Haggai 2:1-9 – In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
4 Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, 5 according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.
6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7 and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. 9 The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.
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Last time I was with you, we were still in our “Spooky Sermons” series. We were talking about the story of “the Writing on the Wall”, and how King Belshazzar was dethroned by God when Belshazzar abused the items taken from the temple in Jerusalem.
Oddly enough, the lectionary reading for today from the Old Testament picks up pretty much where we left off! I wasn’t expecting that, but I’m glad we have the opportunity to return to Babylon and see what happened next.
You’ll remember when we left off, the Medes and the Persians were invading Babylon, and they had just killed Belshazzar, who was the acting king of Babylon. Shortly after that, the leaders of the Medes and Persians got to know the prophet Daniel, and learned about the situation of the Jewish captives in Babylon.
Today we heard about King Darius of Babylon and his support for the people of Israel who were being returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. So the Babylonian Captivity is now over.
Just a side note for those of you who are into history: there are conflicting accounts of exactly who was king of Babylon and when. The names are fairly certain but the dates are not. And depending on which books you read, you may get a slightly different history. But the bottom line – the historical outcome – is the same. The Babylonian Empire fell, and the empire of the Medes & Persians replaced it.
The timeline goes something like this:
Events that happened before our reading for this morning:
- 597-587BC – Southern Kingdom of Israel fell, people taken captive (in waves) to Babylon
- 587BC – The First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) was destroyed
- 539BC – (almost 50 years later) The Medes and Persians defeat King Belshazzar and take the city of Babylon
- 538BC – The new King of Babylon releases the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Around 50,000 Jewish people go home.
From our reading this morning, here’s the rest of the story:
- 521BC – Darius I becomes King of Babylon. He continues the former policies: he supports Israel, and he helps people return to Jerusalem.
- 520BC – the following year, Haggai’s first prophecy
- 515BC – The Second Temple is completed (72 years after destruction of Solomon’s Temple)
I wanted you to have these timelines to make it easier to see what’s happening and when, because so much happens so quickly at this point in history, the names and the dates tend to jumble together!
So the big picture idea – the focus – of Haggai’s prophecy is the thought:
“Things aren’t what they used to be!”
How many of us can relate to that feeling?
The people of Israel were feeling this way for a lot of reasons. First off, Babylon had changed – probably for the better, now that Belshazzar is gone. Darius and Cyrus were both better kings than Belshazzar, and the city was doing well under them. In fact staying in Babylon – after having been there for 70 years – was attractive for some of the people of Israel, especially the people who were born there and didn’t know anything else. And even though their parents and grandparents taught them about Israel and the God of Israel, they were also surrounded by people who worshipped idols – and some of them couldn’t help but be influenced by that. So some of the people of Israel stayed because they liked their new home; some of them stayed because they had family there (they had married people who lived there) and some stayed because they had started businesses there.
Staying wasn’t necessarily the wrong decision. We will hear later in the Old Testament about Queen Esther and her uncle, who were two of many Jewish people who chose to stay in Babylon. But our focus today is on the people who returned to Jerusalem and the area around the city – known as the “Southern Kingdom” of Israel.
The people who went home to Jerusalem were shocked by what they saw. Some of the countryside around Jerusalem had gone wild: it has been un-tended for years. The walls around the city had fallen and were in ruins. And the temple had been torn down and stripped of anything valuable.
With God’s help, and the help of the prophets and the city leaders, the people rebuild. As you can see from the timeline, it took about 5-6 years to rebuild the temple – which is not bad, considering they had no power machinery, or forklifts, or any of that kind of thing.
As our reading for today opens, the people of Israel are looking at the finished temple, and the elders among the people are weeping – not out of joy, but because things aren’t what they used to be.
The older ones can remember the glory of Solomon’s temple. Those of us in the Wednesday night Bible Study group have been reading about Solomon’s temple, and about how Solomon had so much wealth, he used his money to decorate the temple. Here’s how II Chronicles describes Solomon’s temple:
“[Solomon] overlaid [the temple] on the inside with pure gold. The nave he lined with cypress, covered it with fine gold, and made palms and chains on it. He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. […] So he lined the house with gold — its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls.” (II Chron 3:4-7)
That’s how the temple used to look. But all that gold had been carried off in various wars – some to Egypt and other African countries, some to Babylon. Some of the items in Babylon, like the cups and plates, were returned when the Israelites came back; but the new temple still wasn’t like it was. Things weren’t what they used to be.
