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Christian Rata, Professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Haggai in SWBTS Chapel on November 4, 2025.
Praise the Lord for the wonderful worship. And thank you so much with the Spanish, I’m working on Duolingo in Spanish, and I just got a Bible in Spanish, so that’s very useful. And I was just thinking these days that to improve my language, I need to sing some songs, but with the English. And if you can share some of those, that would be very much appreciated. But thanks so much for the worship, and thank you, Dr Dockery, for the privilege to preach, and thank you for your prayers. Let’s open our Bibles. If you have your Bible this this morning to Haggai. The Book of Haggai, I’m just going to read a couple of verses, and then hopefully, we might look through the whole book. So Haggai, chapter one, verse one, in the second year of Darius, the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the Prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of jehozadak, the high priest.
Thus says the Lord of hosts. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Amen. Let’s pray. I thank You, Lord for your word. Please again, open our eyes to see wonderful things from your word. And we pray, Lord, that You edify your church, edify your people, and you glorify Your name in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. I’m wondering what comes to your mind when you hear the name of the Prophet, Haggai. But let me say it again, Haggai, I’ll be honest. To me, it sounds like hug I or, you know, we could say in more modern terms that like I hug, right? We have iPhone, iPad, I hug and you know, you may be laughing at this, but actually that’s a very easy way to remember about this book, because this book actually, it is about hugging.
It’s actually better said about embracing. But it’s not about embracing yourself. It’s not about embracing your dreams. It’s not about you do you or you know you be you, but it’s actually embracing the plans and the pleasures of God. It’s about embracing what pleases and glorifies God. In fact, the verse that is key for this book. It’s verse eight. It hasn’t been read yet, and we will read it later, but I’m going to read it right now, just so we have it in mind again. The Verse eight says, like this. Goes like this, go up to the hills and bring wood and build a house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified. Another translation says, Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified. So if you think about it, you if you look at the book of Haggai encourages in readers to embrace the pleasures and plans of God. It encourages us to put God in the first place and New Testament languages we know the verse, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Of course, we live in a Zeitgeist and which we are encouraged, instead of seeking God’s plans, instead of putting God first, to put ourselves first, right? You be yourself. You heard this quotation. Does anybody know who said that you be yourself? I saw in a recent book, under this quotation was Oprah. It was Michelle Obama. It was Donald Trump. It was Stephen Curry. Take your pick and every student president, student you know, class president, everybody we live in this kind of culture in which the zeitgeist is this, seek your comfort, seek your dreams, but if you pursue your dreams, this text tells us it’s going to lead you to nightmares. This text actually tell us, telling us that if you pursue your own things, actually your life is going to lead in frustration and disappointment. And it’s encouraging us over and over again. Put God first, then he’s going to be pleased with it and be glorified. But let’s look at the text, and let’s start with the verses that I just read.
So the text starts like this, in the second year of Darius the king, and a careful reader like you who’s been in seminary or in a Christian school. You realize from the very first words that this is a problem. It says like this in the second year of Darius. And the first question is, Who is this, Darius? Probably you notice this is not a Semitic name, and you are right. It is a Persian king. Why would the Persian king be at the beginning of a biblical Book? And again, we know Scripture interprets itself with scripture. How is it possible for a Persian king who worships a pagan god, Ahura Mazda, the so called wise lord? How is it possible for this to be at the beginning of a biblical Book, above a biblical prophet? And again, the answer is very simple.
We find that at the end of the book of Chronicles, the people of God were taken into exile because they rejected the words of the Lord and they mocked the words of the prophets. And then the book of Ezra, which is connected very much to this book, starts like this, Cyrus the Great gave a decree for the people to return, why to fulfill the words of the Prophet, Jeremiah, the people of God went into exile because they did not obey and they despised the words of the Prophet and the words of God. And the people returned here to fulfill the words of the Prophet. And this book is going to tell us that any type of restoration, any kind of recovering of vision, is only possible through the word of God. Here is a sad situation, if you think about it, Darius the king in the sixth month.
