May 4, 2008
Background Scripture: Haggai 1, Ezra 5
Devotional Reading: Psalms 84:1-4

My first trip to Europe was in 1958, 13 years after the close of World War II. I was surprised to find that, after more than a decade, there were many more ruins remaining than I thought possible. Some of them were not from World War II, but the First World War.
Now, a half-century since that first European visit, any war ruins remaining are probably those left that way as a memorial.

In 1958 the Book of Haggai seemed particularly appropriate, for it is about rebuilding the ruins left by terrible war and captivity. Today, however, this book and its message may seem irrelevant – answering questions no one is asking – but it is not. Haggai’s message is for us and our time as much as it was for 2,500 years ago.

First, let us review the historical sequence leading up to Haggai’s prophecies. In 589 B.C., the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, defended by Judah’s King Jehoiakim. The Babylonians destroyed the Temple and the city and carried the king and thousands into far-away Babylonian captivity. Left behind in Jerusalem was a tiny remnant of the “poorest sort of the people.”

Half a century later, in 538 B.C., Babylon was conquered by the Persians under King Cyrus, who, unlike the Babylonians, gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem and actually encouraged them to do so. Some did return, some did not.

Little accomplished

The remnant who returned found the poorer-class Jerusalemites who had not been taken into exile, some of them having intermarried with nearby pagan people, and the city in a ruined state, especially the Temple and the walls. Although Cyrus had encouraged them to rebuild the temple, little had been accomplished.

Two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, realized that the first step in reuniting the people and reviving the faith of the Jewish people would be the rebuilding of the Temple. They urged the governor, Zerubbabel, and the high priest, Joshua, to get the people to begin rebuilding the Temple, a task begun in 520 B.C. and completed in 515. Haggai saw this restoration as the necessary preparation for the coming of the messiah.

This book is not by the prophet, but about him. It is composed of two chapters of four oracles. Unlike many prophetic books of the Old Testament, we are given precise dates for each of the oracles, all of which are in prose rather than poetry, making them very direct and plainspoken.

None could complain that they didn’t understand him. Neither can we.

A building project

While I wouldn’t minimize the importance of any building project your church may have in process, the tasks to which God is calling us today are even more important and daunting. God calls us to rebuild our lives, the churches and our society.

Just as Haggai’s readers recognized the legitimacy of God’s command, but believed they would have to wait until the times were more prosperous, so we tend to shrink from the rebuilding to which God calls us because we fear our economic straits and personal resources are too meager.

Haggai says to us, as he did to his own people, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ... Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is ever warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes” (1:4-6).

Dwight E. Stevenson comments, “The people of Judah were living indoors; they had rebuilt their own houses. But God was camping out in the ruins of His Temple.”

So, ask yourself: First, what rebuilding does God want you to do in your own life? In your family? In your church? In the world outside? And, second: Are you living safe and secure in your own house while God camps outside?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.