_Came the Word of the Lord by Haggai._ DUTY REVEALED The grail subject of the whole chapter is duty. Duty revealed, duty postponed, duty vindicated These two verses direct us to the revelation of duty. Here we have-- (1) The time of its revelation. Every duty has its time, every true work has it... [ Continue Reading ]
_This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built._ CHURCH EXTENSION The people said this, because they thought the undertaking too great, too arduous, too expensive for a nation circumstanced as they were. These returned captives were but a small remnant of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?_ CHURCH BUILDING The decree of Artaxerxes prohibited the building both of temple and city, but it seems that the people had persisted, spite of the decree, in building dwellings for themselves, though no progress h... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways._ PREPARATION FOR SELF-AMENDMENT The design of this prophecy is to persuade the Jews off from that slothful security in the neglect of their duty which had already exposed them to the displeasure of God. They had outward difficulties... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes._ THE BAG WITH HOLES The prophet lifted his warning voice, and entreated his sinful brethren to “consider their ways,” to solve for themselves the curious and alarming fact, that while toiling for their temporal gratification, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways._ THE CALL OF GOD I. The person who issues this command. Note the Divine character of the speaker. The “Lord of hosts.” This name, containing in it every perfection, commands our regard and challenges our awe. Omnipotence, omniscience, and unlimite... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bring wood, and build the house._ THE BUILDING RISING I. An important operation engaged in. “Building the house.” 1. Its actual nature. The building of the temple of God on Mount Zion. Solomon’s temple had been dismantled and razed to the ground. The first act of the restored captives was to reb... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit._ NATURE PENALTIES With respect to the withholding of dew and of produce, we know that the prophets took from the law what served to teach the people, and accommodated it to their own purposes. The curses of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Obeyed the voice of the Lord their God._ THE VOICE OF THE LORD 1. The Word of God in the mouth of His servants will not take effect till His authority be seen and acknowledged in it, and His servants looked on as coming in His name. They look on this message as “the voice of the Lord, and the wor... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then spake Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, in the Lord’s message unto the people._ THE MESSAGE OF JEHOVAH This means in his official capacity as a messenger or ambassador of Jehovah, with the authority of Him in whose name he spake. There is something very beautiful in the sudden change of tone mani... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel._ STIRRING UP THE SPIRIT It is not right to restrict the influence of the Spirit to one thing only, as some do, who imagine that the Israelites were confirmed in their good resolution, as they say, having before spontaneously obeyed the Word of God.... [ Continue Reading ]