Your Best Days (Haggai)
Stirred Up Spirits
September 22/23, 2012
Digging Deeper (Questions are on the last page)
Your Best Days: Stirred Up Spirits
Written by: Robert Ismon Brown ([email protected])
Background Notes
Key Scripture Texts: Haggai 1:12-15
The Text
Haggai 1:12-15 12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of
the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their
God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. 13 Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the
LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. 14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of
Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, 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, 15 on the twentyfourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.
Introduction
As we noted in last week’s study (Haggai 1:1-11), life in the little province of Judah had settled into apathy
after the remnant people of God had returned from Babylonian exile to their homeland. Everybody seemed
willing simply to accept life in domestic terms, each one satisfied with a plain roof over their heads. Yet things
were far from settled. When refugees return home after a war, the land is ruined and out of balance. Social life
needs rebuilding as do public facilities and political structures and support systems. There is no established
economy. For the Jews, more importantly, there was no vital religious community with faithful priests and
regular feasts. 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. The prophet Ezekiel witnessed
Yahweh’s departure from the Jerusalem temple, and he accompanied the exiled Jews to Babylon (Ezekiel 10).
Yet there had been no similar witness to the return of Yahweh back to the land when the exiles returned: no
cloud of glory, no pillar of fire, and no temple filled with smoke, as had been the case when Solomon had
dedicated the first temple (2 Chronicles 7:1-3).
If God was to manifest Himself in concrete terms after the exile, the temple was a necessary precondition.
Haggai and his contemporary, Zechariah, made that quite clear through their words, inspired by the Word of
Yahweh that came to them. More alarming to these two prophets was the willingness of the Jews to have a roof
over their heads while the temple of Yahweh remained in ruins. There was a severe crisis of priorities,
something that Jesus would later address in his own time with the words, “Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). “These things” were house and
lands and all forms of capital, along with food and clothing and a roof over one’s head. Haggai, as we noted,
drew the lines which connected failed harvests and uncooperative weather with the neglect of building God’s
house once again. When people asked, “Why,” Haggai hastened to show how drought on fields and mountains
and scarcity of grain and wine and oil and cattle, as well as failed human labor were all the result of not putting
God first.
This is daring speech on the lips of Haggai. He boldly calls to account the refusal of a restored people to show
faithfulness to their reliable God. Everything they tried to do had fallen between their fingers like dust from
their granaries that sat empty.
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Ironically, Haggai does not tell the people to do anything in 1:1-11: he gives no instructions or commandments;
he simply tells them “this is the way things are,” and urges them to observe that actions have consequences:
“Consider your ways.” In that regard, he speaks much like the sages who gave us the book of Proverbs.
What we examine this week is the remarkable response of God’s people to the straightforward delivery of the
divine Word as Haggai gets the message down into the streets of Jerusalem.
Then What? Stirred up!
What appears next in the text (1:12-15) is a list of names and people. It’s as if the writer goes back to the first
few verses and verbatim runs through the cast of characters. After all, the answer to the crisis facing little Judah
lies with people and how they will respond to the Word of Yahweh on the lips of Haggai. God is more than
willing to move heaven and earth if His people will show signs of dealing with His Word. Haggai does not
cajole or intimidate further. He did what the Word required of him and gave the people the message. The
people now stand before the spoken word and need to decide what they are going to do with it. They cannot be
neutral. Haggai’s words unsettle and disquiet and stir up, energized as they are by Yahweh’s Word spoken
through him. When Judah has nothing else to remind them of the presence of God in their midst (that is, no
temple), they have the Word of God in the form of human language on the lips of the prophet. Through the
Word, God is present to the people even when the temple is not.
Several main points guide our thinking as we work through this passage.
1. In the list of names, Zerubbabel, the royal governor appointed by the Persians, appears first, minus his
official title. In 1:1 he is called the governor; not so here. He is still “son of Shealtiel,” without written
notice or any mention of his credentials. Government appointees never travel without their portfolio: it’s
what makes them feel important and gives them authorization to do what they do. Persian rulers stood on
high political protocol. Failing to mention that somebody is the governor, even if mentioned in an earlier
context (1:1), was a series omission. All one needs to do is read texts like the following to note how
important these various rankings and titles were in the ancient biblical world:
2
He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other
provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors,
advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the
image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it (Daniel 3:2-3).
… and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them (Daniel 3:27).
7
The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an
edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you,
O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den (Daniel 6:7).
They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces
stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each
people and also to the Jews in their own script and language (Esther 8:9).
The times in which Haggai and Judah lived after the exile were thick with imperial bureaucracy where
everybody who was anybody got their name printed on official documents and were recognized at state
functions by name and by title. Those in power stood on privilege and rank. When the Persians
arranged for the re-population of people like the Jews, they chose persons from the royal line to help
organize the sub-provinces — in this case, Judah. Zerubbabel had the certificate of royal lineage from
David as documented in the Chronicles (see 1 Chronicles 3:19) and later in the genealogy of Jesus
(Matthew 1:12-13; Luke 3:27). And so he was chosen to be governor. He was somebody important,
and the Persian rulers gave him the position.
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But Zerubbabel has no title in 1:12. Why should he? If everything Haggai has told the people so far is
true, then Zerubbabel is doubly responsible for the abysmal failure of the Jews to fulfill their promises
and rebuild the temple. Historically, Zerubbabel’s famous ancestors had been temple builders: David
wanted to build it, and Solomon went on to do so. In ancient Israel, the king who delivered the people
from their enemies, and then went on to build the temple, was held in high regard. Yet, the scribe who
wrote the final form of Haggai doesn’t mention that the royal heir, Zerubbabel, is anything but “son of
Shealtiel.”
