Context
- Written 520 BCE, contemporary with Zechariah, after the exile in 587 BCE, roughly 80 years before Nehemiah
- Written during the same time as Ezra (Ez 5:1)
Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.
- Commanded the rebuilding of the temple
Overview
- 1st day of the 6th month — you are rebuilding your homes but are neglecting the house of God
- Notice how you haven’t received much of a harvest, the two are linked!
- 24th day of the sixth month —The people listen and fear the LORD and begin work on the temple
- 21st day of the 7th month (during Feast of Tabernacles) — remember what it used to look like! I am with you (v5 - According to the covenant that I made with you when I came out of Egypt[, m]y spirit remains in your midst)
- A time is coming that I’ll shake the heavens and treasures will flow in: the silver and gold are mine and the new temple will be greater than the former (v6-9)
- 24th day of 9th month — questions
- If someone carries holy meat in their shirt and it touches other food, does that food become holy? No.
- If someone touches a dead body, then touches that same food, does it become unclean? Yes.
- So, too, is it with people, everything they offer is unclean
- The foundation is laid and God begins to bless again (2:18-19)
- Same day, I am about to shake the heavens and earth (recall 1:6-9)
The Point
- This is mostly a historical book but there are some things we can glean from it
- Firstly, we see that God expects that we treat Him with as much respect as we’d treat ourselves (Mal 1:8 — try to present a blemished animal to a king, see how he responds; why do that to God?)
- Next, God works in mysterious, subtle ways
- He calls His people’s attention to the fact that things didn’t seem to be going well and tied that back to their disobedience
- As soon as a step was taken toward obedience, the blessings and promises returned
- In our own lives, we should seek God’s will above all else (not works based but purpose driven)
Rev 22:12 — Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
- Also, we see that God plans to make the world serve His plan
- This is not to bolster our egos but to supply us with what we need to glorify God
- We should trust that God will bend the world around us to ensure we can remain faithful
- The point about holy and unclean turns the onus to us: if we are living a life of sin, anything we produce, even if holy, will be tainted
- God promises at the end that He will dwell again with His people, in a temple nicer than the previous, and that He’d appoint leadership over the people
- God does not ask us to do anything that He doesn’t already have lined up
Important
Question: How do you apply this to your life?To me, the main thing is keeping focus on faithfulness.I think this book is very relatable in that sense: the people were just coming back to their land after 70 years in captivity. While they were gone, beasts took over and the land became wild again (Eze 14:21-23). They were focused on building a life but should have placed God first in all things.How easy is it for us to do the same thing! “Let me just get this week over with, so I can provide for myself, THEN I’ll spend time with God” or “Once I make it through this thing, THEN I’ll be able to truly focus on serving”God doesn’t call us to think of Him eventually, He asks that we exalt his name always. When we don’t God doesn’t always strike us down with lightening; rather, he may withhold blessings until we notice and come crawling back. He’d rather we just walk with him to start with. Again, this isn’t works-based salvation but, rather, our calling to be transformed.