But now we're going to study the book of Haggai, a short book, two chapters, but with great importance. First of all, one of the interesting things is that the book of Haggai starts with a firm date that we know. We know the day and the month and the year that Haggai is writing these things. He tells us:

"In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month."

So, we know how to calculate that according to the Western calendar. It comes out to the 29th of August 520 BCE (Before the Common Era). So, that's interesting within itself; we know exactly when this book was written.

The second thing that we find out is that the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judea, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. So immediately, in a very unusual way, the addressees of this book are mentioned:

"The Lord came to Haggai for Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor appointed by Darius, the Persian king, to be the ruler of Judea, the governor."

And we find out another very interesting thing: that the temple was functioning, and it had a priest, a high priest named Joshua, the son of Jehozadak. And the prophet Haggai is used by God to deliver to these two rulers in Judah the message. And it starts with:

"Thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying: These people say, 'The time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.'"

Remember, most of the people that had come were new immigrants. They were born and raised in Babylon, in New York, on the Euphrates River, not on the Hudson River, but New York on the Euphrates River. They were educated there; they spoke the language there; they had never worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem until they came here. And they were commissioned by the King of Persia, by Darius, and given the money to rebuild the temple. So, God says to Haggai: "These people say the time has not come, the time for the Lord's house should be built." In other words, we have other tasks, more important tasks than building the house of the Lord. We can wait on it, put it on the back burner.

Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying:

"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins?" Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: "Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat but you never get full; you drink but you never filled with a drink; you clothe yourselves but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put them in a pocket that has a hole in it."

That's called inflation in our own day.
Let me summarize how Haggai starts his prophecy. He's addressing the two rulers, the political governor, Zerubbabel, that is from the house of David, and the high priest, Joshua. And these two people that were commissioned by the King of Persia, by Darius, and financed to come here and resettle the land and re-establish the Israelite community that will live here, rule here, and control the main highways that led people from Africa to Asia, from Africa to Europe, the highway by the sea, and the king's highway that passed through this land. Yes, Darius was not doing that for heaven's sake. He was doing that for Persia's sake, for his own sake. He needed people that he could trust that were born and raised in Persia to appoint them here as the guardians of his interests.

But these two rulers, the secular governor and the spiritual head, decided, "Oh well, right now, we're too busy with our own stuff, with our own houses, with our own welfare, with our own wages to worry about the Lord's house." And Haggai knows what is happening. He lives here; he himself is a new immigrant from Persia, from Babylon, and he says, "Yes, you say that it's not time for you to build the house of the Lord, but you look at your condition. You sow much; you have good agriculture, but you don't have enough produce. You drink much, but you're never filled with drink." He's talking about wine, not Coca-Cola. "You clothe yourselves, but you're never warm enough. You earn wages; you put the wages in your pockets, but your pockets have holes in it." That's called inflation.

Now, the importance of studying the prophets, dear brothers and sisters, is that they oftentimes address some of the same issues that in the 21st century we have in our countries. In modern Israel, we're building. It's booming. Old houses with historical significance are torn down to build 20-story apartment buildings in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv and in the plain land between Tel Aviv and Haifa and even in the Negev. There's a lot of building going on in the desert. So, their situation is, according to Haggai, because they have neglected to put God's agenda on top of their list and in priority, because they have neglected God's agenda, they're working hard but not enjoying the fruit of their work.

Why? Verse 7 of chapter 1:

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the Lord. "You look for much, but indeed it comes to little. When you bring it home, I blow it away." Why? Says the Lord of hosts, "Because of my house that is in ruins while every one of you runs to his own house"

Or to his own fortress, palace, gloriously built, before they worried about Him and about His house.
Now, this is an interesting situation because we have texts in the New Testament and in the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel that say, "God, He doesn't need temples. He doesn't need buildings." Acts chapter 17, Paul in Athens, in the Areopagus, in the Supreme Court of the Athenians says,

"God doesn't dwell in temple buildings made by hand."

Solomon, in chapter 8 of 1 Kings, verse 27 says the same thing. He's just dedicating the brand-new temple, the first temple in Jerusalem that Solomon built, and he says, "Don't think that God dwells in this building. Even the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God. The building is a parable, it's a symbol, it is an avatar, using modern word that I don't even know what it means exactly, but using a pattern, an avatar, a model of what God wants. He doesn't need the building. We know that from Jeremiah chapter 7, from Isaiah chapter 1. He doesn't need the building. He doesn't need you to go to the building, to clean it, to wash it, to worship in it, to burn sacrifices. He doesn't need these things. What He needs is you and me. But the way we express our relationship, our needs with each other, with our wives, with our families, with our children, with our congregants, with our countrymen, with our community is by communication and by give and take, by relationship. And if you put your interest before God's interest, it's not the building, it's your heart. That's what Haggai is telling the people of his day that received the commission by the King of Persia, Darius, received the finances to do the work by Darius, were sent and commissioned to do the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple by Darius, the King of Persia, great king that fought the Greeks. We have the Battle of Salamis in Athens, south of Athens, the big battle between the Greeks and the Persians, naval battle.