In God’s kingdom, we cannot stand on titles or honors or credentials alone. More is required. That
“more” is fruit. You want honor and a title? Then live out the royal life of the covenant — show
yourself to be the holy people who bear God’s name. That should be title enough. Jesus gave this
strong teaching concerning such leadership:
25
… "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority
over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:25-28).
2. Joshua’s story is somewhat different. He is called “the high priest,” for, as we noted from our overview of
Ezra two weeks ago, the sacrifices were already being offered on the reconstituted altar of burnt offering
that stood on the temple mount in the center of the ruined temple (see Ezra 3:2-3; Nehemiah 10:34). The
man, Joshua, had priestly work to do, even if there was no temple. There was an altar, and his job was to
officiate at it — something he apparently was doing, as his title suggests and Ezra confirms.
3. Then there was “the whole remnant of the people.” In other words, everybody else — we would say, “the
laity.” They are called “the … remnant.” Scholars refer to the “remnant theology” found in the Bible, and
by that they mean the belief that Yahweh remains committed to His people, even if they are small in number
or otherwise insignificant in the eyes of the surrounding world. In the Hebrew language the word used is
še’ērît which means “the rest, residue, remainder, or survivor.” After a catastrophe, the remnant survive to
start over again. They see themselves in conflicted ways, wondering constantly, “Why were we the only
ones to make it and be spared?” A psychological condition often accompanies such experiences.1 On the
other hand, remnant people may see themselves as the hope of a people for the future. “It’s all up to us,
now!” Or, they pledge, “Never again!”
Joseph, who helped his family survive the famine in Egypt told them that they were a remnant by God’s
providential design (Genesis 45:7). The little kingdom of Judah, before the exile, heard the prophet’s words
of encouragement that they were a “remnant that are left,” though they were threatened by overwhelming
military might (2 Kings 19:4, 30, 31). This remnant was always at risk, however, and must not take for
granted their standing with God but must remain faithful if they are to endure (2 Kings 21:14; 2 Chronicles
34:9, 21). Once in exile, the people who “survived the sword, etc.” are the remnant (2 Chronicles 36:20).
Remnant theology appears also in Ezra 9:13-14 as the returnees from exile become situated in their land
(see also Nehemiah 1:2).
Remnants, understood in this form, are generally small by comparison to their original population. Lists of
Jewish exile groups who returned are totaled up in passages like Ezra 2:64: “The whole company numbered
42,360,” with additions of 7,337 from the auxiliary labor force (i.e. servants). Compare that number with
other census lists in the Bible: 1) Exodus 1:5 sets the number of original Hebrews in Egypt at the time of
Joseph at 70; 2) According to 1:7 Israel in Egypt became “exceedingly numerous,” so that in 12:27 the
adult males were counted as 600,000, not including women and children; 3) When David took the illadvised census in 2 Samuel 24:9, the results were: Israel (800,000) and Judah (500,000) adult males —
more than 1.3 million!
1
Similar pathology appears among Holocaust survivors, as documented later during the 1960’s. A fine work comes from Helen
Epstein, Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1979).
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If we compare these numbers with the conservative estimate of roughly 50,000, it becomes clear that a tenth
of Judah returned, and this was the percentage echoed in the prophecies leading up to the exile (Isaiah 6:13).
For the prophets, the remnant was like a “root” or a “seed” that would remain in the ground and eventually
sprout and grow and increase. The hopeful cry was “a remnant shall return!” (Isaiah 10:20-22; 11:11, 16;
28:5; 37:4). Isaiah writes poetically,
31
Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 32 For out of Jerusalem
will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish
this (Isaiah 37:31-32)
The language is priceless: “root below … and … fruit above.”
forgiveness can explain the sparing of this remnant:
Nothing less than God’s gracious
20
In those days, at that time," declares the LORD, "search will be made for Israel's guilt, but there will be none,
and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare (Jeremiah 50:20).
The prophets, like Ezekiel who ministers to the exiles in Babylon, appeal to God’s mercy to spare the
remnant and not destroy it (Ezekiel 9:8; 11:13). Amos hopes for this outcome with the words “Perhaps God
will have mercy on the remnant” (Amos 5:15). Micah has a much more hopeful vision of a re-gathered
remnant, like sheep in the fold of Yahweh (Micah 2:12; 4:7; 5:7-8; 7:18).
For Haggai and Zechariah, the consciousness that the returned exiles are a “remnant” is prominent (Haggai
1:12, 14; 2:2; Zechariah 8:6, 11-12). Both prophets see a favorable future for those who are “the ones left
behind,” and as such, they are “inheritors” of the promises: “I will give all these things as an inheritance to
the remnant of this people (Zechariah 8:6). To be “left” after exile meant to be “left the inheritance,” — the
promised gift of God for His chosen people who lived under the covenant He made with Abraham (Genesis
12:1ff).
When the New Testament takes up the remnant theme, it appears in places like Acts 15:17 where a
missional theme dominates the idea, both for Jew and Gentile, who together are a “remnant chosen by
grace” (Romans 11:5; 9:27).
What interests Haggai is that the whole remnant joined together with Zerubbabel and Joshua in responding
to the Word of God spoken through the prophet. Think of it this way: when you are a remnant, the
survivors of a crisis, it’s important that you act as the whole remnant, and not just a part of it. The remnant
is small enough, and so it must be a wholly committed remnant without any laggards or persons who are
AWOL. Twice, this language appears in Haggai (1:12, 14).
