SHAKEN 2 of our 4-post series is an update of commentary on the January 6th crisis of 2021 following the insurrection and assault on Capitol Hill - a lingering malignancy which not-so-amazingly continues to shake the very foundations of freedom of WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES of America who must agaub think carefully about our ways.
Think back carefully: Do YOU remember this recent history correctly?
GOD & Government
Although this series points to current events of the United States and the world, SHAKEN! is not a partisan political post, but a fleeting glace at government and the role of God in the leadership of nations.
Our next post will point back to God and government at various times including this Prophet’s writings. So here’s the setting and time, NOT the US in A.D. 2021, but Persia in about 521 B.C., some 2500 years ago.
About 50,000 Jews returned. In 536 B.C., they began to rebuild the temple (cf. Ezra 3:1–4:5) but opposition from neighbors and indifference by the Jews caused the work to be abandoned (cf. Ezra 4:1–24) – source: Commentary of John MacArthur
- Where is the great City of David or the expansive Empire of Solomon of five centuries before?
- Where is the rebuilt Temple of the Lord from the Book of the Law uncovered during the reign of a previous administration (of Cyrus and the Governor Nehemiah)?
Prophecy of Aggeus (Haggai)
In the second year of King Darius..
בִּשְׁנַ֤ת שְׁתַּ֨יִם֙ לְדָרְיָ֣וֶשׁ הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ הַשִּׁשִּׁ֔י בְּיֹ֥ום אֶחָ֖ד לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ הָיָ֨ה דְבַר־יְהוָ֜ה בְּיַד־חַגַּ֣י הַנָּבִ֗יא אֶל־זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל בֶּן־שְׁאַלְתִּיאֵל֙ פַּחַ֣ת יְהוּדָ֔ה וְאֶל־יְהֹושֻׁ֧עַ בֶּן־יְהֹוצָדָ֛ק הַכֹּהֵ֥ן הַגָּדֹ֖ול לֵאמֹֽר׃
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: This people saith: The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.
Aggeus (Haggai) 1:2 DRB
Darius the Great
King of Kings
Great King
King of Persia
King of Babylon
Pharaoh of Egypt
King of Countries
Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!
Haggai 1:5 NASB
6 You have planted much
but harvested little.
You eat
but never have enough to be satisfied.
You drink
but never have enough to be happy.
You put on clothes
but never have enough to get warm.
The wage earner puts his wages
into a bag with a hole in it.”
7 The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.
WHY has this happened?
Are theirs not the same questions as our political and religious leaders ask in these days of desperation?
WHY has God allowed this?
9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?”
This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
“Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
So on your account,
Haggai 1:9b-10 CSB
the skies have withheld the dew
and the land its crops.
11 I have summoned a drought
on the fields and the hills,
on the grain, new wine, fresh oil,
and whatever the ground yields,
on people and animals,
and on all that your hands produce.”
What is the PEOPLE’s response?
12 Then..
- Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,
- governor of the Achaemenid Empire’s province Yehud Medinata led the first group of 42,360 Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the king of the Achaemenid Empire. – source: Wikipedia
- the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak,
- and the entire remnant of the people
.. obeyed 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.
That was their response to the Lord God.
Yet what answer now from ‘the entire remnant .. of the people’ from US?
God responds to righteous fear
Haggai 2 – Encouragement & Promise
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn’t it seem to you like nothing by comparison?
Remember Zerubbabel their governor, the high priest Joshua and all of the people obeyed the Lord their God and therefore ‘So the people feared the Lord.‘
The Lord’s declaration:
- 4 Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel
- Be strong, Joshua
- Be strong, all you people of the land..
Be strong, all you people of the land—this is the Lord’s declaration. Work! For I am with you—the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
5 This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit is present among you; don’t be afraid.’”
The LORD Who Leads
Can you imagine WHY the LORD God would restore a broken nation whose LEADERS OF GOVERNMENT AND WORSHIP had not led ALL of the PEOPLE to repentance?
In fact, Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the remnant of Israel once again bowed down in awe to the LORD, the God who had led them from Egypt and once again from Babylon.
Yet hear the word of the Lord to US — for WE THE PEOPLE are a stiff-necked and rebellious people led by winds of wantonness and words of wrath which stand upon our own strong wills.
For the Lord of Armies says this:
Haggai 2:6-7 CSB
“Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of Armies.
To be continued... Shaken 3 - surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses
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