And again, if you do a little bit more study, you notice that Darius started ruling about 522, before Christ. He is known his history as Darius the Great. He’s a great king. And it says following. It says the king in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet. And this gives us another important information. Actually, we have the exact date when this message was given. In fact, we have the exact dates of all the message of Haggai. It was August 29 520 before Christ. You can count, if you like. It’s about 2500 and I think five years ago, about 2505 years ago, if my mathematic math is correct, the word of God came to this prophet.
And I want to, I want to, I want to show you a little bit of a slide here, just to have a little bit of an idea about the situation in which we are right now. It’s not only that there’s no king, there’s no being there’s been no Davidic King for about 60 years. But look where the province of Judah, because we’re going to see later, the word they came to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah. And if you look on the upper map, you actually cannot even see Judah so small. But the point that I’m trying to make is to see the greatness of the Persian Empire. For the first time in history of the world, we have an empire that contains all the three major river valleys, from the Indus River to the right to the Tigris Euphrates and all the way to the Nile and beyond. This is the context in which this book takes place. And if you look on the lower map there, you can see Judah.
It’s actually smaller than it usually was. In fact, this Judah might be about this. Judah, some people call it the province. It’s more appropriate they call a district. It’s probably smaller than Greater Fort Worth. So this is the context in which we are. Judah right now is about the size of Fort Worth you can walk, somebody said you can walk easily in one day across the province. And in this context, the word of the Lord comes to by the hand of Haggai, the Prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of she alkyl governor of Judah, Governor is very generous. Some people will see just like a just like a leader of a district, and to Joshua, the son of son of jehoshaduck, the high priest. But this is the important thing here, the word of the Lord comes and notice what the word of the Lord says, Thus, says the Lord of hosts. This is my translation.
Some of the translation is going to says that, says the Lord of the armies. The Septuagint says, Thus, says the Almighty God the net says, even nicer, the net says, Thus says the Lord, the ruler of all. And you know you immediately you notice the discrepancy. Here you have this small province, very, very few people. In fact, maybe about 20,000 people, 25,000 people, probably about 1/3 of the population of of Jerusalem before the exile, a very small place, and in this very small place, the Prophet says, Thus says the Lord of hosts. And watch out for this expression, because in 20, in 38 verses appears 14 times. Hug. Is telling us over and over again, sure this is a small province, sure we don’t even have a king. We haven’t had a king for 60 years, but the God that we believe in is the ruler of all. The God. God’s message that I bring is the God who is the almighty God, who is in control of all the kingdoms. He’s the rule of of all, I hope you can understand a little bit about the audacity and about the faith of this prophet, a minor prophet that we call a minor prophet, I would say this prophet would not have made it into the shapers of the southwestern seminary.
I’m not kidding, because you know, if you look at it, it’s only got 38 verses. He only prophesied, as we shall see, he only prophesied, as far as we know, for less than four months, this message is August 29 520 we’re going to see a message on October 17, a few months later, and the last two messages are going to be December 18. Both of them are going to be on December 18, 520 less than four months he prophesied. Look, in our books, you’re not going to find anybody who published, you know, in my Bible, all the publication of Haggai or on these two pages, they’re not going to make it in our who’s who in the famous books, but in the, in the in the wisdom of God, he made it here. And the reason he made it here because, as we shall see, even though he is a small Prophet, only 38 verses, God worked mightily through this prophet.
Notice what it says in verse two. And this is what I want to draw your attention, Haggai, this minor prophet about which we do not know very much. His name probably is associated with the festival. It’s possible that he was born into a festival day. This prophet actually is a master rhetorician. And notice as we read the text to see how good of a rhetorician he is. He uses the lot of repetition, he uses workplace he uses question marks, and God uses his word through the Holy Spirit, to change the hearts of the people. But let’s look at it and let’s continue. It says, so notice how Haggai starts in verse two. Thus says the Lord of hosts. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. This is what the people were saying.
And notice that the first time that Haggai speaks, He speaks to the leader. He speaks to Zerubbabel, who, as far as we know, is related to the Davidic family, so there’s connection with the past. And he speaks to Joshua, the son of jehoshadok, which again is connected to the high priest from the past. He speaks to the leader, and he says to the leader, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. That was the situation. And, you know, it’s not that clear from this text, but it’s clear from Hebrew. There’s a pause here. So in my imagination, I can see him going to the leaders and saying, Hey, this is what the people say. And then the leaders are probably thinking, Oh, actually, that’s something that I said. I’m afraid many times the this message came not just from the people, but actually came from the leaders themselves. And notice what happens later, because now in verse three, and like I said, there’s there was a pause.
