Haggai

Richard Belcher focuses on the Book of Haggai and offers an overview of its key messages. He emphasizes the themes of encouragement and urgency for God’s people to prioritize their spiritual commitments and engage in rebuilding the temple, reflecting a broader call for spiritual renewal and faithfulness.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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This audio lecture is brought to you by RTs on iTunes U at the virtual campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. To listen to other lectures and to access additional resources, please visit us at itunes.rts.edu. For additional information on how to take distance education courses for credit towards a fully accredited Master of Arts in Religion degree, please visit our website at virtual.rts.edu. Alright, well, we’re in fairly good shape. Let’s get a start on Haggai, and then next week we’ll have to finish up.

I don’t know if we will finish Haggai today, but give us a chance to do Zechariah and Malachi. Zechariah 9:14 is almost as hard as Daniel, so we’ll talk about that when we get there. All right, the book of Haggai. Find that in your Bibles. We don’t know a lot about Haggai. Many think he’s a senior of Zechariah because he’s always mentioned first. He and Zechariah both prophesy during the same period. To give you a little historical background to the book of Haggai, you remember, you go back to 539.

You have Cyrus’ decree in 538, 539 for the Jewish people to return to their land. Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated Babylon, and his policy was to allow people to return to their homeland and to rebuild temples. And he even says in Ezra 1:2, “Cyrus says that Yahweh, the God of heaven, has charged him to build a house for him in Jerusalem.”

And it’s evident that Cyrus had some help with this decree, and he had other decrees related to other nations, and he would have scribes from those nations help him formulate these decrees in a way that would make sense to the people.

² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord , the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (Ezra 1:2, ESV)

So he uses Yahweh in this decree. Yahweh, the Lord God of heaven, has charged him, Cyrus, to build his house back in Jerusalem. This was his policy. When he would set free a nation, he would allow people who had been taken there in exile.

He would allow them to return to their land and to rebuild their temples and to restore their gods to their place. Part of the motivation for this, there’s a prayer of Cyrus in the Cyrus cylinder: May all the gods whom I’ve placed within their sanctuaries address a daily prayer in my favor. So he’s covering all his bases. All these temples that are rebuilt with all these gods, they’re offering prayers on his behalf every day. And what this did was this ensured loyalty to Cyrus throughout his empire.

The fact that he and he was not like the Babylonians. The Babylonians would come in, destroy temples. The Babylonians would come in and take people away from their land. Cyrus comes along and does the opposite, allows people to go back to their land to build their temples. And he was very well liked throughout his empire. This would strengthen the local powers who would rebuild these temples, and many of them would feel loyalty towards Cyrus because of this policy. And he was considered a father to the people. People really appreciated Cyrus.

Well, he died in battle in 530. His son Cambyses was a tyrant, not like his dad. And Cambyses secretly assassinated his brother, who was popular with the people. He assassinated his brother so he could take over the throne. His major contribution was adding Egypt to the persian empire. That’s basically his contribution as king. He added Egypt to the persian empire. He took his own life in 522, because he heard a report that someone claiming to be his brother took the throne while he was gone out in battle.

I guess to not have to face that situation, he maybe saw the handwriting on the wall and took his own life. An officer in his army, an officer in Cambyses’ army named Darius, Darius I. He is eventually called Darius Hystaspas. Is that name in your notes? Histosis, histos, something like that. See if I have it written down here to make sure we get that right. Histos Pisces. It’s close enough. He was an officer in Cambyses’ army. When Cambyses took his own life, he claimed the throne.

And for the first two years, he had the challenge of bringing the empire under his authority. Because when, you know, whenever a king, whenever you have a transition of power, that’s an opportunity for rebellions to break out in the empire. And he also had the problem of someone claiming to be the brother of Cambysees back. But in two years, by 520, he had consolidated his position as king over Persia.

Now, the Jewish situation, and that basically brings us down to Haggai. But let’s review the situation from the Jewish perspective.

