Passages: Haggai
Big Idea: God is with his people and he deserves to be first in our lives.
Ages: 5-7
Two lessons exploring the book of Haggai.
In 587 BC Jerusalem was captured, the temple destroyed and the Israelites hauled off to Babylon. This was not a surprise. God’s prophets had repeatedly warned them that persistent idolatry would end in them being removed from the land God had given them.
But God’s prophets also held out hope - hope that one day God would bring a remnant of his people back to a new Jerusalem. Seventy years later, God kept his promise and under the Persian empire a remnant returned to Jerusalem. Ezra chapters 1-6 details the return of this remnant to the city of Jerusalem that now lay in ruins. Things began to look hopeful as they began to rebuild.
But things aren’t always as they seem. In 520 BC, the prophet Haggai was sent by God to speak to the people of Israel. The book of Haggai records Haggai’s words the people wrote over a four month period.
In the opening chapter, God calls his people to: ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’ (Haggai 1:5) The temple was where sacrifice for sins could be made. The temple was where God promised to meet with his people. For seventy years there had been no temple. God’s people had returned to their land and had prioritised the building of their homes over the rebuilding of God's house, the temple. ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’ (Haggai 1:3-4) In Haggai 1:12-15 and Ezra chapter 5, we see the obedient response of the people to God’s call and they begin to prioritise God and the rebuilding of his temple. Because of Jesus. we no longer need a temple. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sin and because of Jesus God lives in us by his Spirit. So now we can seek God first and the building of his kingdom by sharing the good news about Jesus.
In chapter 2 Haggai addresses the shattered expectations of the people who remember the glory of Solomon’s temple. The temple they were rebuilding would never be as big nor as grand as Solomon’s temple. God sends a message of hope to his people via his prophet, Haggai. God tells his people to be full of courage. God is building a new temple, more glorious than all the two that have come before it. Jesus is the true and greater temple (John 2:19).
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