4. What kind of response does this united remnant and their leaders give to Yahweh’s Word? They
“…obeyed” it. The Hebrew verb šāma‘, translated as “obey” in this passage appears first in the word order
of 1:12. “And obeyed Zerubbabel, et. al.” Readers of Haggai would read about obedience before they read
about the various people who obeyed. The verb order of Hebrew sentences commonly places the verb first
unless the grammar involves parenthetical material or a dependent clause. Action has prominence in the
dynamic quality of the Hebrew language. This word šāma‘ has as its base root meaning the idea “hear.=,”
but the nuance strongly favors doing something about what one hears. That’s what New Testament
passages like James 1:22 mean when they say, “Do not merely listen to the word…do what it says.”
Perhaps the sense of Haggai 1:12 would be “the people heard,” with the intention to “do.”
5. Such response, the writer explains, had to do, not with outside influences or motivations, but solely with the
Word. He elaborates that “they obeyed”
a. “the voice of Yahweh their God,” and
b. “the message of the prophet Haggai,” because
c. “Yahweh their God had sent him,” and
d. “the people feared Yahweh.”
The literary quality of this last half of 1:12 is remarkable, as the scribe places each of these clauses in
careful coordination, and then supplies a further reason for the people’s obedience.
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As the Meyers point out, there is no dissenting opinion to Haggai’s plea. Judah is united “in spirit and in
deed … an important theme.”2 Furthermore, no other reason motivates the people, and especially not the
Persian policy of giving resources and authorizing the construction of the Jerusalem temple. The prophet
doesn’t tell his countrymen to rebuild the temple because the Persians told them to do so, but rather because
Yahweh did. In point of fact, the word “Yahweh,” the covenant name for Israel’s God appears frequently in
only a few verses. No less than eight times, the sacred name appears. For example, we hear about
“Yahweh’s messenger” and “the message of Yahweh” in 1:13. Additionally, He is called “their God” three
times in this section (two times in 1:12 and once in 1:14). What the text of Haggai does at this point is
stress the close covenant relationship between Yahweh and His people as taught elsewhere: “I will be your
God, and you will be my people” (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 26:17; Zechariah 8:8).
This covenant bond included the way Israel approached their God as expressed in the word “fear.” The
term does not refer to the psychological or emotional reaction to a perceived danger or threat. It has to do
instead with “reverential trust” in God and equates to the idea of “awe” in the presence of majesty. Haggai
tells us that this foundational “fear of Yahweh” prompted the immediate and unanimous obedience of the
people to the message of Haggai. In other parts of the Hebrew Bible, “fear of Yahweh” is the “beginning of
wisdom” (Proverbs 1:6; 9:10; 15:33). Wisdom has to do with discerning how God made the world to work.
Wisdom meant seeing the hand of God in the activities of creation, in much the same way that Haggai
discerned the judgments of God in the way nature refused to send rain and fruitful harvests because the
people failed to build the temple. That is, the people understood Haggai’s point about actions and
consequences, as evidence of the wisdom that is shaped by awesome regard (“fear”) for Yahweh their God.
The “message of Haggai” and “the voice of Yahweh” are conjoined in this text. The Bible speaks in
mysterious ways about how the Word of God interacts with the words of the prophets. The Word of God
typically comes to or through a human instrument. The words of the prophet are not identical to the Word
of God which always exceeds and transcends the human utterance. We have this spelled out in texts like
Jeremiah 1:1-2 (NRSV): “The words of Jeremiah … to whom the Word of the LORD came…” What we
have in the Bible is real human speech, complete with grammar and syntax and style and figures of speech.
The Bible is written in real human language that follows the ordinary rules of usage, and is colored by the
personal styles of the writers.3 Prophets “spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21)
— so says Peter in describing how the Word becomes the words of Scripture. Or as Locke once wrote,
“God does not unmake the man when he makes the prophet.”4
What the people heard from Haggai was “the voice of Yahweh” through “the message of the prophet.”
Why did they respond favorably? Because the prophet did not take up these words on his own, nor were
they of his own clever construction. Instead, Haggai was a man whom “God had sent…” This means that
Haggai came with a certain self-authenticating authority (more on this later) that the people felt the moment
he opened his mouth and began to speak. We are inclined to find a parallel in Jesus’ words: “… his sheep
follow him because they know his voice … I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know
me” (John 10:4, 14). Though the returned exiles had failed to rebuild the temple, yet as the holy remnant,
they knew the voice of Yahweh when they heard Haggai speak his message to them.
6. “Haggai, Yahweh’s messenger, gave this message of Yahweh to the people.” That is, he gave this further
message. It was a much shorter message than he gave in 1:1-11. In that case, the message of Haggai made
the connection between actions and consequences. In this case, the message is simple, direct, and personal.
Carol and Eric Meyers, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8 . The Anchor Bible. Ed. William Foxwell Albright; David Noel Freedman (Garden
City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1987), 41.
3
Nigel Turner, for example, has written Style as Volume IV in Moulton’s A Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark, 1976. In it he illustrates with countless examples the unique writing features of each book in the New Testament, such that we
can speak about the “Style of Mark,” or “the Style of Paul,” etc. What this rules out, of course, is the idea that God merely dictated to
the human writers as to stenographers who woodenly took down the words without creative involvement.
4
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book IV.19 (1689).
