Haggai was a visionary encourager. When the temple-rebuild was needed, he was there to see the work was not delayed and would prosper.
I was wondering if Haggai is mentioned anywhere apart from in the
book bearing his name. Indeed he is. Here are the two places we read about him
in Ezra, from the Authorised King James Version:
Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and
Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in
Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto
them.
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered
through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah
the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to
the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of
Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
The other nine times we read his name are all in Haggai.
Here are two I especially like:
Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger
in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with
you, saith the Lord.
2 Thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house
should be built. 3 Then came the word of the Lord by
Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time
for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now
therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 6 Ye
have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink,
but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he
that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes.
I was struck by this last passage because I remembered working with the “bag with holes” phrase many years ago when funds seemed never to be sufficient.
In an article published in the Christian Science Sentinel
dated Sept. 30, 1972, Naomi Price (Bags without holes) zeroes in on this type of situation:
“The prophet was referring to
the people's shortsighted absorption in material wants. He was warning them
that their material-mindedness and lack of enough selfless reverence for God to
glorify Him in their lives, and to prove their love for Him by rebuilding His
house, were leading to misery and depletion. But many men and women in this
twentieth century have the unhappy feeling that this description applies to
them, too—that they are working hard for wages that all too quickly vanish
under the pressure of high taxation and the continually rising cost of living.
They wonder how they can plug the holes in their pockets and have enough to
supply the legitimate needs of their families.
“In fact, the solution to modern problems of an inflated economy is to be found in the spiritual message underlying the advice given by Haggai to the people of Judah. He urged them to put God first in their thoughts and to prove that they were doing so by rebuilding "the Lord's house" before decorating their own dwellings. He pointed out that God is the source of all true substance: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," he represented God as saying.”
What rich treasures this book is yielding.
Julie Swannell
Thank you, Julie! I love your study.
ReplyDeleteDeborah in Jacksonville, Florida