Haggai 1

CHAPTER 1

A Call to Build the House of the Lord (1:1–15)

1 In the second year of King Darius¹ (520 B.C.), Haggai received a word of the Lord to be delivered to the two leaders of the returned Jewish exiles in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest (see Ezra 2:2; 3:2). Though Haggai’s message was given only to the two leaders, it affected the whole community.

2 The Lord first quotes what the people had been saying: “The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built” (see Haggai: Introduction). But the people were simply making an excuse. Yes, they had experienced opposition (Ezra 4:4–5); and yes, they had been experiencing economic difficulty (verse 6). But the reason for their difficulty was that they had been neglecting the Lord; they had put their own houses before His house (see Philippians 2:21). They were like those people in every generation who never think it’s the “right time” to do the Lord’s work; such people are always looking for an excuse to put it off.

3–4 Through Haggai, the Lord responds to the people with irony: “So, it’s the right time to build your own houses–but not mine!” The people apparently didn’t care whether the Lord lived among them or not.

5–6 Then the Lord told the people to look at their situation: they didn’t have enough food, clothes, or money.² They should ask themselves: “Why?” The reason was that they were, in effect, disobeying God, and they were suffering the punishment for their disobedience (see Leviticus 26:19–20).

We too, whenever we experience adversity of any kind, should ask ourselves: “Why?” It may well be that the fault is ours, that we are not putting the Lord first in our lives (see Matthew 6:33). When trouble comes, we need to look for the Lord's hand in it; He may be testing us (see Exodus 15:25–27 and comment).

7–11 Here the Lord clearly explains why the people were suffering:He Himself was the cause. “What you brought home, I blew away . . . I called for a drought” (verses 911). He was punishing them for leaving His house in ruins.

In verse 8, God orders the people to build the house, His temple, so that He can take pleasure in it and be honored. The question arises:Why would the Lord care so much about an earthly temple?

The answer is this: the Lord’s temple represented His earthly dwelling place; it symbolized His rule on earth and also His presence among His people. The Lord “takes pleasure” in dwelling among His people, and He is “honored” when they build a “house” for Him.³

Today believers continue to honor God by building a “house” for Him, but in this case it’s a spiritual house that is being built. We ourselves are God’s temple, God’s dwelling, in which He lives by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16–17; Ephesians 2:22).

12 Haggai’s words persuaded Zerubbabel and Joshua to act, and they in turn persuaded the people to act. But how could one man, Haggai, have such an effect? It was because God had sent him and God had spoken through him. It is not our human words that have power; it is God’s living word that persuades men and women to do His will. Haggai was simply God’s mouthpiece; it was God’s HOLY SPIRIT that carried the words to the people’s hearts. And the people feared the LORD.⁴

13–15 When God saw that the people “feared” Him—that they were ready to submit to Him and obey Him—then He spoke the most wonderful words any human being can ever hear: “I am with you” (verse 13). If God is with us, everything is possible (Mark 9:23; 10:27; Philippians 4:13). If God is not with us, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Thus with God’s help, that community of Jews defied all obstacles and rebuilt God’s temple.

Notice that the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, stirred up the spirits of the people (verse 14); it was He who moved them to begin work on His temple. But the Lord does not force people to do His will. He starts gently. It’s not for His sake that He wants us to do His will but for our sakes. Only when we are in His will can we receive the blessings He wants to give us. If we are slow to respond, He sends us trials. Just as He sent trials to the ISRAELITES throughout their history (Amos 4:6–11), so He sends trials to us today when we lose the way and wander from His will.