Haggai 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: Challenge to the people; charge of conflict of interest; call to consider their ways; command to construct the temple; construction of the templeobedience of the people; confirmation from GodHaggai was a prophet to the restored remnant who returned to Jerusalem after the seventy-year captivity in Babylon. In the study of this Israel we will note how important it is to consider the historical books along with the prophectic books. There is a little cluster of books that belong together: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther for the historical record; and Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi for the prophectic sectionalso, the Book of Daniel probably should be studied first. These books belong together and constitute a unit.

Haggai 1:1

CHALLENGE TO THE PEOPLEHaggai and Zechariah prophesied during the same period, yet their approach was altogether different. They both challenged and encouraged the returned remnant to rebuild the temple and then to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. “Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them” (Ezr_5:1-2). So, you see, both Haggai and Zechariah are mentioned in this historical Book of Ezra as the two prophets who encouraged the people to rebuild the temple and also aided them in it. Also, in Ezr_6:14 we read: “And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.” CHARGE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST"In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month" gives us the date of this prophecy, which is September 1, 520 B.C. according to the Jewish calendar. This is a book we can date very easily. As we said in the Introduction, the dating is according to the gentile ruler, Darius. The dating is no longer geared to the king of Israel or Judah because Haggai is writing during the “times of the Gentiles,” which began with the Babylonian captivity and continues to the present day. The Lord Jesus said, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luk_21:24). “Came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet.” We will find all the way through this little book that Haggai repeatedly refers to the Word of the Lord. He is making it clear that he is not speaking his own thoughts but is giving the Word of God to his people. “Unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah.” The name Zerubbabel means “sown in Babylon”; that is, he was born in captivity down in Babylon. It is actually a heathen name, by the way. He was in the line of David, the grandson of Jehoiachin (see 1Ch_3:16-19), and was appointed by Cyrus to be governor of Judah. “And to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest.” Joshua was the son of Jehozadak who was high priest at the time of the Babylonian invasion (see 1Ch_6:15). This man was the religious head. So, you see, God is sending His message first to the leaders, the religious and civil rulers. When the Israelites returned from Babylonian captivity to their own land, they returned with great anticipation, and their enthusiasm for rebuilding ran high. But they met gigantic obstacles which required herculean effort and hardships. After they had gone through a period like that, they were discouraged when they began to build the temple. The difficulties seemed insurmountable. Therefore they rationalized and decided that it was not the time to build. In other words, this was their pseudoconsolation.

They decided to maintain the status quo. They said, “It is so hard, evidently God doesn’t intend us to do it.” They had laid the foundation of the temple, but the opposition of the Samaritans was so intense that they simply stopped building, and their excuse was, “Well, the time has not come.”

Haggai 1:2

If you will read the Book of Nehemiah, you will see that, when they were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the opposition was terrific. Well, they had the same kind of opposition in rebuilding the temple, and the people said, “Well, this is not the Lord’s time to build it.” Notice that God says, “This people say"ordinarily He calls them My people, but not here. By this He doesn’t mean that He has disowned them; He is just displeased with them. They are not in His will, and they are covering their disobedience with the pious-sounding excuse, “It is just not the right time to build the Lord’s house.” What Haggai is going to say will hurt a little. He is going to stick the knife in the trouble spot that, by the way, touches the lives of many Christians. Have you ever heard people say that they had given up trying to do something or that they did not go someplace because it was not the Lord’s will? They will sometimes say that the Lord directed them to do something else. Saying that it is the Lord’s will to do this or not to do that is a Christian cliche that covers a multitude of sins. It is so easy, when things get hard and rough, to turn in a report to everyone that says, “The Lord wanted me to do something else.” Many a preacher, when things got tough in his church, has said, “The Lord needs me somewhere else.” My heart goes out to pastors who are really trying to serve God but are having trouble and end up saying, “The Lord is leading me elsewhere.” When the Lord’s people started building the temple and the going got rough, they said, “It’s not the Lord’s time to build.” I remember when we attempted to remodel the church in downtown Los Angeles, California, where I served as pastor. The church in its long history had never been remodeled, and the seats, which numbered four thousand, were built to take care of people who lived fifty or sixty years ago. We discovered that people today are about 2½inches wider than they were fifty years ago! We decided to put in new cushioned seats. Some of the very pious folk said, “We don’t feel that money should be spent for cushions. We should give that money to missions.” Now the majority of the people wanted the cushioned seats, and I did too, so I made a proposition to the congregation.

