Scripture Passage and Lesson Focus: Haggai 1:12-2:9
It is truly a wonderful thing to experience the launching of a congregational project for which enthusiasm runs high and members are eager to get started. Initial differences of opinion and any other difficulties that were overcome to get the project off the ground fade into the background as leaders and followers make commitments to start working on the job at hand. In today’s lesson, the prophet Haggai reports a similar kind of enthusiasm among the returning exiles and other residents of Jerusalem in the year 520 BCE.
Haggai 1:12-2:3 — The temple rebuilding project begins.
Haggai’s call to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem awakened a positive response from Zerubbabel, the Persian-appointed governor, and from Joshua, the high priest. Less than one month after Haggai pointed out that God’s house lay in ruins while many of the people lived in luxurious homes, these two leaders and “all the remnant of the people” (1:12) made a commitment to begin the task of rebuilding the temple. A clearer translation of 1:12 would be “all the rest of the people,” meaning that all those who had returned from exile as well as those who had remained in Judea agreed to work together to carry out the task of rebuilding the temple. The prophet makes it abundantly clear that God was the one who stirred up the positive response of the leaders and the people.
A month later, however, Haggai delivered the same message encouraging the people to follow through on their commitment to rebuild the temple. He asked if anyone could remember how splendid the ruined temple had once been. “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” Haggai asked. Since more than 60 years had passed since Solomon’s temple had been destroyed, it is doubtful that very many people had first-hand memories of the splendor of the first temple. Perhaps their collective memories had grown over the years and exaggerated the splendor of the temple in their minds. The contrast between memories of the temple’s past splendor and the scattered ruins visible to the gathered people was painfully obvious.
Haggai 2:4-5 — Take courage and do not fear, for God is with you.
This message of encouragement delivered by Haggai is addressed to “all you people of the land.” Although the term “people of the land” later became a technical designation for Jews living in poverty outside the population centers of Judea, here it refers to the people as a whole. Three times Haggai enjoins the leaders and the people to be courageous. The reason for that courage is the protective and empowering presence of God. Furthermore, God promises to be present to the people just as their ancestors had experienced God’s presence when they escaped from slavery in Egypt. So the prophet Haggai links a renewed Israel with the covenantal people God miraculously led out of Egypt.
Nearly three generations of captivity in Babylon had brought about important and lasting changes in the religious leadership and practices of the Jewish exiles. Without the temple, the changing role of the priesthood, the development of the synagogue and the emergence of learned rabbis profoundly influenced Jewish life. Amidst this religious ferment, Haggai reminded the people that the God who had led them out of captivity in Egypt was now present with them as they struggled to return to their homeland. And their task as the covenant people is to work on rebuilding the temple.
Haggai 2:6-9 — God will soon bring about a renewed temple with international participation.
Haggai concludes his oracle with an eschatological vision of what God will do to restore the people. Using the image of a major earthquake, Haggai says that God will bring about a universal upheaval that will bring the wealth of the nations to Jerusalem as God’s wealth. Similar visions of the nations coming to Jerusalem in the last days are found in Isaiah 2:1-4, Isaiah 61:6 and Micah 7:11-12.
For discussion
Describe and discuss times in your life or the life of your congregation when you experienced the empowering presence of God. What are signs that God is present? What are the signs of God’s absence?
Some Christians believe that God will reward their faith with personal wealth and prosperity. How is that so-called “prosperity gospel” different from the promise found in Haggai 2:8-9?
Do you think God is honored by large beautiful churches or should we curb our “edifice complex” and worship God in more
