Haggai 1
THE FIRST
ADDRESS: EXHORTATION TO BUILD THE
ITS RESULT. (vs. 1-15)
(vs. 1-6) The people are reproved for their
indifference with regard to the erection of
the temple, and admonished that
their present distress is a chastisement for this neglect.
1 “In the
second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the
first day of the month, came the word of
the LORD by Haggai the
prophet unto Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtiel, governor of
and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,”
In the second year
of Darius the king. This is Darius Hystaspes, who
reigned
over
which name means “Holder,” or “Supporter.” Herodotus (6:98)
explains it as
“Coercer” (ἑρξείης - herxeiaes). Hitherto the prophets have dated the time of the
exercise of their office from the reigns of the legitimate
Hebrew monarchs; it shows
a new slate of things when they place at the head of their
oracles the name of a
foreign and a heathen potentate. The Jews had, indeed, now no king of their own,
“the tabernacle of David had fallen” (Amos 9:11), and they were living
on sufferance under an alien power. They had returned from
exile by
permission of Cyrus in the first year of his occupancy of
the throne of
Babylon sixteen years before this time, and had commenced
to build the
temple soon after; but the opposition of neighbors,
contradictory orders
from the Persian court, and their own lukewarmness
had contributed to
hinder the work, and it soon wholly ceased, and remained
suspended to the
moment when Haggai, as the seventy years of desolation drew
to an end,
was commissioned to arouse them from their apathy, and to
urge them to
use the opportunity which was afforded by the accession of
the new
monarch and the withdrawal of the vexatious interdict that
had checked
their operations in the previous reign (see Introduction;
and compare
Ezra 4:24). The sixth month, according to the sacred Hebrew
calendar,
which reckoned from Nisan to Nisan. This would be Elul,
answering to
parts of our August and September. In the first day. This was the regular
festival of the new moon (Numbers 10:10; Isaiah 1:13), and
a
fitting time to urge the building of the temple, without
which it could not
be duly celebrated. By;
literally, by the hand (as in v. 3), the instrument
whom God used (Exodus 9:35; Jeremiah 37:2; Hosea 12:11;
Acts 7:35)
Haggai the prophet (see the
Introduction). Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel;
the temporal head of the nation, the representative of the
royal house of David,
and therefore with the high priest jointly responsible, for
the present state of affairs,
and having power and authority to amend it. The name, as
explained, and
rightly, by
concerning his origin. He is called Sheshbazzar
in Ezra 1:8; 5:14, which
is either his name at the Persian court, or is an erroneous
transliteration for
a synonymous word (see Kuabenbauer,
in loc.). The name is found in the
cuneiform inscription, as Zir-Babilu.
Shealtiel (or Salathiel)
means, “Asked
of God.” There is a difficulty about Zerubbabel’s
parentage. Here and
frequently in this book, and in Ezra and Nehemiah, as well
as in
Matthew 1:12 and Luke 3:27, he is called “son of Shealtiel;” in
I Chronicles 3:19 he is said to be the son of Pedaiah the brother of
Salathiel. The truth probably is that he was by birth the son of Pedaiah, but
by adoption or the law of the levirate, the son of Salathiel. He was
regarded as the grandson of Jehoiachin,
or Jeconiah. Governor
(pechah).
A foreign word, used in I Kings 10:15, in Isaiah (Isaiah
36:9) and
frequently in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, to denote an
inferior satrap or
subordinate governor. Strassmaier
(ap. Knabenbauer)
notes that in
Assyrian the word is found in the form pachu,
that pichatu means “a
province,” pachat, “a
district.” It seems natural, though probably
erroneous, to connect it with the Turkish pashah. But see the discussion on
the word in Pusey, ‘Daniel the
Prophet,’ p. 566, etc. Instead of “Governor
of
tribe of
foreign title applied to him shows that he holds authority
only as the deputy
of an alien power. Judah was henceforward applied to the
whole country.
The prophecy in Genesis 49:10 still held good. Joshua. The highest
spiritual officer (Ezra 3:2, 8; 4:3). This Joshua, Jehoshua, Jeshua, as he
is variously called, was a son of Josedech
who, in the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, had been carried captive to
and grandson of that Seraiah who,
with other princes of
Riblah by the Babylonians (II Kings 25:18-10). The parentage of
Zerubbabel and Joshua is specially mentioned to show that the former
was
of the house of David and the latter of the family of
Aaron, and that even in
its depressed condition
Zechariah 3:1).
The Introduction. (v.1)
The Bible student, with a view to the clear understanding
of the Old
Testament Scriptures, should fix in his mind the order of the
prophetical
writings. These books of prophecy may appropriately be arranged
under
three heads.
1. Those which stand
related to the Assyrian period, including the books of
Jonah, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum.
2. Those connected
with the Babylonian period, including Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Obadiah.
3. Those associated
with the return from the exile: Haggai, Zechariah,
Malachi. The introduction of this brief prophecy by Haggai
suggests to us:
TIME. We are
able, through this opening verse, to fix the exact date of this
prophecy. It was “in the second year of Darius the king”
that Haggai
fulfilled this special mission, i.e. B.C. 521. Hence upwards
of a century had
passed away since Zephaniah had declared so faithfully the
terrible Divine
judgments which should overtake the nation on account of its guilt.
His
words had proved strictly true, and had been very literally and
completely
fulfilled. The land had been rendered utterly desolate; its cities
had been
entirely destroyed; its temple reduced to a heap of ruins; and its
people
carried away into exile. No King of Judah was referred to by
Haggai in
commencing his book, for the simple reason that the throne had fallen,
and
he had to recognize the authority of a Persian sovereign, and
to speak of
his favored land as a province of a foreign power (ve. 1). The dispersion,
however, had in a measure been followed by the regathering.
Zephaniah
had prophesied respecting the return of “a remnant,” and his prophecy had,
in a sense, now been fulfilled, for Cyrus permitted the Jews
to colonize
their own land, and a number had availed themselves of this
permission,
and had now spent some years in the land given to their
fathers, seeking to
repair the waste and desolation which the march of events and the
lapse of
time had wrought.
INSTRUMENTALITY.
The returned exiles commenced well. Their first
concern had reference to the rebuilding of the house of the Lord,
and with
all possible speed they laid the foundation of the second
temple. They
were, however, weak and poor; they labored amidst untold
difficulties
and discouragements, and it is not surprising that, their
hearts becoming
downcast and depressed, their ardor declined and their zeal
languished.
They needed stimulus; they
required some message from the Lord their
God declarative of His will and
purpose; and this need was supplied, for
they heard “a voice from heaven” speaking unto them
through Haggai and
Zechariah (ch.
1:1-2; Zechariah 1:1). In every age God has
communicated His will and intention through the instrumentality of man.
He
has made holy men, full of human sympathies, the medium of
communicating His purposes. His agents in this instance, as ever, were
admirably chosen. Haggai was advanced in life; he had probably seen
the
former temple; he was a link connecting the old with the new, and
brought
to bear upon the difficulties of the times a ripened and
matured experience;
whilst Zechariah was young, and with all the enthusiasm and
warmth of
youth. They worked together in perfect harmony and for the
common
good, their prophecies being at times admirably interwoven.
There are two
elements in the Bible — the Divine and the human. God speaks to us in
every page, and He
does so all the more emphatically, in that He addresses
us through men who possessed throbbing hearts and who passed
through
experiences like our own. (“Elijah
was a man subject to like passions as
we are…” – James 5:17)
EFFICIENT LEADERS TO DIRECT GREAT MOVEMENTS. “The
word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son
of Josadech, the high
priest” (v.
1). Zerubbabel, of royal descent from David, and
Joshua, who
was in the priestly line, had secured the confidence and
esteem of the
Jewish community in the land of
captivity; and the former had won the
regard of Cyrus, the Persian monarch; so that when the time for
the return
came, leaders, esteemed alike by the Jews and their foreign
rulers, were
prepared to guide the movement and to carry it through
successfully.
God’s work shall never fail
through lack of suitable agents to do His
bidding, but He will raise up a bright succession of leal-hearted men
(faithful
and true) to carry on His cause, until the ruin and desolation wrought
by sin has been completely repaired, and the top-stone of the
temple of
redeemed humanity be “brought forth” amidst rapturous
praise.
Divine Revelations (v. 1)
Ø
Often unexpected.
In the present instance this was probably
the case.
The band of exiles who, availing
themselves of Cyrus’s permission
(Ezra 1:3), returned to
in all (ibid. ch. 2:64-65), though Pusey estimates the company of
immigrants at 212,000, counting
free men, women, children, and slaves —
had for sixteen years at least
not heard a prophet’s voice. The last that had
fallen on their ears had been
Daniel’s in
had predicted the going forth of
a commandment to build and restore
thereafter, of Messiah the
prince (Daniel 9:25). Now, in the second
year of Darius the king (Ezra
4:24), i.e. about B.C. 520, the interval of
silence terminated, and the lips
of a new prophet were unsealed. That God
reserves in His own hands “the times and seasons” of His special
supernatural interpositions in
human history, while it should keep men
alive to every movement of the Divine presence in their midst
and ought
to guard them against
presumption both in making and in interpreting
prophecy.
