{"id":6217,"date":"2012-10-17T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=6217"},"modified":"2012-10-17T10:10:27","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T17:10:27","slug":"bob-haggai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2012\/10\/17\/bob-haggai\/","title":{"rendered":"BOB – Haggai"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Stephen Rodgers<\/em><\/p>\n

HAGGAI IN\u00a010\u00a0WORDS\u00a0OR\u00a0LESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Jews returning from exile need to rebuild God’s temple.”<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like nearly all the other prophetic books, the name of the book bears the name of the prophet who was responsible for its contents (Hag. 1:1).<\/p>\n

Per the MSB:<\/p>\n

Because his name means \u201cfestal one,\u201d it is suggested that Haggai was born on a feast day. Haggai is the second shortest book in the OT (Obadiah is shorter) and is quoted by the NT once (cf. Heb. 12:26).<\/em><\/p>\n

AUTHOR\u00a0&\u00a0AUDIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apart from his name and title, we know nothing of Haggai, and his lineage and tribal origin remain a mystery. He is however mentioned twice by Ezra (Ezra 5:1; 6:14), both time in connection with Zechariah (another post-exilic prophet). No other person in the OT has his name, although some of the other names are similar (Gen. 46:16; Num. 26:15; 2 Sam. 3:4; 1 Chr. 6:30).<\/p>\n

Constable notes one erroneous claim regarding Haggai:<\/p>\n

Some editions of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate versions of the Book of Psalms attribute authorship of some of the Psalms to Haggai and or Zechariah (i.e., Ps. 111\u2014112, 125\u2014126, 137\u2014138, and 145\u2014149). There is no other evidence that either prophet wrote any of these psalms. The reason for the connection appears to have been the close association that these prophets had with the temple where these psalms were sung.<\/em><\/p>\n

The original audience would have been the Jews who returned to Jerusalem in 537 BC, but had neglected to restore the temple in that time.<\/p>\n

DATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Haggai is actually the most precisely-dated of all the prophetic books, recounting prophecy that he\u00a0received\u00a0between August 29 and December 18, 520 BC. However, that does not mean that Haggai then\u00a0wrote<\/em> the book during that same time. \u00a0Constable theorizes that he wrote the book\u00a0after<\/em> receiving the prophecy (which, to put it mildly, makes sense) but\u00a0before<\/em> the temple was completed in 516\/515 BC:<\/p>\n

Probably Haggai wrote the book between 520 and 515 B.C., the year the returnees completed the temple. Lack of reference to the completion of the temple, while not a strong argument for this view, seems reasonable since mention of the completion of the temple would have finished off the book nicely.<\/em><\/p>\n

BACKGROUND\u00a0&\u00a0SETTING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Haggai is one of the post-exilic prophets (the others being Zechariah and Malachi) who wrote after the remnant had returned from exile in Babylon (you might want to review Ezra and Nehemiah if this doesn’t ring a bell). They arrived in 538 BC, and began to rebuild the temple in 536 BC under the leadership of\u00a0Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest (Ezra 3:2). However, opposition from their neighbors and indifference from the Jews themselves caused the work to be abandoned until 520 BC.<\/p>\n

Enter Haggai, who comes on the scene and instructs the people to 1) finish rebuilding the temple, and 2) get their priorities straight. He pointed out that as the people of God, they should be\u00a0more<\/em> concerned with His glory and desires than with their own, a message we would do well to heed in our own day.<\/p>\n

HISTORICAL\u00a0&\u00a0THEOLOGICAL\u00a0THEMES<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two main themes that pervade the book of Haggai:<\/p>\n