And the pause is actually visible, even from the English because it says again. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. The Prophet says again. It says again. And this is something again that is repeated over and over again. This is one of the main theological points of the book of Haggai. This book is is packed with divine authority. So count at home. If you go home and look in 38 verses, 26 times in 38 verses is going to tell us that the word that is here is the word that comes from God in various ways. So I’m not sure if Haggai was too timid. I’m not sure if because Haggai is the first prophet, the first prophet after the exile, but this is repeated over and over again. Sometimes Haggai says it, not only at the beginning of the of the verse, like most of the prophets say it, he also says it’s at the end. And sometimes watch, watch out as you read. Sometimes he might even interrupt himself in the midst of a phrase to say, Thus says the Lord.
This is an extraordinary feature of this book, the emphasis on the word of God, on the authority of the Word of God. So we see it here in verse three. Then the daughter of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the Prophet. And now puts the first rhetorical question, is it time for you yourself to dwell in your panel houses while this house lies in ruins? Right? This is the question that is put there. Is it time for you to dwell in your panel houses? And this word used for panel houses, it’s only used in the Old Testament when it’s used for the house. A king or for the house of a temple.
That’s what I’m saying. This message went to the leaders, because I am afraid, as many times it happens, is that the leaders, first and foremost, were the ones who were building these panel houses. Some of the translations say these luxuriant houses. It’s not that they were just building houses, but they were building luxuriant houses. And notice again, what, what it continues to say, is it time for you to dwell in your panel houses, while this house lies in ruins. And again, this, this mastery, this mastery in rhetoric, is also seen three in through through wordplay. This word ruin appears twice in this text, in this in this first chapter, it appears right here in verse four, and then we’re going to see it a little bit later, a little bit later in verse nine, Haggai says, because my house lies in ruins. The word in Hebrew is the word harif. And then later, God is going to tell us using a similar word, and is going to tell us he says this in verse 11, I have called for a drought, for a horev, right?
What is happening here? The people of Israel, the people of Judah, who came back, they put themselves first. They put their comfort first, and God disciplined them. They let the temple in ruins, and God sent in HaRav, and God said, I’m going to send a drought. The passage that was read, the passage that was read by students, was very, very good one, right? You Sow Much and harvested little you eat. And here again, the English is a little bit expensive. Actually, Haggai is very, very brief. You eat, not satisfied, drink, not your filled. Clothes, not warm. And he earns wages, puts them in a bag with holes. So again, this is exactly what I said at the beginning.
The sinful, selfish self is destined to be an unhappy self. Somebody said, if you put yourself first and if you put your needs first before the needs of God, you’re going to be a frustrated and an unsatisfied self. And exactly this is what Haggai is telling us, and he’s going to repeat it a little bit later again. And just in case you you worry about this, how is it possible for these things to happen? Maybe it’s just just something that is that’s random. Actually, Haggai is going to tell us, no, no, I did it. I did it. Notice what it says here in verse 10 is going to repeat the same idea in different words, therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the Earth has withheld its produce. And then it says, I have called, I have called for a drought on the land and on the hills and on the grain and the new wine, and on all their labors, all the toil their hands. So of course, a major major, the major theological team in the in the prophets, and especially the Minor Prophets, is the sovereignty of God.
Nothing happens at random, right? This is the most clearly illustrated in the book of Jonah. Right. Jonah runs away from God. God sends a storm. He jumps into the water, right? They throw him into the water. He sends a fish. He prays the fish, God tells the fish, vomit him out. Then he sends a plant, and then he sends, he grows a plant. Everywhere we look in the prophets, we see the sovereignty of God, and the same thing we see here, God is in control. If something has happened to the people of God that brings frustration and disappointment. It’s not something that just happened. Actually, Haggai is telling us very clearly here, I have called it, I have called it, I have deemed I have done these things. And again, the message that we have to learn, especially from this part, is in verse eight. Thus says the Lord of the house actually starts in verse seven, consider your ways. Again. In the original is, put your heart on your ways. Here it says, Consider your ways. And I like how the message translates. The message translates like this. Take a good hard look at your life, think it over. This is what Haggai is telling us. This is the main message that Haggai is telling us.
