Haggai. We are coming rapidly to the end of the Old Testament. Three more sessions in these prophets called minor prophets, not because they're unimportant prophets, but because they are smaller than the major prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah, Isaiah. And often they're overlooked, unfortunately. But I hope that these studies have been whetting your appetite to spend more time with these men. Because much of what they said to ancient Israel is directly applicable to us as well. All right, the Book of Haggai. So what we're going to do this morning, take a look quickly at the setting of this book. It's very important. By the way, if you want to gain a lot of insight into Haggai and Zechariah, read the book of Ezra. You'll gain a tremendous amount of insight into the historical, cultural things that were going on during the time when these men were prophesying. And the setting here is easy to do it because we have four dates that are mentioned in this book. And we are able to really pinpoint what those dates are. And one of them, we are coming up to an anniversary. It will be next Sunday, as a matter of fact, the anniversary of the very first message that is given to Haggai. August 29, 520 BC. That was a long time ago, but we know it. So we'll talk about the setting. I'll give you kind of a quick exegetical look at the book itself, how it outlines. I'll also point out the homiletical outline, tell you the difference between the two and why it's important. And then we're going to talk a little bit about some of the themes that are there. So we're going to run through this two chapters pretty quickly. But I hope that it'll whet your appetite to go back and do some more study in the book. Alright, so there are four dates that are given to us. The first one is given to us in verse 1. In the second year of Darius the king, that's not Darius the Mede, this is Darius the Persian. Okay, so this isn't the Darius that is mentioned in the book of Daniel. This is several decades later. This is Darius the Persian who comes to the throne after Cyrus dies. His son arises to the throne, is murdered, and then this Darius rises to the throne. So this is not the same guy that you read about in the book of Daniel. So in the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth month on the first day of the month, so this is August 29, 520 BC, this first message comes to Haggai. It is a message that he's going to give to two men. Joshua, or Jeshua, the high priest, as well as Zerubbabel, one of the great names in the Bible. I always loved Zerubbabel. If you ever like playing hangman, this is a good one. Unless A gets B, and then you're in trouble. So Zerubbabel, who is the son of Shealtiel, he is the governor of Judah. Zerubbabel is mentioned seven times in this book. He plays a very important role, especially at the end of the book. So we'll talk more about him in just a moment. So this first message is a message that gets delivered August 29, 520 BC. Now what's significant about that? Does anybody remember the date when Cyrus, the Persian king, told the Judean exiles in Babylon that they could pack up and go home to Jerusalem? Does anybody remember what that year was? The answer is 538 B.C. That was 18 years before this message comes to Haggai. So they pack up many of them, they come back to Jerusalem, and what they find when they get back there is a city that has been utterly destroyed. The Babylonians came in three times. And the only people that were left were the sick, the old, the infirm, the people that weren't going to be able to rebuild the city. So 70 years has gone by. The city has basically been a wasteland. All of the attending tribal nations in Canaan, they've all kind of come in and occupied it from time to time. And when they get back, it is just a desolate place. And things don't get better. 18 years have passed since that original edict from Cyrus to go back. And houses have been built, people have kind of settled in, they've started planting crops again, they've started doing commerce, but things are not going well at all. And if you'll remember last week from the message on Sunday, I was preaching that in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel is mourning because two years after the people have gone back, he's gotten news from Jerusalem that it's not good at all there. Well, it didn't get any better. But the really tragic thing is that these people had gone back to Jerusalem and had built their own homes. But God's house, the temple, was still in ruins. Literally, there were no walls to the temple. There was no altar anymore. There was no Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant was gone, and it would never be found again. Indiana Jones tried to find it. He wasn't able to do it. And it's gone. Actually, he did find it, didn't he? Now that I think about it. Yeah. I forgot. OK. But anyway. That's the problem with illustrations on the fly, is if you, you know, you're not really remembering it well, it doesn't come out good. So, the temple, nothing has been done. Sixteen years, eighteen years, they've been back and there's not been one sacrifice in the altar during that entire time period because there is no altar to sacrifice on. So this message that Haggai delivers