Ø Always
appropriate. The interpositions of Heaven are never post horam.
The clock of
eternity ALWAYS KEEPS TIME! When the hour comes,
so does the man. Man often
speaks at an inopportune moment; God,
never. When Haggai stood forth
among the Jews who had returned from
he proved himself to be. Sixteen
years at home in their own land, for a
year and a half they had been
disheartened about the building of their
temple, and had even
discontinued work. Some had even begun to lose
interest in the restoration of
the sacred edifice (v. 2). Hence they much
needed rousing from indolence
and rebuke for unbelief, as well as
comfort in sadness and succor in
weakness; and all this they received
from the new monitor from
Jehovah that had arisen in their midst. So
have God’s
revelations ever been as suitable to men’s
necessities as
to
time’s urgencies. Notably was this the case with His showing of
Himself to Moses at the bush
(Exodus 3:2), and His disclosure of
Himself to
mankind IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST!
(Galatians 4:4).
Ø
Sometimes suggestive. This was so in the
case under consideration.
First, the year in which Haggai
appeared was suggestive of the people’s
sadness; having no more a king
of their own to count from, they reckoned
the date as that of the second
year of Darius, i.e. of Darius Hystaspes
(Darajavus
of the cuneiform inscriptions), who reigned from B.C. 521 to
B.C. 486. Next, the month — the
sixth of their ordinary Jewish year
(corresponding with our August
or September), and therefore towards the
close of harvest — ought at least, by the comparatively barren fields they
had reaped, to have reminded them of their
chastisement (vs. 10-11),
and so induced in them a spirit
of humility. Lastly, the day of the month,
the new moon’s day, which the
Law had directed to be kept as a day of
special sacrifice (Numbers
28:11), which their forefathers had observed
as a popular festival (Proverbs
7:20, margin Authorized Version), and
marked by religious gatherings
at the local sanctuaries (Isaiah 1:13-14;
II Kings 4:23), and which
probably they also celebrated as a holiday,
might have spoken to them of
their sin in preserving the outward forms of
religion while neglecting its
inward spirit, and perhaps also of their duty,
to attend with true docility to
the admonition which proceeded from the
new prophet’s lips.
Ø
Mostly humble. Only once did Divine revelation find an organ that was
truly exalted, viz. when He who,
as the only begotten Son, had been in the
Father’s bosom, made Him known
(John 1:18) — although even then it
was needful that that Son should
empty Himself of His glory and. veil His
Divinity behind a garment of
humanity before He could properly
accomplish His work (Philippians
2:6-7). But in all other instances the
instruments selected by Jehovah
for the transmission of His will to
mankind are humble and lowly in
comparison with Him whose will
they bear (Isaiah 40:18), even
when they are angels; how much more
when men, as they mostly
are! And of these it is seldom the most
exalted in rank or wisdom that
He selects, but most frequently the
lowliest — persons in obscure
stations (I Corinthians 1:26-28), like
Moses when a stranger in Midian (Acts 7:29-31), like Elisha
when
holding the plough (I Kings
19:19), or like Amos when among the
herdsmen of Tekoa
(Amos 1:1); and persons of unknown family, like
Elijah the Tishbite,
or Nahum the Elkoshite, or Habakkuk, of whom
almost nothing is known.
Ø
Always suitable.
Men frequently err in choosing instruments
to execute
their will; God, never. He can
always discern spirits, while men only think
they can. Men judge according to
appearance; he, according to the heart.
Haggai was, perhaps, not such a
vehicle as man would have pitched upon
to be the medium of a Divine
communication. But for God’s purpose he
was fitted beyond most. Though
not absolutely certain, it is most probable
he was an old man of eighty
years, who had seen the first
temple in its glory (ch.2:3),
and who could therefore speak with
greater emphasis and solemnity as one standing on the
confines of
eternity, who knew the vanity of earthly greatness, and could
appreciate
the superior excellence and desirability of
things inward and spiritual.
Besides, his very name —
Haggai, or “Festive” — fitted him to be the
bearer of a message to
desponding builders. What they wanted was
inspiriting incitement,
encouragement, and hope; and of that there was
a promise in the old man’s
designation — Haggai, or “The Festal One” —
especially if this only
expressed the habitual disposition of his soul.
Ø
Generally efficient. “It has been the wont
of critics, in whose eyes the
prophets were but poets,” writes
Pusey, “to speak of the style of Haggai as
‘tame’ and destitute of life and
power; but, for all that, it was adapted to
the object sought to be
accomplished. Haggai had no need to complain, as
the eloquent Isaiah (first or
second), “Lord, who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isaiah
53:1); of him it
is recorded that his words awoke
an immediate response in his hearers’
hearts, and “they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God” (v. 14). Man cannot always say of his instruments, however
finely polished, that they will
never fail; God can always predict of His,
however rude, that they will
certainly succeed.
as in the present instance.
Haggai’s message was directed:
Ø
To Zerubbabel; concerning whom may
be noted:
o
His names Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1:8), most probably Chaldean
or
Babylonian, and perhaps
signifying “Worshipper of Fire”
(Gesenius); Zerubbabel (Ezra
2:1), obviously Hebrew, and
meaning “Born in
Nehemiah 7:65), most likely
Persian, and equivalent to
“The Feared.”
o
His descent. Described in the text as the son of Shealtiel,
who was
the
son of Jeconiah the captive (I Chronicles 3:17,
Authorized
Version),
or, if Assir be taken as a proper name (ibid., Authorized
Version),
the grandson of Jeconiah; or again, if Luke’s
register
be
followed (Luke 3:27), the son of Neri; — Zerubbabel is
expressly
stated by the chronicler to have been a son of Pedaish,
a
brother of Shealtiel (I Chronicles 3:19). Probably as
good a
solution
cf the difficulty as any other is that Jeconiah, according
to
the prophecy of Jeremiah (22:30), had no sons, but only a
daughter,
who married Neri, a descendant of David, and
became
by him the mother of Shealtiel and Pedaiah, who
accordingly
were reckoned sons of Jeconiah, and that
Shealtiel having died without issue, his brother Pedaiah
married
his widow, and raised up for him a son named
Zerubbabel.
o
His office. As a descendant of the royal house of
the
recognized head of the Jewish exiles in
was
by Cyrus appointed governor of the pilgrim band who
returned
to their native land.
Ø
To Joshua; who also is described by his ancestry as the son of Josedech,
who had been carried away by the
Chaldeans to
6:15), when his father Zeraiah had been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar
(II Kings 25:18-21; Jeremiah
52:24-27), and by his office as the
high priest of the young
community that had returned to
head; and “together they are
types of Him, the true King and true Priest,
Christ Jesus, who by His
resurrection raised again the true temple, His
body, after it had been
destroyed.
Ø
To the people. Though Haggai’s words were directed in the first
instance to Zerubbabel
and Joshua, they were in the second instance
designed for the whole
congregation; and that the whole congregation
received them, whether directly
from the prophet’s own lips or indirectly
through those of the prince and
the priest, is expressly stated (vs. 12-13).
1. The possibility of revelation.
2. The human medium of inspiration.
3. The greater privilege of the Christian Church in having
as a
revealer of the Divine will, not a
human prophet merely, but the
Incarnate
Son.
4. The higher responsibility which this entails.
2 “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The
time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.”
The Lord of hosts. Haggai, as the other
prophets, always uses
this formula in enunciating his messages (see note on Amos
9:5).
Trochon justly remarks that this expression is not found in the
earlier
books of the Bible — the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges. If
these books
were contemporary with the prophets, the phrase would
certainly occur in
them (see a valuable note in the Appendix to Archdeacon Perowne’s
Commentary on Haggai, in ‘The Canibridge
Bible for Schools’). This
people; populus iste (Vulgate), with some contempt, as if they were no
longer worthy to be called the Lord’s people (ch. 2:14). It looks as
if they had often before been admonished to proceed with
the work, and
had this answer ready. The time is not come; literally, it is not time to
come (compare Genesis 2:5), which is explained by the new
clause, the
time that the Lord’s house should be built. The versions shorten
the
sentence, rendering, “the time for building the Lord’s
house has not come.”
The excuse for their inaction may have had various grounds.
They may
have said, reckoning from the final destruction of
that the seventy years’ captivity was not complete; that
there was still
danger from the neighboring population; that the Persians
were adverse to
the undertaking; that the unfruitful season rendered them
unable to engage
in such a great work; and that the very fact of these
difficulties existing
showed that God did not favor the design.