Take a good, hard look at your life, think it over. And it’s very interesting thing I noticed. I don’t know if Haggai has any idea, but the name of the Persian God Mazda, yeah, it is connected to the Mazda car. Don’t Google it now. But that name Mazda, which means wise, actually, the, apparently, the proto, the proto indo, European name, actually comes from, from a word which means to to put your mind on it. It’s kind of like be wise. And I think, I think the same idea is probably here in this text. You know, it’s kind of like be wise, consider and be wise and put the pleasures of God and the glory of God in the first place. Of course, this is the teaching that we find it throughout the Scripture. To me, a great example comes from, from a friend of mine who visited a few months ago. A few months ago, the director of the seminary in Loma togo was visiting our seminary, and I had a privilege to host him a couple of days at my house. And I was asking him his name is Dr Sylvan Alabo.
He told me how he became a Christian, and apparently one of his cousins came and shared the gospel with him, and he became a Christian. He used to be a voodoo worshiper. He used to have all these amulets on his hands, and he became a Christian. And after a while, about a handful of people were Christians in that village. And as you can imagine, when they were Christians, they wanted to build a church in the village, but the elders would not let them build a church. A lot of the elders were voodoo priests, and they said, No way, no way, you’re not going to build a church in this village. But these guys came up with the idea, very, very, very fresh Christians, just a handful of Christians.
They came up with the idea. So they went to the elders, because the habit in that village was that if you got married, and usually you went to the elders and you said, please give us some land so I can build a house for me and my family. And these people came up with that idea, and they said, You know what, why don’t we get together and go and tell the elders, Hey, you don’t have to give us any land for us. We don’t need any land for our families. Just let us build the church. You know, it’s very interesting. Here are some fresh Christians, some very, very new Christians who actually, in my opinion, they show that first love. And they said, We do not need a house for ourselves.
We want to build a church. And guess what? I will say the same thing happened that it happened in the book of Ezra, and the same thing that happened in the book of Haggai God moved the hearts of those elders, some of them who were voodoo priests, and they let them build a church in that village, because there were people, new Christians, who said, You know what? It doesn’t matter what my house is. I want to build a house for the Lord. And the same thing, you know, of course, if we go a little bit further, because all of these things ultimately should lead us to Christ. Because when we think about the story, I’m also thinking about Christ for Christ, who says that My food is to do your will. Christ who said, you know, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have a head, I don’t have a place to put my head, because my I came here again, not to seek My pleasure, not to seek my will, but to seek the will of the one who sent me. So ultimately, again, the ultimate example for us is Christ.
Christ is the ultimate example who came here to please God and to glorify God. But this is what Haggai is telling you. And Haggai is telling me, if you live a life in which you put yourself first, in which you put your desires first, is going to be a life of frustration, because I I says, God, I will blow it away. So it’s something for us to think about and to see and to reconsider. Because again, this expression is repeated five times in different ways. Consider your ways.
Take a good hard look at your life and think it over. I think this is the message that Haggai is trying to tell us. But notice what happened in verse 12. Then Zerubbabel, the son of shaaltiel, and Joshua, the son of jehoshatrak, the high priest. We told the remnants of the people obey the voice of the Lord, their God, and the order of Haggai, the Prophet, is the Lord. The God has sent him, and the people feared the Lord. Again, it’s a small prophet, but God works through this prophet, and the people obey. This is beautiful, because unfortunately, rarely happens in the Old Testament. How many times the prophets speak and the people don’t want to listen? But in this case, these people seem to have been changed. Seem to have been touched by the word of God through the prophet.
And it says, further then, Haggai, the Messenger of the Lord. And we saw this verse, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, and the spirit of all the remnants of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord the host there God. Praise be to God, the people of God. And I don’t know if you notice, at the beginning of the of the chapter, it says this people. God says this people. There’s a little bit of an estrangement about them. And usually God doesn’t say this people, you know, like, it’s like.
