THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI
W. Carl Ketcherside

“For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time. (Rom. 15:4 Phillips).

This statement of the apostle indicates that the ancient prophets have a message for us in these days. That which they spoke orally to their contemporaries has been written down “to teach us today.” This implied that human nature and human problems do not change. Although presented in varied aspects and in different garb they remain basically the same.

For we are the same our fathers have been;

We see the same sights our fathers have seen;

We drink the same stream, and view the same sun,

And run the same course our fathers have run.

They died, aye! they died, and we things that are now,

Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,

Who make in their dwelling a transient abode,

Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.

It is a consideration of this fact which prompts me to write about Haggai. He was a prophet in an arrested restoration. It was not his task to get the people to return to Palestine. His was the job of getting them to return to work. Those who had enlisted to restore the temple of God had become either discouraged or complacent. Their great original objective was lost. They had begun to concentrate on material gain and luxurious living. Excuses were being made to justify their indifference. They needed to be awakened, aroused and alerted.

1. The Background

In conformity with the dire predictions made by earlier prophets, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, thrice marched against Jerusalem, destined to destruction as a divine recompence for greed and idolatry. In the year B.C. 606 he carried away as captives many of the royal seed; in 598 B.C. he besieged the city, took the king prisoner, despoiled the temple and palace of their treasurers, and transported the princes, craftsmen and artisans to Babylon. “None remained, except the poorest people of the land.” Zedekiah, who was left to rule, foolishly revolted, and the foreign monarch again laid siege to the city. The walls were finally breached, and in B.C. 586, Nebuzaradan, chief of staff among the Chaldean forces, set fire to the city, leaving it a mass of rubble and smoking ruins. “And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.”

The people of Judah were dispersed throughout Chaldea in small colonies. Their national hopes were kept alive by Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, who promised they would be repatriated if they repented and turned to God with undivided hearts. Long before the birth of Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, it had been prophesied by Isaiah, who even named him, that he would be God’s shepherd to fulfill his purpose, “Saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ “ Accordingly, as the seventy years of exile drew near the close, Cyrus overthrew Babylon, and in B.C. 536, “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing.” The effect of this was to free all of the exiles who desired to return for the express purpose of rebuilding the house of the Lord. They were granted the right of taking gold, silver, goods, beasts and costly wares. The king personally restored 5,469 vessels of gold and silver which had been carried from the temple and placed in the idolatrous shrines in Babylon.

About 50,000 captives chose to constitute the remnant to return to the land of Judah. They were under the leadership of Joshua, a priest of the family of Aaron; and of Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David. The latter carried a commission as governor of the land. It is highly probable that two young men, Haggai and Zechariah, were in the company. The first act of the people was to build the altar and offer upon it daily burnt offerings unto God. Inspired by this, they contributed generously to a fund for masons and carpenters, and created a stockpile of food, oil and wine, to use as foreign exchange in order to obtain of the Tyrians and Sidonians, cedar trees from the mountains of Lebanon.

In B.C. 534, they laid the foundation for the new temple, an event which was celebrated with pomp and ceremony. The people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, but the aged men who had seen the original temple wept with a loud voice, “so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the weeping.”

2. The Prophet

It is fourteen years after the temple foundation was laid down when we are introduced to Haggai. We know little about him except that he was God’s messenger to “restore the restoration” and revive the flagging zeal of the people. During the interval that elapsed the work had ceased. The people lost heart because of the hardships they endured. Their fields had to be cleared of stones and briars. Jungle growth had become an almost impenetrable thicket where their houses once stood. Their original substance was becoming exhausted. Worst of all, they were continuously harassed by the semi-barbarous Samaritans who lived to the north of them. To add insult to injury, these foes addressed a letter to Smerdis, a successor to Cyrus, on the Persian throne, insinuating that the purpose of the Jews was to rebuild Jerusalem as to fortress, to be used in fomenting a revolt. The result was that Smerdis, a usurper, issued an interdict against continuance of the work.

The date of the prophetic work of Haggai is not in doubt. Ezra declares that the building of the temple “ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” Haggai tells us it was on the first day of the sixth month of that year that the word of the Lord came to him. That would be in B.C. 520, the second year of Darius Hystaspes. The interdict had not been lifted yet, when Haggai and Zechariah urged the people to resume their effort. Ezra records that Zerubbabel and Joshua “arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God helping them.”