from the Lord on August 29, 520 BC is a message that is directing to the two leaders of the city. One who is the political leader, that's Zerubbabel, the other who is the religious leader, the high priest, a guy by the name of Joshua, or Joshua, the high priest. So this message from the Lord is, you know why things are going so bad in Jerusalem? You know why you plant and things don't happen? Look at how it's described. Verse 3. The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Isn't it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, consider your ways. You have sown much, you have harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourself, no one's warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. In other words, there is economic privation. You're not harvesting much. You never have enough to eat. You never have enough to drink. You're scraping by. The reason all of this is because your priorities are misplaced. You're building your own houses. You haven't even bothered to touch my house. You haven't really re-established worship in this city. So the message from the Lord to Zerubbabel and to Jeshua hey get up and get going get busy build my house so that message is delivered all right a couple of months later really about six seven weeks later September 21st 520 BC according to verses 14 and 15 the building is begins. Verse 14, And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. So this is September 21st, 520 BC. Now, chapter 2 verse 1, a third message, or a second message comes to Haggai. This is the third date that we have. This is October 17th, 520 BC. This is the second message. This time the message is going to go to all of the people. And this is the message, verse 3. Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? Who, how do you see it now? It is not as nothing in your eyes, yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts. So, this is a message of encouragement. The first message was a message of exhortation. Hey, get busy, get your priorities placed in the right place. This is a message of encouragement. As you do this, I am with you. So this is what the psalmist was saying when he said, unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor do what? They labor in vain who try to build it. But the Lord is saying, you're not going to be laboring in vain because I'm with you. I am going to empower you and fill you with my spirit so that what I am calling you to do will be done. So that's the second message. It is a message to all of the people. Then there is a third one. It comes December 18th, 520 BC. This third message is a message of promise. Look at verse 10. On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Now go to verse 20. On this very day, the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah. saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of Hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of Hosts. Alright, so if the first message was a message of exhortation, get up, get busy, do the right thing. If the second message was a message of encouragement, as you do it, know that I am with you and it will be effective. This message is a message delivered just to Zerubbabel, just to him alone. And it is a promise, a promise that God is going to do something really remarkable, really wonderful, really great. And we're going to see that this is a message that Zerubbabel will never see fulfilled in his lifetime. This is an eschatological message, a message that deals with the end of days. So more on that in just a moment. Alright, so that's the setting. Now, here's the exegetical outline if you want it. Rebuilding the temple, chapter 1, verses 1-15. The setting, exhortation to rebuild the response of God's people, verses 12-15. They say, okay, we will. Let's do it. The second major point is the coming glory, chapter 2 and verses 1-9, a reminder of what the past was, what the temple was, and it really was glorious under Solomon, wasn't it? It was really magnificent. People from all over the world came to see the temple that Solomon had built. that I am going to come once again and dwell among you inside this temple, and its latter glory will be greater than its former glory. So God is going to do something so that you don't have to sit around and go, boy, I remember the good old days. The good old days when things were. God is saying, I'm going to do something that will eclipse the glory of the former temple. Something much more magnificent, much more wonderful than you could ever imagine. Then the third part is becoming blessing, verses 10-19. He uses an illustration, he says, I want you to go to the priest and ask these questions. Look at verse 12. If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? So here's the question. You've got this bread and you're not able to carry all of the bread in your arms so you pull your shirt up and you tuck it inside there and you've got it there and you're walking and you breeze by and you touch something that is considered ceremonially holy. Does the touching of your garment to those holy things make the bread that you have inside the folds of your garment now ceremonially holy? What did the priest say? The priest said, no. They were right. Now, the next question is someone, verse 13, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, do those things become unclean? And what's the answer to that? Yes, yes, it did. Then Haggai answered and said, so it is with this people and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer is unclean. They're unclean. They have not been worshiping me properly. They have misplaced their priorities and so they go and they sow seed in the ground and they expect this big harvest to come and it's a tiny little harvest instead. And they build their paneled houses and they live and they try to clothe themselves but they still remain cold because they don't have enough clothes to wear. And they eat, but they're never full because there's a scarcity of food, a scarcity of drink. Everything they touch, everything they do is unclean and unholy because they are unclean and they are unholy. That's what he's saying. That's what he's trying to get across. Then, if that's the bad news, look at the good news. Verse 19, is the seed yet in the barn? No. Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree, they yielded nothing, right? But from this day on, I will bless you. That's great. It's grace. He's not blessing them because they deserve it. He's not blessing them because they have lived properly. They haven't. He's blessing them because He is a marvelously gracious God, giving us better than we deserve, giving us what we don't earn. That's God. Alright, the last part then is this coming King, verses 20-23. We'll talk about that in just a moment. So that's the exegetical outline. That's kind of the structure of the entire book. Now, what I put in here was a homiletical outline that I preached on the first day of this year. So the first message in January that I preached, this is how I did it. The difference between the exegetical and homiletical outline is that the exegetical outline is really really basically looking at the flow of the argument of the book and trying to outline that argument and getting a real handle on what the book says. A homiletical outline is an outline then that you would take into a pulpit or into a lectern to say, okay, if that's what the book says, here's what it says to us. And so I preached in January from the book of Haggai on these two points, the folly of misplaced priorities and the blessings of God-inspired priorities. So the folly of misplaced priorities, verses 2, 3, 11 of chapter 1. Two main points. The right time never quite comes. The reason we have wrong priorities is not because we want to have the wrong priorities, but because we put them off. We put the right ones off. We're going to wait. Wait until we have a little more money, wait until we have more time, wait until we're a little older and more settled into our life, and then we can do these kinds of things. The people in Jerusalem intended to build the temple. They wanted to build the temple. They wanted to build it to its greater glory. There were just other things that seemed more pressing at the time to do. And so one year became ten years, and ten years has now become sixteen years, and the temple is still sitting there in complete disrepair, and it hasn't been done. the best results then never materialize. I pointed out in that message that there's a relationship between some misfortune and misplaced priorities because God says here the reason you're sowing and you're not harvesting, the reason that you don't have enough food to eat, the reason you don't have enough drink, is because you haven't taken care of the most important thing. If you'll remember the message, I'm flattering myself that you would remember the message from January, But if you remember the message, I said that good is often the enemy of great. And that often we do the good thing and we miss the great thing. It's good to live in a house. You need shelter. You need clothing. You need to go out and plant so that you have a harvest. Those are good things, but they're not necessarily the most important thing if the house of worship is lying in complete and total disrepair. Furthermore, there are priorities that align with God's decreed purpose, chapters 2, 1-9. It's God's purpose to shake all the nations. It's God's purpose to create a temple with a greater glory. It's God's purpose to overthrow the kingdoms of this world with His own. the best priorities, then you have to align your priorities to those things. God is, by the way, building a temple with a greater glory than anything that either Solomon or Herod ever built. Right? What is that temple? Dale says it does. Paul says you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. you are. This is a greater, more glorious, more wonderful, more expansive temple. It's a temple that now extends around the world. It isn't just a temple that you go to, it's a temple that comes to you when the people of God take the presence of God to the world in the proclamation of the gospel. All right, so that's the difference between an exegetical outline and a homiletical outline. And I would encourage you to take those notes and use them for your study of the book of Haggai. Now let's talk about four themes that kind of arise from this book. The first is the centrality of the temple. Now think about this for a moment. What's the big deal about a building? I