Are you inquisitive? This month, let's get inquisitive about Haggai.
Haggai, painting by James Tissot (1836-1902). Held in the Jewish Museum, New York. (25 x 11 cm.) https://www.artbible.info/art/large/225.htmlHaggai is new to me. Even though his little book sits right there in the middle of our Bibles, I imagine, like me, some of our readers may have little comprehension of why.
A little research tells me that Haggai was prophesying
around 520BCE.
JUDAH, BABYLON AND PERSIA
To get that in perspective, we recall that Nebuchadnezzar
(king of Babylon) had destroyed the temple (painstakingly built by Solomon
after the death of David his father) at Jerusalem in 586 BCE. This led to the capture
and exile of many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants to Babylon. Decades later, King
Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians and subsequently allowed the Jewish exiles
to return to their homeland, where they set about building a new temple.
REBUILDING THE TEMPLE
Thomas Leishman puts it succinctly in his article Haggai
and Zechariah: Rebuilders of the Temple (The Christian Science Journal Oct.
1970):
During the first year of
Cyrus' sovereignty over Babylon, the book of Ezra records (1:1, 2),
"The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" so that he
published a decree to this effect: "The Lord God of heaven hath given me
all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at
Jerusalem, which is in Judah." According to Ezra the cooperation and
generosity of King Cyrus led to the arrival of more than forty-two thousand
Jewish folk in Jerusalem (see Ezra 2:64). Thus the way opened for
rebuilding their temple and restoring its sacred vessels stolen by
Nebuchadnezzar some sixty years before Cyrus' decree (see Ezra 1:7-11).
Meanwhile, King Darius 1 succeeded Cyrus. An interesting titbit
about Darius (from the website historycentral.com) is that he “reorganized the
Persian Empire into separate provinces called satraps, each with its own
governor and tax system. [He also created] a series of 111 post stations with
horses … [so that] it became possible to send or receive messages anywhere in
the Empire within two weeks.”
Leishman continues Haggai’s story:
His primary mission was
to see that the people rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem (see 1:8). His insight
grasped the unspoken questionings of the people, making it clear to them that
their poverty and want were due to their neglect of God's work, while conversely,
attention to that God-appointed work would bring prosperity. Haggai dealt
effectively with discouragement and depression, bidding his hearers to be
strong and banish fear because God was with them (see 2:4, 5).
Biblehub.com
informs us that the “Second Temple was completed in the sixth year of King
Darius’s reign, as noted in Ezra 6:15.” Instrumental in the work were Zerubbabel,
the governor of Judah, and Joshua the high priest. It took many years to build.
It was to stand until Roman forces destroyed it in 70 AD.
Julie Swannell