Procrastination.
(v.2)
“This people say,
The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house
should be built.” There are several ways of accounting for the delay which
occurred in the work of re-erecting the temple in
1. In part it arose
from the returned exiles being preoccupied in seeking to
secure to themselves material prosperity.
2. Then they were
daunted by the opposition they had to encounter as they
engaged in this work. The powerful neighboring tribes, being alike
antagonistic to the restoration of
unadulterated worship of God, combined to place obstacles in the way of
the
repairers of the breaches.
3. Further, they had
grown somewhat accustomed to being without the
structure. Comparatively few of them had seen “the first house.”
4. It is to be feared
also that they had lost, through the changes they had
experienced, that strong sense of the need of the Divine abiding
presence in
their midst. Influenced by such considerations as these, and
forgetful that
“good is best when soonest
wrought,” they kept postponing carrying out
the
great undertaking to which they had pledged themselves, and excused
themselves by saying, “The time is not come,” etc. (v. 2).
This habit of
delay is far too general, and is not limited to any age or race.
It prevails
widely today as in all past times; and in no respect more so than
in matters
affecting man’s relation to God. Time was when man was wholly
devoted
to
his Maker’s praise. God formed him in His own image, holy, spotless, pure; but
he
mournfully fell. He who had been the
“Ichabod” (I Samuel 4:21) became inscribed upon the once consecrated
spiritual man.. Every power of the soul became corrupt, every
propensity
became drawn to that which is evil. “The gold became dim, and the most
fine gold changed.” And the voice of God calls us to the glorious work of
rebuilding this temple. He has
presented to us, in the perfect life of His own
Son, the pattern
after which we should seek to raise in ourselves the
superstructure of a holy life, and offers us His gracious aid so that we
may
build into our character the noble materials of truth and
virtue, wisdom and
love. And it is just at this
point that the temptation to delay meets men.
Ø
They are not
insensible to the claims of God, nor are they altogether
indifferent about attending to these, but they say, “The time is not
come,” etc. (v. 3).
Ø
They are immersed in
other matters at present:
o
the cares of the
world;
o
the pursuit of riches;
o
the pleasures of
life, absorb them; they are
preoccupied just
now; they say, “The time
is not come” (v. 3).
Ø
They reason that there
is the whole future yet before them, and that
ample opportunity will be given them in due course. So they go
on
robbing themselves of “aspirations high and deathless hopes
sublime.”
“Procrastination
is the thief of time;
Year after
year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the
mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.”
Duty Revealed. (vs. 1-2)
“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month,
in the first day
of the
month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor
of
of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts,
saying, “This people say, The time is not come, the time that the
Lord’s
house should be built.”
Haggai is the first of the three prophets who lived
and
taught after the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. It
is
generally supposed that he returned with the Hebrew exiles under
Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, in the year
B.C. 536. He prophesied
in
the reign of Darius Hystaspes, who ascended the Persian
throne B.C.521.
He and Zechariah were employed by Jehovah to excite and
encourage the
Jews to the rebuilding of the temple. This book consists of four messages,
which were delivered in three months of the year B.C. 620, and
all refer to
the
work of temple restoration. His style, being somewhat interrogatory,
has
much vigor and vehemence. The grand subject of this whole chapter
is
duty — duty revealed, duty postponed, duty vindicated. Those two
verses direct us to the revelation of duty. Here we have:
1. The time of its
revelation. Every duty has its time, every true work has
its
hour. Woe to us if that hour is neglected!
2. The organ of its
revelation. “Came the word of the Lord by Haggai.”
God
speaks to humanity through individual men whom in sovereignty He
appoints. In all ages there are certain great men through whom God
speaks
to
the world. They are His messengers.
3. The order of its
revelation. Haggai had to deliver the message to men
nearest to him, with whom he was most identified, and the men,
too, who
had
the most power in influencing others. To the greatest man in the state,
Zerubbabel; to the greatest man in the Church,
Joshua. I make two remarks
as
suggested by this subject.
purpose of Haggai’s mission was, in the name of God, to urge his
countrymen to the fulfillment of a work which was morally incumbent
on
them, viz. the rebuilding of the temple. It was the purpose of
God that the
temple should be rebuilt, and He required the Jews to do that
work. He
could have restored the structure by a miracle or by the hands
of others;
but He imposed the building of it on the Jewish people for
reasons best
known to Himself. What was the burden of Haggai’s mission is in
truth the
burden of the whole Divine revelation — duty. It contains, it is true,
histories of facts, effusions of poetry, discussions of doctrine;
but the grand
all-pervading substance of the whole is duty; its grand voice teaches,
not
merely to believe and feel, but to do; it regards faith
and feeling as
worthless unless taken up and embodied in the right act. It presents
the
rule of
duty, it supplies the helps
to duty, it urges the motives
to duty. This
fact shows two things.
Ø
That the Bible studies the real well being of man. According to our
constitution, our strength, dignity, and blessedness consist, not
merely in
our ideas and emotions, but in our settled character. But what
is character?
Not an assemblage of beliefs and
emotions, but an assemblage of acts and
habits.
Ø
That unpracticed religion is spurious. There is the religion
of creed, of
sentimentality, of sacerdotalism, of routine. These are
all spurious; it is the
doer of the Word that is blessed; it is the doer of the Divine will that God
approves. “Every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house on sand.”
(Matthew 7:26).
the circumstance that Haggai went directly with the message
from God to
the most influential men in the state, to “Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtiel,
Governor of
The former was one of the head
men in the state, the commander-in-chief
at the head of the Jews in their return from their captivity
in
latter was the head man in the Church, he was the high
priest. It was the
duty of all the Jews to set to the work; but the obligation of
these men, on
account of their high position, had an increased force. These men
had
greater opportunities of knowing the Divine will, and greater
facilities for
carrying it out. The influence of
men in high position is a great talent that
God requires to be
used. This fact serves two purposes.
Ø
To supply a warning to men in high places. The man who is in a
high
position, and disregards his great responsibilities, is more an
object of pity
than envy. “Unto whom much is given, of him much will
be required.”
(Luke 12:48) Elevated positions in life invest men with an
immense
social power — power which God intended to bless, but which is
often used to curse men.
Ø
A lesson to ministers. Let the ambassadors
of Heaven carry their
messages first, if possible, to men in authority. Do not be afraid;
none
need your message more; none, if they receive it in faith, can
render
you better assistance in the great work of spiritual
reformation. It is
common to lecture the poor on duty. How seldom the Divine voice
of duty is made to ring into the hearts of men in authority
and power!
3 “Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,”
The formula of v.1 is repeated to give more effect to the
Lord’s answer to the lame
excuses for inaction. This emphasis by repetition is common
throughout the book.
4 “Is it
time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this
house lie waste?” For you, O ye; for you, yourselves; such
as ye are (see
Zechariah 7:5). He appeals to their consciences. You can
make
yourselves comfortable; you have time and means and
industry to expend
on your own private interests, and can you look with
indifference on the
house of God lying waste? Your ceiled houses; your houses, and those
cieled — wainscoted and
roofed with costly woods (I Kings 7:3, 7;
Jeremiah 22:14), perhaps with the very cedar provided for
the
rebuilding of the temple
(Ezra 3:7). Septuagint, ἐν οἴκοις
ὑμῶν κοιλοστάθμοις
–
en oikois humon koilostathmois
- your vaulted
houses, or, as St. Cyril explains,
“houses whose doorposts were elaborately adorned with
emblems and devices.”
They had naught of the feeling of David (II Samuel 7:2), “I dwell in an
house of cedar, but the
ark of God dwelleth within curtains.”
Duty Adjourned. (vs.
3-4)
“Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet,
saying, Is it time
for you, O
ye, to dwell in your celled houses, and this house lie waste.” The
seventy years of the Babylonian captivity had passed away. The
Babylonian
empire had fallen; and Cyrus, the founder of the
Jews permission to return to their land, and commanded them
to rebuild
the
their menservants and maidservants, went forth, led by Zerubbabel and by
the
high priest Joshua, to their own lands. Forthwith on their arrival they
commenced restoring the altar of burnt offering and re-establishing.
the
sacrifical worship, and began to lay the foundation of the new
temple. The
Samaritans speedily interfered and impeded their progress.
Because the
chiefs of
set
themselves to the work of obstruction. They made the hand of the
people of
hiring counselors against them to frustrate their design, so that
the work at
the
house of God at
year of the reign of King Darius of
zeal of the Jews so cooled down that they relinquished the work
altogether, and simply began to provide for their own necessities and
to
build their own houses, Hence Heaven employs Haggai to rouse
them,
again, from their, wickedness. The subject of verses is the adjournment
of
duty. The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should
be built.
