Sermon Tone Analysis
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Background
In 538 B.C. Cyrus King of Persia allowed the exile Jews to return to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity.
Under the leadership of Zerubbabel about 50,000 Jews left Babylon and went back to Israel and two years later 536 B.C. construction on the temple began.
After two years and much opposition to the rebuilding effort, all work stopped.
No work would be done for the next 14 years.
In the fourteenth year of the halted work Haggai was sent to speak to the people.
Haggai means “festive” or “Festival”.
Haggai was similar to those to whom he spoke - he was one who returned to Israel from captivity and he was a contemporary to Zechariah and he ministered about 15 years after Daniel.
We know little of his personal life - no father listed, no hometown.
The book of Haggai is the second shortest book of only 38 verses.
The book of Haggai only talks about a very small slice of history.
We know this because some very specific dates are mentioned.
The first date is the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month (Hag.1:1).
The last date is the twenty fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius (Hag.2:10).
The calendar they used at that time was a bit different to ours.
However it is quite easy to correlate the dates – and we get the following.
The second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month = 29th August 520 B.C.
The twenty fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius = 18th December 520 B.C.
That is 112 days.
16 weeks.
The theme for the book is the call that Haggai gives from God for the people to “Think Carefully About Their Ways”.
Wrong Priorities
Introduction
A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day.
That night one of the hunters
returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.
"Where's Harry?" he was asked.
"Harry had a stroke of some kind.
He's a couple of miles back up the trail."
"You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?"
"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry."
I heard a joke about a young successful lawyer who was parking his BMW on the side of a busy street and when he opened his door a car came by at the same time and took his door off his car.
He stood there looking down at his BMW and said, "Oh, no! My car!
My car!"
A man, who had stopped to help, said, "Mister, you have just lost your left arm, and you’re crying about your car?"
The young man looked down and said, "Oh no, my Rolex!
It’s so easy to see when someone else’s priorities are out of order.
It’s not quite so easy to see it in your own life.
Let’s be honest with ourselves.
We all struggle with our priorities from time to time.
Every day we make decisions, and those decisions flow out of what we consider most important.
What you love and value - is your priority
That concept of love and value affecting priorities makes sense to most of us.
However, we who say we love and value God very often give God what we have left over in time and resources.
Sure, we will worship God—as long as nothing else is going on.
Sure we will give our time and money to God—if we happen to have any leftover from spending it on other things.
God’s children need a constant reminder to prioritize God.
When God is not a priority our priorities are wrong.
Know this.
We’re not the first generation to struggle with our priorities.
The people living in Jerusalem in 520 B.C. faced—and failed in—the same problem.
And God sent them a message they desperately needed.
And we who live in the 21 st century need it just as much today.
Wrong Priorities Must Be Confronted
The dating method of the prophecy of Haggai is a stark reminder that Haggai’s ministry is during “the times of the Gentiles”.
This is the prophetic time period we are in today as well, as Israel has no king of her own.
This first message of Haggai was given after the exiles had been back in Jerusalem for 18 years and the work of rebuilding the temple had been left and laid idle for the last 14 years.
The work had started gloriously as recorded in the book of Ezra.
The foundation for the temple had been laid and the altar had been rebuilt.
After two years the work stopped.
Overtaken with discouragement and soon derailed by a lack of focus.
It is in this place and context that the LORD through Haggai spoke to confront the people and their priorities.
This message if you note was to both the political leader and the religious leader of the day.
Haggai starts off with The LORD of Armies says this — modern day equivalent of “Thus sayeth the LORD”.
Establishing the command and authority of the message as being the word of the LORD and not Haggai’s soap box.
Also among the governor and the high priest it reminds them that not all voices and messages are equal.
This is especially important to remember today.
With everyone having a platform to get their voice out we must remember not all voices are equal.
There is one voice that MUST stand out and that is the voice and message of the LORD.
Those who teach would do well to remember it is not our job to share opinions, but to proclaim the LORD’s word and message.
The LORD’s message was to challenge the people’s hearts and priorities.
“These people say the time has not yet come for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.
Literally it is not a suitable time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.
They may not have said this out loud, but it was declared loudly through their actions - or rather inaction on completing the temple.
Many reasons why the work to rebuild the temple was hard:
The land was desolate after 70 years of neglect
The work itself was hard
Lack of resources (money and manpower)
Hostile enemies (Samaritans) resisting the work
Tough Farming - weeds, crop failures and droughts
Memory of easier times in Babylon
Many reason for hard work but no reason to abandon the work.
They in the difficulty spiritualized their excuse “the time had not yet come”.
They werent against the IDEA of rebuilding just its TIMING.
Its hard and difficult because God must not want us to do it - at least not at this time.
Oh, they didn’t deny God.
They just trivialized Him.
"It’s not time yet to rebuild the Lord’s house," they said.
They were guilty of procrastination.
They weren’t against serving God.
They’d serve God—just not yet.
Many today live the same way “I will serve you God but not yet, its not time now”
“I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else” Benjamin Franklin
This excuse of God’s timing is laid bare in the next two verses which describes their wrong priorities.
The people said “The time has not come yet for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt”, but God says “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house (My house) is in ruins?”
God through Haggai spoke a rebuke to the people about their wrong priority.
They built THEIR own house while neglecting His house!
Their priority was ME first and God next… maybe.
They didnt just make a roof over their head either.
The houses are described as paneled and refers to luxurious paneling and spacious layouts of houses.
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