I said, “There are so many people enthusiastic about remodeling that they are going to give enough money to cushion their seat and yours too, so those of you who don’t want to pay for cushioned seats can give your twenty-five dollars to missions. I hope that we can take an offering today for several hundred twenty-five dollar checks.” Well, there were very few twenty-five dollar checks. Why? The truth was that the folk who were objecting to the cushioned seats never intended to give at all, and “missions instead of cushions” was their excuse. But what they said was, “It isn’t God’s will to have cushioned seats. The time hasn’t come to remodel the church.” It was my privilege to remodel every church which I served as pastor. I never built a new church, but I remodeled each of them. And I always encountered the same problem. In each church there was a little groupa very small group, thank God for thatwhich didn’t do anything, but they were good at criticizing. And the excuse was always the same"The money shouldn’t be spent on us here; it should go to missions.” Then they should have given it to missions, but they did not. The crowd that Haggai is addressing rationalized in the same way. He is pulling the Band-Aid off and exposing the sore. And it isn’t an “ouchless” Band-Aidit hurts, you may be sure of that. Now here is message number one, given on September 1, 520 B.C. Notice that Haggai is giving the Word of the Lord.

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These folk who said it was not time to build the Lord’s house had all built their own housesit seemed the time to do that! And the Lord pointed out that their houses were “ceiled houses.” This means that they were beautifully paneled; they were luxuriously built. And for fifteen years, while they had been building their elaborate homes, the Lord’s house had been lying waste. It is amazing, but I have found it true throughout my many years in the ministry, that a great many people say, “I feel it is God’s will for me to help you in your ministry,” and then when the going gets a little rough, say, “It doesn’t seem to be the Lord’s will for me to help at this time.” You see, the minute that things become difficult, that is the time most people decide their resolve is not the Lord’s will. But when it is something for their own selfish ends, they usually go ahead and do it, don’t they? Most people are that way. We make the effort to accomplish that which will always be to our advantage. In Haggai’s day, how in the world were the people able to build their lovely paneled homes? Surely they encountered difficulties, but they were not willing to face the same difficulties to build the Lord’s house. Their lame excuse was, “It’s just not the Lord’s will right now for us to do that.” Oh, I get so weary of hearing people give that excuse for not doing something for God! What do they know about the Lord’s will? Just because something is difficult and hard and is going to cost you something, does that mean it is not the Lord’s will? May I say to you, that is not the way to interpret the Lord’s will. Sometimes the Lord’s will is very rugged. If we could just listen to the stories of some of God’s choice saints of the past, they would tell us that God’s will was not always a smooth path. I wonder what Abraham would say to the people today who say, “It is not God’s will for me to do this or that.” Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees. This man who was to be the father of the Israelites was no doubt a good businessman. He had a nice business in Ur, a highly civilized city in those days and a prosperous one. It was a city of luxury. One day God said to Abraham, “I want you to leave Ur.” It would have been easy for Abraham to rationalize, “I must have misunderstood the Lord. He would not ask me to leave this place. The life here is soft and easy. It couldn’t be the Lord’s will for me to leave this city.” There are literally thousands of missionaries on the mission field today who are making great sacrifices. Why? They do it because they believe it is God’s will for them to be on the mission field. I wonder how many of us here at home should be on the mission field. I wonder how many church members there are today who are as busy as termites arranging social events that require no sacrifice or hardship, instead of standing up to the opposition and really getting out the Word of God. Notice again that Haggai is making it clear that these are not his own words; they are the words of God. I always feel bad when I am in a place like Mexico, and I see all of those ornate cathedrals and the people living in poverty around them. It is easy for us to point a finger and say, “That just isn’t right.” I agree that it isn’t right, but neither is it right for a church to be in a state of disrepair. A church needs to be attractive in order to attract the sinner. One excuse I heard for a church being in such terrible shape was that the congregation gave all of its money to missions. A deacon in that church told me that the reason their church did not have a carpet on the floor or new pews was that all their money had gone to missions. When that deacon took me to his home, he treated me royally.