The relationship is what doesn't work, and God is addressing through Haggai the two top leaders of the people that returned from New York, in Persia, Babylonia, and because you don't care about my interest, God says by Haggai in verse 10:

"Therefore, the heavens above will withhold its dew, and the earth will hold its fruit. For I call for drought on the land and the mountains and the grain and the new wine and the oil, and what the ground brings forth on men, livestock, and on all the labor of your hands."

- This is not going to work. I am the one who blesses you, the same paradigm, the same thing that happened in the days Hoshea when Israel prostituted with the idols of the neighbors and said, 'They provide me, the god of fertility, Baal, provides me with the wheat and the grain and the oil and the land that produces the vegetables and the fruit.' God said, 'Don't think that's bad. Because you think it's bad, I'm cutting it off.'"

I did it all for you, not the Baal. Baal is an idol. Dumb. It has a mouth and doesn't know how to talk. Has legs and doesn't know how to walk. It has hands and doesn't know how to do. Same paradigm. And I want to share with you, dear brothers and sisters in Korea, and in Asia, and around the world, nothing has changed. Nothing is changing in the synagogues and nothing is changing in the churches. The majority, there are exceptions both in the synagogues and in the churches, but the majority, we have taken something dynamic, something powerful, a real relationship with the creator of the world, with the father of mankind, with the ruler of the heavens and the earth and canned it into a sardine can. The sardines swam in the ocean, free, alive, making children, producing. But we took it and put it in a sardine can, stuffed it in the sardine can.

Our faith is something living. It's a relationship with the almighty. It's not a religion. The word religion doesn't exist in the Bible, at least not in the Hebrew Bible and not in the Greek Bible. Faith is what God wants, love of God and of our fellow men, that's what God wants, hope for eternal life, that's what God wants because these are powers that change lives. They're not religion. These people, "Oh well, God can wait. God can wait." And He says to them clearly, that Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, 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 sent him. And the people feared the presence of the Lord.

You know, when Haggai, the prophet, spoke these things, he was charismatic, powerful, simple, and clear. And the people were touched, and they decided to change their ways. They decided to turn, to repent, to do what they need to do. Verse 13 of chapter 1:

"Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke the Lord's message to the people, saying, 'I am with you,' says the Lord." So, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people."

That's a revival. That's a revival, dear brothers and sisters. They heard the word of the Lord. Yes, they were in the beginning, selfish, worried about themselves, their own wealth, their own income, their own comfort in their houses. But when they heard Haggai the prophet speak and they saw the political rulers and the spiritual rulers take it to heart, wake up, the spirit of the remnant of the people who were awake and worked in the house of the Lord.

"In the seventh month on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet. "Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, 'Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now in comparison with it? Is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now, be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord, 'and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be strong, all the people of the land,' says the Lord, 'and work, for I am with you,' says the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you up to this day; do not fear.'"

This concept, all of Haggai's two chapters, but this concept, the restoration of the spirit of the Exodus, people that left Egypt were broken people, slaves who were born in slavery, were beaten, were abused, were worked to the bone, hard work. But they had that spirit of hunger for freedom, that spirit for hunger of a relationship with the almighty God. It wasn't going to church because we have to go to church. It was going to church because we want to hear from God. That's what Haggai is telling the people.

"I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations. And they shall come to desire all the nations, and I will fill this house, the temple, with glory," says the Lord of hosts. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," says the Lord of hosts. "The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former," says the Lord of hosts. "And it is in this place, that I will give peace," says the Lord of hosts."

Look, there's no argument that Haggai was a very charismatic speaker. There's no argument that we have a synopsis, a summary of what he spoke, not everything is in the book but what he spoke in Jerusalem, had echoes all the way to Persia to Darius, the king. And today, if we study these things and we take them to heart, it will have echoes all the way to Moscow, and to Washington, and to London, and Paris, and South Africa, and Africa, and South America, all the way to the North Pole and to the South Pole in Antarctica. Because the word of the Lord is simple and plain and powerful. Read the book. It's short, two chapters. Enjoy it and take it to heart. Pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken these words in relationship to yourself, to your country, to your politics in your country, and to the spiritual welfare of your brothers and sisters in your country, in your church, in your congregations. Let the word of the Lord massage your hearts and restore that zeal that you read about the Israelite people, the Jewish people, that came back from Babylon to rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. Be partners with God.

God bless you, Shalom from Jerusalem.