Haggai: Haggai 1:14-The Lord Energizes the Remnant of Judah to Complete the Task of Rebuilding His Temple Lesson # 21
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Haggai 1:14 So the Lord energized and encouraged Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the whole remnant of the people. They came and worked on the temple of their God, the Lord who rules over all. (NET)
Haggai 1:14 contains two statements with the first explaining specifically what Haggai 1:13 means when it asserts that Lord was each and every member of the remnant of Judah as a result of obeying His command to complete the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.
This statement in verse 13 means that the Lord was experiencing fellowship with this remnant and consequently, experiencing fellowship with the Lord would enable this remnant to complete this task assigned to them by the Lord.
The Lord’s declaration in Haggai 1:13 also has an active sense in that the Lord would Himself be actively involved in the work of completing the rebuilding of the temple.
This is indicated by the first statement in Haggai 1:14, which asserts that the Lord caused the Zerubbabel’s soul son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, as well as the Joshua’s soul, the high priest son of Jehozadak along with each and every member of remnant of Judah to be energized.
Therefore, a comparison of these two statements indicates that when the Lord informs the remnant of Judah that He was with each and every one of the them, it means that He is energizing them to perform the task of completing the work of rebuilding of His temple in Jerusalem.
The Lord energized the soul of Zerubbabel, Joshua and each member of the remnant of Judah in the sense that He convicted the conscience of each of them with the message He communicated to them through Haggai.
The message of course required that they complete this task of rebuilding the temple and energized the mentality of their souls to perform this task and consequently, this affected their emotions to perform this task.
Lastly, the Lord energized the soul of each member of this remnant in the sense that He moved them through the message He communicated to them through Haggai to exercise their volition in a way which resulted in the completion of the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.
The Lord’s declaration in Haggai 1:13 that He would be with the remnant of Judah also assures this remnant of His personal presence meaning He would indwell the temple.
This is implied by the command in Haggai 1:8 to complete the rebuilding of this temple in Jerusalem since the purpose of this task was so that this remnant could once again have a centralized location in which to worship Him.
This interpretation is further supported by the fact that many years after the completion of this project, the prophet Malachi demanded that the Israelites bring proper sacrifice and tithes to this temple, which the Lord asserts He loves (cf. Mal. 2:11).
Further supporting this interpretation is that in Luke 1:8-22 asserts that Zacharias was performing his priestly service in this second temple “before God” when the angels appears to inform him that he and his wife would have a child in their old age.
In fact, the gospel of Luke presents the temple as the location of God’s presence and activity (cf. Luke 2:22-49).
Matthew 23:21 records Jesus as assuming God’s presence in this second temple as a location of God’s presence when He rebukes the Jewish religious leaders’ practice of oaths by saying “Whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.”
The second statement which appears in Haggai 1:14 presents the result of the previous statement that the Lord energized the souls of Zerubbabel, Joshua and each member of the remnant of Judah and asserts that these individuals returned, yes, they worked on the temple of their God, the Lord who rules over the armies.
This indicates that the remnant of Judah completed the task of rebuilding the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem as a direct result of being energized by the Lord to do so.
Therefore, this second statement in Haggai 1:14 records the remnant of Judah’s obedience to the Lord’s command which is recorded in Haggai 1:18 and was communicated to them by Haggai which required that they complete the task of rebuilding the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.
When this second statement in Haggai 1:14 asserts that they “returned” to complete this task, we must remember that for fifteen years, the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple had been abandoned by the remnant of Judah.
If you recall, under the leadership of Sheshbazzar, 50,000 Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to begin work on restoring Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple.
Approximately two years later in 536 B.C., they completed the foundation with much rejoicing (Ezra 3:8-10), however, their success disturbed the Samaritans and their other neighbors who lived in fear of the political and religious implications of a rebuilt temple in a restored Jewish state.
Consequently, they stridently opposed the project and were successful in temporarily stopping the restoration but in 522 B.C. Darius Hystaspes (522-486 B.C.) became king of Persia (Ezra 4:1-5, 24).
During this monarch’s second year, both Zechariah and Haggai exhorted the Jewish remnant to rebuild the temple.
Tattenai, the governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and their colleagues attempted to interfere with the rebuilding efforts, however, Darius Hystaspes ruled in favor of the Jews after investigating the matter in the royal records (cf. Ezra 5:3-6; 6:6-12).
In 516 B.C., the temple was finished and dedicated (Ezra 6:15-18).
We must remember that the work had begun on the temple but was not completed when the Lord issue the command in Haggai 1:8 to complete the rebuilding of the temple.
Ezra 3:2-3 assert that the priests were offering sacrifices on a rebuilt altar.
In fact, significant work had already been done to rebuild the temple since Ezra 3:10-11 asserts the builders had established the Lord’s temple, which resulted in the priests and Levites giving thanks and praise to the Lord.
However, Ezra 4 reveals that the project never came to completion because the enemies of Judah successfully persuaded the Persian monarch Artaxerxes to stop the projection.
Therefore, the temple was not in ruins but rather was still in a state or disrepair.
So therefore, Ezra 3-4 make clear that significant work had already taken place in rebuilding the temple, but the project was never completed because the remnant of Judah was forced to stop by King Artaxerxes at the behest of Judah’s enemies.
Notice, that twice in Haggai 1:14, the prophet Haggai under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit employs the proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) “Lord” which is the covenant-keeping personal name of God and is used here in connection with His covenant relationship with the Jewish people.
This is significant since this term is emphasizing the covenant relationship that the kingdom of Judah had with the Lord.
This word is emphasizing the “immanency” of the Lord meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of the citizens of the kingdom of Judah.
He is intervening here by energizing the souls of the remnant of Judah to complete the task of rebuilding His temple in Jerusalem.
Also, Haggai uses the noun ʾĕlōhîm means “God,” which is also significant since the word emphasizes the transcendent character of the God of Israel, who the New Testament identifies as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This word refers to the Lord’s complete sovereign power over all creation and every creature and over every nation and ruler as evidenced by fulfilled prophecy.
Haggai’s use of the word emphasizes that the Lord would sovereignly intervene and protect the remnant of the kingdom of Judah from her enemies while they completed the work of rebuilding His temple in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, as was the case in Haggai 1:2, 5, 7 and now here in Haggai 1:14, we have the expression “the Lord ruling over the armies” which is speaking of the God of Israel’s sovereignty over all creation and every creation, both human and angelic beings.
This expression also emphasizes the divine origin of Haggai’s message to the remnant of Judah.
It would also be a reminder to this remnant of Judah that the God of Israel was in control and not the human rulers on the earth who might be hindering this rebuilding project or preventing them from performing this task.
If the God of Israel is the Lord ruling over the angelic and human armies, then this remnant has no excuse for not rebuilding the Lord’s temple.
If the God of Israel wants this remnant to rebuild His temple, they should waste no time in doing so since no one will be able to stop this task from being accomplished if God is sovereign and ruling over human and angelic armies and rulers.
So therefore, this expression is designed to encourage the remnant of Judah to complete the task of rebuilding His temple in Jerusalem and reassure them of His presence as they completed this task.
Another significant expression in Haggai 1:14 is ʾĕlōhêhem (אֱלֹהֵיהֶֽם), “their God” which is emphasizing that the remnant of Judah possesses a covenant relationship with God and had exercised faith in Him.
As was the case in Haggai 1:12, here in Haggai 1:14, we have the expression šĕʾērît hāʿām (שְׁאֵרִ֣ית הָעָ֑ם), “the remnant which is a part of this people” and refers to those Jews who had returned from exile after seventy years in Babylon and had exercised faith in the God of Israel.