Following the return of the first batch of exiles, numbering fifty thousand under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God during the first year of the reign of King Cyrus, the work was stopped after two years during the reign of King Artaxerxes, and it continued to languish for sixteen years until the second year of the reign of King Darius (c.f. Ezra 1-5).
The altar of sacrifice was restored, morning and evening sacrifices were resumed, and the restoration of the Temple foundation had just begun when all the activities ceased. Then the people were discouraged, lost their zeal and determination to fight for the rebuilding of the house of God, and prioritised the building their own houses to live a life of fresh hope and blessings in the city of God.
However, God was not pleased with their lack of desire and urgency to rebuild the Temple, not only because it was His expressed will, but also because they did not see any overriding value in establishing God’s house in the midst of their own houses. This was tantamount to rebellion against God.
You would think that God would understand when people put their own lives and their own family welfare first in priority over “a temple”, but God didn’t.
Haggai 1:1-9
In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.””’ Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?” Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.” Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the LORD. You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the LORD of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.”
Haggai 2:15-17
‘But now, do consider from this day onward: before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the LORD, from that time when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty. I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the LORD.
Yet, despite the poverty and calamities that God had inflicted upon His people in the hope of causing them to return to Him as their “first love” (Revelation 2:4) and to His expressed will to rebuild His house, the people had a way of rationalising these afflictions, and justifying their tardiness or reluctance in returning to God and obeying His expressed will. Even after sixteen years, there was always an excuse that “the time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt” because they were busy running to their own houses.
To understand why the people thought and behaved in this way after their return from Babylon, we must look at how their thoughts and behaviours were shaped by their stay in Babylon.
When the people of God dwelled in the midst of the Babylonian culture, especially when the tangible focal point of all that God represented to them and required of them through the Temple were desolated, they adopted a new form of individual spirituality and synagogue gathering that accommodated, even assimilated, the Babylonian way of life.
While the Temple in Jerusalem was God’s house where people came to meet the requirements of God, synagogues in Babylon were the people’s adaptation of God’s tent of meeting where they could meet the socio-religious needs of their new way of life within their diaspora contexts. While the people’s way of life in Jerusalem revolved around Temple spirituality with strict adherence to the Law (or Torah) as one community, the people’s way of life in Babylon revolved around their individual spirituality and volitional synagogue gatherings for singing, prayers, rabbinic teachings, and fellowship within their many local diaspora communities.
Without the true unifying culture of the Temple or the awesome and fearful presence of God in His corporate house that commanded explicit obedience, the worldly culture of individualism, self-indulgence, and self-preservation corrupted and ruled the people’s sense of all that God is, all that God has, and all that God wills.
With the confluence of socio-religious cultures as God’s people in Babylon, the people’s way of life that was centred on their own paneled houses in Babylon superseded the centrality of God’s house in Jerusalem; and what was right in their own sight within their own paneled family altars superseded what was right in God’s sight proceeding from God’s house. After all, there was no more fear of being struck dead by the awesome and fearful presence of God when entering the Temple courts without consecration.
Even when the Temple was within their sight after their return to Jerusalem, individual paneled houses were more important than the God’s house, and individual household desires were more important than God’s expressed desires. After all, who needed the altars of the house of God when God was also dwelling in our paneled houses through our family altars? Who needed collective spirituality as one people when individualistic spirituality was fine in every diaspora setting over the last seventy years? Who needed Temple convocations when there were synagogue fellowships a stone throw away? Who needed priests as judges when they had diverse rabbinic wisdom for guidance?
As such, the people left Babylon, but Babylon did not leave them, hence their indifference towards the Temple; just like the people left Egypt, but Egypt did not leave them, hence the golden calf as their image of God.
So, the people became so dulled by their individualistic form of spirituality and their self-deterministic form of community destiny that they could not recognise that they were in fact living in contrary to the will of God regarding His Temple as well as to the design of God regarding their corporate destiny as one people.
Indeed, the Temple was more than a synagogue of prayer; it was more than an altar of personal communion; it was more than a court of praise during meetings; and it was more than a small-group gathering for rabbinic teachings. It was the fullness of Deity dwelling in an earthly form to interact with His holy people in bodily form, through whose expressions and obedience the whole earth would be filled with the manifold wisdom and glorious testimonies of the kingdom of God, just as water covers the seas.
Therefore, what was wrong with individual spirituality was what was right with corporate spirituality, and what was lacking in personal destiny was what could only be complete in collective destiny. In other words, while individual spirituality and personal destiny are not wrong per se, we must view and measure them in the light of the corporate spirituality and collective destiny to judge whether they are right.
As such, God challenged them to consider their ways, and to measure them according to what God was doing from heaven as a corporate community of God, not what they were “blessed” on earth as individuals.
Doesn’t the spiritual condition of the people of God influenced by the great Babylon at the time of Haggai look like the spiritual condition of the people of God influenced by Babylon the great today?
Revelation 18:2-4
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
Just as God had warned and reprimanded the people of God to come out of their Babylonian mindset in the days of Haggai, God is also warning and reprimanding His people to come out of individualistic, self-indulging, and self-preserving ideologies and lifestyles of Babylon today to rebuild the temple of Christ’s body, which is the church, the body-community of Christ.
Whose house are we building today? God’s house or our own paneled houses?
Which pattern are we using to build the church today? “Temple” or “synagogues”?
Haggai 1:14
So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 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; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
Just as Zerubbabel of the lineage of Jesus (c.f. Matthew 1:12) was leading the rebuilding of the Temple, Jesus Christ is leading the rebuilding of the church today (c.f. Matthew 16:18).
If you are a remnant of the people who will choose the corporate temple over personal paneled houses, true temple worship over adapted synagogue services, congregational destiny over individualistic spirituality, and the city of the living God over Babylon the great, then be stirred by the Spirit of God, arise to the prophetic call of God, and rebuild the house of the LORD of hosts, our God.
Notice how God changed the way He interacted with His people on the day when the foundation of His Temple was completed, and how God prophesied that Jesus Christ would exercise His authority and power in shaking the kingdoms of the nations when the building of the temple of Christ’s body is completed.
Haggai 2:18-23
‘Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the LORD was founded, consider: Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.”’ Then the word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.’ ‘On that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ ” declares the LORD of hosts.
Once we understand the preeminence of the body of Christ, both universal and local, we will understand the blueprint of the temple of Christ’s body that Jesus is building, the body-dynamics of individual body members, the awesome splendour dwelling in it when perfected by the Perfecter of our faith, and its glorious power manifesting in the nations of the world, which no individualistic spirituality or paneled houses can ever match or fulfil.
Post-Script
Jeremiah 29:11-12
‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.’
We have frequently quoted or declared on ourselves this verse prophesied by Jeremiah, without realising that this “plans for welfare and not for calamity” was conditioned on the obedience of the people to rebuild the Temple of God upon their return from exile; else “you look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.'” (Haggai 1:9)
Thus, when we declare this verse again, remember to put our hands to the plough in building the corporate house of God that Jesus is building today in priority over building our individualistic house.
For additional exegesis, please read Personal Calling, Corporate Destiny and Personal and Community Identities in the Church.
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