Wednesday Bible Study: The End of All Things- Haggai

Haggai chapter 2- yes, a 2-chapter book- is meaty with prophecy and history, just the kind of chapter I love because I can go down all kinds of bunny trails.  But I'm not going to do that, because it has a powerful, overriding message for us, as well.

I will give you a brief thumbnail- Haggai is preaching to the returned exiles of Israel, between what we would call Halloween and Christmas of 520 BC.  He is in-between the foundation of the Temple laid by Ezra- now sitting idle because they've come up with every manner of excuse to delay working on it- and the renewed work started in the book of Nehemiah.  His message is "get back to work!", but it comes in three levels, in three different prophecies.

Prophecy One, coming in late October, starts by speaking to their motivations.  They built the foundation, and as it says in Ezra, the old-enough wept because even at the foundation, they could see it wouldn't be as grand as the First Temple.  But what God says here is, it doesn't matter how GRAND the work is, as long as it's for HIM:

Hag 2:4  Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, 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, 
Hag 2:5  according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 

1- Work on!

2- My promises are yet in effect!

3- My Spirit is with you!

4- FEAR NOT.

Great for them, right?  Now, put it above your work station.

The second prophecy, which like the third is around the middle to late part of December, is a bedrock principle of God's:  When disobedience becomes obedience, nothing becomes something:

Hag 2:15  Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, 

Hag 2:16  how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 

Hag 2:17  I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. 

Hag 2:18  Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider: 

Hag 2:19  Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you." 

And that day is the day of obedience.  Maybe not goods or wealth, but what you NEED will increase.  This is a faithful promise, I know!

And the third, given the same day, is the promise of hope:

Hag 2:21  "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 

Hag 2:22  and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 

Hag 2:23  On that day, 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." 

Zerubbabel became a signet ring because, in his person, the sundered family lines of David's sons Solomon (the kingly line) and Nathan ( the priestly line)- the lines of Joseph and Mary, respectively- came together in one man.  The evil that the evil men in the lines committed was purged, and the march towards the Messiah resumed.  

But just to tie everything together, consider this:  Last week in Habakkuk, we saw this:

Hab 3:14  You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 

And I had mentioned that, "even though He had his arrows and spears at hand- so mighty that even the sun and moon stopped to watch them- the evil men were destroyed by their own weapons."  And here in Haggai:

...And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 

Now some say that this is a fulfilled prophecy, fulfilled in Alexander's overthrow of Persia.  And certainly, the armies of Darius fared so badly in the battles against the Macedonians that SOME of this did occur.  But Haggai says EVERY one by the sword of his brother, and that is yet to come.  And in that day, the House of Israel and the House of the Gentiles will at last be united BY that Messiah.