2
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To be sure the message resonates with the previous temple message because it goes to the heart of why the
temple must be built. “I am with you,” declares Yahweh, in this further Word. But the text does not say
that those new words are “the message of Haggai,” as in the first instance. Rather, here, they constitute
“this message of Yahweh to the people.” As the “messenger of Yahweh,” Haggai is “a person appointed by
Yahweh” who gives “commission to his messenger.”5 Haggai has the role of Yahweh’s royal ambassador,
bringing this crucial royal message to His covenant people. Haggai is not the royal messenger of Darius,
king of Persia, but of Yahweh, Lord of heaven and earth (see 1:10).
What is this new message, this new oracle? The Hebrew form is ’anî ’ittekem which strictly translated is “I
[am] beside you,” an expression that appears elsewhere only in Jeremiah 42:11 and Haggai 2:4. 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. The sense here is
“I am at your side.” What a powerful word for little Judah who must now undertake the herculean task of
rebuilding the Jerusalem temple. “When you build up the foundation, Yahweh will be at your side. When
you erect the walls, Yahweh will be at your side. When you place the holy vessels in their proper places,
Yahweh will be at your side.” For Yahweh to come alongside of His restored people, meant a concrete,
hands-on sharing of the temple building task. Does this not remind us of the words of Jesus when he
promised his disciples that the Spirit would come alongside them — the One whom Jesus called the
paraklētos, “the one called alongside” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7)?
Early in the history of national Israel, shortly after they left Egypt, Moses made an impassioned plea to
Yahweh:
15
Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will
anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish
me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33:15-16, 21). … 21 Then the
LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
Then other prophets would echo these words:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will
uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10).
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep
over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2).
Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west (Isaiah
43:5).
“I am with you and will save you,” declares the LORD. “Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I
scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only with justice; I will not let you go entirely
unpunished” (Jeremiah 30:11).
And in the greatest commission ever given by God, we have the words of Jesus at the end of the Great
Commission:
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
The command to rebuild the temple in Haggai finds correspondence here with the building of the new
temple through preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Jesus embodied in his own person the abiding, assisting, and atoning presence of God. Among the names
found in the texts surrounding his birth is “Immanuel,” “God with us” (Matthew 1:23, citing Isaiah 7:14).
The expression “I am beside you” is a prelude to temple building, for Yahweh desired to “put his name” in
the earthly sanctuary at the place He chose (Deuteronomy 12:5-6, 21; 14:24; 26:2; 1 Kings 11:36; 2 Kings
21:4, 7; 2 Chronicles 6:20; 33:7). Yahweh is present beside these three key characters in the Haggai story
5
Hans Walter Wolff, 50.
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so that together they might effectively and successfully complete the erection of the Second Temple in
Jerusalem, with the result that Yahweh might then be present among His people as their companion in
fellowship. He is present beside so that He might be present among and present within.
Long term, the vision of God’s new future for the world includes the promise that He will be with
humankind throughout eternity:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there
was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now
the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with
them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or
crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:1-4).
Under these new circumstances, no temple is necessary:
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Revelation 21:22).
7. “Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel … Joshua … the whole remnant of the people.” The Hebrew
word “to stir” is ‘ûr, meaning “rouse, or awaken.” In this case, the writer uses the hiphil form of the verb
which implies causation: “Yahweh caused the spirit to be roused (or awaken).” Many different kinds of
physical things require awakening in the Hebrew Bible, including idols (unsuccessfully!) (Habakkuk 2:19),
swords (Zechariah 13:7), the wind (Song of Solomon 4:16), and fire (Hosea 7:4), among others. The word
is also applied to qualities: love (Song 2:7; 3:5; 8:4), strife (Proverbs 10:12), wrath (Psalm 78:38), might
(Psalm 80:2), and cries of anguish (Isaiah 15:5). Humans are aroused from sleep (Zechariah 4:1), but not
the sleep of death (Job 14:12). Nations arouse military actions from other nations (Daniel 11:2, 25; Judges
5:12).
Spiritual lethargy or laziness requires acts of awakening (Isaiah 64:7; Psalm 57:8).
Carl Schultz further explains how the verb applies to God:
By far the most significant use of this word is in the causative with God as its subject. Here one sees the active
involvement of God in history. He is not aloof or passive. He is not simply a spectator. He is in complete charge,
manipulating his plan. All his actions are purposeful. Events do not happen by chance. This emphasis is clearly
discernable in the OT passages which use this verb in the causative with God as subject. Tilgath-pilneser, king of
Assyria, was stirred up by the Lord against the tribes in the Transjordan area (1Chr 5:26). He aroused the
Babylonians against Jerusalem (Ezek 23:22). Then he stirred up the Medes against Babylon (Isa 13:17; Jer 50:9,
11; Jer 51:11).
Again it was the Lord who incited Cyrus to allow the Jewish exiles to return to Judah (2Chr 36:22; Ezr 1:1) and
who in turn urged the exiles to return (Joel 3:7 [H 4.7]). When apathy had overtaken the returned exiles, the Lord
agitated Zerubbabel and Joshua through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to carry the construction of the second
temple to its completion (Hag 1:14). 6
The idea that God’s people succumb to spiritual sleep has deep roots in the biblical text. The New
Testament picks up the theme in several places.
This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14).
6
So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled (1 Thessalonians 5:6).
37
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could
you not keep watch for one hour? … When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes
were heavy. They did not know what to say to him … 41 Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still
sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. (Mark 14:37, 40, 41).
