Hi James and Ellen,
Haggai is the edited notes of four or five pithy, succinct messages. The author of Haggai Book’s two chapters is a prophet by the name of Haggai. The four or five terse, laconic communiqués that Haggai conveyed to the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah were sent to them over a period of three months and twenty-three days between August 29, 520 B.C. and December 18, 520 B.C. Haggai was living the city of Jerusalem when he clearly heard God speaking to him. God told Haggai that He expected to have the temple rebuilt that Solomon saw to the building of for Him in the city of Jerusalem – which was totally destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. A large number of guys, gals and kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem – who survived the prolonged siege that Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army had against the city of Jerusalem, were taken as exiles in 586 B.C. to the country of Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. These guys, gals and kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem who Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army took with them to their country of Babylonia were God’s specially chosen guys and gals. God’s specially chosen guys and gals are today still the Israelite people group guys and gals. A year after Cyrus the Great and his Medes and Persian army did a number in 539 B.C. on the country of Babylonia, Cyrus gave his okay to an Israelite people group leader – whose name was Zerubbabel, to return to the city of Jerusalem with a contingent of God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Something that Zerubbabel – who was appointed by Cyrus to be the governor of the city of Jerusalem, planned to do once he was settled in the city of Jerusalem was to rebuild the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. After Zerubbabel saw to the setting up of an altar on the foundation of what had once been the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem and after he helped with instituting daily worship times, Zeribbabel had his compatriots in the city of Jerusalem lay the foundation for a new temple to worship God in. After the foundation for the new temple was finished, God’s specially chosen guys and gals began to focus more on their lives than on worshipping God. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem were going through by 520 B.C. what God permits the spirits of discouragement and dissatisfaction do when . . . their harvests were light in spite of their having sown plenty of seed, they did not have enough food to eat or enough wine to drink, they did not have enough clothes to keep themselves warm and their pockets were always empty.
It is this backdrop along with the proactive backing of Darius Hystaspes – who was in his second year of being king over the guys and gals who were living in the country of Persia, that Haggai had God mandate him to rebuke and encourage His specially chosen guys and gals to get back to work rebuilding in the city of Jerusalem a temple where He could be worshipped. After Darius insured that guys who opposed the rebuilding of the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem would be marginalized and with the support of Zechariah – who was a fellow prophet, God’s exhortations and affirmations through Haggai to His specially chosen guys and gals began to resonate. The defeated and discouraged attitudes that God’s specially chosen guys and gals had before they heard Haggai clearly articulate the four or five tough love pronouncements that God told him to pass on to them changed to an attitude of victory and to the moving forward to the completing of the rejuvenation of the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem.
The four or five short discourses that God compelled Haggai to relate to His specially chosen guys and gals are as relevant today as they were over 2,500 years ago. God had Haggai tell His specially chosen guys and gals that their excuses for stopping their rebuilding of His temple in the city of Jerusalem were utterly lame and because of this, He was having them go through a period of being deprived and cursed. What God told Haggai to pass on to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem was a wakeup call for them. They responded by obediently getting back to work on reconstructing the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem. After the rebuilding of the temple of God was completed, God’s presence filled the temple which energized God’s chosen guys and gals to worship Him and to claim the peace that He was promising them. To insure that His specially chosen guys and gals internalized what took place when they did what He wanted them to do, God reminds them through Haggai of what will happen when He is defiled through defiant actions – which is sin’s slippery slope’s playground, which is what led them to have poor harvests and to live in perceived poverty and to what will happen when God’s will is honored – such as the rebuilding of His temple in the city of Jerusalem and the blessings that come out of daily living out what is known as to be right to do in His sight. God is adamant through Haggai to His specially chosen guys and gals that they will always have a blessed, bountiful life if . . . and that He was going to do a number on the armies of all of their enemies. The church or God’s temple today is oftentimes – to your grandpaa, made up of guys and gals who are going through gesticulations of trying to live out a societal expectation versus being thankful to be in a vibrant Christ-centered fellowship that regularly meets together to rejoice with each other in God’s presence.
Haggai