Again the enemies came to Jerusalem and in an insolent manner asked the laborers by whose authority they prosecuted their work. When they cited the original edict of Cyrus, a letter was dispatched to Darius Hystaspes, asking that a search be made of the royal archives to determine if this was factual. In the royal library at Ecbatana, a scroll was found containing the original decree, and Darius declared that not only must the work not be hindered, but the cost of construction was to be paid from the royal revenue derived from tribute payments.

3. The Message

The revelation by Haggai is very brief. It consists of five pronouncements. These cover two small chapters. The time required to deliver them was four months, between the first day of the sixth month and the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in B.C. 620. It should not be forgotten that the exhortation to resume building was given prior to repeal of the interdict of Smerdis. We suggest that the concerned student read carefully the abbreviated statements comprising this small book. Haggai enunciates clearly the principles on which God deals with men and directs their affairs. The careful researchist will arrive at the following conclusions:

1. God demands first place in our thoughts and lives. To relegate him to a secondary position is to cut ourselves off from our own source of blessing. Man is required to develop a proper sense of values.

2. The pleasure and glory of God must take precedence over our own desires and ambitions, otherwise all of our labors will be unfruitful and ineffective.

3. There is nothing to fear so long as the Spirit of God abides among a people. This is not only the greatest incentive to labor but provides unquestionable security and protection.

4. All silver and gold belong to the Lord and we are but stewards dispensing his possessions left in trust with us. To use these upon self and secure personal luxury at the expense of his cause is to prove lax and unworthy.

5. Men are required to take personal stock of their lives in the light of what transpires, and to adjust their behavior accordingly. Haggai repeats the admonition, “Consider how you have fared.”

The word of the Lord came to Haggai at an opportune time. The first day of the sixth month was the feast of the new moon. This was the occasion for a special sacrifice and a feast within the sacred precincts of the temple. The people must have assembled amidst the piles of hewn stones, the heaps of lumber, and the stacked beams.

For almost fourteen years these had borne witness to the unfinished task. They gave mute testimony of the fear and forgetfulness, the fright and failure of the ransomed ones. In such a scene the prophet can no longer contain himself. He begins with the utterance, “The people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” He struck directly at the heart of their condition. “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”

They had the time, talent and treasure to devote to erection of their own dwellings, and these were houses of luxury. God had given them warnings which went unheeded. They planted much seed and harvested but little grain; they ate but their hunger was never assuaged; they drank but were never filled; they clothed themselves but were not warmed; inflationary prices reduced the purchasing power of their incomes until it was as if they earned wages to put them into a bag with holes. These things they credited to bad luck, poor seasons, and the robbery of their marauding neighbors. They were due to learn a lesson. “You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourself with your own house.”

The people were asked to consider how they fared prior to starting the foundation of the temple. They were asked to contrast their meager fare with the abundance which would be theirs when they committed themselves without reserve to restoration of the house and worship of God. It was declared, “From this day on I will bless you.”

Our fathers also began a great work of restoration. Men of honor in the various segments of Protestantism, dissatisfied with the partisan spirit which held them aloof from one another by the creation of “brotherhoods” based upon creedal affirmations and opinions, joined their forces to return from spiritual Babylon, or confusion, to restore the ancient order. It was their goal to destroy sectarianism by the uniting of the Christians in all sects through a restoration of the primitive ekklesia, or fellowship, based upon faith in Jesus as God’s Son and the Messiah.

Now that work has bogged down. For decades, the heirs of this noble movement have been content to build their own houses, or factions, separating and segregating brethren in total disregard of the prayer of Jesus, and with little effort expended upon the task of contructing the house of God. Thorns of hatred and thickets of entangled creedal opinions have grown up to obscure the spiritual site. Some, mistaking the foundation for the house, have concluded that Campbell, Stone and Scott, completely restored Jerusalem, and left nothing for us to do, except to mark off a segment of the ruins and boldly challenge all intruders and interlopers upon our respective domains.

But the task of restoration belongs to each generation. We need to be reminded in the spirit of Haggai, that God can only bless us if we labor at the effort. “Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts.” We should not be deterred by the accusations and attacks of our neighbors, or by the lethargy and indifference of our brethren. Nor should we succumb to the temptation of ease and luxury, to “dwell in wainscoted houses while the house of God lies in ruins.” It is only by the sacrifice of the concerned ones that the house of God will be constructed so that he can have pleasure in it and appear in his glory. We need once more to recapture the spirit of Haggai, prophet of the return―to work!

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W. Carl Ketcherside is editor and publisher of Mission Messenger, 2360 Gardner Dr., St. Louis, 36.