Delve Into The ProphetsSample

DAY 19 – HAGGAI

When Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon in 539 BC, he gave the exiled Jews permission to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. A group went back the next year, and within two more years they’d laid and dedicated the temple foundation. But their work was then stopped by suspicious and resentful neighbors who had connections in the Persian court. Sixteen years later, shortly after a new king, Darius, came to the throne, the prophet Haggai began urging the returned exiles to resume work on the temple. He called specifically on Zerubbabel, the appointed governor, and Joshua, the high priest, to lead the community in this project. They obeyed, and within four years the reconstruction was completed and worship resumed in the temple.

The book of Haggai records the messages that prophet brought to the community during a strategic four-month period at the beginning of Darius’s reign. The first message challenges the people to recognize that their crops haven’t been blessed because they’ve left God’s house in ruins. In response, they resume work on the temple. The second message encourages them in this work. Some of them, possibly including Haggai himself, saw the temple the Babylonians had destroyed over sixty years before. They may be discouraged at how insignificant the new temple looks by comparison. But Haggai brings God’s promise that the new temple’s glory will be even greater than that of the original temple. The third message assures the people that from now on their crops will be blessed. The final message encourages Zerubbabel personally. He’s the heir to the throne of David, and this message seems to be an intentional reversal of a word God spoke to Jehoiachin, the Judean king who was taken to Babylon as a hostage. 

Through Jeremiah, God told that king, “Even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.” But now God says to Jehoiachin’s successor, “I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.” The people are back and so is God’s blessing.

PRAYER: Thank You for Your blessing in my life, Lord.