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Haggai 1

Before you read Haggai: who, when, why

BOOK 37 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · MINOR PROPHETS

The Temple Comeback

AUTHOR: Haggai the prophet, 1:1. Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 name him with Zechariah.
DATE: 520 BC, the second year of King Darius I. Four messages in less than four months, each dated to the day.
WRITTEN TO: Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and the people back from Babylon.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS: Pieces are in two scrolls of the Twelve from Qumran Cave 4, copied before the time of Jesus, and in the Hebrew scroll of the Twelve from Wadi Murabbaat.
KEY VERSE: Haggai 2:9. The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former.

The Oldest Copies of Haggai

The surviving pieces of 4QXII e, a scroll of the Twelve Prophets from Qumran Cave 4, copied about 75 to 50 BC. A few hold Haggai 2:18 to 21, and the rest are Zechariah. An older scroll, 4QXII b, from about 150 to 125 BC, has the first words of Haggai, 1:1, shown in the Zephaniah introduction. See also The Murabbaat Scroll, Joel. Photo Shai Halevi, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Setting

In 538 BC Cyrus let the Jews go home. They built the altar and laid the temple foundation, then the neighbors scared them off, and the work stopped for about 16 years. The temple lay in ruins while people built their own homes. Then, in 520 BC, God sent Haggai.

What Was Going Wrong

Wrong Priorities. Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 1:4.
A Leaky Life. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through, 1:6.
Discouragement. Does it not appear to you like nothing in comparison? 2:3.
Unclean Work. Whatever they offer there is defiled, 2:14.

Where to Find Jesus

Haggai 2:9. The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. Jesus was brought to this temple as a baby and taught in it, Luke 2:27 to 32 and 19:47.
Haggai 2:23. Zerubbabel, God's signet ring, is in Jesus' family line, Matthew 1:12 to 13 and Luke 3:27.
Haggai 2:6. Hebrews 12:26 to 28 quotes the shaking of heaven and earth for the end, and says believers receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

Dated To the Day. Every message has a date, so we know them on our calendar: August 29, September 21, October 17 and December 18, 520 BC.
23 Days. From the first sermon to the first day of work took only 23 days, 1:15.
The King'S Timber. In the same years, King Darius was hauling cedar and gold from all over his empire for his own palace. See Darius's Building Charter.
The Ring Goes Back On. God took the signet ring off Jehoiachin, Jeremiah 22:24, and put it back on his grandson Zerubbabel, 2:23.

How Did It Turn Out?

The people finished the temple in 515 BC, Ezra 6:15, and Darius helped pay for it, Ezra 6:8. Zerubbabel never became king, and he drops out of the story. Herod later made the temple huge, and Jesus walked its courts. The Romans burned it in AD 70.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

The exiles came home and laid the temple foundation, then quit for about 16 years. Meanwhile they built nice houses for themselves. So God asks a simple question: how is that working out for you? Their crops fail and their paychecks leak. They listen, and in 23 days the work starts again.

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionWhy Build a Temple First? · after verse 6 Field Notes · ArchaeologyDarius's Building Charter · after verse 11

A Call to Rebuild the Temple// Ezra 5:1–5

¹In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of Yahweh came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, stating ²that this is what Yahweh of Hosts says:

HAG 1:1[NOTE]THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS. The first day of the sixth month was August 29, 520 BC. Darius I tells his own story on the cliff at Behistun. See Behistun, Ezra.
HAG 1:1[NOTE]ZERUBBABEL. A grandson of King Jehoiachin and the governor of Judah, in Jesus' family line, Matthew 1:12 to 13. See Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, Ezra.

“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come

to rebuild the house of Yahweh.’”

HAG 1:2[NOTE]NOT YET. The work had stopped since about 536 BC, Ezra 4:24. The people quoted here sound busy and sensible. See Why Build a Temple First?

³Then the word of Yahweh came through Haggai the prophet, saying:

⁴“Is it a time for you yourselves

to live in your paneled houses,

while this house lies in ruins?”

HAG 1:4[NOTE]PANELED HOUSES. Wood paneling was a luxury. The same Hebrew word is used for the roofing of Solomon's temple and palace, 1 Kings 6:9 and 7:3.

⁵Now this is what Yahweh of Hosts says:

“Set your heart on your ways.

HAG 1:5[NOTABLE]Hard work, empty wallet. When God's house came last, nothing the people did was ever enough. Haggai says stop and think about where your life is going.
HAG 1:5[NOTE]SET YOUR HEART. The Hebrew says set your heart on your ways. Haggai says it five times. Stop and think about where your life is going.

⁶You have planted much

but harvested little.

You eat but never have enough.

You drink but never have your fill.

You put on clothes but never get warm.

You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

HAG 1:6[NOTE]A BAG WITH HOLES. Hard work, empty wallet. Five pictures of trying and never getting ahead.

The Big Question

Why Build a Temple First?