Carl Schultz, ‘ûr, 1587, in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament . Volume 2. Ed. R. Laird Harris, et. al. (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1980), 655-656.
6
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11
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber,
because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost
here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light (Romans 13:11-12).
Of special concern is the failure to know when it is day and when it is night in a spiritual sense. When Jesus
appeals to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, he chides them for not “keeping watch” as they drift
off into sleep. Watchfulness requires overcoming the lethargic effects of sleep and paying attention to what
is happening, what one ought to be doing, and the diligence in doing it. In the case of Haggai, Yahweh
awakens sleeping Judah from its spiritual apathy through the Word he puts on the prophet’s lips. As at
Creation, the word of God awakens His creatures to new life. “And God said, let there be…” is followed by
“and it was so…”
8. “… the spirit of Zerubbabel, et. al. …” The Hebrew word rûaḥ is the common term for “spirit, wind, or
breath” in the Old Testament. Context must determine proper usage. Three times the word appears in 1:14
and refers to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and “the whole remnant.” As applied to the first two persons, the term
seems to denote the individual spiritual life. However, as Wolf points out, “In this context [the term] means
a person’s willpower…”7 Or, as the Meyers remark, when the verb “to arouse” appears with “spirit,” we
have “an arousal to action.”8 Similar language occurs in Ezra 1:5 where the idea “raise the spirit”9 has to do
with the Jewish people preparing “to build the house of Yahweh.”
The companion work of Zechariah 1-8 contains an important text which invokes the role of God’s Spirit in
enabling both Zerubbabel and Joshua to carry out the temple building task. They appear under the image of
two olive trees with branches supplying oil to the temple Menorah. Of them God says:
Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty (Zechariah 4:6).
That is, for God to “stir up the spirit” of each participant in the building process means that He gives to their
leaders the power of His Holy Spirit. Spirit stirs up spirit, in other words.
Rex Mason, in his commentary, notes the parallels with Exodus 35:20-36:3 where both the people and the
skilled workers share in the Spirit’s ministry — each in their unique way — in order that the first sanctuary,
the Tabernacle, could be assembled.10 That text stands at the beginning of Israel’s history, when the nation
was birthed in the wilderness under conditions of scarcity like those after the exile. What the first Hebrews
learned about the role of the Spirit empowering their spirit in the 15th century, takes on new meaning for the
community re-gathered in Judah in the 6th century. Haggai’s role, as a leader, was to be the faithful bearer
of the Word of God. We hear about the spirit from third Isaiah: “This is the one I esteem: the one who is
humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). Notice the linkage between “contrite
in spirit” and “trembles at my word.”
Such stirring of the human spirit is not limited to individuals, as this text shows, but applies equally to
groups of people. The remnant also had a stirred spirit. Using the singular form of the noun, the writer
treats the concerted and united activity of the remnant as the stirring of a single spirit. We may accurately
speak of the “spirit of a people” as well as the “spirit of persons.” There is a collective spirit which draws
each person into acting for the common good. Brueggemann, in his Journey to the Common Good, suggests
that Israel shared a pilgrimage that moved from faith through anxiety and forward to the practice of
neighborliness. He writes:
The ones who receive the gift have energy beyond themselves for the sake of the world. And we, if we receive
well, may be among those who push beyond ourselves.11
7
Wolf, 52.
Meyers, 35.
9
This is the literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase. Translations like the NIV usually have “everyone whose heart God had moved,”
whereas the NRSV comes closer with “everyone whose spirit God had stirred.”
10
R. A. Mason, “The Purpose of the Editorial Framework of the Book of Haggai,” Vetus Testamentum 27 (1977), 415-421.
11
Walter Brueggemann, Journey to the Common Good (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 35.
8
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What Haggai gave the little community of Judah was the Word as God’s gift to stir up their spirits for the
common purpose of temple building. In so doing, the people and the leaders, at last relinquished the old
temple in their minds so that they might undertake the building of the new temple. Spirit-stirring involves
both an act of relinquishing and an act of undertaking.12
In all likelihood the portrait of Judah back in the land reveals a people suffering from collective depression.
Yes, they were home, and yet they were not. Yes, they were at the location where God’s presence was
supposed to be felt, and yet they were not. Yes, they were a remnant preserved by Yahweh their God, and
yet they were not. So much of the Jewish past was strewn around them in heaps of rubble and empty lots
and an absent temple. They could scarcely look at it, and so they retreated into their marginal dwellings
with roofs over their heads, with no clear vision for the future. After all, who would Israel be in the postexile community? They did not know, and they could not know without a fresh Word from Yahweh.
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. Brueggemann reminds us: “The
poets teach us how to embrace ‘afterward’ — by loss and grief and hope, eventually to act.”13 I suggest
such an embrace belongs to the dynamic of God’s stirring the spirit of His people.
For such an awakening of the human spirit:
God stirs up both leaders and the followers. Sometimes a leader is excited about a project but the followers are
not. But the best situation is when everybody is excited about what God is doing. This is another mark of a Goddriven project — God rallies the troops.14
The remnant became convinced through the preaching of Haggai that God was in both the leaders and in the
project. When God’s presence is in the life and ministry of the leaders and also in the ministry project, there
exists one of the most powerful motivators for a ministry task. Around such endeavors, the faithful remnant
freely and willingly gathers to serve.