He put me in a guest room that was nicer than any room I had ever been in. His home, I was told, cost over one hundred thousand dollars back in the old days. I have a notion it is worth a great deal more today. It was all I could do to keep quiet. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, “You believe in giving to missions, and you don’t put a rug on the floor of your church, but look at your home! You could have been a little less lavish and still could have had money for missions and your church.” Let me ask you a question, friend: “How much are you spending on yourself, and how much are you doing for God?” That question gets close to us, doesn’t it? May I use another illustration concerning this subject? I went to dinner with a friend of mine who is a fine Christian layman. The dinner was rather expensive, and he left a generous tip for the waitress. Then we went to a church service that evening in order to hear a certain preacher. We heard a good sermon, and when the offering plate was passed, my friend put in one dollar, which was much less than he had given the waitress. I thought, My, he’s not even tipping God! My friend, this gets right down to where we live. The Israelites were saying, “It is just not the time for the Lord’s house to be built.” God says, “Then why is it time for your houses to be built?” There is a lot of hypocrisy in the church today. It is sickening to hear people boast about what they do for God when what they do for themselves is a thousand times more than what they are doing for God. I told you that what Haggai has to say will hurt. He would never win a popularity contest. He is rather like an alarm clock. The alarm clock will never become the most treasured possession of the average American. It is an institution for our contemporary American society but not one that will win a loving cup or a popularity contest. We do not like to be awakened from a sound and restful sleep.

The culprit who does it is a criminal, and he should be punished, not rewarded. There are manufacturers today who are making alarm clocks with pleasant sounds, but they are still alarm clocks. Today America is prosperous and powerful and comfortable and satisfied and satiated. We have come to a place where it is woe to anyone who disturbs us, sounds an alarm, blows a whistle, or turns on a siren. In one community a church was restrained from putting up chimes because it would wake up the people in the neighborhood on Sunday morning. If Paul Revere rode again today, he would be arrested for disturbing the peace.

John the Baptist would lose his head, not for rebuking a king’s sinful life but for being a rabble-rouser and a calamity-howler. That is the reason God’s prophets never won a popularity contest. They were stoned, not starred. And Haggai is an alarm clock. He wakes us up, and he disturbs us. We don’t like that. And the people in his day didn’t like it. They had just come out of the Babylonian captivity, and they didn’t want to hear his message. Haggai occupied a very difficult position. He stood between a rock and a hard place. Yet he attempted to wake up his people to do something for God, and his method was very unusual, though not original by any means. Although his method is not being used in our day, I think it would still be effective in God’s work.

Haggai 1:5

CALL TO CONSIDER THEIR WAYSNow God calls their attention to something which is very practical. This gets right down to the nitty-gritty of life. “Consider your ways” is literally, set your heart upon your ways. Look at what is happening to you. Now He goes into detail

Haggai 1:6

God was judging them concerning their material things, and they were not recognizing it as His judgment. We see in the Book of Hebrews, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Heb_12:7). When God disciplines us, there is a reason for it. The child of God needs to consider his ways. He needs to examine his own heart to see why God is putting him through the mill or using sandpaper on him. God wants to smooth the rough edges off our lives; so He does use sandpaper. For the people of Israel there had been crop failure. There had been famine. There had been little money to buy clothes or food, and they had no savings account. But they never once attributed this to their disobedience. They were trying to explain it in other ways. What about God’s children in our day? “Oh,” they say, “that’s just my luck.” It is not luck if you are God’s child.

Difficulties come to you for a purpose. God won’t let anything happen to you unless it has a purpose. God is trying to develop something valuable in your heart and life. That is why God said, “consider your ways.” Man’s ways always seem right to him. The writer of the Book of Proverbs says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro_14:12). In Isa_53:6 we read, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way …” (italics mine).

The problem with mankind today is that we will want to go our own way. Again the writer of Psalm 1 says, “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psa_1:6). Notice how the Word of God enlarges upon the things that reveal man’s way as opposed to God’s way: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa_55:7). And in Pro_13:15 He says that “… the way of transgressors is hard.” It certainly is hard! Again in Isaiah He says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa_55:9). And then"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer_10:23). Also, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein” (Jer_6:16).

