecise in that regard. Maybe God had been waiting for fifteen years for them to continue building. Actually, when we look at the statement, we can see that it describes a role reversal. Instead of the covenant God deciding what to do, his people had decided, and the word for that policy is disobedience.

 

What does God say?

First, the Lord highlights their wrong priorities. In verse 4, he points out that it was not the lack of material that was the problem. There had been enough material for them to build fine homes for themselves. Indeed, his words suggest that they had spent everything on themselves and gave nothing to the Lord’s work. His house was in the same sad state of disrepair as it was in when they first returned. It is as if they had been content to spend almost twenty years gazing at ruins. This was a very powerful and dramatic rebuke of their wrong priorities.

 

Second, the Lord points out the list of failures they had experienced: ‘You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes’ (v. 6). In a sense they had plenty and nothing at the same time. Clearly, his blessing had been withdrawn from them. But they had been blind to the cause. Maybe they thought that the ruling authorities should change their policies. They had not realised that they were paying the price of disobedience, and it is a costly price. No divine blessing for them for years.

 

Third, the Lord informs them of what they should do in order to obtain his blessing – build his house (vv. 7-8). He also told them that he was the one responsible for all the failures they had experienced. Because they had put themselves ahead of God, they now discovered that he had been working against them, and it was all to do with their wrong priorities. God sent storms to blow away the harvest. God sent droughts to prevent a harvest. All that had happened to them because they had not put God first and built his house (vv. 9-11).

 

The response

Everyone, including the leaders, responded positively to the Lord’s message. Their response is described as obedience in verse 12. More is said about their response at the close of the verse – they ‘feared the Lord’. This does not mean that they were only frightened of him, although it is right to be afraid of the Almighty. Rather it means that they also respected him, that they worshipped him. After all, it is only a worshipping people who can work for the Lord. The fear of the Lord compelled them to do what he wanted. 

 

Haggai came with a message of encouragement of the Lord’s help (v. 13). At the same time, the Lord worked in their hearts. This combination meant that within three weeks of the complaint, they had been restored to a right relationship with the Lord, and now were fit to work on the Lord’s project – his temple.

 

Some applications

The Israelites were called to engage in the building of the temple, according to their gifts. They all had to be involved. We are called to help in the building of the new temple, the church; we are fellow workers with God according to our gifts and talents. The reality is that in life we will be involved with something, but it may not be the right thing.

 

How do we react when our plans don’t work out in providence? The plans of the Jews were hindered by the Lord because they were not putting his cause first in their lives. This had gone on, year after year, a repetition that they had not considered. Negative consequences may not be divine rebukes, but they could be.

 

God will take steps to ensure his people become obedient. He may wait a few years, but he will not wait endlessly. Sooner or later, he does something about it. In their case, he sent a couple of prophets (Haggai and Zechariah) to challenge them. Often he challenges us in and through his Word. What would have happened if the Jews had ignored the message of Haggai?

 

Apparently, the first day of the second month was August 30, 520 BC (another author says August 29). Writing about this led one author to ask his readers, ‘Have you had a August 30th experience as a Christian? Was there a day when God confronted you about wrong priorities and explained to you that he was preventing blessing coming because of those wrong priorities?’