#51 On the nature of God: Learning from the prophets: Haggai

Ever start a task and then get diverted into doing something else? Maybe you started cleaning out the garage and then got busy with your favorite hobby, such as tying flies to go fishing. Then, planning for a fishing trip and assembling the needed equipment took all your time. Somehow, it is easy to forget tasks we started and did not finish because we are doing something we like to do better.

The Old Testament book of Haggai depicts a similar situation. The Jewish captives in Babylon were given permission to return home and rebuild the temple, Ezra 1:1-3:

“Cyrus king of Persia… made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel”

Many Jews returned and began the work of the Lord by laying the foundation for the temple. But then work on the temple stopped, and they busied themselves with their own pursuits. God sent the prophet Haggai to encourage them to complete the task of building the temple, Haggai 1:2-4; 7:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,  “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

…Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.”

They had started building the temple but had stopped to build their own houses.

Then, they listened to Haggai and began again to build the temple.

The lesson of Haggai, chapter one, is plain: God’s work is more important than my work. I should always put working for God first.

Jesus charged His disciples with work to do. They were to teach and preach to the world to make disciples, Matthew 28:19-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

When they made converts, they were to teach them all that Jesus had commanded. That means that the converts should also teach and baptize and teach the converts to go teach others.

This is important work we all can do to the best of our ability.

In the second chapter of Haggai, God prophesies great glory for the physical temple. God recognized the fact that the rebuilt temple did not appear to be as glorious as the temple built by Solomon, Haggai 2:3:

“Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”

Then, God tells them to be strong, and He would provide the glory, Haggai 2:4-7:

“…Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. …in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land… and  I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD”

This glory may refer to the glory of the Messiah teaching in the physical temple, or it may be a prophecy of the glory of God in the spiritual building, the church.

At the end of the chapter, God shows why they had not been blessed—they had become unclean by stopping work on the temple. However, since they had started work again, God now considered them clean and would bless them.

The book of Haggai shows that God’s work needs to be first in the lives of His people and that He will bring glory in the future.

The nature of God in the book of Haggai was to warn His people via His word to be busy, faithfully working for Him.

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