God's Story from Beginning to End: Haggai

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​Introduction
Dr. Laurence M. Gould, president emeritus of Carleton College, said “I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I don’t think our civilization will end that way. I think it will die when we no longer care. Arnold Toynbee has pointed out that nineteen of twenty-one civilizations have died from within and not by conquest from without. There were no bands playing and flags waving when these civilizations decayed. It happened slowly, in the quiet and in the dark when no one was aware.”[1]

Miriam Webster defines apathy as a lack of feeling or emotion, a lack of interest or concern. Apathy is a state of disinterest, or the suppression of emotions such as care, enthusiasm, motivation, or excitement. An apathetic individual or group of people have lost interest in or care about emotional, social, spiritual, or physical life and the world.  Apathy can be described as how an individual or group of individuals feel when they do not possess the ability required to confront a challenge (overwhelmed). It may also come from the feeling of having no challenge at all (such as the challenge is irrelevant to them, or they feel helpless).  Everyone has felt Apathy in one way or another and it is often a response to disappointment, sadness, or stress.  It can be a way to forget about or suppress these negative feelings. The feeling of apathy is generally short term but can become a long-term or even lifelong state of mind.  It can be brought on by trauma (death), life changes (losing a job, divorce) or inactivity (nothing is going to change so why should I care).
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We will come back to apathy in a bit.  But first, let’s go back in time and see what apathy does in a spiritual sense and what can be done be overcome apathy in life and in the church.

Background
In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was sieged and captured by the Babylonians which resulted in the destruction of the city, the walls, and Solomon’s Temple.  It was during this siege that many people were taken into captivity and brought to Babylon.  We talked about that last week.
In 538 B.C. the conquered or exiled people were permitted by Persian emperor King Cyrus to return to their homeland to rebuild.   Initially nearly 50,000 exiles and servants relocated to Jerusalem.  Upon their return the foundations for a new temple were laid, and the altar of burnt offerings was replaced so temple sacrifices could commence.  Soon thereafter they began to face hostility from neighboring tribes and the project was abandoned. 
In 522 B.C. a second group of exiles returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel (Governor) and Jeshua (High Priest). These leaders were inspired by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to commence rebuilding of the temple in 520 B.C.  The temple was completed in 515 B.C.

Haggai
This brings us to the small minor prophet book titled Haggai. This is the shortest Old Testament book coming in with less than 1100 words.
General Theme:  Haggai was called to be the prophet to begin the reconstruction of the temple of God that was destroyed and ransacked by the Babylonians 70 years previous. 
Major Theme: The message to rebuild the temple and to call the people to proper worship of God.  Haggai assumed that calling the people back to proper worship of God would naturally accompany the initiative to rebuild the temple.
Four messages
There are four points or calls to Israel in Haggai’s message and they are as follows…
Haggai 1:1 - 11

1. God Rebukes the first exiles for their preoccupation with personal comfort and life all the while the temple is a piled-up heap of rubble.  The original purpose of returning to the city was to rebuild the temple.  The construction started and a foundation was laid, and an altar established so they could commence temple worship.  At first there was excitement to rebuild.  Then apathy settled in.
   1. Apathy:  The people lost interest in rebuilding the house of God.  It was more work than they imagined.  They determined that if they were going to live in Jerusalem again that they needed to establish their own homes, businesses, and the necessities to exist as a society.  Their interests and passion turned from rebuilding the house of God to building their own homes.  They figured, we have a foundation and an altar… this should be good enough for us.

Haggai 1:12 - 15

1. The prophet calls the people to repentance, and they return to rebuilding the temple.
   1. Repent.  The people heard the rebuke from the LORD, and they feared the LORD and responded in obedience.  This is what repentance looks like.  They realized they were missing the mark and repented of their failure.  The people realized they had become apathetic towards God and the rebuilding of His house, and they repented of their apathy or lack of concern and interest (feared the LORD) and did what God commanded them to do (obedience).  Thus, God reignites their enthusiasm to rebuild the Temple and restore it to its former glory.  