They do not question the desirableness or the obligation
of the work. This
indeed seems to be assumed. During the Captivity, we are told
elsewhere
that they hanged their harps upon the willows, and wept when they
“remembered
did
they resolve, should they ever be restored, to rebuild that temple which was
the
glory of the land; but now that they are there on the spot, and the ruins
lying before them, their ardor is cooled, and they say, “The
time is not
come.” We see three
evils coming out here, which, perhaps, are always
connected with the adjourment of
duty,
leave it to remain in ruins;” they were too cowardly for that,
Their
consciences rendered them incapable of making, such a decision. Men
who
neglect duty are too cowardly to say, “We will never attend to it,
we will
never study the Scriptures or worship God.”
Ø
Sin is cowardice.
Ø
Sin is cowardice
because conscience, the truly heroic element, is
ever against it.
The answer is at hand, Selfishness. “Is
it time for you, O ye, to dwell in
your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” They set to work for their
own private interests. Virtually they said, “We must
build houses for
ourselves first, for all is in
ruin about us; we must cultivate our own land
first; we must attend to our own business, and after all that is
completed
we will see to the temple.”
Ø
Selfishness is a perversion of self-love.
Ø
Selfishness is fatal to self-interest.
Were they judges of time and seasons?
Had they the hardihood to suppose
that circumstances can set aside or modify our obligations? “Go
to, now,
ye that say, Today and tomorrow” (James 4:13).
Ø
Such presumption is
always guilty. It implies
that we know better than
our Maker about times and season.
Ø
Such presumption is
always perilous. It treads upon an awful precipice.
The House of the Lord Lying
Waste. (v.
4)
The temple was designed to be the center of hallowed
influence to the
Jewish nation. It was the recognized dwelling place of God, the shrine
where, in bright symbol, His glory, was specially revealed. The
pious Jew
rejoiced to repair to it, and wherever his lot might be cast he
looked
towards it with ardent and longing desire. The desecration of it by the
introduction of idolatrous
practices into its courts had materially
contributed to the nation’s collapse.
It was of the utmost importance,
therefore, that the work of its restoration should be pressed
forward with
all
zest, now that the captives had been permitted to return, and at first it
seemed as though this course would have been pursued, but
unhappily they
soon allowed their zeal to flag, and year after year passed by and nothing
was
done. The house of the Lord lay “waste.” The
Divine Teacher, when
He came to usher in a new dispensation, declared that God is a Spirit, and is
to be
worshipped “in spirit and in truth” (John
4:23-24). He taught that
place has but little to do with worship, and that there is no
spot we may not
consecrate by our praises and prayers, and render to us “hallowed
ground.”
Still, He constantly resorted to the temple, and we read of
His apostles how
that they went up to the temple “at the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1).
The
erection and maintenance of Christian sanctuaries is most
thoroughly in
harmony with His will, and is calculated to promote the truest
interests of
the
race. Close all such sanctuaries, and:
(1) good men would be left to sigh for the holy fellowship they had
lost;
(2) spiritual darkness would steal over the land;
(3) the streams of true benevolence would rapidly diminish;
(4) men in general, losing sight of the common relationship they
sustain to
the
Eternal, would also overlook the interest they ought to feel in each
other’s weal;
(5) iniquity would pass unreproved, and vice
unchecked. As lovers of God,
our
country, and our fellow men, we do well to sustain Christian
sanctuaries, and not to allow them to “lie waste.” Notice, “the house of the
Lord” may “lie waste” —
NEGLECTED.
There should be correspondence in respect of beauty and
adornment, comfort and cleanliness, between the houses in which we
live
and the sanctuary in which we meet for worship, and where this
is lacking,
the want indicates a wrong state of mind and heart.
OVERLOOKED, AND THERE BEING THUS STRAITNESS IN
RESPECT TO MEETING THE EXPENSES NECESSARILY
INCURRED IN ITS MAINTENANCE. Giving should be regarded as an
act of worship. “Bring an offering, and come into His
courts” (Psalm 96:8).
Contributions for the
maintenance of the worship of God ought not
to be regarded in the light of charitable gifts, but as the discharge of
bounden obligation.
far too much of “waste”
in this respect. The growing habit of attending
only one of the services on the sabbath,
and none during the week days,
needs to be checked Personal influence should be brought more to
bear
upon the inhabitants of a locality with a view to securing
their presence.
“Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1).
BEING MARKED BY BALDNESS AND INEFFICIENCY. The services
should be marked by culture, variety, heart; the worshippers should throw
their whole souls into all its engagements, and render each
part of the
service “heartily” and as “unto the Lord.” (Colossians 3:23)
view to the prevention of this, let us “pray for
may yield comfort to the mourning and guidance to the
perplexed, and that
through these the cold in heart may regain the fervor of their “first
love,”
(Revelation 2:4) and “the
dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) be
quickened to a new and heavenly life. “Save now, O Lord; O Lord, we
beseech thee send now prosperity” (Psalm 118:25); “Repair the waste
places of
(Psalm 51:18).
5 “Now
therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.”
Consider; literally, set your heart upon (so v. 7; ch.2:15, 18). Your ways.
What ye have done, what ye have suffered, your present
projects, and the
consequences thereof.
The Mistakes of the
imagined the time had not come for them to build the Lord’s house,
whereas it had fully arrived.
Ø What led them
to suppose or say so, though not stated, may easily be
inferred.
o
They were disheartened
by the opposition they encountered
(see next head).
o
The original grant
obtained from Cyrus (Ezra 3:7) was probably
then exhausted.
o
They had been
interdicted by a decree of Artaxerxes, or of
pseudo- Smerdis (ibid. ch.
4:23-24). And
o
they were suffering
from bad trade and worse harvests (v. 6),
and consequently were unable to contribute towards the
expense
of the building.
Ø The
indications that the time had fully come were so plain that they
should
hardly have been misread.
o
The seventy years
during which the whole
desolate, and its inhabitants should serve the King of
Babylon
(Jeremiah
25:11-12), and at the end of which the exiles should
return to their own land (ibid. ch.29:10), had manifestly rolled by.
o
The very deliverer of
whom Isaiah had spoken by name, Cyrus
(Isaiah 44:28; 45:1),
had appeared, and opened the two-leaved
gates of
o
The sacred vessels
which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off to
would again be brought from
delivered over into the hands of Zerubbabel
by Cyrus (Ezra 1:8).
o
The bad harvests and
depressed trade from which they were
suffering were a manifest token of the Divine
displeasure on
account of their negligence, and
were no real excuse for their
illiberal conduct, since they
could obviously find money enough
to build ceiled
mansions for themselves.
o
The decree of Artaxerxes only forbad the building of the city
(Ezra
4:21), not of the temple; and even though it had been
directed against the latter, Artaxerxes
himself no longer
reigned, having been driven from the throne he had usurped,
and his place having been occupied by Darius Hystaspes, so that
the repressive edict, had they been anxious, might easily
have been
revoked. This mistake of the builders has often been
committed;
as e.g. by Moses in
and thought the hour had struck for
had not (Exodus 2:11-15; Acts 7:25); by the Jewish rulers in
Christ’s
day, who failed to discern in the Galilaean Prophet the
manifest tokens of Messiah (Matthew 16:3-4); by the city of
and
by the present day unbeliever, who cannot see that “now is
the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation”
(II
Corinthians 6:2).
Ø The nature and source of this
opposition is described in the Book of
Ezra (4). Prevented from taking part in the building of the temple,
the
Samaritan
settlers first “weakened the hands of the
builders,” next
“hired counselors
against them,” and ultimately obtained an interdict
commanding them to cease. It was certainly annoying, but:
Ø
They should not have been so easily discouraged. No enterprise of any
moment was ever carried through without encountering
difficulties and
frequently hostilities, and without calling for patient
perseverance in well
doing. How otherwise would
first, or
Ø
The same mistake is
committed still by those who imagine the
spiritual
whole, can be built without difficulty, without experiencing
resistance
from enemies within and without, or in any other way than by
indomitable perseverance.
Ø “Never
despair” and “Never give in” should be the twin mottoes of
every
one engaged in temple building for God — of the individual
believer, of the Christian minister, of the foreign
missionary.
THE SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS. The ordinary
occupations of life
had more attraction for them than
the duties of religion. To assert that
they
cared nothing for religion would, perhaps, be wrong, since what
had
brought them back from
comfortable settlements, was a true feeling of piety no less than an
ardent
spirit of patriotism. Yet were
they not long back upon their much loved
ancestral soil before they showed they had brought back with them from
Babylon a
passion stronger than even their love for religion, namely,
devotion to the earthly and material pursuits of life. Their zeal in temple
building was quickly damped, but not so their enthusiasm in plowing
and
sowing their fields, in working for wages, in erecting
magnificent mansions,
sumptuous palaces like those they had seen and perhaps lived in in
they could see that “the time for building God’s house was not
come,” as
they supposed; they had large difficulty in perceiving it was
not the season
to attend to their ordinary avocations. So do many on
becoming Christians
carry over with them into their new life “passions for things material and
temporal,” which, while
religious feeling is fresh, are kept in abeyance, but
which, the moment this begins to abate, assert themselves to the
hindrance
of what is properly religious work, and to the detriment of the soul’s
religious life. This
constitutes a third mistake against which Christians
should be on their guard.