Man is in rebellion against God. In Jer_10:2 God says, “… Learn not the way of the heathen….” And God says, “… This is the way, walk ye in it …” (Isa_30:21). And the Lord Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” (Joh_10:1-2). He goes on to say, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (Joh_10:9). How tremendous this is! This is what God is saying to His people. He wants them to consider their ways. He wants them to set their hearts upon their ways. He asks, “Don’t you see what is happening to you?” Now let me ask you, “What way are you on today? What path are you taking? Where is that path leading you? Have you ever considered where drugs are going to lead you? It is a broad way where you start out, and you can do as you please, but that broad way is actually a funnel, and it grows narrower and narrower until there is only one little opening, which leads only to destruction. But God says that the way which leads to life is a narrow wayChrist is that way; He is the only way to the Father.

When you enter the narrow way, it becomes broader and broader as you go along until you can go in and out and find pasture. You will have life and have it abundantly. My friend, it is time to consider your ways. Set your heart upon your ways. Where are you headed today? How is your marriage working out?

If you are a young person in college, do you have a goal in life? If you are a young lady, how about the young man you are dating? Where is he leading you? What is going to happen to you? Why don’t you consider your ways? Folk from all walks of life write to me. Many are headed in the right direction; others very frankly say that they are on the wrong path, and they are suffering broken homes, broken hearts, and wrecked lives. God says, “Consider your ways.”

Haggai 1:8

COMMAND TO CONSTRUCT THE TEMPLENow God is going to give them the solution to their problems. It is so simple, so clear that you may wonder why it is necessary to emphasize it. God gives them a command to construct the temple, and He tells them three things that they are to do. You see, the children of Israel had a conflict of interests. They had put their own homes before God’s house. They were putting their selfish ends ahead of God’s program.

The Lord Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (see Mat_6:33). That “righteousness” is in Christ. When you have Christ, you have everythingyou have all those things you are after. Money can be spiritual, depending on what you use it for. Your home can be spiritual if it is a place where God is honored. It can be a place where a testimony for the Lord is given, where friends can come and be refreshed, or where a Bible class can be taught.

It can be a place as sacred as your church. The things that people are after today may not be wrong, but it is wrong when they put them first in their lives and use them for their own selfish ends. Now God tells the people in Haggai’s day what they are to do: The solution is so simplethere are only three things they are to do: (1) “Go up to the mountain, and” (2) “bring wood, and” (3)“build the house.” I’ll be honest with you, I wonder why some of the children of Israel had not realized this sooner. When people get that big “I” in front of their eyes, it obscures everything else, and they are blind to the things they should see. That which should be very simple becomes a very complex problem. People today say, “Life is so complicated. We need a psychiatrist. We need to get things straightened out.” My friend, if you just put God in His rightful place, He will straighten out a great many things for you. But first, you must get the big “I” out of the way. “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood.” If you have visited the land of Israel, you may wonder about God’s command to go up to the mountain and bring down trees since that land is almost denuded of trees today. For many years now Israel has been carrying on a project of tree planting. Although they have planted millions of trees, the hills still look bare to me. Very few of them have any sign of green on them. At one time that land was covered with trees, as this verse reveals. God wouldn’t tell them to go up to the mountain and get wood if there were not wood up there. Then what happened to the trees? Well, when the enemy invaded Israel in A.D. 70, the forces of Rome not only destroyed the cities, they also denuded the land of trees. They cut down practically every tree. Now notice again God’s simple solution to their problems: (1) “Go up to the mountain, and” (2) “bring wood, and” (3) “build the house.” Going up to the mountain, felling the trees, and making them into lumber would take work and a great deal of effort. My friend, if you are not ready to go to work for the Lord, if you are not willing to do what God wants you to dowhatever that might beBible study is really not going to help you very much. God believes in work, and the message of this little Book of Haggai is the gospel of work. As we have seen in this marvelous little book, first there was God’s challenge to His people. They were kidding themselves that they were doing God’s will. But the reason they had not built the temple was that they were just plain lazy. They tried to conceal that fact with the very pious platitude, “The time isn’t right. It isn’t the will of God to build at this time.” God told them to get off their haunches and go to work. He said, “You have been attributing the fact that you have had bad crops and that things are difficult for you to other causes.

You have been blaming your circumstances. Why don’t you blame Me? I am the One who has sent trouble to you. I’m trying to wake you up.” He tells them to consider their ways, to set their hearts on their ways. And now He says to get busy. He charged them with a conflict of interests, then He called them to consider their ways, and now He commands them to start to build the temple.