9. “They came and began to work on the house of Yahweh Almighty, their God…” Beginning the work is
often more difficult than continuing the work. So many obstacles block the human spirit from undertaking
hard tasks. We have already observed the impediments facing the returned exiles. They had fallen into
spiritual inertia, where human bodies at rest, tend to stay at rest! With roused spirits, however, the people
had sufficient critical energy to overcome the resistance to forward movement.
The expression “they came” isn’t just a perfunctory transition to the next set of events in Haggai. Where
were they coming? They came to the place of previous destruction where the ruins of the old temple were
literal stumbling blocks scattered all around them. It’s hard to come to the scene of the crime, filled with
reminders of past failure and flush with fears about future undertakings. Anxiety assaults the soul as images
of decimating armies and fallen comrades and a beleaguered city rise from the language of broken stones
and fallen timbers and charcoal pits. Whole nations can experience anxiety, much as America did in the
aftermath of 9/11. For the returned exiles, coming to the site of the old temple — much like ground zero —
had already stirred anxiety. No doubt this is why the people had retreated to their patchwork houses,
blocking out the memory, ignoring the reality, and fainting about the future.
Ironically, their worship still drew them to the partially restored altar of burnt offering (see Ezra 3), where
the regular sacrifices had been resumed, and so they needed to pass by the temple ruins on the way. But
until the Word of God penetrated their hearts through the preaching of Haggai, the sacrifices were not
Brueggemann, op. cit., 115.
Ibid.
14
J. Robert Clinton, Haggai: Restoring a Work of God . Clinton's Biblical Leadership Commentary Series (Altadena, CA:: Barnabas
Publishers, 2001), n. 5, 18.
12
13
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sufficient motivators for the people to rebuild the temple. Previously, before the exile, the prophets
criticized Israel’s sacrifices as insufficient signs of faithfulness to Yahweh unless they were combined with
heart-felt obedience. Consider this text where the prophet Samuel confronted King Saul:
But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of
the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22).
During the years before the exile, Isaiah gave this Word of Yahweh to Israel. Notice how sacrifice alone is
not enough, but requires that spirits be stirred up in obedience to God:
11
"The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt
offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing
meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-- I cannot bear
your evil assemblies. 14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a
burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from
you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16 wash and make yourselves
clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the
oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. 18 "Come now, let us reason
together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red
as crimson, they shall be like wool (Isaiah 1:11-18).
There is a parallel in the Haggai text between “They came and began to work…” and Isaiah’s counsel,
“Come now, let us reason together…” The ancient prophetic words find their way down into the streets of
Jerusalem in the years after the exile, where a faithful prophet gives a stirring Word to an anxious people.
That people experienced, as a result of Haggai’s ministry, what David wrote about during his dramatic
confession:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
Broken spirits are open and willing have God’s restoration and His renewal.
obedience.
Broken spirits stir in
Then there is a certain modesty about the rebuilding project undertaken by leaders and people. “They
began…” implies that they have not yet finished. Yes, overcoming the inertia of starting a new project is
difficult, but continuing to work requires equal force. Once already, as Ezra 4 explains, work had stopped
after it started. The past set a painful precedent for Judah’s present and future efforts. Beginnings can have
sudden endings, and Haggai was not naïve about that. The Word of Yahweh did not stop coming when the
people began to work. God’s Word has two dimensions: 1) Creative Word: that brings a new world into
being; 2) Sustaining Word: that keeps the world alive. The returned exiles after listening to Haggai’s first
messages responded to the creative Word: they came and they began. What they will require from this point
forward is the sustaining Word: not to give up, become discouraged, lose heart, succumb to anxiety, or fall
before new opposition. Memories of the past can drag down faith in the present and rob hope of the future.
As we noted above, overcoming anxiety required a fresh stirring of the Judah’s spirit, both personal and
collective. 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. Overcoming that kind of fear is the task
of faithful proclamation, of the sort we find in the person of Haggai (and his peer, Zechariah). But such
preaching does not ignore or deny the reality of anxiety in human experience.15 As we have already seen in
Haggai 1:1-11, the prophet confronts the Judah’s withdrawal into self-absorption by honestly lining out the
causes. This week’s study underscores the power such confrontational preaching had on fearful Judah who had
retreated behind flimsy make-shift houses, shutting out the temple ruins.
Morris Inch, in an older work, deals with a portrait of human beings in God’s world. See Psychology in the Psalms (Waco: Word
Books, 1969). Also, Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Boston: Beacon Press, 1959).
15
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Beyond confrontation, however, the faithful preaching of Haggai came with what some call “spiritual
authority.” Judah obeyed, 1:12 tells us, in part “because Yahweh their God had sent” Haggai. Judah discerned
in the ministry of Haggai an authoritative commission from their God. Clinton offers this helpful summary of
such authority:
A leader with spiritual authority is someone who operates with the God-given, God-authenticated spiritual resources
needed to effectively influence followers towards God’s purposes. Ultimately spiritual authority is a result of God’s
work in a leader’s life. As opposed to positional authority, spiritual authority comes from the calling, giftedness and
other spiritual resources that God has worked and/or placed in the leader. A leader walking in spiritual authority
carries a certain deposit of leadership grace entrusted by God for use in leading His people.16
Filling out the outline of Haggai’s leadership, Clinton further sets out these key points:
1. God authenticated Haggai’s leadership.
2. Haggai served with a sense of “sentness.”
3. God defended Haggai’s leadership.
4. Haggai’s effectiveness in bringing a corrective message.
5. Haggai was not hindered by lack of organizational position.
6. The results of Haggai’s leadership.
What relevance does Haggai leadership bring to today’s church?