THE GLORY OF GOD. One
cannot help thinking that, had the building of
the Lord’s house been a matter that concerned their own glory,
comfort, or
interest, they would not have suffered it to lie waste as they did;
but only
the honor of the Deity was involved, and what was that to their
material
advantage and temporal felicity? Was
it not of greater moment that they
themselves should be well housed, well fed, well clothed, than that
even
God, who dwelleth
not in temples made with hands, and requireth not to
be worshipped as though He needed anything, should be well
lodged? If it
came to the worst, they could do without a temple altogether,
could
worship in the open air, as they had done since coming from
they could not well do without well stocked farms and finely
celled houses.
And so they let the work, which had only God’s glory as its motive, drop,
and applied themselves to that which contemplated man’s or their own
material good. Is it
wrong to find in this a parable for Christians? Is not the
essence of Christianity just this — that a man, like Christ whom He follows,
shall seek, not His own glory, but God’s; shall do, not His own
will, but the
will of Him who hath sent Him into the world? Yet among professing
Christians are those who cannot
see beyond their own little selves, and
who imagine that a man’s chief duty upon earth, even after
having become
a Christian, is to do the
best he can for himself, whereas it is to do the best
he can for God. Acting
on the former principle leads to spiritual blindness,
to cowardice, to this-worldism,
all of which are deplorable mistakes;
acting
on the latter.principle terminates
in no such disastrous results, but brings
with it to the individual
so acting spiritual insight, moral courage, and
heavenly — mindedness three qualities which ennoble all by whom
they
are possessed.
1. The duty of discerning the signs of the times.
2. The necessity of combining courage with forethought.
3. The propriety of guarding against the disturbing
influence of
supposed self-interest.
6 “Ye have
sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not
enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled
with drink; ye clothe you,
but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to
put it into a bag with holes.” Their labors for years past had lacked the
Divine blessing. Though they had fine houses to dwell in, they had been
visited
with scanty harvests and weak bodily health. Ye have sown much, and bring in
little; but to bring in
little (Hebrew). And this infinitive
absolute is
continued in the following clauses, giving remarkable force
to the words,
and expressing an
habitual result. We see from ch. 2:15-17 that
these unfruitful seasons had visited them during all the continuance of their
negligence
(Deuteronomy 28:38). But ye have not
enough. The food
which they ate did not satisfy them; their bodies were
sickly and derived no
strength from the food which they took (Leviticus 26:26;
Hosea 4:10)
or from the wine which they drank (see note on Micah 6:14).
But
there is none
warm. Perhaps the winters were
unusually rigorous, or their
infirm health made their usual clothing insufficient to
maintain their bodily
heat. To put it into a bag with holes. A proverbial saying. The
money
gained by the hired laborer vanished as if he had never had
it, and left no
trace of benefit.
(Vs. 7-11) The prophet urges the people to work
zealously at the building; only
thus could they hope for the
removal of their present disasters.
7 “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.”
(See note on v. 5.) The repetition of the call to
reflection is needed (compare
Philippians 3:1). Former experience opens the way to the
injunction in v. 8.
Considering One’s
Ways. (vs. 5,7)
reflection, which enable man to consider his ways, constitute a lofty
endowment, which places
him incontestably at the apex of creation.
Ø
It distinguishes him from the lower animals. These may be
possessed of
capabilities which enable them to perform actions in some degree
resembling the fruits of intelligence — it may even be conceded are,
in
some instances at least, endowed with faculties of memory,
imagination,
and judgment; but they are wholly devoid of the powers of self-
introspection and reflection
here ascribed to man. Of the noblest of brute
beasts it still remains to be proved that it ever said to itself,
“I
communed
with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search” (Psalm 77:6);
or “I thought on my ways” (Psalm
119:59).
Ø
It sets him in the neighborhood of God. The Hebrew psalmist
conceived the ideal man as a being only a little short of Divinity
(Psalm
8:5); and though the basis on
which he rested this conception was man’s
manifest dominion over the creatures, yet this arose, as he well
knew, out
of the fact that man, as distinguished from the lower
creatures, had been
made in the Divine image (Genesis 1:26); which again, in part
at least,
consisted in his capacity to consider his ways, or to look before
and behind
in whatever way he was treading. “Known unto God are all his
works
from the beginning of
the world” (Acts 15:18); “He declareth the end
from the beginning”
(Isaiah 46:10); and though the Preacher affirms that
“no man
can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to
the end” (Ecclesiastes
3:11), yet to each man has been granted the ability
to consider the way in which he himself goeth! (Ecclesiastes 5:1),
and in
this high capacity of pondering the path of his feet he possesses an
endowment that in him a finite being corresponds to the Omniscience of
THE INFINITE GOD!
two things.
Ø
Divine commandment. In addition to the
twice-repeated exhortation
here addressed to the builders, the admonition frequently
occurs in
Scripture (Psalm 4:4; Proverbs
4:26; I Corinthians 11:28;
II Corinthians 13:5; Galatians
6:4) to commune with one’s own heart,
to search and try one’s ways, to examine carefully into
one’s spiritual
condition. And this to a good man
is enough to constitute an imperative
obligation. “Where the word of a king is” — much
more where the word
of the King of kings is — “there is power.” (Ecclesiastes 8:4)
Ø
Present safety.
No one can travel long securely or
comfortably along the
path of life who does not ponder well at the outset from what
point the
course he is pursuing starts, who does not frequently pause to
notice
whither it is tending, and who does not always have an eye upon
the
where and the how it shall terminate. The man that lives purely
by
haphazard, that rushes on blindfold into whatever enterprise he
takes
in hand, whether in business or religion, is sure to come to
grief, if not
to fall into the ditch.
Ø
Future responsibility. There might be less
need for attending to this duty
if the issues of our ways and actions always exhausted
themselves on earth
and in time. But they do not. “We must
all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, and give an account of the deeds done in the
body,
whether these be good or whether they be bad” (II Corinthians 5:10).
The ways of every man PROJECT THEMSELVES INTO THE
UNSEEN BEYOND! Every man is making his future by the, ways
he is traveling and the deeds he is doing
in the present.
the advantages to be derived from it should go far to
recommend this
practice.
Ø
Self-knowledge.
No one will ever attain to a trustworthy
or valuable
acquaintance with his own heart who does not frequently undertake a
review of “the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23)
that proceed from it. Yet
next to the knowledge of God and Christ, which constitute the essence
of “life eternal” (John 17:2), the knowledge of self is the highest
attainment to which one can rise.
Ø
Moral discernment. The power of
distinguishing between right and
wrong, which belongs to all as an intuitive endowment, is nevertheless
susceptible of improvement or deterioration,
according as it is exercised
or neglected. It may be
clarified, intensified, quickened, strengthened;
or it may be
dulled, darkened, weakened, deadened.
Through diligent
personal culture the soul may become sensitive to nicest
distinctions
of right and wrong as an aneroid barometer to smallest
variations in
the atmosphere; or, through want of use, it may become hard as
a
fossilized organism or as a petrified log of wood.
Ø
Spiritual improvement. No one is likely to
make progress in religion
without an intimate acquaintance with his own ways. Without this
one
may even not suspect that his religion is defective. In
proportion as one
knows what in himself is dark and needs illumining, or feeble
and
requires strengthening, or low and demands upraising, or deficient
and
calls for supplementing, or wrong and wants correcting, will one
advance in moral and spiritual attainment.
LEARN:
1. The dignity of
man.
2. The responsibility
of life.
3. The duty of circumspection.
8 “Go up to
the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I
will take pleasure in it, and I will be
glorified, saith the LORD.”
Go up to the
mountain. The hill country in the neighborhood
of
material for the building. The temple mount is certainly
not meant, as if
they were to bring wood from it. Nor can
Ezra 3:7; for the injunction looks to an immediate actual
result, and in
their depressed circumstances they were scarcely likely to
interest the
Sidonians and Tyrians to provide cedar for
them. There was abundance of
wood close at hand, and the “kings forest” (Nehemiah 2:8) was in the
immediate neighborhood of
probably because the foundations had long been laid, and
the ruins of the
old temple supplied material for the new one; and, indeed,
stone was to be
had in abundance everywhere; or it may be that the prophet
names merely
one opening for their renewed activity, as a specimen of
the work required
from them. Not costly offerings were desired, but a willing mind. I will be
glorified; I will glorify myself by
showering blessings on the house and the
people, so that the Hebrews themselves and their neighbors
may own that
I am among them
(compare Exodus 14:4; Leviticus 10:3; Isaiah 66:5).