And it is very simple, “Go to the mountain and bring down wood. You can’t expect the logs to roll down to you. It is up to you to go to work.” There are so many voices today encouraging Christians to expect a miracle in their lives. They say, “God is going to deal with you by a miracle!” Well, I’m here to tell you that He is not. It would have been very easy for someone to have come along and to have told these Israelites to expect a miracle, but God says, “Go up there and bring down wood. Go to work.” My friend, there is no easy shortcut in our service for God. Very frankly, laziness is the reason Sunday school teachers don’t succeed. Laziness is the reason preachers don’t succeed. Laziness is the reason people fail in their Christian lives. You have to work at it. I do not think that the Holy Spirit will ever bless laziness. In seminary I remember one of the students complaining to the professor, “Doctor, that book you assigned for us to read is really dry!” The professor looked up and smiled, “Well, dampen it with a little sweat from your brow.” That’s the way to do it, friend. Don’t expect the Christian life to be handed to you on a silver platter. The miracle comes in the work that you do. God told His people in Haggai’s day to go to work. Dr. Frank Morgan has called it (1) the appeal to the mind. God told them at the very beginning, “You say it is not time to build God’s house? I want you to think about that. How is it that you are living in fine houses?” That was His appeal to the mind. (2) He appealed to the heart. He called them to consider, to set their heart on this. They had not done so, but that was His challenge. (3) God gave them a command, and that command was an appeal to the will. “Go up, bring wood, and build"so simple yet so important. My friend, roll up your sleeves, and let’s go to work for God today. So many people are sitting on the sidelines. This is a day of spectator sports; but frankly, it is a day of spectator Christians also. They like to sit on the sidelines and watch somebody else do it. Many a preacher is being worked to death. He is called upon to visit all the sick folk in his congregation.

He does all the administrative workhe is expected to supervise everything. What about you deacons? Why don’t you go to work? What about you members of the church? Are you visiting the sick? The pastor is to train you to do the work of the ministry.

He is not the one to do it all. The work should be divided and shared. The burden of the ministry should not fall on just a few folk. If you are a member of a local congregation, you should go to work. Work is something which is desperately needed in our churches today. Let me illustrate what I mean. My first pastorate after I was ordained was my home church, the church in which I had been raised. One morning a deacon made a special trip to the study to talk with me. He said, “Vernon, I can’t pray in public. I don’t know why, but I can’t do it. The fact of the matter is, I can’t speak in public either.

Don’t ever call on me to speak or pray in public. If you do, I will embarrass you, and I will embarrass myself. I simply can’t do either one of these things in public, and I can’t seem to overcome the weakness.” Tears were in his eyes as he spoke. Then he said, “But anytime anything needs to be done in this church, whether it is to replace a light bulb that has burned out or to put a new roof on the church, you can call on me. I will be glad to do it.” Do you know what I did after that? If something needed repairing or remodeling around the church, I would call on him.

Sometimes in less than an hour, a whole crew of men would be at the church to work, and that deacon would work right along with them. I learned very early that he was one of the most valuable members I ever had in a church. He was a Haggai. He believed in getting down to business and doing the work that needed to be done. Often I heard visiting speakers and others say, “My, this church is certainly kept up; what a lovely place to come and worship!” Do you know why that church looked so nice? A man in my church could not pray in public.

Thank God he couldn’t pray in public, because most churches have too many men who love to pray in public. We need people who are working people, too. We need people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and go to work. Actually, the Book of Haggai is too simple to be in God’s Word. It should be a little bit more complicated. Haggai gave the people a sermon. He said, “Go up to the mountain.” That is the first point. Then he said, “Bring down the wood.” That is point number two. Then he said, “Build a house.” That is the third point. Those were God’s simple instructions. There was nothing more to say, but there was something to do. Now God explains why the people of Israel had been having such a difficult time

Haggai 1:9

“And ye run every man unto his own house” indicates the zeal and enthusiasm with which they had been taking care of their own interests and building their own homes. They had been wondering why all of these difficulties had come upon them, but they were too pious to blame God. They claimed that their bad luck was due to circumstances. It was a bad year. “We had a drought, you know,” they would say. But God told them, “I want you to know that I caused the drought. I saw to it that you were not successful in your different schemes, and I will tell you why I did it. It is because My house is lying in waste while every man improves his own home.” Let me repeat that the Lord Jesus stated the great principle in the Book of Haggai, which is applicable for all people of all ages, when He said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Mat_6:33). When God is put first in our lives, all other things will take care of themselves. What a message this is! Yet it is so simple, I’m afraid we will miss it.

