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We’re going to look at the Book of Haggai. A lot of people don’t cover this book, and most that do go into it really only hit on a couple of verses and then keep going. Some of you may be wondering why this is. It’s because it’s a short book. One of the shortest. As a matter of fact, it’s only 2 chapters long. So there’s not a lot to pull from in the opinions of some. This may come as a surprise to some of you, there are many who haven’t even heard of Haggai, or it’s been so long they don’t recall. Also, like other short books in the Bible, many points that are often looked at are also covered in other books as well. We’re going to see that here in a moment. I’d like to remind you, even though it’s short…it’s still the word of God. It’s still important to hear. So we’re going to go through the book of Haggai together. Now even though it’s short, there are two parts. Chapter 1 being their calling, and Chapter 2 being their encouragement to complete their work.

Haggai, also referred to as Aggeus, was one of the minor prophets. The first of the post-exilic prophets. Postexilic refers to the Jewish period after their exile ended in 538 BC to 1 AD. So post exile if you will. Haggai wrote this book approximately 520 BC. His intended  audience at the time were the Jews who had recently returned to Jerusalem from exile. 

To set the backstory, the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed in 586 BC. Cyrus, the king of Persia, let the Jews return to their homeland to rebuild it in 538 BC. Remember BC the years go from bigger to smaller, it’s AD where we are now where they go from smaller to bigger. To finish painting this picture we’re actually going to start in Ezra Chapter 4:1-24.

In Ezra 4:1-6, the Bible says, “When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the head of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.” Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia. At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.” This goes on to provide the letters that were sent to the king of Persia, which you can read through verse 22. Verses 23-24 are when the work was stopped until Darius’ reign. 

When the Jews had returned to their homeland, they had the right mindset and got to work right away to rebuild the temple. And just as quickly as they had started, opposition set in. In Verse 2 we see the enemy tried to mess the Jews by offering a rather shady alliance to help them build. In reality they were looking to spy on them and insure that Jerusalem wouldn’t become a strong nation again. The Jews saw right through this scheme, and wouldn’t compromise their own faith by mixing with unbelievers. So when that didn’t work they switched tactics as we see in Verses 4&5, and tried to discourage, intimidate, and bribe. And in Verses 6-24 they flat out lied about what the Jews were doing. For years their efforts were hindered. Ultimately bringing the work to a halt. 

Sound familiar? Like things that have happened at some point in your life? Because these things happen to us all. As a believer of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, we should all expect to run into opposition when we’re doing God’s work. That’s what the enemy hates. And he will do everything he can to get you to stop! So we have to keep these things in mind for when the attacks do come. That way we can fight through them. We can continue forward in faith, and know we can trust in God to show us how to overcome any stumbling blocks. 

This reminds me of being pepper sprayed. Most law enforcement and security licensing agencies require their people to get pepper sprayed as part of their training in order to be able to carry and use it. Same goes for certain military units. I can tell you from personal experience that the training is fun…the being sprayed part is not. But you’re trained, just as we are in the Word. Then the time comes, and we get hit with that spray straight from the halls of Hell. We fall back on that previous training and start pushing through the obstacle course that’s in front of us. We endure and finish it. The training is done. Which is good, because at some point in the future, we’re going to get hit again when we’re least expecting it, and for an instant we’re going to be saying a short prayer. Possibly out loud. It will likely sound like, “God help me!” And then God reminds you of that previous training, and helps you push through the pain to get the job done. 

Which brings us to Haggai 1:1-6.

Haggai 1:1-6, the Bible says, 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 Jozadak, the high priest: This is was the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house.’” Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but 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.” 