I think your wife wouldn’t like it if you said to somebody, Hey, this wife, or, you know, this child, there’s a distance there. But that’s how the text starts, is this people, but now this people actually obeys the voice of God and and starts to build the house of the Lord, because the word of the Lord spoke with power, and the Lord’s Spirit worked, and we will see later in the Zechariah, not by not by might and not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. So here just, just a small parenthesis, because many times when we look at these prophetic books, people say, Well, where are the miracles, in the in the in these prophets, right in this second exile, in the first exile, we see a lot of miracles. We see the 10 plagues. I prefer to call them the 12, the 12 miracles, because there are 12. But anyway, there’s a lot of miracles. The sea is split and so on. And people are asking themselves, where are all these miracles?
But if you read very carefully, you will notice there’s miracles in this in this second exile. And the miracle is God moving the hearts of the people. God is moving the heart of Darius. God is moving the heart of even foreign kings of Cyrus. And he sends the people back. And not only they send the people back, but they give them what is necessary to rebuild the temple, and now God works through His Spirit and moves the hearts of his people. Praise be to God. This is the first part, and a very important part. Choose your priority way, consider your ways and put first things first. Seek first the kingdom of God and the work of God, and God will be with you. Of course, again, we remind, we are reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of Matthew go and make disciples.
In other words, listen to me, and I will be with you. God’s presence is with his people who obey His Word and put his his interests and his pleasures in first place. But if we go a little bit further, we have the same message. Because what’s happening in chapter two, and again, we’re trying to read most of the most of the book. It says here in the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month. So this is October 17. This is on the seventh day of the Feast of the tabernacle. It’s about the same month when Solomon dedicated his temple again. And verse two, speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of jehoshadhar, the high priest, and to all the remnants of the people. And say, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong. O Zerubbabel declares the LORD be strong. O Joshua, son of Jehoshaphat, 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 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. So again, I want to read the whole text, because it’s very important. My spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus, says the Lord of hosts. Again, yet once more, in a little while, while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver mine and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And at this place I will give Shalom. I will give peace, declares Lord of Hosts.
So this is the second, the second time that Haggai is speaking, and the reason he’s speaking now is very simple. People are probably discouraged. So think about it, the building of the temple started just, just a few weeks before, and you can see the overwhelming, overwhelming job to build a temple. And probably you can still the ruins. The ruins are still there, and the people are probably thinking about the glory days, when the temple was there before. I can imagine the same thing might happen with some of the students here who come here to Southwestern and maybe they come with their parents or their grandparents, and the parents who went to the seminary, they might be thinking, well, you know what, when I was here in the 1900s or, you know, maybe 2000 you know, this was the biggest seminary, right? So you you can think, or so, some people might be a little bit discouraged, right? And the same thing happened here, you know, there’s not much being built, right?
And the people are becoming discouraged. And in this context, Haggai is bringing them a word of encouragement. I will be with you. And the first, the thing that says, and the thing that struck me as I was reading this text is basically says this, you know, work for, I am with you. In verse four, work for, I am with you, actually, in original, it says just, it just says, do for, I am with you, do. And as I was thinking about this and meditating about this, I was. Thinking about the Nike commercial. We all know the Nike commercial, just do it right, has been around for a long time, but before Nike made that commercial, actually, there was Haggai. And Haggai said, just do do it. But it’s much better than the Nike commercial, Haggai, because, you know, I don’t know if you remember later, I think it was a new balance. Who tried to improve on that said, don’t just do it. He said, do it better.
But actually, Haggai is going to tell us, don’t just do it. He’s going to tell us, in the next paragraph, he’s going to tell us, do it with clean hands, with clean hearts, because that’s the second part, that’s another part of the message, and again, it ties very well with the Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Haggai is telling the people, do it work, for I will be with you. And not only I will be with you, but the glory of this temple will be much greater than the glory that is now. And may God help do the same thing with Southwestern I think it’s happening. Praise be to God, right? We do believe that if you follow the word of God and you put your priorities straight, God will bless because that’s how this text is going to end. You know, I will give peace. And if you look a little bit later, if you look in verse 19, I will bless you. Once you are in the will of God. God promises over and over again, I will be with you. And you know, you can imagine how much this this message encourage these people, right?
