All Articles For Haggai: Rebuilding the Church

Rev. Hanko is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Lynden, Washington. Introduction The prophecy of Haggai, though little known, is a book of enormous value, not only as a record of God’s dealings with His people in the Old Testament, but also as a reminder of God’s regard for and faithful care of His church in the New Testament. The book of Haggai is a book about the church, about the calling that every member of the church has within the church, and about God’s faithfulness to His church. It is, therefore, a book that very much needs to...

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. We have seen in the previous article that the book of Haggai contains four prophecies, each introduced by the date on which it was delivered. The first prophecy is a call to be busy with the work of building the temple, accompanied by a warning against further neglect of the work. In that warning God points out the sins of His people and shows them how He was punishing them for those sins. Though they did not recognize the fact, many of the troubles they were suffering in...

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (continued) We have seen that the Old Testament temple and the New Testament church have the same name in Scripture. They are both called the house of God because they are the place of God’s covenant, the house where God and His people live together under one roof and as one family—where He is their Father and Jesus is their elder Brother through the communion of the Holy Spirit. This identity of temple and church is our point of contact with the prophecy of Haggai....

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (cont.) 3. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? That the Israelites to whom Haggai preached showed more concern for their own homes than for the house of God is not just an old problem. All too often God’s people seem to be concerned only for their own homes and families in their finances, in the use of their time, in...

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (cont.) 7.Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 8.Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. As in verse 5, the Lord again admonishes His people and calls them to self-examination and repentance with the words, “Consider your ways.” All too often because we are so sluggish the Word of God must come repeatedly before we are roused from our sloth and begin to...

Rev. Hanko is pastor in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (cont.) 9.Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house. 10.Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11.And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon...

Rev. Hanko is pastor in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (continued) 13. Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. The word of encouragement that Haggai brings to the people, who were now obeying God’s command to rebuild the temple, is simple and short, but contains all that the people needed to hear. It is for Judah the promise that the temple, though far less glorious than Solomon’s, would be the house of God Himself, who would live among His people there,...

Rev. Hanko is pastor in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The Second Prophecy: Haggai 2:1-9 1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, The second prophecy comes nearly a month, that is, 27 days, after the people had begun working again on the house of the Lord, and nearly two months...

Rev. Hanko is pastor in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The Second Prophecy (cont.) 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? God is reminding the people in this verse of the poverty of the temple they were building. He was doing that because Christ was coming soon. His coming was only a little while away, less than 500 years away. To help these Old Testament believers look for His coming, God began...

Rev. Hanko is pastor in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. Previous article in this series: February 15, 2005, p. 231. The Fourth Prophecy (cont.) 2:23. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. In this last verse of the prophecy of Haggai, Zerubbabel, the political leader of the Jews, is both the person addressed and the subject of the prophecy. Insofar as this promise applies to...