Sunday, October 26, 2014

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Haggai 1:1 - 2:9

Haggai’s name means ‘feast’ or ‘festival’ (hajj). His ministry lasted only fifteen months. His two chapters are easy to overlook. But the key to his prophecy is in the back-story. Let me explain. 

It had been two decades since the Israelites returned from Persian Exile. Their focus was on rebuilding their homes and restoring their ruined economy. To make the transition easier, the Persian king restored their Hebrew leaders; Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and Joshua the high priest. Whether these men were political puppets or devoted to Israel, they did begin rebuilding of the Temple. It remained in ruins. And that is the issue to which Haggai prophesied the Word of the Lord:

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

The call to rebuild the Temple echoes that of Egypt. When the Israelites were slaves there the pyramids became a national project that drove the spiritual efforts and economic engine of that country. Egypt’s grand effort united the country in a way no other enterprise could. In bold language, Haggai calls the leaders and people of Israel to a similar cause, and he lays out God’s reasons for this:

“Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little.
You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill.
You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages,
only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

Haggai could easily be describing our modern world. Now, as in Haggai’s time, the influence of spiritual leaders shrinks in the face of those with secular and economic agendas. Like the Israelites of Haggai’s time, we too focus more on our own immediate needs. Our decisions are driven by ‘what’s best for me’ ahead of ‘what’s best for the community’. Large picture thinkers do not dominate our leadership teams, and when they do stand up at podiums in our public meetings, they are politely listened to; then ignored. Our spirit-led leaders are greeted with open hostility and dismissed out of hand. 

In Haggai’s time, selfish, self-centered desires at the expense of re-building the Temple had all but destroyed the moral center of Israel. Haggai stood up in front of his leaders and people, and, like all prophets before him, he risked being ignored as well. Haggai outlined a cause and effect reason why Israel was wasting away morally, physically and economically. Israel was not giving any priority or attention to God. Not that God wanted a temple per se. But he demanded the top priority of the people he had restored to freedom not just once, but twice. 

Amazingly, within a month, Israel responded to Haggai’s call to re-focus. 

‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory?
How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?”

“Be strong … all you people of the land … and work … For I am with you … This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”

Through Haggai, God promises that the new Temple will be filled not only with gold and silver, which God reminds them is his anyway, But also the Temple will be filled with something far better.

“I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come,
and I will fill this house with glory,”

God promises that the glory of the new house of the Lord will be greater than the glory of the old one, that the Israelites weep over and recall with such sad memories. They are called not to look back and weep for what was lost but to look forward to a better future.

“And in this place I will grant peace”

A Temple filled with ‘glory’ could mean a unified nation deserving the name ‘God’s People’. It could be an old reference to the actual ‘presence’ of God in the Holy of Holies. Yet the fact remains; one preacher turned an entire nation around in less than a month. The Temple became the focus of their energy and consequently their fortunes were restored. Do we know of any spiritual leaders like Haggai in our own time who can command this kind of prophetic power? Do we listen?

Peter Mansell Thanksgiving, 2014