Leaders today face a world where people are no longer delivered to the front door of the church eager to follow
someone simply because of their position. We live in a culture where simply wearing the title “leader” brings little
“built-in” credibility, even less so with the title “church leader.” Like Haggai, in order to have impact, today’s leaders
may find an increasing need for a God-authenticated authority that stands up well — whether or not accompanied by a
name tag.
It might not surprise us to see that the churches and ministries that will prevail will be led by those who understand
the deepening need to walk before God in dependency and allow God to build spiritual authority into their lives.17
When God stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the “whole remnant,” He chose the man Haggai
whose spiritual authority carried no portfolio and no title. Here was a man who knew that God had a specific
Word for specific times. And here was a remnant of people who witnessed that Word through the spiritual
authority of God’s prophet — “because Yahweh their God had sent him.”
10. “…on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.” Caught up in the
stirring of spirits made possible by the Word of God through Haggai, the first readers of Haggai probably
responded to this closing verse (1:15) by asking, “Darius who?” Though the scribe who gave us the final
form of the book of Haggai faithfully dated these entries in journal-like fashion, he is less interested in the
prestige of Darius and more interested in the timing of God’s Word for the returned exiles. More than three
weeks pass between the giving of the opening Word (1:1), and the response of the people, reinforced by the
second Word (1:15). Telling us that Darius was King of Persia adds little to the stature of Darius. What
Judah chose to do when the people “come and begin to build” had nothing to do with Darius, though mighty
and powerful was he — ruler of the nations. After all, the great Persian Empire had already given its
authorization for locally re-populated ethnic groups to restore their religious worship. Judah was but one
more little community given freedom to do so.
What moved Judah was not Darius. A decree has no power to stir up the spirit. Authorization by a
government official has insufficient force to mobilize a nation committed to a spiritual project. What does
move such a people is God’s messenger, delivering His Word, in the afterglow of spiritual authority. Darius
may offer an historical framework within which the writer describes the work of God, but as such Darius is
16
17
Clinton, op. cit., 62.
Ibid, 62-64.
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nothing more than a convenient calendar, hanging on the wall, and marking the days of Haggai’s prophetic
activity. “Thank-you, Darius, for telling us what time it is!” But, “Thank-you” Yahweh, Israel’s God, for
giving us Your Word for the times we are in.
Conclusion
In the first history of the early church, written by Luke — a book we call Acts — a different remnant
community gathered around leaders who were waiting for God’s next move. We read about them in Acts 1.
Carefully dated after the “forty days” when Jesus appeared to the apostles and confirmed their future mission
(1:3), the events of 1:12-26 chronicle the assembly of the remnant community made up of 120 persons (1:15).
Like the returned exiles from Judah, these followers of Jesus paid attention to leadership questions by replacing
the vacancy created by Judas Iscariot’s suicide with a man named Matthias. Together with the others, Matthias
shared in the ministry of prayer, awaiting the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise: “You will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you” (1:8, 14). In his earlier work, Luke, the writer recorded these further words of Jesus:
“I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with
power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
Peter, their spiritual leader, had witnessed the destruction of another temple, a human one: the body of Jesus on
the cross. Peter had also witnessed the raising up of Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus paralleled the
end of the first Jerusalem temple and its subsequent rebuilding, but in bolder and more significant terms. In
Jesus’ words, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days” — a metaphor referring to his body (John
2:19-21). Later, Peter would refer to the further work of the Christian community as the “raising up of the tent
of David that had fallen into ruins” (Acts 15:16) — the fulfillment of an ancient promise (Amos 9:11). How
could the little remnant community around Peter and the Twelve possibly imagine being God’s agents for
making such a thing happen? They probably faced the task much as the community who heard Haggai’s
messages at first: “with fear and trembling.”
Yet the story does not end with Acts 1. In that chapter there is a promise of power and a project for mission to
the world, but there is no stirring of spirits; only waiting. Peter knew that the apostles needed to be twelve in
number if they were to symbolize the restoration of Israel as Jesus promised. Peter knew that together they
were witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection (1:21-22). Still, beyond the mechanics of filling a vacancy and uniting in
corporate prayer, no spirits stirred in Acts 1.
That is why we have Acts 2. There, the next main event in the life of restored Israel was also carefully dated;
not in terms of some king’s royal reign, but on the calendar of God’s holy feasts. “When the day of Pentecost
came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). The events which followed fulfilled the promise of Acts
1:8 and Luke 24:49. Wind and fire and utterance (speech) fell on the gathered remnant and were witnessed by
the Jewish people who come as pilgrims to the great feast of Savuôth (“The Sevens,” or Pentecost) which took
place fifty days after Pesaḥ (Passover). Like Haggai, these events were dated and lined out on the official
calendar of Judaism, but they pointed to a more significant timeline, namely, the “last days” when God would
“pour out my Spirit on all people…” (1:17, from Joel 2:28-32). What happened in Acts 2 might well have taken
place on Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus died, but those events foreshadowed a much greater work — a “last
days” rebuilding project — greater than the one in Haggai’s time — that would gather together God’s people
from all over the world (2:9-11) that they might hear “each in their own language the wonders of God” (2:11).
Only, in this instance, the Spirit of God did not merely “stir up” the spirits of those who gathered, but further
filled them and empowered them and gave them utterance. More than spirits that were stirred, we read about
“the promised Holy Spirit” that Jesus “has poured out” in ways that others can now “see and hear” (2:33). This
Spirit would not only stir them up, he would assure them that “God had made this Jesus whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ” (2:36). After Jesus resurrection, the next great work of rebuilding God’s new temple
involved the restoring of His people through the preaching of Peter and the apostles who brought this message:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (2:38).