Cyrus’ decree allowed the Jewish people to return to their land. You would think that when the opportunity came, many would jump at the chance to go back to Jerusalem. That wasn’t exactly the case. Many of the Jewish people had taken Jeremiah’s advice in his letter to the exiles to settle down and to become a part of that community. Many of them had become financially secure in Babylon. Many of them were born in Babylon, had not even ever seen Jerusalem. Imagine, in a 70-year period, how many people might be born in Babylon?

So, the first return, only about 50,000 people made the trip, compared with 600,000 that came out of Exodus. 600,000 males that came out of Egypt. So 50,000 made the first trip back. Once they made it back to the land, they did set up the altar of burnt offering, and they laid the foundation of the temple, which was about 536. But no work was done on the temple then for 16 years. So they got back to the land. They did some initial work, but then nothing for 16 years.

Part of the reason for the delay in rebuilding the temple. There are several reasons. There was opposition. They faced opposition from the Samaritans. They faced desolate conditions back in the land. The conditions were not good. They were hard conditions, crop failure. Part of the issue is that they had adjusted to worship in the exile without the temple. I mean, they were 70 years in Babylon without a temple. And so, you know, the temple was important, but all these other things became more important. And as we’ll see in Haggai, they had other priorities.

Building their own homes and things like that. So they did initial rebuilding, but then nothing happened for 16 years. That’s as we’ll see when the ministry of Haggai begins. Now, the leaders of this post-exilic community, after the exile, Zerubbabel is the governor of the community. He is mentioned in Haggai 1:1. He is a member of the royal line. We will see that in the book of Haggai. He is a part of the Davidic line.

Now, what happens to him and what happens to the Davidic line after he is gone? Nothing happens, in essence. I mean, he is of the Davidic line. There’s maybe some hope for someone of the Davidic line to become the leader, the king. But nothing happens, either with Zerubbabel, although he’s governor. But after him, there is no king that arises. And then you have Joshua as the other main leader of this community. He is the high priest. So these are the two main leaders of this post-exilic community that are responsible for the community.

And both of them are mentioned at the beginning of the book of Haggai. Now, Haggai preached four messages, four sermons, four prophecies, depending on how you define prophecy. But he preached four messages in a four-month period in 520. So the year 520, God raises up Haggai. He preaches four sermons. He preaches to the exiles who have returned from Babylon. And he, along with Zechariah, Zechariah 1:8, we’ll see.

Zechariah 9-14 deals with other issues, but Zechariah 1:8 and Haggai both are concerned with rebuilding the temple, and through their ministry, work on the temple begins. And by 516, the temple is built and rededicated. So a lot is accomplished. Four sermons from Haggai.

Alright, we come to the book of Haggai, probably completed before 516, because there’s no indication of the finishing of the temple in the book, no indication of the dedication of the temple.

As you read the book of Haggai, there’s an emphasis on the fact that this is a message from the Lord. There are 38 verses in the book, and 26 times Haggai says, “This is the word of the Lord. I’m speaking on behalf of God.” It’s all over the place. The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet, verse three.

³ Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, (Haggai 1:3, ESV)

So there’s a real emphasis. Thus says the Lord of hosts, verse seven. There’s a real emphasis here that this message is from God, which may be an indication of the encouragement that the people needed or of the possible opposition that he was going to face. All right, the message of the book, two chapters. The blessings of God are withheld from his people when they neglect the worship of God. The blessings of God are withheld from his people when they neglect the worship of God. The basic problem as to why they have not rebuilt the temple is laid out in verse two, Chapter 1:2.

² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord .” (Haggai 1:2, ESV)

The time is not right. The time has not come. We’ll get to it later. Verse four gets to the heart of the matter:

⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? (Haggai 1:4, ESV)

Consider your ways. You fixed up your houses, but my house, God says, is in ruins. Your priorities are messed up. Your first priority should be the worship of God. And in that Old Testament context, the worship of God focused on the temple and the sacrifices and all that would take place at the temple. But they were indifferent to the worship of God. And because of their indifference, God tells them in verse six,

⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:6, ESV)

This is getting back to the whole concept of covenant curse, covenant, judgment, because they have not put the worship of God as their priority, and so they are within the context of the Mosaic covenant. They are experiencing these things because of that. The New Testament counterpart to this would be Matthew 6:33, which says what?

