Can America Learn from Haggai?

        Here is an excerpt from my book, THREE PROPHETS TO JUDAH. That book comments on Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

        This little book is most interesting. It is not just a little book set off by itself. We see its importance right in the first verse. The time is in the second year of Darius the king. Some want to make this a later Darius several years later. Yet that cannot be. This book could almost be a part of Ezra or Nehemiah. In Ezra chapter 4 the setting is a time in Persia (modern name Iran) Darius was king of the world empire of Persia. The Jews, by command of king Cyrus, had gone back from the Babylonian Captivity to the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. As they attempted to rebuild the temple that the Babylonians had demolished, they were hindered by their enemies. When their enemies could not stop them from building, they wrote to King Artaxerxes back in Iran and sought help in deterring the Jews from building their temple. Artaxerxes gave command and stopped the building of that temple. The work ceased until the second year of Darius, which is where we find ourselves in Haggai 1:1. We are also told in Ezra 5:1 that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied unto the Jews. Then in verse 2, Zerubbabel and Jeshua began again to build the house of God in Jerusalem. Thus it was the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah that encouraged the Jews to finish what they had begun. It will be interesting to study Haggai and Zechariah with that perspective.

        When Artaxerxes stopped them from building, they just sort of settled down and forgot the house of God. When people neglect the house of God, the results are not good. They became lethargic. They had now come to the point that the people were saying, "...The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built." Haggai 1:3. They had built their own houses, but they were apathetic about building God's house. That's the accusation Haggai brought against them, Hag. 1:4. That means they had roofed and covered their houses so as to protect them, but now they were neglecting the house of God. This was a sort of selfish greed on the part of the people. Haggai was so commanded to give the above reproof, because the people were apathetic about the things of the Lord.

        Their greedy neglect of God's house also brought disastrous conditions. They were sowing bountifully, but they were bringing in little. They would eat, but they would still be hungry. They would drink, but they would still be thirsty. They clothed themselves, but they were still cold. The wage earners would work and earn their wages, but it was like putting their money in a bag with holes in it. Hag.1:5

        Can we today learn from Haggai?