The reason the real problem here, brothers and sisters, not the neglect of the building, it’s indifference to the glory of God. And the indifference to the glory of God brought us years of curses. Because if you read the book of Haggai very carefully, if you read about all this drought, if you read about all these things with which God struck this land, all of these things are containing the curses they were they were given in Deuteronomy for people who are breaking the covenant, who are disobedient to God, these are the people which were under the curse before they they decided to to obey God. The sour fruit of their failure was again, a life of chronic frustration, but now when they started to work and there was discouragement, again, God is telling them. God is telling them, Take courage.
Three times, he’s telling them, Take courage. I am with you, and the glory of this temple would be much greater in the future than the glory that is now, and I will also give you Shalom. So I want to say this, like with with one of my with one of my favorite pastors, I think he’s, he’s right when he reminds us this, you know, it says this, you know, do and build because you cannot see very clearly. What you’re building is much greater than what you actually can see. So go and do your work, because actually your future and the fruit of your of your work is much greater than you actually can see, because God again, is with you. Take courage and work, because God is blessing. So again, there are many, many, many stories that we can look here. And again, I don’t think it’s anybody here who’s done the work of God, who’s never been discouraged, right? You’ve been working maybe with your youth. You’ve been working in your church.
Your church is very small, and you’re looking at your work, you’re looking at your congregation, and it’s so much smaller than the one of maybe Joel Austin or somebody else. And it’s easy to be discouraged, right? But, but again, the message is here, keep working, keep doing the will of God, because you cannot see. You cannot see. You are building more than you can see. You are building more than you can see. And again, I’m thinking about silver and alabo. I’m going back to him, because I just texted him a few minutes ago, a few a few days ago, I texted him and I asked him about his church. When he was at my house, he was looking on his phone all the time, and he was looking because they were live streaming the youth the youth convention from Benin, from his country. And he told me that in his village, that village that started with about 10 people, there was a youth convention with about 500 young people, and it was at the church that they started, and that church planted 12 other churches. But again, you know, think about it. Think about it. This all took a very, very long time. It didn’t happen overnight. I want to, actually, to illustrate this point. And I was thinking about the message of Professor Professor Berry. I like how Professor berry put it. We are now in a gap. It, but there’s going to be a reversal. I want to illustrate this. I wanted to jump here, and I saw it, there’s a gap.
I wanted to jump down to make it more visible, but I didn’t want to get hurt. And then, you know, I wanted to jump up to show that there was reversal, but, but again, I cannot do it, first of all, and at the same time it would be, it would not be a good illustration. I should have maybe gone down there. And maybe I was thinking, Maybe I should walk around the whole the whole place, and they show that there’s going to be a reversal, but that’s also not a good illustration. I was thinking, Maybe I should walk around the whole campus, but probably nobody will be here. And then I say, You know what? I think you know? To really, to really see this illustration, to understand this illustration, even if I walked around the whole Texas or the whole country, it still wouldn’t really capture this because these people, these people for this reversal to take place, waited more than 500 years.
They waited five years just for the building of the temple they started. It took five years to finish the temple, and it took another 500 years for the glory of the Lord to be in the temple, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s going to take even more years, as we know, when all these prophecies are going to be fulfilled in its in its final, final, final fulfillment, which is going to be when God is going to be the temple, when God is going to be the temple and his glory is going to be among us. These prophecies is in the future, but it’s also a prophecy that encourage those people, encourage those people do build, do your work, because you build more than you can see.
That is the message that Haggai is telling us. And if we go a little bit further, you know, this is the last section, and we have to end with a couple of sections. Actually, there’s another section that is very, very unusual here, in which Haggai is saying the following, Haggai and I was skipping a little bit to verse verse 11, but now we’re on December 18. Thus says the Lord of hosts in verse 11, asked the priest about the law, if somebody carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches this with his full bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priest answered and said, No. Then I said, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean. The priest answered, said, it does become unclean. Then Haggai, and this is a key verse answer 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 there is unclean.
Now then consider from this day forward. Consider again in verse 18, from this day on onward, consider so again. What is happening here is it’s a very difficult text, but just to summarize, it is basically saying that uncleanness is more contagious than cleanness, and you know it is possible for you to do the work of God, it’s possible to even build a temple, but building a temple is not going to make you holy. Actually, if you come with unclean hands and with an unclean heart and you do the work of God, even if you build a temple, it’s not you who’s going to become holy, but the temple is going to become unholy, even if you bring sacrifices to God, which is what God is asking for. Sacrifices were supposed to forgive your sins. If you come with the unclean heart and with unclean hands, is going to contaminate them. Uncleanness is more contagious the cleanness.
