Haggai 2:9

‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 29^th & 30^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

If you’ve been reading these Notes over the past five years, you’ll know that shalom has to do with wholeness and restoration at many levels of human existence. Debts paid, neighbors on good terms, healthy, strong marriage, thriving children, and connected to God — just a brief sample of the multi-dimensional nature of shalom.

Haggai 2:1-2

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 29^th & 30^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

What God does through this outburst of prophetic utterance is to place the small, seemingly insignificant lives of little Judah within the larger context of God’s purposes for the whole world.

Haggai 2:4

But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 29^th & 30^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The God of little Judah is the God of Moses and Joshua and the ancestors. As then, so now, “Be strong and courageous,” “Be strong and very courageous.” Then, as now, the people of God anchor their actions in the Word of God, spoken by His messengers to dispel fear and discouragement.

 

Malachi 4:4-6

"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse”.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 29^th & 30^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Fathers and children share the responsibility to “remember” the Word of God from Sinai — the settled and faithful Word that transcends the vagaries of time and place.

Haggai 2:1

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:

From Background Notes [BN] for September 29^th & 30^th  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

As every Jew would know, this is the 7th of the Feast of the Tabernacles, occurring in the autumn, starting with the 15th day of the 7th month (see Leviticus 23:34; Numbers 29:12). Why is this significant?

Haggai 1:14b-15

They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 22^nd & 23^rd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Anxiety belongs to the spirit of our time, and its eroding and corrosive force filters into the life of the Christian community. Faced with economic distress, persons or whole communities react with skepticism, anger, depression, and fear. What we learn from general studies is this: fearful people do not have much energy to attempt anything bold that would put them at further risk.

Haggai 1:14

So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God,

From Background Notes [BN] for September 22^nd & 23^rd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

And so, when the text of Haggai 1:14 tells us that Yahweh stirred the spirit of the returned exiles, it thereby announced the act of relinquishing the old reality so that the new one might arrive in its place, the fruit of an inspired undertaking that dared to imagine life in the holy city afterward.

Haggai 2:4

But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 22^nd & 23^rd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Scholars see little difference in overall meaning between “with you” and “beside you,” other than “beside” carries more of a spatial connotation and has to do more with nearness than with companionship.

Ezekiel 10:18

Then the glory of the LORD  departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 22^nd & 23^rd  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The temple, a casualty of Babylonian armies in 587 B.C.E., was gone, and the loss of this national symbol meant that the Jews had no visible sign of God’s presence among His people. Yahweh, Israel’s God, had promised to live among His people as their Creator and Redeemer...

 

John 6:27

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Taking a page from the manna story in Exodus, Jesus warns about eating bread that spoils — bread that is taken and hoarded (see Exodus 16:11ff). God refuses to sit at the table where such bread is served and taken. At such a table, His temple lies in ruins, and creation must object and withhold the harvest.

Haggai 1:11

"I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Work is frustrated by the drought in much the same way that labor in Genesis 3 was cursed by the thorns and the thistles after the Fall. Without the gracious outpouring of God’s blessing, all human work is futile, and…

Haggai 1:5

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways".

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

God is saying through these words, not, “Start paying attention,” but rather, “Don’t you see how things are turning out because you pay more attention to your own things rather than to God’s?”

Matthew 16:3b

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

It is not for us to set the times, but we are responsible to read the signs of the times to determine what kind of work we need to do… and when we should do it.

Haggai 1:3-4

Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Back in the land, the little province of Judah was idling and coasting, accepting the benevolence of the Persian Empire, and leaning back in relief that at last they were home again where life would quickly return to normal.

Haggai 2:9

‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

According to Haggai, the future glory of the temple will be greater than its past glory. He is saying to his fellow Jews, “Your best days are still to come.” There is no reason to suppose that the future must resemble the past. Indeed, the old temple, built by Solomon, had become the symbol of a highly corrupt regime, staffed by king and high priest.

Haggai 1:8

Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Not all the prophets before Haggai’s time approved of the first temple built by Solomon, and as early as David’s time, Nathan expressed his disapproval in advance (2 Samuel 7:4-7), only to be matched by the later concerns of Isaiah which evaluated the worship of Israel as superficial and the temple as a “den of robbers” (Isaiah 1:10-17; 7:1-15, 66:1).

Ezra 5:2

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Notice the role of the prophets in the life of Zerubbabel, the royal governor, and of Jeshua, the high priest. The words used to describe that role are: “helping them.”

Ezra 3:3

Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The text makes quite clear that all of this started to happen before the foundation of the new temple was laid. The people of God from ancient times had learned to worship Him faithfully even though the place of worship was simple.

Jeremiah 29:10-11

This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Exile, then, would not be a quick affair, nor would things get back to normal right away. False prophets, such as Hananiah, promised a swift resolution of the crisis in Jeremiah 28, to which Jeremiah offered his firm negative reply.