mean, we're meeting in a building, and we're happy to be here. It's cool when outside. The temperature's going to get very, very hot today. And you're sitting on chairs that are comfortable, maybe too comfortable. case you start falling asleep out there and and we've got carpeting on the floor and you know the paint is all new and it's nice and we're very very grateful for this building but the fact of the matter is if this building wasn't here we would still meet and we would still worship what's the big deal about a building and the answer is that that building was holy It was sanctified because it housed the presence of God. If you read the story from the beginning, you know that there is no more precious gift that God can give to his people than himself. It rivals anything else. There is nothing more important that God can give to you than to give to you himself. That's why Eden was so wonderful before the fall and was so tragic after the fall. Before the fall, Genesis 3 tells us, Genesis 2 tells us, that God walked with man in the cool of the day and he was completely naked and had no shame, no embarrassment about that at all. Immediately after the fall, man is driven from that Edenic paradise a fiery sword guards entrance and says you can't come back in. Man is full of guilt and shame and there is not that close personal walk with the Lord. It's not universal now. Enoch knew what it was like. Noah knew what it was like. In time, Abraham would know what it was like. But they were the exception, not the rule. So when God comes and speaks in a fiery bush to Moses, and then with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, leads the people of Israel into the wilderness, and then gives instructions for the building of a tabernacle where he himself would come and dwell with his people, That's an amazing thing that happens in redemptive history. That's a turning point. This is really wonderful. And in time, when David comes along and says, I live in a better house than God. Why should He live in a tent if I live in a palace? Let's build a temple. And his son Solomon eventually does that. And God's glory dwelt in that temple in the middle of the people of the nation. That was a great and glorious thing. But you know what happened? The people didn't dwell with God in peace. They weren't content with having his presence. They wanted other things. They became idolatrous. God eventually judged them. And in Ezekiel, you have this scene of God's Shekinah glory leaving the temple and going outside. And it was a terrible thing. So the temple is great because it is associated with the presence of God. And the presence of God is the most glorious thing that you can have, more precious than any other thing. Now, go forward and see how this transmutes in the New Testament. Where do we first see the presence of God in the New Testament? Where is it? It's in person. Now it's no longer in a building. Now it's in human flesh. And we beheld him, speaking of Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled himself among us. That's the story of the New Testament. Then, those of us who by faith are attached to Jesus, we become the temple of the living God. Or as Peter says, God is actively building this temple and you are living stones. Living stones being built into a place of worship. A holy house. A holy place. Now God is building a greater temple and a more grand temple. The chief cornerstone being Jesus himself. So you get the idea that it is the manifestation of God's visible presence. And so to live, if you're in that old economy, with a temple that's destroyed, is essentially to say, it doesn't really matter if God's here. It's that we're here. We're back in our home. We're back in Jerusalem. This is the place of our forefathers. What they missed is that what made Jerusalem special and what made them special is that the temple was there. And what made the temple special is that God was there. By the way, Herod spent 40 years rebuilding this thing. And it was unbelievably majestic when he finished building it. But the spirit of God did not come back to Herod's temple, ever. because when he came back he would come back in the perfect temple of Jesus of Nazareth. Alright, so that's the temple. The other theme is a theme that we see repeatedly throughout the Old Testament prophets. It is a theme of judgment and grace. God says this is what you deserve and this is what I'm going to give you. You deserve judgment, I'm going to give you better. That's what we saw in here. It's just remarkable how much grace there is in the Old Testament. If you think of the Old Testament as only being law, as only being condemnation, as only being judgment, boy, you're going to miss a lot in the Old Testament. Especially the prophets, because the prophets say, remember, this God who revealed himself to Moses was a God of loving kindness and mercy and grace. And it's written all over the pages of that Old Testament era in preparation for the great work of grace that he was going to do in Jesus. Quickly, there is the centrality of Zerubbabel in this story. I mentioned that his name appears seven times in this book. It is the last part of chapter 2, the last part of the entire book, that I want to draw your attention to. So go to verse 20 of chapter 2. This is the third message that Haggai receives, and this one is delivered just to Zerubbabel. The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month, that is December 19th, I think, of 520. Yeah, December 18th, pardon me, of 520. