The minor prophets worked in the divided kingdom of Israel, mainly in the two-tribe kingdom of Judah but also partly in the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. Both kingdoms fell one after the other as a result of God’s judgment: they were conquered, and their populations were taken abroad. Later, parts of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. After a revival wrought by God, the Jews soon showed a marked decline in their devotion, zeal, and faithfulness. They had to be corrected, spurred on, and encouraged – to varying degrees. God used the three prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi for this purpose. Because of the parallels to the present day, it is particularly easy to take the message of these three prophets personally.
Haggai and Zechariah’s ministry brought about the completion of the building of the temple, which had been suspended (Ezra 5:1, 2; 6:15-18). Zechariah’s prophecies also brought many more prophetic revelations to light. Much later, Malachi seriously rebuked the returnees, as they had fallen into a sad spiritual state.
The messenger and the message
Haggai’s prophecy is very simple; he speaks bluntly. In two chapters, he delivers five messages, some of which are intended to correct and admonish, others to encourage and comfort. Through him, God also speaks directly into the lives and hearts of today’s readers: Build the house of God (1:1-11). If you allow yourself to be awakened, then I am with you (1:12-15). Don’t be downhearted if everything used to be better than it is today – I am with you with My word and My spirit (2:1-9). But I can only bless your work if you pay attention to practical holiness (2:10-19). If you fulfill your responsibilities faithfully, I will reward you personally (2:20-23).
Glimpses from Haggai’s prophecy
“Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the house, and I will be well pleased with it and will be glorified, says the Lord.” (Haggai 1:8)
There stood the Jews, a group of almost 50,000 volunteers, in destroyed Jerusalem. They had responded to the call of the Persian king Cyrus and traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. They had hardly any money, and they were few. But they had one thing, and that was more important: they had been awakened by God (Ezra 1:5).
This revival bore fruit: the returnees – God calls them the faithful “remnant” of the Jews – set about rebuilding the temple. However, there were problems with enemies from the surrounding provinces. Construction on the temple came to a standstill; a beautiful, God-worked revival came to a halt again.
Was it due to external resistance? Perhaps it was. But Haggai shows the deeper cause: the Jews thought it was not time to complete rebuilding the still devastated temple. But it was obviously time to build their own houses, and not only that but also to panel them – in other words, to decorate them (1:4). After an eager start, they let the work on the temple rest; their own houses now had priority.
God could not accept this. He had already afflicted the Jews with drought and condemned their work to failure (1:6, 9-11). Yet no one seemed to notice that He was speaking through them. Now He sent Haggai. He spoke plainly: “Build the house” was God’s command. Doing this involved effort; you had to climb the mountain and fetch wood. But the decisive factor is that God would be glorified! That was the goal of the Jews – wasn’t it?
Do you have an awakened heart? What Christian would not (want to) answer “yes”? Surely, my heart was awakened once – when I repented and submitted my personal life to the will of God. Soon in my life, when there was healthy growth, there also began a building of the house of God (that is, according to 1 Tim 3:15, the assembly of God) – by trying to lead people to the assembly (that is, to faith in the Lord Jesus) or by allowing myself to be used by Him in the assembly according to my tasks. But what is the current status? Is there still progress on my part of the building site? Or is my labor being used – and used up – on other construction sites that have nothing to do with the house of God? In the case of the Jews, it was their own houses. I can think of many a building site in my life that was more successful than my work on God’s house. If you feel the same way, then listen to Haggai’s call: “Build the house“!
Comments (0)
No comments yet.