Haggai 1:1-6
The Time Has Not Yet Come
1In 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
2that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”
3Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying:
4“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
5Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
6You 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. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
Berean Standard Bible
Haggai opens the way an office document opens. The second year of King Darius, the first day of the sixth month, and then two men named with their fathers and their job titles, Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and Joshua the high priest. Before God says anything at all, we are given a date and a distribution list. Somebody in Jerusalem thought this was worth filing.
Then the complaint, and it is a smaller one than we might expect. The passage brings no charge of idolatry and no charge of revolt. What the people have is an opinion about scheduling.
The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.
There is no refusal anywhere in that sentence. Not yet is a far more comfortable place to stand than no, because it agrees with everything you have been told and then declines to move, and there is nothing in it for anybody to push against.
God answers with a question, and the question is about their own front rooms.
Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
Paneled is the word carrying the weight. Paneling is not shelter, it is finish work. In those same years there was timber to be felled, money to pay for it, and labor to line the inside of a house with it, while the temple lay in ruins. He does not call these people lazy. Verse 9 says each of them was busy with his own house.
So he tells them to consider their ways carefully, and hands them five things to consider. They planted a great deal and brought in little. They eat and are not full. They drink and are not satisfied. They put clothes on and do not get warm.
You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.
Not one of those is a catastrophe. There is no army at the gate, no famine, nobody in chains. It is a quieter kind of trouble and a harder one to say out loud at a table, because everything is working and nothing is landing. You do the job, the pay arrives, the pay does not do what pay is meant to do. The bag is the picture that stays with you. Wages go into a bag with a hole in it, which is the image the verse gives and all it gives.
How We Know
Haggai dates himself and names his officials, and another book records the same two men doing the same thing at the same moment.
Ezra 5:1 says that Haggai the prophet and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. Ezra 5:2 says that Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak then set out to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem, with the prophets of God supporting them.
That is a second account naming the prophet, the governor and the priest, and placing them in the same event. Ezra is telling the history and Haggai is the sermon inside it, and neither one explains the other.
Questions
1 Before we are told a single word God said, what are we told?
AnswerThe year of a king's reign, the month, the day, and the names and jobs of the two men being addressed. It is put at a fixed point on a calendar with named officials standing there, rather than opening once upon a time.
2 The people are not refusing to rebuild. So what are they actually saying?
AnswerThat the time has not yet come. Nobody says the temple does not matter and nobody says they will not do it. They have decided this is not the year, and that opinion has been sitting there without anybody ever having to defend it.
3 Is there something we have all agreed is a good idea and still have not started? What is it?
AnswerWhatever gets named, hold it next to the paneled houses. God does not point at what these people refused. He points at what they finished instead, which was the inside of their own homes, decorated down to the woodwork while the temple lay in ruins.
4 God lists five things that are not working. What do they have in common?
AnswerPlanting much and harvesting little, eating without being full, drinking without being satisfied, dressing without getting warm, and wages going into a bag with a hole in it. None of them is a disaster. Every one of them is effort that does not deliver what effort is supposed to deliver.
What This Means for Us
Had these people refused outright, somebody would have argued with them. Instead they said not yet, and not yet is very hard to argue with, since it agrees with you and postpones you in the same breath. Enough not yets in a row become a decision, and nobody ever has to make one, defend one, or even notice that one has been made. So name the thing this family has been saying not yet about. Not something we turned down, but something we agreed with and have never started.
Prayer
Father, we do not tell you no. We tell you later, and we keep our calendars busy enough to make it sound reasonable. Show us the bag with the hole in it. Give us the courage to start the thing we agreed with years ago. Amen.