9 “Ye
looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home,
I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts.
Because of mine house
that is waste, and ye run every man unto
his own house.”
He shows the real cause of the calamities that had befallen
them.
Ye looked for
much, and, lo, it came to little. Emphatic infinitive, as in
v. 6. “To look for much, and behold! little.” They fixed their
expectations
upon a rich harvest, and they reaped less than they had
sown (Isaiah 5:10).
And when they had stored this miserable crop in their
barns, I did
blow upon it; or, did blow it away (ἐξεφύσησα – exephusaesa – I blew
it away –
Septuagint), dissipated it as if it were mere chaff, so
that it perished. Doubtless
they ascribed the meagerness of their crops to natural
causes, and
would not see the judicial nature of the infliction. The
prophet brings the
truth home to their conscience by the stern question, Why? And he
answers the question for them, speaking with God’s
authority. Because of
mine house that is
waste. The
reason already given in v. 4, etc., is
repeated and enforced. And (while) ye
run. Ye are indifferent to the
miserable condition of the house of God, while ye haste with all
diligence
to your own houses for business or pleasure, being entirely
absorbed in
worldly interests,
or eager only to adorn and beautify your own habitations.
Or, your zeal is all expended on your own private dwellings.
10 “Therefore
the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is
stayed from her fruit.” Over you. This would be a reference to Deuteronomy
28:23. But the preposition is probably not local, but means
rather, “on your
account,” i.e. on account of your sin, as Psalm
44:22. This is not
tautological after the preceding “therefore,” but more
closely defines and
explains the illative. Is stayed from dew; hath stayed itself from dew;
withholds not only rain, but even dew (compare Zechariah 8:12).
On the
importance of dew in the climate of
The dews generally are remarkably heavy, and in the summer
months take
the place of rain. Dr. Thomson speaks of the dew rolling in
the morning off
his tent like rain (‘Land and the Book,’ p. 491). The earth is stayed from
her fruit; hath stayed her
fruit; according to the threat
(Deuteronomy 11:17).
11 “And I
called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine,
and upon the oil, and
upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and
upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the
hands.” I called for a
drought.
So Elisha says (II Kings
8:1) that “the Lord hath called for a
famine.” There is a
play of words in the Hebrew: as they had let the Lord’s house
lie “waste” (church)
(vs. 4,9), so the Lord punished them with “drought” (choreb). The Septuagint and
Syriac, pointing differently, translate this last word “sword,”
but this is not
suitable for the context, which speaks of the sterility of the land only. The
land, in contradistinction
to the mountains, is the plain
country. Nothing
anywhere was spared.
All the labor of the hands (Psalm
128:1-6).
All that they had effected by long and wearisome toil in
the cornfield,
the
vineyard, etc. (compare Hosea 2:9; Joel 1:10).
Hard Times. (vs. 6-11)
famine and idleness, lack of bread and want of employment, nothing
to eat,
and nothing to do. The two commonly go together. Examples of famines
were in ancient times those which occurred in
in
in
taken place in
labored, and, perhaps through long continued drought, has obtained
an
altogether insufficient return for his labors. When through deficient
harvests the people of a country are reduced to a state of
semi-starvation.
When through this failure in the
sources of wealth the wheels of a nation’s
industry are stopped. When strong men who would willingly work can
find
no work to do. When wages already scanty
are eaten up by exorbitant prices.
Ø
Are of God’s
sending. To say that bad harvests and dull trade are the
results of natural (physical and social) laws does not show them to be
disconnected with God. The Almighty is behind both nature and society,
Jehovah claimed that the state
of matters in
doing.
Ø
Have their occasions, if not their causes, in sin. Haggai’s countrymen
had been made to suffer because of their:
o
indifference to
religion and
o
devotion to self-interest
(v. 9).
Were modern nations to reflect
more deeply, they might discover
connections between their characters and their conditions, their sins
and their sufferings.
Ø
To arrest attention. Inconsiderateness a principal sin of men and nations.
Ø
To convince of sin. A remarkable proof of depravity that moral
perceptions require to be
awakened by physical corrections.
Ø
To excite repentance. Though confessions under the lash are not the
same thing as penitence, yet they may and should be, and often
are,
accompanied by penitence.
Ø
To promote amendment. Though punishment is
not exclusively
reformatory in its character, yet it is mostly (on earth at least) inflicted
with design to benefit the sufferer.
1. Religion in
individuals and nations the best
defense against hard times.
2. Repentance and
prayer the best resort in bad times.
The Stirring Appeal. (vs. 3-11)
It must not be supposed that, for purposes of revelation,
there was any
suspension of the powers of the men who were honored of God in being
the
medium of communicating a knowledge of His will; rather there was the
retention of their own individual peculiarities and natural gifts,
the Divine
Spirit operating through these, and turning them to the
most profitable
account. One beauty of the Bible lies in the fact that, whilst
upon the
writings of each of its contributors there
is unmistakably the impress of the
operation of the Spirit of God, there is likewise throughout the whole clear
indications of the preservation of those natural endowments which the
respective writers possessed, and hence the remarkable variety in
style and
form of presentation meeting us in the Holy Word, and which constitutes
one
great charm of the volume. (II Peter 1:19-21)
Viewing this particular book
of
Scripture from this human standpoint, biblical writers have described it as
being inferior in respect of literary merit as compared with
other prophetical
writings; and it must be granted that we find lacking here “the
poetical
swing” and “the finished beauty” characteristic of “the earlier
prophetical
diction.” The circumstances, however, under which he gave
utterance to
his
message will account for this. It did not devolve upon him to any
extent, as it had done upon his predecessors, to make prophetic
announcements concerning the future age; his simple mission was to
stimulate and stir a lethargic people to renewed action, to reprove
them for
their neglect of solemn duty, and to impel them to fulfill their
trust. And
whatever there may be lacking here of poetic genius, the picture
presented
to
us of this noble-hearted man standing “in grey-haired might” amidst the
ruins of
Jehovah was the great essential in order to the happiness
of his people,
urging them to knowledge Him in all their ways, and without
further delay
to
rear His sanctuary, is one truly beautiful, and which we could have ill
spared from these holy records. Consider his stirring appeal.
7); i.e. “Set your heart
upon your ways” — your conduct, actions, designs,
purposes. Thoughtlessness
is the source of so much evil. (I
recommend
Isaiah 1 – Spurgeon Sermon – To the
Thoughtless – this website – CY –
2015) Men do not always intend
to do wrong or to fail in respect of duty,
but they do not “give heed.” They allow their minds to
wander into other
courses, and to be preoccupied with other matters. (Jesus said, “he that
gathereth not with
me scattereth.”
- Matthew 12:30)
“Evil is
wrought by want of thought,
As well as
want of heart.”
It is in view of men’s highest
interests, then, that God by His providential
dealings, or the ministry of His servants, or the inward voice of
conscience,
says to them at times, “Consider your ways.” We should
consider:
Ø
Whether our ways are
true and right.
Ø
How they stand
affected to the claims which God has upon us.
Ø
The motives by which
we are being influenced.
Ø
The results to which
our actions are tending, whether the sowing
is such as will yield a harvest of good.
The momentous importance of the
admonition is seen in its repetition here.
Man is wondrously free. He can
choose good or evil. This freedom
increases his responsibility, and the sense of this should lead to
frequent
self-examination. “Let each man prove his own work”
(Galatians 6:4).
ARRESTED ATTENTION. Their great excuse for the unwarrantable
delay which had taken place in the work of the temple was the
hardness of
the times; and in his stimulating address Haggai kept this
excuse before his
mind, and completely exposed to them its hollowness and swept
it away by
setting before them two important facts.
Ø
He brought home to
them a sense
of their own inconsistency. Hard
though the times were, the fact remained that in these hard times
they had
built for themselves durable dwellings, and had enriched these
with costly
adornments; and surely if they could do all this for themselves, they
might
have done something by way of proceeding with the erection of
the house
of the Lord (v. 4). Clearly they had lacked not so much the
ability as the
disposition to do their duty.
Ø
Admitting the severity
of the times, Haggai pointed out that the way in
which to have improved these would have been by their
discharging more
faithfully their duty to their God. In vivid language he described
the
depressed state of things then prevailing (v. 6), but his contention
was
that God had visited them with such adverse experiences in
retribution.
