Rebuild the temple — consider your ways
Consider your ways.
Haggai 1:5Haggai is the first prophet after the Babylonian exile. The Jews have returned to Jerusalem (538 BC) under Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. They began rebuilding the temple but stopped due to opposition and discouragement. Sixteen years later (520 BC), the temple is still unfinished. The people have built their own houses, planted crops, pursued their own interests — but neglected the house of God. Haggai delivers four sermons in four months, calling the people to resume the work.
The structure is simple: four dated messages. First message (1:1-15): Consider your ways. You have built your own houses while God's house lies in ruins. That is why your crops fail and your wages disappear. Build the temple. The people obey and resume work. Second message (2:1-9): The glory of this latter house will be greater than the former. Third message (2:10-19): Holiness is not contagious, but defilement is. From this day forward, God will bless. Fourth message (2:20-23): God will shake the nations and make Zerubbabel his signet ring.
Haggai addresses a perennial problem: misplaced priorities. It is easy to focus on our own comfort while God's work languishes. The people thought they were too poor to rebuild the temple. Haggai says: you are poor because you have not rebuilt the temple. Put God first, and everything else falls into place. The promise of greater glory (2:9) is fulfilled in Christ. The second temple was not physically greater than Solomon's, but it was the temple Christ walked into. That makes it greater.
Read in one sitting (38 verses)
'Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.' Three times: be strong. Once: work. Why? Because I am with you. God does not call us to tasks he will not empower. The promise is the same as the one given at the Exodus. God's presence is God's power. Fear is unnecessary when God is present.
'For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory... The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.' The second temple was smaller and less ornate than Solomon's. The old men who remembered the first temple wept when they saw the foundation of the second (Ezra 3:12). But Haggai promises: this house will be greater. How? The 'desire of all nations' will come. This is a messianic prophecy. Christ walked into the second temple. That makes it greater than Solomon's gold.
'In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.' A signet ring bore the owner's seal and represented his authority. God calls Zerubbabel 'my signet' — a reversal of Jeremiah 22:24, where Jeconiah (Zerubbabel's grandfather) was torn off like a signet. Zerubbabel is in the line of David. Matthew 1 lists him in the genealogy of Jesus. God's promise to David endures. The kingdom will be restored through a descendant of Zerubbabel: Jesus Christ.
'This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built... Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?... Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough... he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.' The diagnosis is sharp. The people have priorities backward. They live in finished houses while God's house is a ruin. They work hard but gain little. Why? Because God is withholding blessing. The call: consider your ways. Evaluate your life. What comes first? Where is your energy going? The principle applies to every generation: you cannot out-prioritize God and expect his blessing.