This is hard for us old folks (speaking as one). For young people life is an adventure. Young folks tend to have fewer expectations and therefore are more open to possibilities. But for older folks, even though we’ve seen improvements in the world during our lifetimes – for example, none of us wants to go back to watching black & white TV – we old folks also remember a world where children could be sent out to play in the afternoon with the words “be home by dark” and nobody worried about safety. Things aren’t what they used to be.
The people who feel this way are the people the prophet Haggai is speaking to in our reading for today. God has a word for God’s people – and through Haggai, God says: “Speak to the governor and the high priest and the remnant of the people.” And God says: “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
God is seeing through the eyes of God’s people; and God speaks what’s on their hearts. God does not deny that things aren’t what they used to be. In fact God agrees with what the older people are observing – but maybe for different reasons. God doesn’t care about gold, at least not the way people do. God created gold. God designed gold to be beautiful. And God likes it when people are generous. But it’s people who make gold expensive… it’s people who make gold worth stealing (or hoarding).
God has something more important in mind; and God’s message is a message for us today. God says: “yet now take courage! Work, for I am with you,” says the Lord of hosts. “My spirit lives among you; do not fear.”
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The task of rebuilding is never easy. Some of us here are old enough to remember what it took (for example) to rebuild Europe after World War II. Some of us are old enough to remember what it took to rebuild and recover after Vietnam. Some of us here today look at Palestine and Israel, and the very unstable ceasefire they have right now, and we grieve at how how many lives have been lost, and how much work lies ahead to rebuild and restore, and that’s if the ceasefire holds.
Rebuilding is hard.
And here at home – some of us can remember the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s, when the GI Bill made college education possible for millions who never dreamed of college (although women and minorities were too often left out). And back then also, buying food and owning a house and car was affordable. Today, adjusted for inflation, food is far more expensive than it was then – and so is college, and so is housing. Things aren’t what they used to be.
God’s message is still: “yet now take courage!” “Take courage, all you people in the land, for I am with you; my Spirit abides among you, do not fear.”
So how can we be people of courage?
Each one of us has different ways of keeping our spirits up and facing into difficulties. But I think all of us can benefit from Haggai’s words: stay open to God and stay open to God’s Holy Spirit. There is no lasting hope apart from God. And it’s God who says: “Do Not Fear”.
So how do we stay close to God? Here are three things to try:
- Practice being aware of God’s presence. God is everywhere, all the time, so there’s nowhere we can go on this earth to be out of God’s sight. Practice being aware of this.
- Talk to God throughout the day. This is a little bit different than sitting down and praying during prayer-time. This is going about one’s business during the day and chatting with God while we do our everyday work. For example, I like talk to God when I’m gardening – “Lord, thank you the lettuce is still growing even after the frost!” or “Lord, look at that stray cat walking through the tomato patch – some of her fur is missing, please help her.”
- Listen to God every day by reading scripture, even if it’s just a paragraph or two; read it and think about it.
The more time we spend with God, the easier it becomes to sense God’s guidance, to be less afraid, and to live with confidence. God says: “Work, for I am with you. My spirit abides in you; do not fear.”
And then the scene changes, and Haggai takes us into the future, both his future and ours. The last paragraph – verses 6-9 – talks about the Messiah. In fact, this is SO much about the Messiah, that when Handel wrote The Messiah, this passage was part of it. These words describe the coming of Jesus – the second coming. I wish I could sing it for you – because where God says “I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land…” the voice of the singer actually sounds like it’s shaking.
But you get the idea.
God is powerful. God is in control. God’s word will be fulfilled. So don’t give up.
- No matter how rough things get in life, God is still with us.
- No matter how desperate things look, God is still strong to save.
- No matter how dark the present day may look, God has glory waiting ahead for all who are faithful.
So work God’s work. Follow where God leads. Remember that God is strong to save. And yes, things aren’t like they used to be. But praise God, they are also not as full of glory as they’re going to be.
AMEN.
Getting Started 