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33, ESV)

You know, where are your priorities? It’s a matter of priorities. In the context of Haggai, it’s the priority of the worship of God, which definitely is related to the kingdom, isn’t it? In the New Testament, it’s “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” So Haggai, with this message, gets the people to work on the temple, and they start this rebuilding process.

So that’s his first message, which gets the people to rebuild the temple. The second message is in chapter two. Now there are basically four messages in Haggai. The second and third messages deal with things related to the temple.

We’re going to talk about the second message. The third message we’re not going to talk much about. It’s really about issues related to cleanliness, which certainly is related to the temple. The fourth message is related to the whole davidic line, so we’re going to focus our attention on the second message related to the temple, and the fourth message related to the davidic line. The second message in chapter two speaks of the promised glory of the new Temple. And after the people had begun to rebuild the temple, discouragement had set in.

So Haggai 2:1-9 has to deal with the discouragement of the people as they are rebuilding the temple. You can imagine the task of clearing the site just so you can rebuild. That would be a daunting task in and of itself. It’s also, Haggai 2 tells us it’s the 7th month. On the 21st day of the month, probably the festivals, all the festivals that would take place in the 7th month had delayed some of the work on the temple.

Plus, in these festivals, you’ve got Jewish people coming to Jerusalem for these feasts, and you’ve got these people in Jerusalem looking at this temple, and they’re becoming even more discouraged. Some of them had seen the old Solomonic temple and the glory of that temple, and they see this temple in nothing like Solomon’s temple, and they are discouraged. Chapter 2:3.

³ ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? (Haggai 2:3, ESV)

And so Haggai has to encourage them in their despondency, and he basically says two things. He says, get back to work. Verse four.

⁴ Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord . Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord . Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, ⁵ according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. (Haggai 2:4-5, ESV)

So part of their motivation to work on this temple is that they are the people of God, and the same spirit that was with God’s people as they came out of Egypt is still with God’s people. This is positive. And when you talk about, we talked earlier about the whole post exilic community, this is a positive thing. There’s a mention of the Spirit. My spirit remains in your midst. The temple has not yet been rebuilt, and it’s the temple that really stands for the presence of God with his people.

But even though that temple has not been rebuilt, God says, my spirit is among you. So that’s the first thing that Haggai says. Keep working. Don’t stop. you’re the people of God. Connections with the pre-exilic community. You have the Spirit of God. Then he says, in verses six through nine, God is the one who will fill this temple with glory.

⁶ For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. ⁷ And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. ⁸ The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. ⁹ The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.'” (Haggai 2:6-9, ESV)

God says, “I will use my sovereignty over nature and the nations to fill this house with glory.” God will supply what is needed. Keep working and trust God to fill this house with glory. Now that brings us to chapter two, verse seven. Before we talk about, well, talking about 2:7 will help us get into the meaning of this. And I think I have it in your notes. I have it in your notes in a little bit more fuller way than just what’s up on the board. But in chapter two, verse seven, there are some problems. In the Hebrew, there’s a plural verb, singular subject.

So our singular noun, is that singular noun the subject of the verb, or is the verb plural within the verb itself? There are issues related to that, but basically, people see two seven as either messianic or non messianic, and messianic in a direct sense or non messianic. In a direct sense, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t relate to Christ, but whether two seven specifically refers to Jesus Christ. And a lot of it revolves around the meaning of what is translated desire, which is this particular word right here in the Hebrew.

And those who understand this in the messianic sense believe that this desire refers to Jesus Christ. The NIV translates it, “the desired of all nations will come”; the New King James, which is not on the overhead but I think it might be in your notes, translates that “they shall come to the desire of all nations.” This translation of this verse sees Haggai 2:7 as a direct prediction or prophecy related to Jesus Christ. He is the desired of all nations who will come.

This is in line with a lot of older commentaries that understand it this way. In fact, we sang a hymn last Sunday, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. The very last phrase of the first verse uses the desire of nations. I can’t think of the phrase; I wish I had brought the Trinity Hymnal. I had it in my office, but I don’t have it. But anyway, it’s in one of the hymns.