The Problem

Haggai 1:2 to 11

THE EXCUSE: The time has not yet come, 1:2. The people were poor, the neighbors were hostile, and the harvests were bad. Waiting sounded wise.
GOD'S ANSWER: Look at your own paneled houses, 1:4. The harvests were bad because God's house was in ruins, 1:9 to 11. They had it backwards.

Why Build a Temple First? · What It Teaches

Matthew 6:33 · 1 Corinthians 3:16 · 1 Corinthians 6:19 · Ezra 4:24

WHY A BUILDING MATTERED: The temple was the place where God promised to live among His people. The altar was already in use, Ezra 3:3 to 6, but God's own house lay in ruins. That said God could wait.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: Jesus said seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, Matthew 6:33. Haggai is the Old Testament version.
NOT A BLESSING FOR CASH: Haggai does not promise riches for giving. He says putting God last was why nothing worked. The blessing came when they obeyed, 2:19.
GOD'S HOUSE TODAY: The New Testament says believers are now God's temple, 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19. Many Christians apply Haggai to their time, money and church. Others warn against using it to push building programs.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: God wanted first place, not leftovers. The people listened, and the work began in 23 days.

⁷This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:

“Set your heart on your ways.

⁸Go up into the hills,

bring down lumber, and build the house,

so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,

says Yahweh.

HAG 1:8[ARCHAEOLOGY]Darius I's foundation charter from Susa says cedar from Lebanon and gold and silver from across his empire were brought for his palace, in Haggai's years, see the Darius's Building Charter Field Notes page
HAG 1:8[NOTE]LUMBER. In these same years King Darius hauled cedar from Lebanon to build his palace at Susa. See Darius's Building Charter.

⁹You expected much,

but behold, it amounted to little.

And what you brought home, I blew away.

Why? declares Yahweh of Hosts.

Because My house still lies in ruins,

while each of you is busy

with his own house.

HAG 1:9[NOTE]MY HOUSE, YOUR HOUSE. A play on words. My house lies in ruins, charev, so God sends a drought, chorev, 1:11. The two words sound alike in Hebrew.

¹⁰Therefore, on account of you

the heavens have withheld their dew

and the earth has withheld its crops.

¹¹I have summoned a drought

on the fields and on the mountains,

on the grain, new wine, and oil,

and on whatever the ground yields,

on man and beast,

and on all the labor of your hands.”

Field Notes · Archaeology

Darius's Building Charter

Haggai 1:1 · 1:8 · 2:7 to 8 · Ezra 6:3 to 12

Pieces of Darius's foundation charter for his palace at Susa, set in a modern backing, Louvre Museum, Paris. Photo Shonagon, public domain (CC0).

WHAT IT IS: A foundation charter of King Darius I, the Darius of Haggai 1:1. In it the king tells how he built his palace at Susa, and where every material came from. It was written in three languages, Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. This tablet is in Old Persian.
HOW OLD IT IS: A few years after 520 BC, about the time the temple in Jerusalem was being rebuilt. French archaeologists found pieces of the charter at Susa in the first decades of the 1900s.
WHAT IT SAYS: The cedar timber came from a mountain called Lebanon. People from Assyria brought it to Babylon, and from there men from Caria and Ionian Greeks brought it to Susa. The gold came from Sardis and Bactria. The silver and ebony came from Egypt. Nation after nation brought something.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR HAGGAI: While God's people said it was not time to build, 1:2, the king of the world was hauling lumber across his empire. Haggai told them to go up into the hills and bring down lumber, 1:8. When they first laid this temple's foundation, years before, they had brought cedar from Lebanon too, Ezra 3:7.
THE SILVER IS MINE: Darius boasted that the nations brought their gold and silver to his palace. God said the silver and the gold are Mine, 2:8, and the nations would come with their treasures to His house, 2:7.
DARIUS PAYS: The same Darius found Cyrus's decree and ordered the temple costs paid from the royal treasury, Ezra 6:1 to 12. The temple was finished in his sixth year, 515 BC.
WHAT THE PHOTO SHOWS: The real broken pieces of the tablet, fitted into a modern plaster backing so they stay in place. The wedge shaped writing is Old Persian cuneiform.
SEE ALSO: Behistun, Ezra, where Darius tells how he became king, and The Palace at Susa, Esther.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

The People Obey

¹²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because Yahweh their God had sent him. So the people feared Yahweh.

HAG 1:12[NOTE]THEY OBEYED. One of the few times in the Bible that the people listen to a prophet right away.

¹³Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, delivered the message of Yahweh to the people:

“I am with you,”

declares Yahweh.

HAG 1:13[NOTE]THE MESSENGER. Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, prints black. Only God's own words, I am with you, print red.

¹⁴So Yahweh stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of Yahweh of Hosts, their God, ¹⁵on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

HAG 1:15[NOTE]23 DAYS. From the first sermon, 1:1, to the first day of work was 23 days. The work started on September 21, 520 BC.

Haggai 1

The Oldest Copies of Haggai

The Setting

What Was Going Wrong

Where to Find Jesus

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

How Did It Turn Out?

A Call to Rebuild the Temple// Ezra 5:1–5

The People Obey

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