A late-summer morning on the old temple site in Jerusalem: one long course of great squared foundation stones half sunk in dry grass and thistles, a weathered wooden roller beside it, and beyond, a rough stone house with a new roof of cedar beams.

Build the house

Haggai 1

What have you been putting off for God until the time is right?

15 verses≈ 3 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1Build the houseConsider your ways, and the people obeyChapter 1
2:1–9The latter gloryBe strong and work: I am with you
2:10–19From this dayA defiled people, and a blessing
2:20–23My signet ringZerubbabel chosen

A Call to Rebuild the Temple

In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, stating that this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come

to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying:

God

Inside a returned family's house: walls lined with new cedar boards glowing in lamplight, a woven rug and a cedar chest, and through the open doorway the bare, grass-grown stones of the temple site in daylight.

“Is it a time for you yourselves

to live in your paneled houses,

while this house lies in ruins?”

God

Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Consider carefully your ways.

Haggai 1:5

God

God

You have planted much

but harvested little.

You eat but never have enough.

You drink but never have your fill.

You put on clothes but never get warm.

God

Close in evening light: a worn leather purse with a frayed hole in its bottom held in one rough hand, small lumps and rings of rough silver slipping through the hole into the dust of a lane.

You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

Reflect

Where are you working hard and still coming up short? Have you asked God what He is saying in it?

God

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Consider carefully your ways.

God

God

Go up into the hills,

bring down lumber, and build the house,

so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,

says the LORD.

God

Early morning at the temple site in Jerusalem years later: one course of great squared foundation stones with grass and thistles grown between them, wooden rollers and levers lying where they were left, a stack of cedar beams weathered gray, and beyond, a plain stone altar with a thin line of smoke and one priest in white linen tending it.

You expected much,

but behold, it amounted to little.

And what you brought home, I blew away.

Why? declares the LORD of Hosts.

Because My house still lies in ruins,

while each of you is busy

with his own house.

God

Dawn over dry terraces in the Judean hills: cracked brown earth, stunted vines with no grapes, dusty gray olive trees and a bare stone threshing floor without a drop of dew, under a hard, pale, cloudless sky.

Therefore, on account of you

the heavens have withheld their dew

and the earth has withheld its crops.

I have summoned a drought

on the fields and on the mountains,

on the grain, new wine, and oil,

and on whatever the ground yields,

on man and beast,

and on all the labor of your hands.”

0:17

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Question

Quick question

Think back over verses 6 to 11 before you answer.

Why did the LORD say their harvests came to so little?

The People Obey

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.

God

So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

Pray

LORD of Hosts, stir my spirit as You stirred theirs. Show me what I have put off, help me obey Your voice today, and let me work knowing You are with me. Amen.

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Haggai 1

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A verse to carry with you

Consider carefully your ways.

Haggai 1:5

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