The First Word from the Lord
A warning
In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’”
3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” 5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have 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.”
The Bible is a historical book. It gives dates in time. God appeared to the world “when the time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4). It is not legend from the hoary past that we find recorded in the book of Haggai. In a remarkable way, God has pinned down the occurrences of the Bible with secular history. The beginning of the book demonstrates this. The Lord took great care through the pen of the prophet Haggai clearly and painstakingly to jot down the date for each of the four “words” of the Lord that the book includes. The book begins, “In the second year of King Darius [also named Cyrus], on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai.”
Some critics raise their eyebrows here. Ezra chapter 4, which speaks of the rebuilding of the temple and lists the men Zerubbabel and Jeshua, who clearly belong to our story, also mentions a letter written to Artaxerxes. This letter stemmed from an accusation made by the enemies of the Jews already at the time of Xerxes. Both Xerxes and Artaxerxes are mentioned. Then verse 24 at the end of the chapter says, “Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” The critics say this can’t be right. The temple was known to have been completed under Darius, who most certainly reigned before both Xerxes and Artaxerxes.
We can explain the problem if we remember that Ezra was writing history. He lived at the time of Artaxerxes. By inspiration he wrote of all the resistance to God’s people, not only the resistance against them when they rebuilt the temple, but also the resistance that leveled against their attempts to restore the wall around Jerusalem. From his viewpoint in history, Ezra knew of all the opposition and by God’s direction included it in his story in chapter 4 even though chronologically it didn’t fit.
The NIV obviously follows this idea when it sets off this section in Ezra chapter 4 as separate from the rest and entitles it, “Later Opposition under Xerxes and Artaxerxes.”
The point of mentioning this “problem” is that as Bible believers we do not have to blush every time people find something historically askew (in their opinion). Just because we lack historical facts to prove something the Bible maintains does not prove that the Bible is wrong. Anyone who would try and state this argues from silence. And arguments from silence have been proven wrong time and time again. Not so long ago, people said that writing was not in practice at the time of Moses and that there were no Hittites. Archaeology has since proven both statements false. People did indeed write at the time of Moses, and there were indeed an ancient people called Hittites.
Haggai was a real historical character. He sat down to write his book at a certain instant in history. The word was spoken first to a people who were living actual lives with unique problems and dangers. As temporal creatures, we sit down on our couches, turn on our lamps, open our Bibles to the book of Haggai, and read. In just this same temporal, natural way, the book was written and spoken to God’s people at the time of Haggai.
Verse 1 says, “The word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel . . . , and to Joshua.” This repeats God’s way of dealing with the people in the Old Testament time. He chose prophets who spoke for him. They came to his people and said over and over again, “This is what the LORD says.”
It was no easier for Zerubbabel and Joshua to believe that God was really talking to them than it is for us today to believe it when our pastors and teachers tell us, “This is what God says.” When Zerubbabel and Joshua looked, they saw Haggai. They maybe knew him as a neighbor. He had peculiarities and traits like any other human being. He put his sandals on one at a time like any other person of his day. And it was this man who said, “This is what the Lord says.” The remarkable thing is that Zerubbabel and Joshua believed that it was true! God was really talking! Verse 12 tells us, “Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him.”
This is the miracle of the sermon preached to God’s people. A minister who is obviously a sinful human being stands before people and proclaims God’s words, and the people believe! The apostle Paul marveled at this miracle too when he saw his people in Thessalonica. “We also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
The people said, “The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.” This states the problem that Haggai faced with his people.
How easy it is to procrastinate with the Lord’s concerns. How impressive the reasons for waiting. There was a strong force of Samaritans who frowned when they heard the word temple. In Ezra 4:2 we read that well-meaning locals came with this offer: “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him.”
But the leaders answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God” (Ezra 4:3). Too bad the Samaritans’ doctrine was off. Too bad the leaders could not close their eyes to a few “minor” differences so that the people could have had help in the monumental task before them. Why not wait? Why senselessly antagonize the Persians? Why get reported to them as being so fanatical about matters of God as to build an impressive temple right out in the open? It would be better to keep the religion undercover. We better wait! After all, we have children to think of. The Persians have the nasty habit of impaling troublemakers on beams (Ezra 6:11).
The reasons for waiting were many. But perhaps the real reason the people waited is found in verse 4; in summary, the Lord is saying, “You aren’t making my house because you are too busy making your own.”
Now the problem has been distilled to a transgression of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). This includes the smiling little god of personal convenience. It also includes the mirror-faced god, who always shows us ourselves when we worship him. The Lord says in a way not affected by time or culture, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
We spoke earlier of the weeping some of the people did when they saw how the temple was progressing. We spoke too of what one commentator surmised to be the reason. One thing is certain. Gone was the spirit of giving for the Lord’s house that is mentioned in Moses’ time: “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done” (Exodus 36:5). Then Moses gave this order: “‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’ And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work” (verses 6,7). Gone was the power to thrive in the face of opposition. Jonathan typified this strength when he spoke to his young armor-bearer: “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows [the Philistines]. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6).
It is always a matter for weeping when God’s people lose their determination and desire to establish his church and build his house. And the prophet must speak to us today. In the era of the greatest personal riches and per capita wealth that the world has ever seen and in a country that has been blessed with more material wealth than perhaps any country in history ever has been, the church goes begging. Building projects limp and stumble. Modest mission proposals languish. Even children learn to know what “budget crunch” means in the church. Can we claim that we have it harder than the exiles returning to Jerusalem? We too may be quick to say, “The time isn’t right.” But the Lord is equally quick in asking, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
Verse 7 contains a phrase that will be repeated a number of times throughout the book: “Give careful thought to your ways.” The Lord wants us to watch how we live. He wants us to evaluate what we do and then reevaluate. He holds us responsible for “our way.”
The references in the Scripture to “the way” are legion. Solomon asserts in Proverbs, “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him” (16:7). In that same chapter he adds, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (verse 25).
There is something else about this way. God’s way for us isn’t the natural way people live. In the matter of correct pathfinding, the Lord has to be the one to give us directions. “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). But as his children, our Father can and does tell us, “You watch your ways.” Before the apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, we read about him, “If he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:2). He knew he wasn’t part of that “Way”. But years later when he spoke to Felix the governor, he had changed: “I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way” (Acts 24:14).
The Hebrew for the phrase “give careful thought to your ways” is literally “put your heart over your ways.” We could also say, “Put your heart in your way.” John offers the same advice in 1 John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” It is easy enough to say that we love Jesus, but does it look like it? One way to tell is to look at the priorities we give his house and his work.
We need the blessing of putting God’s house first!
It may be that God’s people hedge because they cast long glances at their own financial needs and decide to skimp on God’s house. In other words, people don’t give and work for God as they should because they have the idea that by so doing they themselves will lack.
But as the Lord points out in verses 6 and 9 to 11, that idea backfires. The gist of what the Lord is saying in these verses is “The more you work for yourself, the less you will have. The more you work for God, the more you will have.” Just look at what happens to people who panel their own houses and neglect God’s. Harvests fail. Food and drink are in short supply. Clothes don’t warm. Wages simply disappear. The purse has holes in it. Expectations vanish; God blows them away. There is drought and famine. The work of the hands is frustrated and fails.