Haggai
God is with us?!
Week of Monday, August 19, 2002
Haggai brings us to the first of the three “post-exilic” prophets
who ministered to the remnant of Israel that returned to Jerusalem from
exile in Babylon. Next to Obadiah it is the shortest book in the Old
Testament with just thirty-eight verses. Gone is the prophetic poetry to
which we have become accustomed. Even though it is classified among the
prophets, Haggai reads like straightforward, historical prose. It is
impossible to understand his message without a brief history.
In 586 BC, Babylon vanquished the southern kingdom of Judah and
deported her people. The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel ministered
during this period, and God's message, if unwelcomed, was clear: buy
houses, plant crops, marry and bear children. In short, seek the
prosperity of the foreign power to which I have banished you (Jeremiah
29:7). That sounded lofty, but to the average Hebrew deportation must have
felt like the most catastrophic failure imaginable. God had called
Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 12:3), not far at all from the
land of exile in which Israel then found itself. He formed a people for
His own possession, and eventually a nation flourished under David and
Solomon. But now, some 1500 years later, everything lay in ruins. Seek
the welfare of Babylon?!
History moved on. Babylon fell to Persia and King Cyrus in 539
BC. Details of this period are best recounted in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
and the two other post-exilic prophets, Zechariah and Malachi. In 536
Cyrus permitted the Hebrews to return to their ruined lands to resettle
and rebuild their temple. That work began in the second year of their
return or about 534, but it was disrupted and came to a halt (Ezra 3:8ff.,
4:24).
Why did work on the temple cease? A generation had been born in
Babylon that knew nothing of the splendor of Solomon's day. Many had
grown accustomed to worshiping Yahweh in Babylon with no temple at all.
It is easy to imagine the disillusionment that set in when the returning
Jews experienced the devastation of their former homeland. Difficult
economic times were a given. Fields and buildings languished in
desolation. So the work to rebuild the temple ground to a halt. Cyrus
died in 529, and his eventual successor King Darius Hystaspes reissued the
permit to rebuild. Work began in the second year of Darius, in 520, after
some fourteen years of inactivity.
Enter Haggai the prophet. He delivers four very specific
“prophecies” in just four brief months, each of which bears a specific
date. During this short period Yahweh had several important words of
energizing hope that He spoke to His returned remnant
through Haggai.
Haggai's first message challenged the Hebrews to move beyond their
understandable dejection, self-absorbtion and complacency. There was
little movement or motivation to rebuild the temple, Haggai tells
us. People were consumed with their daily affairs, perhaps too much so.
God even linked their meager subsistence in devastated Jerusalem with
their unwillingness to rebuild the temple. But through Haggai God gave the
call, “Build the house!” (1:8). Sometimes, it seems, God calls us to look
beyond our present circumstances, however grim, and to reach further than
we imagine we might be able to go.
Remarkably, “the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and
the message of the prophet Haggai” (1:12). The civic leader Zerubbabel,
the high priest Joshua, and the beleaguered remnant came together as God
had “stirred up their spirit.” Work began anew on the temple, Haggai
tells us, “on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year
of King Darius” (1:15). At this juncture God had another word for his
people. If his first word was a challenge to move forward, His second
word was a vigorous assurance: “I am with you” (1:13, 2:4). If you had
been living in exile under a foreign power that had just destroyed your
country and people, and then returned to your ruined city, it would have
been be easy to think the exact opposite, that Yahweh was decidedly not
with us. He left us. We are very much alone and adrift. That is why we
were deported. But no, two times Haggai delivers a word of confidence and
encouragement, “I am with you.”
One month later, according to Haggai's dates, he received a third
message for God's remnant. Having started to rebuild the temple in a
devastated, war-torn city, it was inevitable that people would make
comparisons with the original temple in all its former splendor. Surely,
some would have thought, the rebuilt temple is a pale, meager imitation.
In a sense that was true: “does it not seem like nothing?” (2:3). Haggai
repeats his third word three times: “Be strong and work, for my Spirit
remains among you. Do not fear” (2:4–5). With this third word came an
improbable promise, too, that “the glory of this present house will be
greater than the glory of the former house, and in this place I will grant
peace” (2:9). I am reminded by Haggai that outward appearances can
sometimes be an unreliable indicator of what God cares about and what He
considers a success. From an architectural vantage point the rebuilt
temple was “nothing.” But from God's perspective it was exactly what He
intended to bless. It was where His Spirit intended to dwell.
About two months later, Haggai prophesies another word to the
people. Whether out of ignorance, apathy or neglect, there occurred
problems of ritual uncleanness and defilement surrounding temple worship:
“whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled” (2:14). So
what does Yahweh say through Haggai? A word of rebuke and shame,
punishment and anger? No, here is the shocking part. In a phrase he
repeats five times in his little book Haggai tells the people to “give
careful thought” (1:5, 7, 2:15, 18). Then three times he tells them to
note the date, the time, and their circumstances when they laid the
foundation of the new temple. Why? Because “from this day on” (2:15, 18,
19) He has special intentions for this tiny remnant. Despite defilement,
“from this day on I will bless you” (1:19). Even amidst ritual
uncleanness, God said, “I will bless you.” Mark this date and see for
yourself: I will bless you.
When I think of the unique historical circumstances of the Hebrew
remnant, and then listen to the prophet Haggai, I stand amazed and
encouraged. Here is a people living in desolation, fear, poverty,
discouragement, disillusionment and even ritual defilement. And what does
Yahweh say to them?
* Do not fear
* I am with you (2 times)
* I will bless you (2 times)
* Be strong (3 times)
* Work, rebuild
* My Spirit remains among you
* I will grant peace
* The glory of the rebuilt temple will outshine the glory of the
former temple
Haggai reminds us that God meets us where we are. He works in our midst
even when we might not feel like it or even see it. Haggai reminds us
that a major aspect of the prophetic task is what Brueggemann calls
energizing hope. His word to them and to us, then, is precisely this:
“Give careful thought. Despite outward appearances, I am working. Believe
it. See it. Be strong, for my Spirit is with you. I want to bless you.”
The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself
Copyright ©2002 by Dan Clendenin. All Rights Reserved.
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