Haggai 1:1-15: Establishing Priorities

Haggai 1:1-15

The prophecy of Haggai gives us specific chronological marking points. The prophecy begins in 520 B.C.

This makes Haggai the first among the post-exilic Minor Prophets. Of the 12 Minor Prophets, the first 9 spoke before Judah was carried away captive, and exiled to Babylon. The last 3 Minor Prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) each spoke to those who returned from the 70-year exile.

When Solomon was king of Israel he built a beautiful temple in Jerusalem.

• People from all over the world came and saw this wonder and the Jewish people treasured the Temple because it was the place where God dwelled with man, the place where they worshipped Him.
• But as time went by, the nation began to turn from God and turn toward other nations’ gods.
• Civil war broke out and the Nation of Israel split into two Kingdoms.

The Northern Kingdom (Israel) rapidly went downhill and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) followed the same path, just at a slower rate.

The result of this turning away from God was Judah’s captivity by Babylon.

• When the Babylonians came in, they destroyed the beautiful Temple that Solomon had built for God.
• 70 long years passed and then God moved Cyrus of Persia to allow the Jews to return to Judah.
• About 50,000 people went back to Judah and when they arrived, nothing had changed. Everything was in shambles.

Immediately, the returnees set about to rebuild the temple and they re-laid the foundation during a great celebration; but then came opposition.

Ezra 4:1-5 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.” ⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. ⁵ They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 4:24 “Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”

As the years passed, slowly but surely Jerusalem came to life again.

• Homes were built, stores opened, commerce established, fields planted, crops harvested, and life began to resemble something of a normal pattern, but there was a problem.
• The Temple foundation still lay in ruins overgrown with weeds.

This situation remains for 16 years. Finally, God sent a prophet named Haggai to wake the people up from their slumber.

• In the book of Haggai, we have four clear distinct messages recorded; each beginning with the date it was given.

Haggai preached these 4 messages over a span of 4 months.

• From what we know, his ministry lasted only for that short period of time.
• We don’t know where he came from, we don’t know his lineage, his family – all we know is that he has come out of the exile, from Babylon with Zerubbabel.
• God had a purpose for him after 70 years in exile, and God had only 4 months for this man to minister.

And what’s the effect of his appeal?    In just 24 days after his message, we see the people (led by their leader Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua) start work on reconstructing the Temple of God (Josh 1:14-15).

• The whole nation turned around and completed God’s task because one man spoke on His behalf.

(1) Don’t underestimate what God can do through you.

We see this in the Scriptures – God uses different people, in different places, over different periods of time, for different purposes.

• You cannot compare ministries – what you are called to do, what others are called to do.
• God uses all of us, in different ways. We are made unique, there’s only one of us – He wants us to be ourselves, and do what He calls us to do.
• It may seem a small task, for only a short time, but God’s purpose is fulfilled because of your actions.

WHEN GOD IS OUT OF YOUR MIND, HE IS OUT OF YOUR LIFE.

• The people had become indifferent. They build “paneled houses” (1:4) for themselves. So it was not a lack of resources; they have the time and means to do it.
• It was a lack of a heart.

You can call it apathy, being lukewarm, or just being lazy.

• Whatever it is, God is neither in their mind nor in their lives.
• So what’s the result of this God-absent life?

Read 1:6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

1:9-11 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

• Because the people had pushed God out of the center of life, they were now suffering in every other area.
• They had fields without produce, action without satisfaction, and labor without profit.

We see here there is a correlation between the blessings of life and our worship of God. • When our priority is not right, we will see it in our lives, in the fruit of our labor.

A similar message was given to Prophet Malachi.

• The people had drifted away and no longer worship God; no longer bringing their tithes and offerings into the storehouse – the Temple of God.
• Malachi urged them to return to God and restore the offerings.
• And God says in Mal 3:11-12 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Why would God do this?

• He allows us to suffer the results of our wrong choices in order to wake us up, convict us of sin, and to lead us to repentance.
• The longer they put it off, the longer they deprive themselves of God’s blessing. Don’t procrastinate when God shows us what is right and good. By putting it off, you’re just delaying God’s blessing in your life.

It’s interesting to note that God told them what they were thinking.

Haggai 1:2 “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.”

God not only knows the situation; He knows what we’re thinking. He knows the condition of our hearts. In order words, when God speaks to you, He is addressing a need He sees in you.

Remember the time Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4?

• He was able to tell her she has five husbands, and the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”
• And when the conversation ended, she ran back into her village crying, “Come see a man that told me all that ever I did!”
• The woman came for the water, but that wasn’t her greatest need.
• She needed living water, and Jesus spoke to her need.

When God speaks through the prophets in the Old Testament, He is addressing the needs of the people directly.

• God was telling the people in Haggai’s time the real cause of their misery in life.

Today God is doing the same thing – He is constantly speaking to us.

• It may come as a comfort, a warning, a word of wisdom.
• He is addressing a need, in you, in me, or as a church.
• And the result is the same – our heart is being stirred.

1:14 “So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God…”

• That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Taking the Word of God and showing it to us, convicting us of sin, righteousness, and judgment
• John 16:8When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

So when God speaks, listen.

• This one decision – to heed God’s Word – changed them completely.
• What is important is to take note of what God is saying to you and act upon it.
• It may just be a simple decision, but you need to MAKE IT.

“Someday” is Satan’s tool to keep us from growing in the Christian life.