I sang that with no problem, although I don’t take the messianic view, the non-messianic view, and when we say non-messianic, we’re saying that two seven relates directly to Christ. I do think this passage is messianic in a broad sense, but the question is whether two seven, the desired of the nations, relates directly to Christ. The other way to take this is this word desire.

This translated desire also means wealthy, and the New American Standard Version translates, “They will come with the wealth of all nations,” or the RSV says, “The treasure wealth of all nations will come.” And I think in context, that fits better, because in context, it’s the wealth of the nations that is being talked about that will adorn this temple to match the former glory of Solomon’s temple. You have that mentioned in verse eight,

⁸ The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. ⁹ The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.'” (Haggai 2:8-9, ESV)

So I would take verse seven, this phrase, wealth, treasures, to be referring to that which the nations are going to bring in. And that’s the way the ESV takes verse seven,

⁷ And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:7, ESV)

Finally, in context, it’s a little bit better to take this word that is debated as referring to treasures or wealth. And in context, it’s the treasures or wealth of the nations that is going to be brought in to glorify this temple. And there are other scriptures. I got support in Haggai 2:8, which I just read, and there are other scriptures in the Old Testament that speak of the nations bringing their wealth into Jerusalem. Now, I think we got time to finish this part.

What is being talked about here, and how are we to understand this? Next week, we’re going to parallel this passage with the other passage at the end of chapter two, where there’s another shaking. And that passage relates to the royal line, and that there’s a shaking that’s going to take place in relationship to the royal line.

²¹ “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. (Haggai 2:21-22, ESV)

The passage we’re looking at now relates to the temple concept, and it says,

⁶ For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. ⁷ And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:6-7, ESV)

Now, how are we to understand this? The shaking of the nations, or, I’m sorry, the shaking of the heavens and the earth, which is talked about here in the first part of chapter two, refers to the divine intervention. Whenever God comes, the cosmos is affected.

We saw that in the first chapter of Nahum. When God comes, all of creation, there’s a shaking that’s taking place here. This shaking relates to filling the temple with glory. And there is an historical component to this whereby in the outworking of history, this temple was filled with glory by the nations. Cyrus’ decree, “God has commanded me to build the house.” Artaxerxes supplied gifts. Herod, being an Idumean, wanting favor with the Jews, poured all kinds of money into this temple. And Mark 13:1, the disciples say to Jesus, “What wonderful stones. What a beautiful house.”

¹ And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” (Mark 13:1, ESV)

What? And those of you who have been in this course all semester know where we’re going. You know how this temple concept is fulfilled in the New Testament, right? John 1:14, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory.” John 2, I think it’s 2, Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” referring to his body.

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19, ESV)

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, ESV)

And this shaking, we’re going to relate next week to the whole royal line, which is fulfilled in Christ. This shaking and the temple concept, and the temple representing God’s dwelling among his people, is also fulfilled in Christ. And the question is, we beheld his glory. Is that glory that the disciples saw in Christ and that we see in Christ greater than the glory of that first Solomonic temple? I think the question is, the answer is yes. That temple in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of the reality of God with his people. What the temple stood for, God’s dwelling among his people, became a reality in Jesus Christ.

And that’s the way it’s developed in the New Testament. And next week, we don’t have time to do it now, we’ll go to Hebrews 12, which also talks about a shaking. You got a lot of shaking going on here in Haggai 2. And then you get to Hebrews 12. And in Hebrews 12, the emphasis is going to be on the kingdom of God, which we can relate to both the temple concept in Jesus’ ministry and the kingship concept picked up from Haggai 2, also fulfilled in Christ.

And so, what brings these together? This shaking is the kingdom of God in Hebrews 12, and connecting the temple concept and the kingship concept with that, because the shaking in Hebrews 12 says everything is shaking. The only thing that remains is the kingdom of God. We just need to finish up Haggai. It won’t take us too long this morning. Yes, sir. I don’t know. Haggai, just what I grew up with. Probably.