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdom. I am about to destroy the strength of kingdoms of the nations, overthrow the chariots and their riders, the horses and their riders shall go down every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of Hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of Hosts. Now, a king would wear a signet ring. to declare that he is king, that he is powerful. Use that king to place into putty to put his seal on something that would then seal that and say this is coming from the king, this is really important. God says I'm going to put you Zerubbabel like a signet ring on my own hand. to declare what I am going to do in this day, a day when I'm going to overthrow the nations, when I am going to take all of your enemies and I am going to wipe them out, and I am going to establish my own kingdom. That's what I'm going to do in Zerubbabel. You are going to be an intricate part of that. Now, can you imagine this message coming to Zerubbabel? He is a puppet governor set up by Darius of Persia to oversee a motley band of refugees who have returned to a city that is utterly destroyed and they look around and they, if you read Ezra, they can't even keep the foreigners out from taking advantage of them all the time. And God says to them, this is irrevocable, I'm going to make you a king. Now that's remarkable. It's even more remarkable when you think about this. Zerubbabel was a direct descendant of the last king before the exile, before being taken away. His name was Jehoiachin, also called Coniah in the Old Testament. You want to read something about Jehoiachin? Just keep your finger here. Go to Jeremiah 22. Jeremiah 22. I want you to look at verse 24. As I live, declares the Lord, through Cuniah, that is Jehoiakim, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, were you the signet ring on my right hand Yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return." Now, do you hear that language? Jehoiachin the great-great-grandfather of Zerubbabel is told by God if you were a signet ring on my right hand I would rip it off and I would throw it away and I would never do anything for you you're gonna be taken away into Babylon and you're going to die there now the prophecy doesn't end there Look at verse 24, I'm sorry, verse 20, 30, pardon me, 30. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, nor none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah. Now, Zerubbabel is a direct descendant of this guy. This prophecy through Jeremiah says that nobody that is a descendant of Jehoiachin is going to reign. And yet you read the book of Haggai and Zerubbabel, one of his descendants, is told he will be that signet ring that will not be taken off. How do we understand that? This is something that takes place in the prophets that you have to remember. You'll see it again in Malachi. God often uses historical figures as a foreshadowing of one who is to come. In Malachi, who is that? It's Elijah. Remember? That the great day of the Lord would come when Elijah, who is to come, shows up. That Elijah would be John the Baptist. This Zerubbabel, the historical Zerubbabel, would foreshadow someone who was going to come back and gather the remnant of God's people and rule over that remnant and take this motley crew of nomads and bring them into a position of much greater prosperity. The historical Zerubbabel foreshadows the eschatological Zerubbabel, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, one last point and then we've got to close. It is this question of cognitive dissonance. You know what cognitive dissonance is? Dissonance is that gap that exists between expectation and reality, experience. You expect one thing, and you're disappointed because it doesn't happen. That's the dissonance, right? Old Testament prophecy is at that dissonance, because all of these prophecies are given, beginning all the way back in Genesis 3.15, and you get to the end of Old Testament history, and those prophecies haven't been fulfilled. They don't happen. Cognitive dissonance, then, is what takes place in your mind to make sense of all of that. What you have in the relationship of Old Testament and New Testament is this cognitive dissonance. The New Testament writers read these Old Testament prophecies like this one given to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel dies and he never sees this great day of the Lord occur. It doesn't happen. So the New Testament writers see that dissonance that exists between expectation and experience and they say, ah, there must be another day coming. A day when most of these prophecies are in fact going to be fulfilled. And we'll talk about that in detail in just a few weeks as we talk about the relationship of how the old prepares for the new and how one transitions into the other. How the New Testament writers appropriate the prophecies of the Old Testament and make sense of the dissonance between expectation and experience. So that's coming up. Well, we're happy to have you.