Day 262 (Haggai 1-2) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 33rd book of the Bible. And in the next 11 days, we'll be finishing six more books and the whole Old Testament. We first met the minor prophet Haggai yesterday in Ezra 5, where he was standing around the construction site of the deconstructed temple with his buddy Zechariah, another minor prophet. They were there encouraging the returned exiles of Judah. Today we find out exactly what it was he said to encourage them. And we might even find out the exact day he said it.

Scholars believe it was August 29th, 520 BC. After the exiles return from Babylon, their first high priest is a guy named Jeshua. But in today's reading, it's spelled like Joshua. We'll keep calling him Jeshua since that's how we met him and since we're already friends with another Joshua. Today, Haggai has a conversation with Jeshua the high priest and Zerubbabel, who is the local ruler over the people of Judah. And he confronts them both about the misplaced priorities of the people.

Haggai says, look, I know you all want to put shiplap in your houses. It's apparently a thing now, but we've got more important walls to panel. No matter what you do to your homes and your wardrobes and your lifestyles, it will never be enough. You'll always want more. Stop scrolling Instagram and Amazon long enough to face that reality.

Nothing you're investing your time and effort and emotion into is paying any kinds of dividends for you. You're just left with stress and frustration. But do you know what would be a wise use of your time? Do you know what would be a righteous use of your energy? Rebuilding God's house. And until you focus on what matters, God is going to continue to withhold everything you're trying to access and save up.

Jeshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the local leader know Haggai's words are true. But Haggai's words aren't only correction. He offers them some consolation, too. He tells them God said, I am with you, declares the Lord. Then God stirs up their spirits and the spirits of the people to obey him. And within a month or two, they're back to building the temple again.

When chapter 2 opens, they've been rebuilding for about a month. God tells Haggai to call a meeting and to identify all the people who are at least 70 years old and who saw the temple with their own eyes before the Babylonians destroyed it. Then he's like, this new temple we're building doesn't look like much, does it? It's a shadow of the first one, right? But don't worry, this is just the beginning.

Then God says something really encouraging in verses 4 through 6. He says, And when all their enemies come and try to thwart their construction over and over again, like we read about yesterday, he wants them to remember that he is with them. The awareness of God's nearness eradicates fear.

Then God promises that he's in the process of building something they can't see yet. He owns all the silver and gold. He owns all the treasures of all the nations. And someday, all of that will be evidenced in the place where he chooses to dwell. He doesn't say when, but he says he's going to make his dwelling place magnificent.

A couple months later, while they're still working on the construction project, God gives Haggai a question for Jeshua the high priest. He asks him, If a piece of holy food touches a piece of common food, does it make the common food holy?

Before we get to the answer, let's revisit something we've covered in the past. On day 252, we read that the priests had to change clothes after they'd been in the presence of God in order to avoid accidentally transmitting holiness to unclean or wicked people. So why is it true that priest garments could transmit holiness, but that meat used for a sacrifice can't transmit holiness? The unique thing about the priest's garments after they left the holy place or the Ark of the Covenant that Uzzah touched is that they were not used for the purpose of transmitting holiness.

is that those things had been in the presence of the glory of Yahweh, whereas the food Haggai is referencing is just holy in the sense that it's been used for sacrifice. The word holy just means set apart, but the glory and weight of Yahweh's holiness far outweighs something that's just been designated for a sacrifice. Okay, back to the original question and its answer. No, holiness can't be transmitted from food to food. Then Haggai has another question. Can uncleanness be transmitted?

This time the answer is yes. Even though modern Western culture is very different from ancient Jewish culture, this still makes perfect sense to us. If our clean hand touches a dirty faucet, the faucet doesn't become clean, but our hand does become dirty. Same, same. Then Haggai gets to the point he's been driving toward. God says,

We have a real problem with the people who've been building the temple. Their hearts aren't clean, so their hands aren't clean, so they're building a defiled temple from the ground up. Maybe you've noticed that I keep thwarting their efforts to finish it. Maybe you've seen how it's all two steps forward, one step back. That's me. I'm doing that, on purpose. Because I don't want you to get to the end of this project and have it all be a big, unclean building that I can't dwell in and you can't worship in. I want their hearts, not their hard work. We've got a heart problem, not a construction problem. But...

But the good news is, I'm here to change that. Then God promises he's got big things in store for Zerubbabel. And by the way, he's a direct descendant of King David.

What was your God shot today? Mine was in 2.9, where he says, The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former. You'd think after all Israel has done to break God's heart through the years, it'd give them a downgrade. And it's not like they've learned their lesson. Even today, we see them selfishly focused on their own houses instead of his, being greedy and foolish again, and even building with unclean hands and hearts. But he still promises them that not only will he dwell among them again, but that it will be even better than before.

This reminds me of the story of Job, where God says, And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Maybe you relate more to Job, who suffered because of his circumstances. Or maybe you relate more to Israel, who suffered because of their sins. But whether you're Israel or Job, there is still hope for you, because this is what Scripture says about God.

No matter how much is destroyed, God can rebuild. And when God rebuilds something, He improves on it. He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Zechariah. It's 14 chapters long. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes that will really help set you up for success. Check it out if you've got eight minutes to spare.

Did you know we have a printable version of our whole reading plan? Many of you use our plan on the Bible app, and a few of you use our daily posts on Instagram stories to keep up. But you can have your very own printout, or even just download the PDF if you don't have a printer. That way, if Instagram ever gets glitchy, you'll still know what chapters to read next. Just go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash start and look for the printable plan in step two.

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