When the post-exilic prophet Haggai stood up with a “thus saith the Lord” for the Jews who had returned from a 70-year exile, he spoke with the authority of God to the civil leaders in Jerusalem, led by Zerubbabel, to the priests led by Joshua, son of Josedech, and to all the people of in Jerusalem who had returned from Babylon. (Haggai 2:4)
Jeremiah prophesied before the exile had even begun that it would last 70 years. (Jer. 25:11) And, 140 years before he was born, Cyrus was mentioned by Isaiah (Isa. 45:1) by name as the king who would sign the decree allowing the exiles to return to their homeland. Cyrus the Great did just that in 535 B.C., exactly 70 years from the date of the first a wave of Babylonian deportations in 605 B.C.
The exiles returned, laden with temple treasures and furnishings that had been trucked off to Babylon when Jerusalem and its temple and people had been marauded. When King Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return, he insisted that they do so with the plundered gold, treasures, and temple furnishings. The exiles returned in fulfillment of prophecy by the decree of a good but pagan king in 536/535 B.C. According to Ezra 3:8-13, they immediately began the work of rebuilding the once glorious but totally demolished temple that Solomon had built in unparalleled magnificence. But the foundation was barely begun when the builders were harassed by wicked regional opponents who cared nothing for God, God’s city, God’s people, or God’s temple. Their deceitful lies and opposition resulted in work on the temple grinding to a halt for about 15 years.
Enter Haggai, through whose mouth came “the Word of the Lord.” The prophet was a man of few words—but words that inspired by God’s people, coming at a crucial juncture in the history of the Jewish nation. The returning exiles, having met with opposition in their initial efforts to rebuild the temple, had settled down to spend their time, energy, and efforts in building their own houses. Their rationale was pinpointed by Haggai: “The people say, ‘The time is not come, the time the Lord’s house should be built.’” (Haggai 1:2) But with the fearlessness of a prophet on a mission from the most High, Haggai retorted: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1: 4,5). He went on to instruct his hearers to get up to the mountain and bring wood and “build the house and I will take pleasure in it.”
The heart of the prophet’s message is succinctly stated in Haggai 2:4: “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts.”
Be strong and work! That was the message then from God—delivered by a prophet who was God’s mouthpiece to a nation, to a people who had become spiritually complacent and, in fact, indifferent and even self-centered concerning the work of God.
It is a message that resonates in 2024. Compared to the houses of the returning exiles, our houses are probably mansions! We have become comfortable, indifferent, and complacent to the work of God and to the building of the House of God, the local church! (I Tim. 3:15) Oh, to be sure, the work has opposition. We have our critics. Wicked men still lie and oppose anything of God. So, though we started out with enthusiasm and even joy, singing as we were working, we have cooled in our efforts and in our pursuits of His building.
Where is the Haggai of this 21st century who, without mincing words, will stand to bluntly and boldly proclaim: “Be strong Zerubbabel. Be strong Joshua. Be strong all ye people of the land, saith the Lord.”
As Bob Jones, Sr., once said: “America needs about six months of old-time, Hell-fire and damnation preaching. But the trouble is, we don’t have rugged preachers now who can do that kind of preaching. There are very few prophetic voices in the pulpits of America today. Preachers have become pretty good executives. They know how to oil the machinery of their churches; but they have lost the old, rugged, prophetic, knock-down and drag-out preaching that this nation had in the country districts when I was a boy. I don’t know in this nation today any preacher who preaches as the old country preachers did, who said ‘I seen,’ instead of ‘I have seen,’ or ‘I have saw,’ instead of ‘I saw.” But they HAD SEEN, and they MEANT what they said. They had vision. They had courage.”
God give us pastors and preachers today who will proclaim Haggai’s message—“Be strong. Work!”—with the power and passion of the old country preachers who “had seen” and meant it!
“Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine….” (2 Tim.4:2,3a)
YOU and GOD 