They had forgotten His claims,
and had selfishly cared only for their own
interests; and He, knowing their hearts and observing their ways,
had
withheld from them the dews of heaven, and had caused drought to
prevail, that by failure and loss they might be led to reflection
and to a
truer and more devoted life (vs. 9-11). When the times are hard
— trade
slack and commercial depression prevailing — men too often begin
retrenchment by withholding from
God His due, and long before they
sacrifice a single luxury of life will they plead inability to sustain
His
cause. Wiser far would it be for them to give full recognition to Him
and to His claims, and, whilst thus honoring Him, to look to Him for
His blessing and the
renewal of the temporal blessings of His
providence.
UPON WHICH HE SO STRONGLY INSISTED. “Go up to the
mountain,” etc. (v. 8).
This stirring appeal of the prophet was made on
“the sixth month, in the first day of the month” (v. 1), i.e. the new
moon’s day. That day was a special day amongst the people. A
festal
sacrifice was offered (Numbers 28:11-15), and a solemn assembly of
the people at the sanctuary took place (Isaiah 1:13; II Kings
4:23).
On this occasion, therefore, we
may suppose the people as gathered
together on the site of the temple, the bare foundations of which
silently
testified against their inertness, and the prophet appearing amongst
them,
addressing words of stern reproof to them, and then bidding them
without
longer delay go to the mountains and fetch the cedars, and build
forthwith
the house for God. Such he declared to be the will of God,
obedience to
which, on their part, would yield pleasure to the Most High, and
bring
glory to His Name, and would result in the promotion of their
own
temporal and spiritual well being (v. 8).
Duty Divinely Vindicated
(vs. 5-11)
“Now therefore thus saith the
Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown
much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye
drink, but ye are not
filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he
that earneth wages
earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” Their
efforts to improve their
secular condition were all unsuccessful! The ground brought forth little. Why was
this? Not because they did not work;
not because either the soil or the seed was
bad. The reason was a
moral one – they neglected the great duty that Heaven
had enjoined upon them, the rebuilding of the temple. They neglected this, and
the curse of Heaven rested as a mildew upon all their operations. Had they right
discharged this duty, prosperity would have attended to all
their efforts. Real
success in any labor, so as to obtain happiness, depends upon THE
SPIRITUAL
STATE OF THE SOUL! This is a point which has, perhaps seldom occupied
your attention; nevertheless, it is a point of overwhelming moment. It is common
for men to refer success to industry, ingenuity, fortune, luck, or some such cause;
the real cause of success or failure is to be referred to the moral state of the soul!
They were selfish motives that brought secular disasters to
the Jews now.
The verses teach us that duty is vindicated by the Divine
government. We
offer two remarks here.
MOTIVES THAT ACTUATE MEN. Men are governed in everything by
motive. Motive is the mainspring that keeps the world in action;
motive is
the fountain from which all the streams of life proceed;
motive is the germ
from which springs every branch and leaf of the great tree of
character. We
judge each other from appearance; God, from motives. God sees
theft,
blasphemy, and all other crimes where they have never been expressed
in
words or acts. This DIVINE
INSPECTION of motives argues three
things.
Ø
The necessity of moral reformation in the world. If all pertaining to
human life springs from motive, and the motives of the world are
depraved, then the grand necessity
of the world is REFORMATION!
Knowledge, civilization,
refinement, social older, mercantile prosperity,
wholesome legislation, — these will be of no real service where the
motives are bad. Hence the Great
Reformer has said, “Ye
must be
born again.” (John 3:7)
To accomplish this REFORMATION
is the great aim of THE
GOSPEL! It is the fire to burn up false
motives, it is the axe to strike the upas
(poisonous tree) at the roots.
Ø The
necessity for attending more to the spiritual than the formal in the
Church.
It is not conformity to standards of
faith, however scriptural,
attention to rituals, however aesthetic and impressive, the
repetition of
prayers, however beautiful in language, devout in sentiment, and
correct in
doctrine; it is not, in fact, in any externalism that religion
consists or that
God delights; it is in holy motive.
“Neither
circumcision.., nor
uncircumcision,” etc. (Galatians
5:6). In all true worship man is at once
the temple, the sacrifice, and the priest. When will the time
come that men
shall regard the Church, not as a piece of timber carved into
certain forms
by the hand of art, remaining the same from age to age, but as a living tree,
working itself by the power of its own life into living forms
with every
season that passes, over it?
Ø
The possibility of solemn disclosures on the last day. Here men conceal
their real hearts from each other. We only know each other after
the flesh.
Sometimes here
thought friends, and we recoil from their hideousness with horror.
At the
LAST DAY ALL WILL BE
UNCOVERED! “The hidden
things of
darkness will be brought to light” (I Corinthians 4:5). What a revelation
on that day! Jesus
said, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be
revealed, neither
hid, that shall not be known.” (Luke 12:2)
MOTIVES OF ACTION. “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little.”
The passage shows two ways in
which God opposes the labor of selfish
men.
Ø
He neutralizes the results of their labor. “I will blow upon
it.” The
man may realize the means which he thought would make him
happy;
God will hinder it from doing
so. One selfish man may get wealth in
abundance; another may acquire vast treasures of knowledge; another,
immense power in society; yet in all cases there may be
unhappiness,
because God “blows” upon the whole. In fact, nothing can make a
selfish man
happy.
Ø
He renders ineffective the materials of their labur. Labor always
employs three things — agent, instrument, and materials.
The materials of
labor are here specified —
“light,” “air,” “water,” “earth.” On these men
operate. Out of these we weave our clothing, of them we construct
our
dwellings. God acts upon these and renders them all ineffective for
happiness. “Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from
dew, and the
earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon
the land.”
(v. 11)
o
God directs the universe; not
necessity, not chance.
o God directs the universe for mind.
o God directs the universe so as to meet the state of every heart.
“To the pure all things are pure.” (Titus 1:15)
§ 3. The
appeal meets with respect and attention, and for a time the people apply
themselves diligently to the
work. (vs. 12-15)
12 “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel,
and Joshua the son of
Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of
the people,
obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and
the words of Haggai
the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent
him, and the people
did fear before the LORD.” All the remnant of the people (ch. 2:2); i.e. the
people who had returned from the Captivity, who are
technically named
“the remnant” is being only a small portion of all
Zechariah 8:6; Micah 2:12). Others, not so suitably,
understand
by the expression, all the people beside the chiefs (v.
14). Obeyed;
rather, listened unto. The active obedience is
narrated in v. 14. And the
words. The prophet’s words
are the voice of the Lord; and
the people
heeded the message which the Lord had commissioned him to
give. Did
fear. They should that true religion which the Bible calls “the fear of the
Lord.” They saw
their faults, perhaps dreaded some new chastisement, and
hastened to obey the prophet’s injunction (Ezra 5:1-2).
13 “Then spake Haggai the LORD’s messenger
in the LORD’s
message unto the people, saying, I am with
you, saith the LORD.”
Then spake Haggai. God hastens to accept their repentance
and to assure them of His protection. The Lord’s
messenger. Haggai alone
of the prophets uses this title of himself, implying that
he came with
authority and bearing a message from the Lord (compare
Numbers 20:16,
where the word “angel”
is by some applied to Moses). Malachi’s very
name expresses that he was the Lord’s messenger, and he
uses the term of
the priest (Malachi 2:7), and of John the Baptist, and of
Messiah
Himself (Malachi 3:1). In the Lord’s message (I
Kings 13:18). In
the special message of consolation which he was
commissioned to deliver.
The Septuagint rendering, ἐν ἀγγέλοις
Κυρίου – en anggelois
Kuriou -
among the angels of the Lord, led some to fancy that Haggai
was an angel
in human form, which opinion is refuted by Jerome, in
loc. I am with you
(ch. 2:4). A brief message
comprised in two words, “I with you,”
yet full of
comfort, promising God’s presence, protection, aid, and
blessing (compare
Genesis 28:15; 39:2; Joshua 1:5; Jeremiah 1:8; Matthew 28:20).
14 “And
the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son
of
Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
Joshua the son of
Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all
the remnant of the
people; and they came and did work in the
house of the LORD of
hosts, their God,” The Lord stirred up, etc. The Lord excited the courage,
animated the zeal, of the chiefs of the nation, who had
themselves
succumbed to the prevailing indifference, and had suffered
their ardor to
be quenched (compare I Chronicles 5:26; II Chronicles 21:16;
Ezra 1:1,5).
They came and did
work. They
went up to the temple and began
to do the work which they had so long neglected.
15 “In the
four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of
Darius the king.” The first admonition had
been made on the first day of this
month; the three
intervening weeks had doubtless been spent in
planning and
preparing materials, and obtaining workmen from the neighboring
villages. The
note of time is introduced to
show how prompt was their obedience, and
the
exact time when “they came and did work in the house of the
Lord” (v.14).
Some, on insufficient grounds, consider this clause to be
an interpolation from
ch.
