The Book of Haggai tells a story of expectation, confusion, and reorientation. In this book, written by one of the 12 Old Testament minor prophets, the people of Israel, just recently returned from their Babylonian enforced exile, are admonished by Yahweh (the personal name of the God of the OT) for their complacency and misplaced priorities. Rather than finishing the work they had previously begun on the Jerusalem Temple (see Ezra 3), they understood previous opposition from their neighbors and an edict handed down by a recently deceased Persian ruler (Ezra 4), as an ongoing sign that the time for the Temple to be rebuilt had not yet come. Instead, they turned their focus to their own comfort, making efforts to furnish their own houses with unnecessary opulence in the form of ornate wooden paneling. This display served to highlight the Temple’s current ruinous state. In addition, these panels also are thought (by some commentators) to be constructed from the very cedar wood that was special ordered from Lebanon for use in the construction of important structural and decorative elements in the Temple building itself.
The people of Israel had lost their way and Yahweh, in his ever-present grace and mercy, sent the prophet Haggai to get them back on the right track. Haggai’s message from Yahweh was simple but profoundly convicting, a message that claimed Yahweh’s people were not experiencing the abundance of covenant blessing afforded to them. They were failing to uphold an essential aspect of participation in this divinely established covenant, a worshipful recognition of their God who had redeemed them from slavery and sin. Worship in the Temple, as prescribed by the Law itself, was to be an un-negotiable priority in their lives. Instead, they were living unblessed lives, continually lacking in some of their most basic needs.
This message almost seems counterintuitive to the manner in which the world itself functions. One would think that such close attention to everyday life and the plethora of things needed to be juggled to run a busy household, would yield an abundance of results. However, Yahweh had (and still has) other ideas that involved aspects of worship which would set them apart from their surrounding neighbors and establish them as his people. In the time of Haggai, an element of worship was missing and the consequences ranged from subtle pangs of hunger to massive losses in investments coupled with incongruent crop yields.
So, says Yahweh, here is how you start living right. Bring the wood you have so thoughtlessly repurposed by decorating your own houses with ornate paneling and go up to the Temple Mount. Deconstruct your own opulence and rededicate it to my name, in my house. Carefully consider what you’ve been up to, realize your mistakes, reorganize your misplaced priorities, and act to make it right (Haggai 1:7-8, LEB). And the people (including Joshua and Zerubbabel) listen to God. They went up to the Temple Mount and got to work.
It’s interesting how the people are pictured responding to the voice of Yahweh. They obeyed out of a fear and reverence, the proper response which recognizes his ability to accomplish what he says he will do. In this aspect of their expectation, they excelled. They knew that Yahweh would change the course of their current economic state. They trusted that the things which have been lacking would, upon completion of the Temple, be restored. God’s response to their fear is a declaration that he is “with them” (Haggai 1:13), a declaration which resonates throughout the course of salvation history, a history that shows Yahweh’s presence with his people, despite their inability to consistently recognize this presence and act accordingly with worship and praise.
In the next installment of this blog on Haggai, I’ll discuss another expectation that the people of Israel hold, an expectation that they will, once again, experience the manifest presence of God in a powerful and tangible way as the result of their Temple rebuilding efforts. If you read the rest of the book of Haggai (and Ezra 1-6), you will see this did not happen. Instead, Yahweh chooses to reveal his presence in a uniquely different manner, a manner that causes some confusion among the people of Israel. Next time, I’ll discuss these things and their implications for us today.
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