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And after the resurrection of Jesus, the next great fulfilled promise would be: “…and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit … the promise for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord
our God will call…” (2:39). This rebuilding would involve radical acts of reconstruction: “Save yourselves
from this corrupt generation” (2:40).
Not just “spirits stirred up,” we see the gift of the Holy Spirit taking up residence in the new temple that the he
began building at Pentecost. Before Peter or the Twelve could speak the Word of God with power, they needed
to receive this gift of the Spirit. The correspondence to Haggai 1:1-15 lies in the role of Haggai whose work of
preaching came from receiving the Word of Yahweh. Peter, empowered by the Spirit and surrounded by the
120, became the agent of the Spirit’s Word, launching the work of new temple building on a new foundation,
namely, on “Jesus, the crucified and risen One, who is both Lord and Messiah.” Pentecost echoes the
commission of Jesus in Matthew 16:18:
15
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you
by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:1519).
Peter fulfilled his mission, not in the office he held, but through the confession he made and the sermon he
preached at Pentecost. Peter’s God-revealed confession and Spirit empowered preaching launched the building
project of God’s new people and God’s new temple. As followers of Jesus our Lord, we are the successors to
Peter and the apostles, and to their mission, just as we are successors to Haggai and his spirit-stirring message.
All of these heard the Word of God and took its message upon their lips, speaking good news to anxious souls
living in times of grave anxiety. God’s Spirit still stirs up our spirits: “To come and to begin” once more, here,
in our church, for our time, and with His Spirit’s power.
Glory to God! Amen.
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Digger Deeper: Your Best Days: Stirred Up Spirits
(Bob Brown)
To gain a deeper understanding of Your Best Days (Haggai): Stirred Up Spirits, carefully read the selected passages
below. To aid you in your study, we invite you to visit the website at http://www.c1naz.org, click on
Resources, click the tab Series, find and click on the series title, find and click on the date you want, and then
click on the Background Notes link at the lower left. You can also pick up a copy of the Background Notes at
the Information desk, or from your ABF leader. Now consider the following questions, as you ask the Lord to
teach you.
1. Take a few moments to re-read Haggai 1:1-11. Where did Haggai leave off in speaking the Lord’s Word to
the returned exiles in Judah? What major issue did he challenge them to consider? Did the Lord give any
specific commandments? If not, how would they know what to do?
2. In what sense did the people face a “crisis of priorities,” and how does this parallel Jesus’ later teaching in
Matthew 6:33?
3. This week we examine Haggai 1:12-15, a brief, but key passage. After reading it, identify the main theme.
Does anything in this text surprise you? Explain.
4. A list of names appears in 1:12a which compares with a similar list in 1:1. What is different about the way
Zerubbabel is described in the two lists? What information about him is omitted, and why? Considering his
role, how would that omission been perceived? Compare these other texts: Daniel 3:2-3, 27; 6:7; Esther 8:9.
What did Jesus say about titles and position and privilege (Matthew 20:25-28)?
5. Besides Zerubbabel, what other key leader appears in 1:12. What role did he have in the spiritual life of
Judah? See Ezra 3 for additional background and the context for this man’s ministry.
6. Together, these two men represented both civil and religious authority. How important would they both be
in the future work of temple-building?
7. What is the third entry on the list? Define the key noun in that entry, and then explain the use of the
adjective “whole.” Discuss the significance of the “remnant” in Jewish history. Consult these texts:
Genesis 45:7; 2 Kings 19:4, 30, 31; 2 Kings 21:14; 2 Chronicles 34:9, 21; 36:20; Ezra 9:13-14; Nehemiah
1:2.
8. Refer to Ezra 2:64. How large was the population of returned exiles? Compare that number to the last
known census for Judah found in 2 Samuel 24:9. Note the percentage (see Isaiah 6:13). In what sense is a
“remnant” a good and hopeful sign (Isaiah 10:20-22; 11:11, 16; 28:5; 37:4, 31-32; Jeremiah 50:20; Micah
2:12; 4:7; 5:7-8; 7:18)? What does the New Testament teach about the remnant (Romans 11:5; 9:27)?
9. How do the three names on this list respond to Haggai’s previous message? Why do the react as they do?
Notice the multi-layered reasons. Take time to reflect on each one. How do you identify with any of these
responses? Define the word “fear” as it is used in this setting (see Proverbs 1:6; 9:10; 15:33). What other
phrase might say this better?
10. What new message for the people does God give Haggai? Compare Jeremiah 42:11; Haggai 2:4; Exodus
33:15-16, 21; Isaiah 41:10; 43:2, 5; Jeremiah 30:11. How does this message take shape in the New
Testament (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7; Matthew 28:19-20; Revelation 21:1-4, 22)?
11. What does it mean for God to “stir up” the spirit of each name on the list? Compare these New Testament
texts: Ephesians 5:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; Mark 14:37, 40-41; Romans 13:11-12. What does it mean for us
to be “roused” in this way? Compare Isaiah 66:2.
12. How were the early followers of Jesus much like Haggai’s contemporaries? In what way is our church like
“Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the whole remnant” as part of a master building program? What is that building
program and how does God stir up our spirits to come and begin to build? As you think about your answer,
refer to John 2:19-21; Matthew 16:15-20; Luke 24:49; Acts 1-2; 15:16; Ephesians 2:21-22.
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