My Family Devotion

Haggai 1:12-15

I Am With You

Written by Matthew Pavey

12Then 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.

13Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.

14So 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,

15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

Berean Standard Bible

A prophet finishes speaking and the people do what he told them. The governor, the high priest and all the remnant of the people obey the voice of the LORD and the words of Haggai, and then they fear the LORD. No debate is recorded. Nobody is sent off to check the man's credentials first.

Then a very short paragraph, and it is holding the rest of the chapter up.

Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the message of the LORD to the people: I am with you, declares the LORD.

Four words, to a town that had just been told its poor harvests were its own fault. They land between two things. Verse 12 has the people already obeying. Verse 13 is this. Verse 14 is where they come and begin the work. Nothing earlier in the chapter offered them any comfort to turn on: a dated rebuke, a question about their paneling, and a drought God claimed as his own doing. They said yes to that, and the reassurance arrives between the yes and the first day's labor.

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.

There is a second thing in these verses, and the book makes no attempt to smooth it over. Verse 12 said the people obeyed. Here God stirs their spirits, and then they come and start work. Same people, same page. One sentence says they did it and the other says he did it, and the book sets both down and goes straight on to the date with no explanation offered.

The chapter ends with a date, and the arithmetic does something to the story. The message came on the first day of the sixth month. The work began on the twenty-fourth day of that same month. Nobody started that afternoon, and the gap between hearing and lifting is written down rather than tidied away.

How We Know

This passage says two different things about who acted, and never reconciles them.

Verse 12 credits the people: they obeyed the voice of the LORD and the words of the prophet. Verse 14 credits God: he stirred their spirits, and then they came and began. The two claims stand together with nothing reconciling them.

Verse 15 then dates the start of work to the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, and 1:1 dated the message to the first day of the same month. The account keeps its own gap rather than closing it.

Ezra 5:1 and 5:2 record the same prophet, the same governor and the same high priest at the same rebuilding, from outside the sermon. Ezra 5:2 has the two men rise up and begin, which supports the human half of what verse 12 says. The stirring in verse 14 it does not touch, and neither account joins the two.

Questions

1 How do the people respond to Haggai, and what is missing from the account of it?

AnswerThey obey. The governor, the high priest and all the remnant do what he said, and then they fear the LORD. No debate is recorded and nobody pushes back, which the book reports without remarking on it.

2 What is the message God sends next, and when does it arrive?

AnswerI am with you. That is the whole of it. It comes in verse 13, after they have already obeyed in verse 12 and before they begin the work in verse 14. They turned on the strength of a rebuke with no comfort attached to it.

3 Is there something you have been waiting to feel ready for before you start it? What are you waiting to feel?

AnswerWhatever it is, hold it against the order here. They were told they had been wrong, they said yes to that, and only then were they told who was standing with them. The reassurance came after the decision rather than before it.

4 Who gets the credit for the work starting, the people or God?

AnswerBoth, in the space of two verses. The people obeyed, and the LORD stirred their spirits. The book puts the two side by side and never tries to sort out which one came first or which one caused the other.

What This Means for Us

We would have written it the other way round. Tell us you are with us, and then we will see about moving. These people were told they had got it wrong and they turned anyway, with nothing promised to them yet, and the promise came next. Remember too that the gap between the word and the first day of work ran three weeks and more. Starting was not a burst of feeling. It was somebody deciding to go. So take the thing already known to need starting, start it badly if that is the only way to start it, and let the reassurance come find you at work.

Prayer

Father, we wait to feel you with us before we will move, and you have often done it the other way round. Thank you that the words came after they had already said yes. Give us the nerve to begin before we feel ready. Amen.