Haggai: Give careful thought

I was thinking Haggai is the shortest book in the Old Testament, but Obadiah is. Haggai deals with the singular issue of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem in 520 B.C. The Jews had returned after the Exile and laid the foundation for the temple in about 536 B.C. Their "neighbors," the Samaritans, who feared a reconsituted Jewish state, opposed the plans to finish the temple and complained to the Babylonian authorities. The building was halted until Darius gave the go-ahead in about 522.

Let me digress for a moment. I just wrote that paragraph based on reading the introduction to Haggai in my NIV Study Bible. I could have figured it out by combing through Ezra-Nehemiah, but the Study Bible explanation is much more succinct. The moral of the story here is that you can gain a lot by reading through the Bible text. However, you can learn even more if you read it with the assistance of a good study Bible or, if you really have time and commitment, good commentaries. I love my NIV Study Bible.

Back to Haggai. In some ways, Haggai is extremely specific. It comprises prophecies from about a four-month interval and its main purpose is to exhort the Jews to finish the temple. What resonates with Haggai, though, are the timeless points it makes.

For example, it is wrong-headed for people (or congregations or societies) to build our own "houses" while neglecting God's, and then expect blessings. In Haggai, the houses are exactly that: fancy domiciles with paneled walls. Metaphorically, what are our "houses" that we work on while neglecting God's? Building a career, prestige, wealth? Pursuing pleasures or amassing amusements? Constructing buildings, cities, empires? And,  metaphorically, what could be "God's house" that we neglect? A place of worship? A healthy, sustainable environment? A healthy, educated, empowered, free populace?

I don't think God cared that much about the temple; He was concerned about the people's sense of priorities. He still is, and proper priorities should still be a daily concern for each of us. There's a time and a place to build our own "house," but never at the expense of neglecting God's house and His kingdom.

Evidently, the rebuilt temple was so much smaller than the original Solomon's temple that many of the Jews were disappointed. Since this dates to 520 B.C., some of them may have remembered the temple before it was destroyed in 586, some 66 years prior. But God promised to bless  this new temple and fill it with His presence, just as He had the temple and the tabernacle in the olden days.

Haggai 2:6-7 is one of those passages that shows up in Handel's Messiah. The lyricist, Charles Jennes (according to Wikipedia), certainly knew his Bible! That, plus Haggai 2:8-9, are God's promises to "shake the heavens and the earth" before filling the house with glory greater than before and with peace. The phrase "the desired of all nations will come" is customarily seen as a prophecy of Jesus the Messiah.

The passage 2:10-14 has an interesting argument. The subject is clean and unclean according to Jewish law. The point is that it's hard to transmit holiness but it's very easy to defile something. That is, a clean thing doesn't very often make something unclean clean, but an unclean thing instantly defiles something clean. Most of us know how very easy it is to get in trouble, to sin, to slide down a slippery slope. As for becoming "holy"? Going to church doesn't do it; hanging out with good people, even Christians doesn't do it. Doing good works doesn't cut it. The only way to be "holy" is to accept and trust in Christ's free gift of salvation. He paid the penalty to wash away our sins so we can be holy.

The next to last point in Haggai is that God ties blessing to obedience. Before the people got around to working on the temple, they didn't have plentiful crops. God says, "I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me." Once the people devoted themselves to God's priorities, He promised, "From this day on I will bless you."

The final prophecy goes specifically to Zerubbabel, the governor. It's a promise of victory and blessing, and a reversal of a curse on the deposed King Jehoiachin (Jeremiah 22:24). It's kind of neat, because Zerubbabel is recorded as an ancestor of Jesus (Mt. 1:12 and Luke 3:27).

That's about it for Haggai, except for one little literary motif I love. Four times the book repeats the phrase, "Give careful thought." That may be the best advice for reading Haggai. We shouldn't just whip through its 38 verses. Rather, we should give careful thought to what the ancient, specific prophecies mean for all of us believers through the ages.