There’s no reason, probably if I looked at the Hebrew haggai, wouldn’t be the right way to pronounce it, but Haggai, probably what I grew up with. And it’s just what stuck with me. Well, actually, I appreciate that the sovereignty of the professor. Well, now, wouldn’t follow me on that, but you got enough room there. your papers are due tomorrow, and I’ll try to get your profiles back to you. I don’t have any to give back to you today, but I’ll try to get them back to you this week.

Okay, Haggai, we looked last week at chapter two, where God says, this is 2:7,

⁷ And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:7, ESV)

We talked about whether that was a direct messianic passage or not. But you have the shaking of the nations. And God says, “I’ll shake the nations.” And through the shaking of the nations, wealth will be brought, and this temple will be built and glorified. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former glory.

⁹ The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.'” (Haggai 2:9, ESV)

They were despondent over the comparison of this temple with Solomon’s temple. This temple didn’t look anything like the old Solomonic temple in terms of glory. And Haggai says, just keep working and let God fill the temple. And we saw that at least on one level, there was some historical emphasis where the kings of Persia, and then finally Herod, did beautify this temple. So the disciples could say in Mark 13, look at the beauty of these stones. But it’s interesting. Jesus in, was it Matthew 12:6? I think it is. I have it here somewhere.

Matthew 12:6.

⁶ I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. (Matthew 12:6, ESV)

He represents and is the reality of what the temple in the Old Testament represents. God’s dwelling with his people, and the glory in the word that became flesh is greater than that glory that was displayed in that old temple. And there’s all kinds of connections that you could make related to those topics, but Christ is a fulfillment of that temple concept, and that’s what we saw last week.

There’s another passage in Haggai about shaking, and it comes at the end of the book. It’s chapter two, verses 20 through 23. BJ, would you mind reading those verses for us, and we’ll just make a few brief comments on them. 20 through 23, 20-23, chapter two. Yeah.

²⁰ The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ²¹ “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. ²³ On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord , and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:20-23, ESV)

Here is another shaking that is talked about, and this shaking is related to the Davidic line, as Zerubbabel is the governor of this community, and he is of the Davidic line. And Davidic terminology is used here to describe Zerubbabel. “My servant” was terminology used of David. The Signet ring has connections with royalty, and I’ve chosen you. So here you have a shaking related to the strength of the nations. It reminds you a little bit about Daniel and some of the things he says about kingdoms and nations.

And out of this shaking will come a king, someone from the line of David. And Zerubbabel is sort of a representative of this person. When we get over to Zechariah, it seems that Zerubbabel and Joshua, Joshua is a high priest, Zerubbabel is a governor, are representatives or, in essence, symbolic of leadership that is necessary for the community. And they are literal leaders in that postage-like community, but they do not fulfill the things that are talked about them. Zerubbabel, although he’s governor, he never becomes king. And when he is gone, there’s a vacuum.

And we may talk about that vacuum in the book of Zechariah, but here you have another shaking related to the kingdoms and concepts of the Davidic king and the Davidic line. This shaking concept is picked up in the New Testament, in the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews 12. And Hebrews 12 is an important chapter in a number of ways. But in verses 25 through 27, verse 26, at that time, his voice shook the earth. And the context here may go back to the Mosaic covenant.

²⁵ See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:25-27, ESV)

This phrase, “yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸ Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29, ESV)

There’s going to be a shaking, and the only thing that’s going to remain out of that shaking is the kingdom and those things associated with the kingdom. And so, the kingdom of God is an important concept, also related to Christ. The Book of Hebrews picks up on this, and the kingdom of God is a key concept to Jesus’ ministry. He came preaching the kingdom of God. He came to establish the kingdom of God. And so, these ideas all come together in Christ.

The only other thing I might mention, I don’t think we mentioned this last week in connection with chapter two, verses five through nine, where it talks about the nations bringing their wealth. This concept is also picked up in the Book of Revelation in reference to the New Jerusalem, where the nations are represented as bringing their wealth. So, this idea is also significant in the New Testament as a way of describing the gospel going forth beyond just those confines of the Jewish situation, going out into all the world and all the nations being impacted.

So this is what the post-exilic community needs. The temple is being rebuilt. They need a leader, but these things are ultimately fulfilled with Christ.

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