Haggai 1:10

Naturally, when there was no rain, there were no crops. The wheat and the barley would not grow, and the vines would not produce. God says, “I turned off the spigot; I didn’t give you any water.” In our contemporary society we don’t interpret life like that. Because we live in a mechanical society, an electronic age, we blame our problems on someone’s failure to push a button or on pushing the wrong button. I wonder if God would like to get through to America and say, “Look, has it ever occurred to you that I may be behind the problems you are having? Did it ever occur to you that I am trying to get your attention off things and onto Me?” Notice that God takes the blame for all of these trials which have come upon Israel

Haggai 1:11

God is saying to them, “Material blessings have been withheld from you because I withheld them. I am responsible.” In our day, the tendency is to blame first the policethey should have been on the job. Then we blame the mayor, we blame the legislature, and we blame Washington. Very possibly all of them are guilty. But, my friend, has it occurred to you that you yourself are to blame? Although we blame men and machines for the conditions of the world, God has brought it all to pass. Do you want to blame Him? Go ahead. He told Israel that He was responsible. But He also told them why. They had neglected Him. You see, the solution to our problems is very simple; yet it is complicated. We think that if we put in a new method or a new machine or a new man, our problems will be solved. My friend, why don’t we recognize what our problem really is, who caused it, and how it can be solved? Now Haggai tells us the response to the challenge which God has given to the people of Israel.

Haggai 1:12

CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLEOBEDIENCE OF THE PEOPLEZerubbabel is the governor, Joshua is the high priest, and “all the remnant of the people” refers to the people who returned to the land of Israel from Babylonian captivity. Notice that they did two things: (1) They obeyed God. As Samuel the prophet had said to a disobedient king, “… to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1Sa_15:22). And the apostle John put it this way, “… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn_1:7). You see, we must walk in the light of the Word of God, and the Word will humble us and show us our failures. A great many of us don’t like to have them called to our attention; but if we will recognize them and deal with them, we will find that the blood of Jesus Christ will just keep on cleansing us from all sin, and we will have fellowship with God. So we see that the people of Israel obeyed God. Also (2) they feared God. The writer of Proverbs says that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom …” (Pro_9:10). It is significant that the leaders of the people, Zerubabbel and Joshua, are mentioned first in their obedience to God. The need today in our country is for obedient Christians in places of leadership. William Gladstone, the famous British statesman, was asked what was the mark of a great statesman. His reply was that a statesman is a man who knows the direction God is moving for the next fifty years. Well, we don’t seem to have men in leadership who know the direction God is moving for the next fifty minutes. Oh, how we need men who really know God and are being led by Him!

Haggai 1:13

CONFIRMATION FROM GODWhen they obey God and fear Him, they receive this wonderful confirmation from Him. He says, “I am with you.” How wonderful! You remember that the Lord Jesus said to His own, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age.” And notice that the promise of His presence rested upon their obedience: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [the age]. Amen” (Mat_28:19-20). He didn’t say that He will be with you if you sit on your haunches and don’t do anything for God. He didn’t promise to be with you there. He said that He will be with you when you obey Him. That is the place of blessing and of fellowship. And you can’t have anything better than that. Now notice that the leaders enter enthusiastically into the work.

Haggai 1:14

It is pretty important to see the leadership of the nation in action. Zerubbabel was the civil leader, the governor. He was in the kingly line and was the son of Shealtiel, whose name means “asking of God in prayer.” And Joshua, the high priest, was the son of Josedech (Jehozadak) who was high priest at the time of the Babylonian invasion. So we see here the civil and religious leaders joining in with the people in doing the work of the Lord. This second message was given, and Haggai dates it

Haggai 1:15

This is September 24, 520 B.C. The first message, as we have seen, was given on September 1, 520 B.C.that was when God challenged them. They had responded to the challenge, had come together, had organized the project, were cutting down trees, were making them into lumber, and had started to build the temple. Now, twenty-four days later, Haggai gives them this second message from God, the assurance of His presence. Haggai was an orderly man, as his book indicates. He was also an administrator. He was a man who was right down to earth. He helped the people rebuild the temple, and as they worked together he continually encouraged and challenged them in their work. The results would be great. God would be pleased, and God would be glorified.