Lesson #01

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Haggai

September 21, 2015

Lesson #02

January 9, 2010

RETURN TO SYLLABUS
HAGGAI
LESSON #01
INTRODUCTION and PRIORITIES

• INTRODUCTION:
• Who:
• Who wrote this little book?
• An old prophet from the priestly tribe of Levi, whose name was Haggai.
• This man’s name means = feast of Jehovah.
• In other words, an abundance from God. His name gives us a clue to his message.
• What, Where, and When:

• What was happening at the time this book was written?
• The Jewish people had just spent 70 years as slaves in Babylon. They RETURN ed to Israel after the Babylonian captivity.
• The Jews began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Babylonians.
• The enemy nations around them caused delay in rebuilding the temple.
• The people became distracted, frustrated, and discouraged. They stopped building for 15 years.
• The location of the events in this little book is in the city of Jerusalem.
• The date of the events in the book of Haggai occurs in the year 520 BC.
• In 536 BC, 50,000 Jews RETURN ed from captivity to Israel with their leader Zerubbabel.
• They built an altar and began animal sacrifice, but they had no temple.
• In 535 BC they laid the foundation of the temple and work stopped.
• In 520 BC Haggai begins to give his four prophetic messages from God.
• Why:

• Why did Haggai write this book?
• Haggai wrote this book to encourage the people to complete the construction of the temple.
• The people had become self-centered.
• They stopped thinking about the things of God.
• They began to get involved with their own daily lives:
• The construction of their own houses.
• Their efforts to make a living.
• Their families.
• All the things that it takes to live in this world.
• The Theme of Our Study:

• Rebuilding the temple
• To discover our theme, we need to examine some New Testament scriptures:
• Read 1Cor 3:16-17 Read 1Cor 6:19-20
• These scriptures tell us that the believer in Jesus Christ is “the temple” of God in this New Testament age of grace.
• In other words, the presence of God is living inside of the believer because he has invited Jesus Christ into his life. At that point in time, the Holy Spirit dwells inside the believer just as the presence of God dwelt inside the physical temple in Old Testament times.
• Therefore, as we talk about the rebuilding of the physical temple in Jerusalem, we will apply the principles of Haggai’s messages to building our own Christian life as a New Testament temple of God.
• Sources For Our Study:

• Halley’s Bible Handbook
• Eerdman’s Handbook to the Bible
• Be Ye Transformed

by Chuck and Nancy Missler

HAGGAI 1
CHRISTIAN PRIORITIES

• Read Hag 1:1-6
• Zerubabbel
• This man was the governmental leader that brought 50,000 Jews from Babylon to resettle Israel.
• Joshua
• This man was the religious high priest at the time.
• This is not the same Joshua that led the Israelites into the promised land after Moses.
• What is the attitude of the people? (2)
• Self-preoccupation
• What were the people’s priorities? (4-6)
• The people’s priorities resulted in failed crops, hunger, lack of clothing, and insufficient wages. (6)
• The people were working hard to get established in their new land. They were building houses, starting businesses, and planting farms. However, they were not thriving. Instead they were on a treadmill getting nowhere.
• Why, do you think?
• Read Mat 6:19-21
• It is a matter of Priorities:
• The people were not suceeding in life because their priorities were wrong. They were not reaping God’s abundant blessings because they were planting the wrong seed.
• Remember the meaning of Haggai’s name is “a feast of God”.
• Haggai is going to show us how to experience the abundant blessings of God.
• What are the proper Christian priorities for building a strong Christian life?
• Priority #1 Your responsibility to God (Mat 6:33):
• Personal prayer time, talking with God.
• Personal Bible reading and study.
• Personal worship.
• Your spiritual growth through church attendance and Bible Study classes.
• Priority #2 Your responsibility to your spouse (Gen 2:24 Eph 5:21-33)
• Communication
• Meeting personal needs of the other person
• Spend time with the other person.
• Priority #3 Your responsibility to your children (Pro 22:6 Efe 6:4 1Tim 3:4 Tit 2:4):
• Children includes those who live with you and those who do not, up to the age of 18.
• Spend time in ommunication
• Meeting their personal needs (physical, emotional, spiritual).
• Priority #4 Your responsibility to your extended family (Mat 15:4-9 Mat 19:19):
• Extended family includes primarily parents, then grandparents.
• Your responsibility is to make sure that you or someone else is meeting their needs physically, emotionally, personally, and spiritually.
• Priority #5 Your responsibility to your church family (Heb 10:24-25 Rom 12:1-5):
• Meeting the needs physically, emotionally, and spiritually of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Priority #6 Your responsibility to non-believers (Mar 16:15 1Tim 6:12 2Tim 3:10-12):
• To be a witness of Jesus Christ in your lifestyle.
• To witness to other people.
• Priority #7 Your responsibility to yourself (Gal 2:20):
• No scriptures give any priority to your own desires or needs. We are to trust God for all of these. We are to die to self and live to God.
• General Comments on Priorities:
• Where does my job fit in with the above priorities?
• Even though we spend most of our time during the day working at a job, there is no specific priority for it in scripture, why?
• A job is not a priority, it is a means of fulfilling the above priorities. Earning a living touches all the above categories of priorities.
• To arrive at a proper perspective regarding your job means you first have to examine your motive for the job you have.
• Is your motive to accumulate money, power, or prestige?
• An illegitimate motive.
• Is your motive to meet your responsibilities?
• A legitimate motive.
• Priorities determine how you spend your time, your efforts, and your money.
• Fulfilling priorities # 1 and #2 does not exempt you from your responsibility to the other priorities.
• The key word in all the priorities is balance.
• Read Hag 1:7-15
• The results of wrong priorities:
• God “…did not blow on it” (9)
• The breath of God is a reference to the Holy Spirit. This means that the Holy Spirit did not give life to their efforts. If the Holy Spirit does not give life to your deeds, they result in dead works. (Heb 6:1)
• Economic depression including drought and famine. (10-11)
• What resulted from the obedience of the people?
• The people began to build the temple 25 days after Haggai’s message from God.

• Application:
• The enemy, frustration, and discouragement defeated the people in their progress to establish their new life in Israel.
• Sometimes new believers have these same feelings shortly after receiving Christ into their life. Everything in their life does not miraculously change. God leaves certain residual aspects from the old life waiting for the new believer by faith to fix it.
• Setting proper priorities helps you to straighten out your life so that the Holy Spirit will give life to your deeds.
• If we apply the principles of Haggai’s message to our own life, we see that in order to have success in every aspect of life, we need to first get our priorities right.

HOMEWORK
HAGGAI 2
Please do not send homework answers to the teacher for correction.

• Application of Haggai 1
• What major areas of your life will benefit by proper priorities?
• Which priorities do you need to change to align your life with Haggai’s message?

• Preparation for Haggai 2
• Read Hag 2:1-23
• What are the themes of Haggai’s 3 messages in this chapter?
• Message #1 (1-9)
• Message #2 (10-19)
• Message #3 (20-23)

• Memory verses: Rom 12:1-2