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 to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

2 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built.

3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4 Is it time for you, O you, to dwell in your paneled houses, and this house lie waste?

5 Now therefore thus said the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

6 You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7 Thus said 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, said the LORD.

9 You looked for much, and, see it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow on it. Why? said the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that is waste, and you 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 on the land, and on the mountains, and on the corn, and on the new wine, and on the oil, and on that which the ground brings forth, and on men, and on cattle, and on all the labor of the hands.

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.

13 Then spoke Haggai the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message to the people, saying, I am with you, said the LORD.

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,

15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Selfish and Shortsighted Thrift

Hag 1:1-11

Zerubbabel is the Sheshbazzar of Ezr 1:8. He was of the royal line, and appointed governor by Cyrus. Josedech was son of Seraiah, high priest when Jerusalem was taken, 2Ki 25:18-21. The returned exiles had been experiencing a succession of bad seasons. They had sown much, and reaped little; their money ran out of the bag as quickly as they put it in; a drought lay on all the land, and the reason for it was to be found in the neglected Temple. How frequently our disasters and losses in business arise from our failure to remember God's cause. We say that we have not the time, cannot afford the money, and see no necessity for setting apart the Lord's Day or the daily period for meditation and prayer. Did we see things as they really are, we should find that this is false economy, and wastes more than we save. There is that which withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The mower does not waste time when he stops to whet his scythe.

the True Glory of God's House

Hag 1:12-15; Hag 2:1-9

One earnest man can arouse an entire community. Let a fire glow in our hearts, and it will spread. Assured of God's presence and favor, within three weeks the whole land was awake. Note the cooperation of God's Spirit with the message of His servant, the Lord stirred up. Let us ever seek and rely on His cooperation! We are witnesses, so also is the Holy Spirit! Three prophecies occupy the following chapter. In the first, Hag 1:1-9, the Jews are encouraged to persevere. Although there was no comparison between the glory of Solomon's Temple and the splendor of this, they must not be discouraged. Though they might deplore the absence of the sacred fire of the Shekinah, of the Ark with its cherubim, of the Urim and Thummim, and of the spirit of prophecy, yet the Messiah's presence, which would be associated with the second Temple would more than compensate for their deficiency, since He was the antitype of them all. If we lack many of the advantages and attractions in which others excel, let us be more than satisfied to possess Christ. And be it always remembered that Christian worship seeks to realize the presence of Him who said: I am in the midst. Without that a cathedral is an empty void; with that, a barn will be heaven. For Hag 1:6-7 see Heb 12:26-28. This little while in God's arithmetic lasted for 517 years.