Haggai is the first in the last group of prophetic Old Testament books. Along with Zechariah and Malachi, these books reveal life in the restoration community. The historical book of Ezra deals with the same time period and the same group of people. A remnant of the Israelites were back in the land following the Babylonian Captivity. The returnees remembered stories of the past glories of their nation, before the Captivity. But they also felt great shame since they returned toa land controlled by the Gentiles. They lived in difficult and discouraging times. Their hopes were very shadowy and uncertain in the short range.
Haggai had a single burden from the Lord. His passion was to motivate the returnees to rebuild their temple. Zechariah helped him in this mission. Malachi lived some 90 years later and uttered the final warning from Yahweh to His people in the Old Testament.
About 18 years before Haggai ministered, in 538 B.C., about 40,000 Jews had returned from captivity under the leadership of Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. A year later they began to rebuild the temple. They had finished repairing the foundation and were starting on the superstructure when opposition from the native people of the land, the Samaritans, made them stop working. For about 17 years they did no work on the temple. Then the Lord led Haggai to challenge the people to resume temple reconstruction. He delivered four short messages in 520 B.C. that got the people working again. The people went to work after hearing his first message, but then a difficulty arose and they stopped working. He delivered a second message, and the people got back to work. After a while, another difficulty arose and the people stopped working again. Haggai then delivered two messages on the same day, which moved the Jews to resume and finish their project.
The reason God preserved this book for all time and for all humanity is its permanent value, which is twofold. The Book of Haggai, first, is a revelation of the perils that often accompany a period of adversity. Second, it reveals the duty of people of faith in such a period and God's resources. In other words, Haggai exposes the perils that accompany times when there are discouraging circumstances and hope burns dim. And it helps us see what the duty of God's people should be in such times and how God will help us.
Each of Haggai's four messages deals with one of these perils. The four perils are misplaced priority, incorrect perspective, unrealistic expectation, and unnecessary fear.
The first peril was a problem of misplaced priority. The people did not think the time was right to proceed with the rebuilding of the temple (1:2). They seem to have been waiting for some indication from God that they should resume building, but they were busy building their own houses and had forgotten God's previous commands to rebuild the temple. They were very practical when it came to building homes for themselves. They saw the need and proceeded to do something about it. But when it came to building a house that would honor Yahweh, enable them to worship Him as He had commanded, and exalt His reputation in their land, they were waiting. Seventeen years had passed. It was time to finish the unfinished temple structure, but the people put it on hold while they gave priority to what was more important to them.
The second peril was a problem of incorrect perspective. When the workers began rebuilding again, some of the people started comparing the structure they were working on to the previous temple that the Babylonians had destroyed. They were saying that the present temple was nothing in comparison to Solomon's temple (2:3). Some of the older people, who had seen the former temple, could not help weeping when they compared the two structures. It looked as though all their work would amount to nothing significant, and so they became discouraged and stopped working.
The third peril was a problem of unrealistic expectation. The people thought that because they had taken on the project of rebuilding the temple, God would begin to bless them greatly. They looked at their external obedience as what God should bless (2:12). Haggai reminded them that it was wholehearted devotion to God that was necessary to obtain His blessing, not just piling stone upon stone.
The fourth peril was a problem of unnecessary fear. The people looked at the strength of the Gentile nations around them and concluded that their small community would never amount to anything. Haggai had to remind them that God would judge the Gentile nations one day. They needed to look beyond the immediate future and believe God's promises concerning Israel's ultimate restoration and exaltation over the nations (2:21-22).
God led Haggai to meet each one of these problems by reminding the people of their duty and their dynamic. They had a responsibility to do something different in each case, and then God would provide the enabling grace for them to succeed, the spiritual dynamic.
In regard to their problem of misplaced priorities, the people's duty was to get back to rebuilding the temple (1:8). They needed to give priority to what God said they should do rather than to what they wanted to do. The dynamic that God would provide was His enabling presence with them. He would be with them (1:13).
With regard to their problem of incorrect perspective, their duty was to be strong and work. They should not compare the work God had given them to do with the work He had given their ancestors to do. They should simply give themselves to carrying out the will of God for them. The dynamic God promised to provide was again His own presence with them (2:4). He would help them do what He had called them to do.
Regarding their problem of unrealistic expectation, their duty was to learn from their priests, who would get the Lord's will from Torah, that blessing would come in response to genuine obedience. It was not enough to simply rebuild the temple. That was only part of God's will for His people, and not really the most important part. More important was that they should genuinely seek to exalt the Lord in their lives by following Him faithfully. The dynamic Yahweh promised for such heartfelt obedience was blessing on their lives (2:19). From the day the returnees turned their hearts to obey the Lord, He would bless them. But they should not expect much blessing if their obedience was only external.
Fourth, in regard to their problem of unnecessary fear, the people's duty was to be patient. They might not see a reversal of conditions in the immediate future, but eventually God would restore His people, as He promised. The dynamic God promised them was His own acting in time to reverse their fortunes (2:22-23). The Gentiles would not lord it over them forever. Their present leader, Zerubbabel, was only a foreview of a greater leader whom God would provide for them in the future. We know that the times of the Gentiles will come to an end when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to reign.
We are now in a position to point out the living message of this book. It is that whenever God's people face problems involving fulfilling His will, we should do our duty as the Word of God reveals it with the assurance that when we do God Himself will provide all that we need to succeed.
We often get our priorities out of order. We wait for direction from God to act when He has already told us what He wants us to do. While we wait, we get involved in matters that occupy our energy and resources that are self-directed. What we should be doing is reading the Word, learning what God wants us to do, and then putting first things first. We need to make His agenda our agenda. When we do this, He will be with us and will provide all we need to carry out His will successfully (cf. Matt. 6:33).
We also frequently lose the proper perspective on what God has called us to do. We look at our part of the enterprise of fulfilling the Great Commission, and we think to ourselves, "How insignificant this is. If only I was living when Hudson Taylor lived, maybe then I could really change the world. Better yet, if only I lived in the days of the apostles."It is easy for many Christians to get so distracted by looking at the great things other Christians have done in the past that we conclude that our little contribution is so insignificant that it is not worth the time and effort. If that is our problem, we need to remind ourselves that the same God who enabled saints of old to succeed has promised to be with us and to enable us to succeed in our calling. We may live in days of apostasy rather than in the glory days when Christ was more greatly honored in the world. Nevertheless our task in the will of God is just as important now as the task of other believers in days gone by was then. Focus on what God has given you to do, not on what others did.
We struggle with unrealistic expectations, too, as the postexilic community did. Why isn't our church growing faster? Why aren't we seeing more fruit from our ministry? Why don't we see more spiritual power in our lives? Ultimately all these blessings come by the will of a sovereign God who chooses to bless whom and how He will. We tend to underrate the importance of personal holiness and to emphasize activity, just like the returned exiles did. Perhaps God is not blessing more because our commitment is superficial and shallow. If we expect His blessing simply because we are doing His work, we need to look deeper into ourselves and into His Word. God will bless if we follow Him wholeheartedly. We may not see the blessing this side of the grave, but since He has promised to bless those who follow Him sincerely, we can count on His blessing eventually. In the meantime our duty is to get real.
Finally, we also struggle with unnecessary fear from time to time. The enemy looks so strong. We look so weak. Things have not changed much for a long time. But our duty is to be patient, to remember and to believe the promises that the Lord will return and balance the scales of justice one day (cf. 2 Pet. 3:8-13). He will establish His kingdom on the earth. Our duty now is to be strong and to work.