2:10, 18, with a change of “ninth” to “sixth month.” In the Latin Vulgate,
in Tischendorf’s Septuagint, and
in many editions of the Hebrew Bible, the
whole of this verse is wrongly annexed to the following
chapter.
arranges it as in the Authorized Version. It is possible
that, as
the words, in the
second year of Darius the king, ought to begin ch. 2.
The king’s reign has been already noted in v. 1, and it seems natural to affix
the
date at the commencement of the
second address.
Ancient
Temple Builders. (vs. 12-15)
“Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and all
the remnant of
the people.” There
was not an idler amongst them. Every person was
engaged at something in connection with the building, The
spectacle was:
Ø
The reproduction of an old scene, when in the
wilderness of Sinai,
orders having been issued for the construction of a tabernacle, “as
many
as were willing hearted came, both men and women,” and
contributed
their aid to the work (Exodus 35:20-29).
Ø
The foreshadowing
of a later scene, when the infant Church
of the New
Testament was assembled in the
upper room, and “there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, which filled all the
house
where they were sitting,”
and “they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and all began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance
(Acts 2:1-4).
Ø
The picture of a (possibly) present scene. What is wanted is
the carrying
over of this scene of universal activity into the Christian
Church, and the
spectacle of every professing disciple of Jesus Christ contributing
his
quota of work to the building of that spiritual edifice which is
today
being erected on the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Jesus Christ
Himself being the
chief Cornerstone, for the inhabitation of God through
the Spirit! (Ephesians 2:20-22). “The kingdom of heaven is as a man
taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his
servants, and to every man his work” (Mark 13:34).
be coerced or in any way dragged forth against his will. Nobody skulked or
came forward with a grudge, but each was readier than his
neighbor. So
was it in the erection of the tabernacle; so should it be in
the building of the
Christian Church. Yet how to
realize this ideal in the latter case is one of
the problems o(the day.
Ø The backwardness of Christians to engage in
specifically Christian
work is a too evident fact. It may arise with some
from constitutional
timidity, with others from undue depreciation of their own ability,
with a
few from inability to discern a sphere suitable to their
supposed gifts, but
with most (it is to be feared) from
a depressed condition of religion in
the soul. The cure for the first may be found in the grace of God
(II Corinthians 12:9); for the second, in a high conception of
God’s
ability -- “I can
do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me!”
(Philippians 4:13); for the third,
in doing the first thing that comes to
hand (Ecclesiastes 9:10); and for the fourth, in a quickening of the soul
by the Holy Ghost
(Psalm 80:18).
Ø The
forwardness of Christians to engage in Christian work might be
expected on many grounds. Gratitude to
God, if nothing else, should
constrain them (Psalm 116:12). Love to Christ might impel them
(II Corinthians 5:14-15). The
nobility of the work might attract them; it
would be walking in the footsteps of Christ (Acts. 10:38). The splendor
of the reward might induce them (Daniel 12:3; Matthew 25:40;
I Corinthians 15:58; Revelation
2:10; 14:13). The clamant need
there is for such work might move them (I John 5:19). The good
it
would do might urge them (Titus 3:8).
“putting
in the time,” as the workmen’s phrase is; or simply dragging on
with heartless indifference; or hurrying up the job with
utmost, speed and
in careless fashion, anxious to get it done, no matter how;
but toiling
honestly and earnestly,
with a business like energy and determination,
doing good work, and doing it with a will. (“as unto
God and not unto
men” - Ephesians 6:7; Colossians 3:23)
Such had been the manner in
which the tabernacle makers worked; such should be the style of
working
in the Christian Church.
Ø
The Founder of the Christian Church was an enthusiastic
Worker. From
the commencement of His ministry to its close (Luke 9:51;
12:50), Jesus
was consumed with a
burning devotion to His work of glorifying God
and blessing men. (John 2:17)
Ø The apostles
and early preachers of the Christian Church were
enthusiastic workers. The eleven (Mark
16:20); the twelve (Acts 5:42);
Paul (Philippians 3:13-14); Apollos (Acts 18:25); Epaphroditus
(Philippians 2:27).
Ø The Christian Church has in almost every age possessed
workers of at
like spirit. Ministers, like Augustine, Athanasius,
Chrysostom, Cyril,
Calvin, Knox, Latimer, Baxter,
Wesley, Chalmers; missionaries, like St.
Augustine, St. Columba, St. Aidan, St. Mungo,
Brainerd, Martyn, Carey,
Williams, Moffat, Livingstone,
C.H Spurgeon, Dwight Moody,
Billy Sunday; private
Christians, like the late Earl of Shaftesbury and
others. (In our day Billy
Graham, Charles Stanley and many others –
CY – 2015)
first occasion by the angry speeches and malicious threats of
their enemies,
on this occasion the temple builders met their adversaries
with a bold front
(Ezra 5:11), and rested not
until they brought the work to completion
(Zechariah
4:7, 9). Perseverance:
Ø
A characteristic of all sincere Christian workers. Exemplified in the
history of Jesus, of Peter and John, of Paul, and of others who
have
followed in their steps.
Ø
A necessary condition of all true success in Christian working.
The
greater the work, the more does it demand patient perseverance.
Enterprises that can be carried
through with a rush and an effort are
seldom of moment.
Ø
A certain guarantee of ultimate success. The man who
perseveres wins
— in
ordinary life commonly, in religious life certainly.
saith the Lord” (v. 13;
compare Matthew 28:20).
1. For aid, to help you with needed strength in your labors (Psalm
127:1;
Isaiah 41:10; Zechariah 12:1-10 – note the “I wills…..”).
2. For protection, to defend you
against the machinations of your
adversaries (Ezra
5:5; Psalm 91:1-7;
Proverbs 2:7;
Zechariah 2:5; I Peter 3:13; Revelation 3:10).
3. For approbation, to accept your service when it is
finished (ch. 2:9).
The Hearty Response (vs. 12-15)
The human spirit is so backward in respect to the
performance of the duties
and the fulfillment of the obligations it is under in
relation to the higher life,
that it requires stimulus, and acts of renewed dedication to
the service of
God cannot fail to be spiritually helpful. There are moments in life when we
become specially impressed as God’s servants with a sense of His
claims to
our
most devoted service, and when holy emotions rise within us, moving
us
to a more unreserved consecration of ourselves to His service. And we
do
well to make these impressions permanent by placing upon them the
stamp of holy resolution. It is wonderful how
soon, if we do not take this
course, these impressions and emotions vanish. We should therefore foster
all
holy impulses, and take advantage at once of all emotions and
aspirations which would constrain us to render to the Lord our God a
truer
service than we have rendered in the past. Such impressions are
buds we
should not nip, sparks of heavenly fire we should not extinguish,
the
breathings of God’s own Spirit, from the influence of which it is at our
peril that we
remove ourselves. The interest in these closing verses (12-15)
lies in that they present to us a bright example of this wise course being
pursued. The earnest address of the aged seer touched the hearts
of his
hearers; they became painfully conscious of past omission and shortcoming
and
neglect of duty, and were led to consecrate themselves anew to the
service of Him who had brought them up out of captivity and to
their own
land.
Ø
It was the
spirit of obedience. “They
obeyed the voice of the Lord their
God,
and the words of Haggai the prophet”
(v. 12).
Ø
It was the
spirit of reverential fear. “And
the people did fear before the
Lord” (v. 12). Whom God would
make strong for His service He first
subdues to His fear.
Ø
This obedient and devout
spirit was cherished by all. Zerubbabel the
governor, Joshua the high priest, and all the remnant of the people
alike
made this full surrender of themselves to the service of their
God (v. 14).
Ø
The Divine favour was experienced. Haggai was again
commissioned to
speak to them in the name of the Lord, and to say to them for
God, as His
messenger, “I am
with you, saith the Lord” (v. 13). The
abiding sense of
God’s presence with them had
made the heroes of their nation the men
they were. Moses could face the whole Israelitish
tribes when they were
murmuring against him and against Aaron; David could confront the
mail-clad Goliath; Daniel could be steadfast in the performance of
his
religions duties despite the lions; Ezekiel could utter burning
denunciations against ungodly nations; — because they realized in their
inmost hearts the consciousness of the presence and power of God.
And now this same presence was
pledged to them, and in the Divine might
they would be able to overcome every obstacle. The promptness
with
which this assurance was given is instructive. God is waiting to be
gracious, and will
meet the returning wanderer even before his hand
has begun the work
of service.
Ø
The spiritual life was quickened. “The Lord stirred up the spirit of
Zerubbabel,” etc.
(v 14). He gave new life to them all,
so that they were
ready with zeal and enthusiasm with holy courage to do His
bidding.
Ø
The good work was advanced. “And they came and did work in the
house of the Lord of hosts, their God” (v. 14)
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