Haggai 1
15 verses
Haggai delivers the first of four prophetic messages in 520 BCE to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest, condemning the returned exiles for neglecting to rebuild the Lord's temple while luxuriating in their own paneled houses. The prophet asks pointedly whether it is a time for the people to dwell in their own houses while the Lord's house lies desolate and unfinished, challenging the priority system that places personal comfort above covenantal obligation and corporate worship. The Lord declares that because the people have sown much but harvested little, have eaten but not been satisfied, have drunk but not been warmed, and have earned wages only to put them in bags with holes, He has summoned a drought upon the land and upon the mountains, causing scarcity and deprivation. Haggai frames the people's material poverty and ineffective labor as directly consequential to their neglect of the temple—establishing a direct causal link between spiritual apathy and material hardship. The message succeeds in stirring the hearts of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the remnant of the people, who fear the Lord and obey His word, beginning the reconstruction of the temple on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In redemptive history, Haggai's call to rebuild the temple represents the restoration of proper worship and covenant community after exile, establishing the physical and spiritual center through which God's purposes for the remnant will be realized.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
The imagery here is agricultural — the original audience would have immediately understood the metaphor of sowing, waiti...
1
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
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My grandmother used to quote this verse every morning. When we read this alongside the surrounding chapters, the narrati...
2
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.
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This is one of those passages that reads differently in every season of life. Faith isn't the absence of doubt — it's ch...
3
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
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This connects directly to the promise made to Abraham. I love how this passage doesn't shy away from the difficulty of o...
4
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
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Now I understand why — it's a daily declaration of dependence on God.. We bring nothing; He provides everything.. The th...
5
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
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6
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. His timing, His methods, His purposes — all beyond our comprehension, yet perfec...
7
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
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The contrast between human weakness and divine strength is so vivid in this passage. This is one of those passages that ...
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.
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I love how this passage doesn't shy away from the difficulty of obedience. God is faithful in every circumstance.. I lov...
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 unto his own house.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance..
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10
Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. ...
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 the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
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Faith isn't the absence of doubt — it's choosing to believe despite it.. There's something deeply comforting about knowi...
12
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. ...
13
Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
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The imagery here is agricultural — the original audience would have immediately understood the metaphor of sowing, waiti...
14
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,
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15
In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
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