So this is another point that I think Haggai is telling us, don’t just do it. Don’t just do the work of God. Put the work of God first and do it even if there’s discouragement, but do it with clean hands and clean heart, because the moment you try start doing that, the moment you start doing that, God again, is on your side. And notice how this text ends. From this day on. I will bless you. It’s a little bit unclear exactly how the people were unclean, but it’s very, very possible that they’re unclean, and it simply has to do with disobedience. Many times we think about uncleanness in in terms of a ritual thing, but in this particular in this particular case, it’s possible that the people are unclean because they disobeyed. They did not build the house of the Lord, but now, when they laid the foundation, when they lay the foundation, the whole thing has changed. There’s a major transformation when you start to obey God, when you start to obey God, and you want to do it with a clean heart.
God promises that He will bless and the text ends very nicely. And I will just read this because of lack of time, but I want to read this text because it’s a messianic text, like every good prophet, like most of the prophets actually in the Old Testament, is going to end on a note that is also going to make us look forward, forward, because there is going. To be somebody who is going to be key in the history of salvation. And this is verse 20. It says this The following, the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month, same day, December 18, speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I’m about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of the kingdoms. I’m about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders.
This is the same promise that we find in Ezekiel and also na him, God is going to set things straight, is going to, is going to, is going to fight against evil and is going to destroy it. But then, in verse 23 on that day, and that’s usually understood as Catholic. He 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. So praise be to God. The book also ends on a messianic note. While if you look at this particular illustration about the signet ring is going to connect us with the book of Jeremiah. In the book of Jeremiah, zerubbabels grandfather is Jehoiakim. And in Jeremiah, chapter 22 Jeremiah tells us, even if you were a signet ring on my hand, I will throw you away. And the reason Jehoiakim is thrown away is because disobedience to the words of the prophets, disobedience to the Word of God. But God is going to tell us now this person, Zerubbabel, obeyed, and now I’m going to make him a sign that ring. I’m going to give him authority. And of course, this is again for the future. Zerubbabel, as we all know in both genealogies of Jesus and Matthew and Luke is intersected there. Zerubbabel appears there.
Zerubbabel is a hope for the Davidic line. The hope for the Davidic King is still there. So I just want to close and say this, you know, this is a great book. Thank you again for giving me such a small book. Again, I still know I didn’t cover it very well, even if it’s if it’s this small, but I think it’s a it’s a very good book for us to and I encourage every one of us to have a Haggai moment. Have a Haggai moment every semester, or maybe every trimester. Go in front of a mirror and say, say this, Hey guy. Say this, Hey guy. Or, you know, you can say hey gal, or Hey ma’am, or hey sir, consider your ways. Take a good, hard look at your life. What are you putting in the first place? Are you putting your pleasures and your comfort, or are you putting first the scene, the kingdom of God and His righteousness? And if you’re putting first the kingdom of God and righteousness.
Start working, and don’t be discouraged. You are building more than you can see. If you’re a mother who takes care of her children, keep doing it, because you are doing more than you can see. If you are students who are studying his Greek or Hebrew and you’re overwhelmed, keep doing it. You’re building more than you can see. And more importantly, again, if you seek the kingdom of God, His righteousness, God will bless it might take 50 years, it might take 100 years, it might take 1000s of years. But anybody who seeks the kingdom of God first and does the work of the Lord, He will not labor in vain. Praise be to God, amen. Let’s pray.
Thank you, Lord, for this prophet is a small prophet, but we thank you that he speaks your word and he spoke the word with power. Lord, help us as we minister. Please fill us with the Holy Spirit. Please put in our minds and in our hearts the importance of your word, because your word has power and your word can transform lives. Help us, Lord, to put you first in our life, to seek you first to do your work for the kingdom, and help us to do with a clean heart. And may all this work of ours be looking forward to the second coming of your Lord, Jesus, Christ, and for the sharing of His glory together in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