So we can see that the building and maintenance of the temple is barely being looked at by this point. So through Haggai, God is saying it’s time to get up and get to work. There’s no more time for lollygagging. Why are you sitting around high on the hog while my house is in shambles? The temple was supposed to be the focal point of their relationship with God, yet it’s being ignored! They were supposed to be restoring the temple, but instead they were building up their own homes! And the more energy, and the more enthusiasm they put into taking care of themselves, the less productive they became. And the reason why is simple. It’s because they were ignoring their spiritual lives, they were ignoring God. No matter how much they had, and they had a lot, it wasn’t enough. They wanted more. This was because God wasn’t a part of it.  

A lot of people, a lot of quote unquote Christians say that God is their number one priority! Yet their actions say otherwise. They say I love Jesus, yet they go out and do everything He says we shouldn’t! They like to say, “Praise the Lord” and hold signs that say John 3:16 in public, but at home their Bibles collect dust. God asks, “Why are you living in comfort while my house is a wreck? Why aren’t you taking care of my place?” The same can be said for His place in our hearts. Caring for yourself and ignoring your relationship with God is a path you don’t want to go down! In case you’re wondering where it goes, I’ll tell you, HELL!  

Now Verse 5 is a stern warning. “ Give careful thought to your ways.” This isn’t just what you say or do, but your thoughts as well. Stop putting value into worthless things. Stop trying to build things up without the Lord, because you are wasting effort on worldly things! Just like a hamster on its wheel just running and running and running, yet going nowhere. God needs to be right there at the forefront. His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven! Not ours! His!

Picking back up in Haggai 1:7-11

In Haggai 1:7-11, the Bible says, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give care thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Again in Verses 7-8, God is saying “Give careful thought to your ways.” Just in case anyone missed it the first time, or didn’t think it was THAT important; God is assuring everyone that it really is that important. AND…He’s giving a solution! He’s even saying that by being mindful and getting to work on what really needs to be done is what will make Him happy! Take care of God’s place in your life first. Honor Him. 

In Verses 9-11 we see God isn’t happy. The Jews had the task of rebuilding the temple and they hadn’t. All anyone had to do was look at it. So, like any good parent, God dropped the boom. He took away their allowance! Their money, their food, and drinks. Why the food and drink? It was because grain, grapes for wine, and olives were Israel’s main crops. They were depending on these things to provide security for their economy all the while they were forgetting about worshiping God. It was time to pay the Piper! God was helping them get their priorities straightened out. Something we all suffer from. Some more often than others. Jobs, homes, work, family, friends, clubs, church and so on and so forth. We get so tied up running around that we lose focus, and have little energy left to tend to things we shouldn’t have put off. It’s not an issue of time, but priorities. What do you need to do to ensure you’re truly doing what matters most in your life? 

Continuing on in Haggai 1:12-15, the Bible says, “Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, 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. And the people feared the LORD. Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubabbel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.”

Coming to Verse 12, the people remembered their place and feared God. And they went back to work. And in Verse 13, God reminded the Jews of His promise and showed He was pleased with them when He said, “I am with you.” And so they went back to work with a fire in them. They were encouraged. Their spirits lifted. It was ALL they focused on. Within 23 days of Haggai’s first message, the people were finally rebuilding the temple. 23 days is interesting in itself, because prophets' messages rarely had a response that quickly. Even today it takes longer to get a pothole in the road fixed. We even hear sermons and think, “You know that’s a good point. I should start doing these things.” And then forget about it by the time we make it to the parking lot. This is why taking notes is important. You have it written out. Something to refer back to over and over. So when you hear something good, something that speaks to you, you can pray over it and ask what your next move should be and then start doing it. 

What happened in this first part is that the Jews were burnt out. They had traveled home, and continuously met opposition. Everything was hard. And when things are hard, it’s easy to forget to look to God. Just like back then, it’s easy to get caught up in everything going on around us. To let our priorities get mixed up. It’s another storm in our lives, and we tend to take our eyes off of Jesus. That’s when the storm takes us.
 
Isaiah 40:29-31 tells us that when we’re tired and weary that we need to look up to the Father and He will refresh us. When you feel like you can’t take another step, call on God. He’s always with you. He’ll give you the boost you need to keep moving.