Haggai 2:1 - 9

1. God reminds the people to remember the former glory of the Temple and get back to the task of doing the hard work of restoring it.  God also reminds them not to be afraid because His Spirit will be with them in this process. 
   1. Restore.  This restoration is a twofold process… God promises to restore the Temple to its former glory, and He vows to intervene in the future by shaking the heavens and overthrowing the nations and restoring the nation of Israel and bringing peace.  When God restores, He makes everything right again.  The restoration of the Temple was a foreshadow of what is yet to come.  God promises that one day He will make everything right again

Haggai 2:20 -23

1. The promise to establish Zerubbabel as a signet ring… rekindled the messianic expectation in Israel.  The terms “my servant” and “chosen” are associated with the concept of the Messiah spoken of in other O.T. passages (Isa 41, 42, 50, Etc.).  The signet is a symbol of royal authority.  Zerubbabel is designated as “the signet of the LORD” indicating that the restoration of the messianic royal authority to the family of David is resumed through Zerubbabel.  This prophecy constitutes a divine pledge that guarantees God will fulfill his promises.
   1. Hope.  This is a message of hope.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of God.  The people of Israel and Judah lived in expectation of a future Messiah who would save, restore, and set everything right.  Even though Haggai, Zerubbabel, and Jeshua never live to see this promise fulfilled, they were able to live in the expectation or the hope of a future Messiah who would set everything right.

 
Application
What does this mean for us today?  Southside vision is to connect and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the neighborhood, the community, and to the nations.  Before we can do this, we need to honestly ask and answer these questions… Have you personally grown apathetic in your relationship with Jesus?  Have we as a church grown indifferent to the life changing Gospel of hope to the world through Jesus Christ?  Are we more concerned with our daily lives than with sharing the love of Christ with our unsaved friends and loved one?  Do we care enough to care for and reach our neighborhood and community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
 
Revelation 2:1 – 7
The challenge of these questions brings me to the book of Revelation.  In chapter 2 and 3 we read the seven letters to the seven churches is Asia Minor and the first letter is addressed to the Church in Ephesus. 
 
When this letter was written the Church at Ephesus had become apathetic.  They had lost their first love and Jesus gives them a remedy or a cure for their apathy and sin…He tells the Ephesians to remember, repent, return, and then he will restor.  Jesus tells the Ephesians to heed his warning and if they do not, He will come and remove his lamp stand (His Spirit) from their midst.  This means that if things don’t change soon the church will die, which unfortunately it did. 
 
This was a problem for the church, but whenever a problem is presented in the Bible we can be encouraged because Jesus always gives the solution.   

1. REMEMBER where you have fallen.  We need to allow God to work in us individually and corporately today.  If you found that in the questions about apathy, I asked a moment ago pointed to the fact that you are apathetic or on the road to apathy then we need to do some soul-searching.  We/ you need to ask where and when did I/we lose my/our first love?  When did I/we let apathy take its roots in our midst?  What caused this apathy in the first place?   This can be and often is a painful process and should lead to the next step.
2. REPENT – The word repent means “To think/act differently.  To change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins.” Repentance doesn’t just mean being sorry.  It means being sorry enough to change.  This is a painfully freeing process.  Repentance can hurt, it can cause tears, it can break your heart, but it always leads to freedom, forgiveness, and restoration.
3. RETURN – Do the works you did at first.  This simply means to allow the Spirit to do his work in our midst collectively and in your heart individually.  Allow the Spirit to fan into flame the passion and fire we/you once had for Him.  It is having the heart of King David who penned, “Restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a right spirit within me.”  
4. RESTORE– When we are faithful to remember, repent, and return, God is faithful to restore us to a right relationship with Him.  Then and only then can we see God making a Kingdom impact in our neighborhood, community, and nation.  Restoration is one of the major themes of the Bible.  When we enter in a right relationship with God, He is faithful to restore us for His glory to make an impact for His glory and His Kingdom

[1] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 153.

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