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LAYING THE FOUNDATION
The Messages of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi
Consider your ways(First Announcement, Haggai 1:1-15)
Spiritual Temple(Second Announcement, Haggai 2:1-9)
Turning Point- (Third Announcement, Haggai 2:10-19)
King of Kings(Fourth Announcement, Haggai 2:20-23)
The Book of Haggai serves as an introduction to Zechariah’s more detailed prophesies. It reveals that the earthly temple they were toiling on was a mere shadow of the magnificent spiritual temple, whose foundation would also be laid in Jerusalem.
Haggai’s first message, delivered eighteen years after the remnant had returned from exile in Babylon, addressed the lack of progress in building the new temple. Having restored the city wall and completed their own homes the remnant excused their reluctance to start work on the temple by saying it was not the right time to do so.
God said that they laboured under a curse because they had put their own priorities first. Their economy had been affected, crop yields were low and water was scarce. He said that if they got on with the job, He would look favourably on them, “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. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 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. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.” (Haggai 1:2-9). They responded to the message and later that month work got under way.
When Haggai spoke to them a month later there were some who remembered the splendour of Solomon’s temple and they worried that God would disapprove because the new temple would not compare with the former House of God. Haggai reassured them that God was with them and made it clear through a prophecy that no earthly temple could compare with the magnificence of the spiritual House of God. They were merely shadows of the spiritual temple that they represented, the glory of which will last forever, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:6-9).
The identity of the latter House is revealed by the time setting. It will come into prominence after the shaking of the heavens, earth and nations which is a clear reference to the Day of the Lord at the end of this age.
God will fulfill the promise to Abraham that through his descendant all families of the earth will be blessed. It will be through Jesus Christ that salvation will be offered to all the world after his second coming at the end of this age when the curses of Genesis 3:15-19, will be lifted and all the families of the earth will be blessed. Christ will become the ‘desire of all nations’ and God’s House will be filled with a glory greater than any of the former earthly temples.
During his ministry on earth Jesus Christ spoke of this time telling his disciples that he would prepare a place for them in his Father’s House, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-3).
This promise was open to all families of the earth as evidenced by Paul when he spoke to an audience of gentile converts, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:13-22).
The significance of what the remnant were doing in Jerusalem in Haggai’s time cannot be dismissed lightly. In rebuilding the city and the temple they were in a physical sense foreshadowing the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. In laying a foundation for an earthly representation of the House of God, they were also preparing the way for a greater and more magnificent spiritual foundation. The spiritual temple of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone will be the greatest of all the temples. The foundation of that temple was laid in Jerusalem over four hundred years later when Christ lay down his life to establish the way to salvation for mankind. He was the chief cornerstone of the spiritual temple and it is through his sacrifice that all families of the earth will be blessed.
When Haggai spoke to them again he used an analogy from the law to point out that although they were doing God’s work in building a physical representation of God’s spiritual House it did not make them holy or righteous. Nor did it excuse the people of Judah for what they had done. They had spent seventy years in captivity because they had defiled their relationship with God, “Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.” (Haggai 2:14). God was extending His mercy to them because of His promise to Abraham. He prolonged their existence as a nation so that all the families of the earth would be blessed through a descendant of Abraham.
Haggai reminded the remnant that because they had put their own priorities first they had been labouring under a curse, but from that day on they were to be blessed, “And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD: Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’S temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.” (Haggai 2:15-19).
Laying the foundation of the new temple was the point from which the curse under which they laboured was removed symbolizing the historic turning point that would occur when Jesus Christ, chief cornerstone of the spiritual House of God, laid down his life to ensure salvation for mankind. His sacrifice began the process that would eventually reconcile man to God and lift the curses of Genesis 3 under which this world has laboured for so long.
Later that same day Haggai elaborated on what he had said earlier, that in the Day of the Lord God shall overthrow the nations, “And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” (Haggai 2:22).
Genealogies recorded in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 authenticate Jesus Christ as an heir to the throne. He will to rule the earth and will overcome the nations. Compare the following passages from Revelation with Haggai 2:22 above, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11-16).
Notice in Haggai that Christ will, ‘destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen’ The ‘heathen’ in Haggai are the same as the ‘nations’ in Revelation. They are those who are not God’s people, they are their enemies, or adversaries.
Zerubbabel, governor of Judah at that time represented Christ who will return at the end of this age to rule, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4).
Zerubbabel will be God's signet, “In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:23). A signet is the seal of authenticity and authority. In this case Zerubbabel, who had the authority as the governor of Judah, was an authentic heir to the throne of David according to the genealogy in Matthew 1:13.
Haggai played a major role in encouraging the people back to work on the temple. He explained the importance of what they were doing in the context of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. Zechariah, as we shall see, elaborated on how their work foreshadowed the future.
END Continue to Part Two - Zechariah's Message
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Last modified: 10/03/07
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