Haggai 1:1-2:23, Revelations 11:1-19, Psalm 139:1-24, Proverbs 30:15-16
Today is the 20th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as our journey continues forward step-by-step, day-by-day in the final days of this year. And we’re kind of on a trend right now as we move through the…the minor prophets in the Old Testament where we absorb an entire book in a day. That won’t happen every single day for the rest of the year, but it will happen today.
Introduction to the Book of Haggai:
We have arrived at the 10th of 12 books of prophecy known as the minor prophets. And today we will read the prophet Haggai. And like a lot of the other minor prophets, there’s not a lot to give us like, who Haggai was, what he did. We know that Haggai was…was among those who had returned from the Babylonian exile and were living in Jerusalem. And he was probably one of the first wave of exiles to be…be able to return back to Jerusalem. And we also know that from the writing here, he had access to those in power because he indicates that his message was delivered to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. And we might remember that name because we learned of Zerubbabel when we read through the book of, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And he also delivered this message to Jeshua, the high priest, so he had access. And the message is largely motivational, but we have to look at a timeline to understand why. Babylon conquered Jerusalem and we read all about that, as we’ve been going through the Scriptures this year. And led people into exile and that happened at 586 BC. Babylon then was conquered by the Persian Empire in 539 BC. And it was the Persian King Cyrus that allowed the first of the exiles to go back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel’s leadership around 538 BC. Haggai’s message, the one we’re about to read comes 18 years later in 520 BC. If fact, these prophecies in the book of Haggai, are some of the most precisely dated utterances that we know in the Bible because the dates are contained in the book, August 29th through December 18th 520 BC. So, during the 18 years from the time that the exiles were first allowed to return, until the time that Haggai pronounces this prophecy, the temple remained incomplete. The different oppositions political and regional and the intimidation of the surrounding nations had stalled all of the efforts for the temple and the people that built their own fortifications and rebuilt their own homes and rebuilt their own lives, without concern for the temple as the centerpiece of who they were. And the prophet Haggai voices God’s displeasure, why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins. And so, God tells the people that since they returned, they’ve been toiling and all their attempts to rebuild have been thwarted and their crops haven’t yielded the bounty that they had planned for because the people had become self-absorbed and left God’s temple neglected. They needed to completely change their priorities and put God first, God had plans. And so, from Haggai, we understand that construction began on September 21st and less than a month later on October 17the God spoke again to the people. God wanted to restore the temple. It was the central part of their covenantal life and the community of the chosen people. But God had specific plans for the work, and he wanted the work done. The temple restored, no more delay. And so, what we’ll see as we read through this is that God’s people had spent their energy trying to make life work on their own. That sounds like God’s people today, right, that sounds like us. But what the people learned was that their efforts yielded far less than they were expecting because they put themselves first, ignoring God. When God’s plan had been to consolidate the prosperity of the other nations and bring it flooding into the temple to supply God’s people. So, in other words, and this is the lesson man, this is the lesson for us, if they had put God first their toil would have yielded what they expected and been more fruitful. That is, that something each of us can take on board as a lesson for life. And so, let’s read the book of Haggai.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and this rapid movement of the year and through the Bible and through the book of Haggai today. And we think today of what we read in Psalm 139 that there is no where we can flee from Your presence. Wherever we go, You are there, and so we recognize that, acknowledge that, open our hearts to that. Your presence is here now. Your presence will accompany us wherever we go. We can ignore that, we do it all the time, we wander places that we should never go all the time and wander away from You. But You will not remove Your presence from us. So, we humble ourselves before You and ask for Your leadership. Come, Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it’s the websites. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. We still have the vinyl albums that we brought out for Christmas this year, all in support of the new infrastructure and new application that’s coming next year. So, those are all available, you can find them at dailyaudiobible.com or in the Daily Audio Bible app, just look for the Shop, look for the Christmas Section and you will find them there. And thank you for all of those of you who have participated, thank you kindly.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Trejan, this is God’s Life Speaker. I heard you on the Community Prayers. And you’ve said you’ve called in three times, but you haven’t heard your voice. Oh, how I wish we could communicate that you have got to listen to community prayers. People get so prayed for there. Trejan, you have given your life to Christ, you read a poem for us, you are dealing with hatred. You don’t wanna go back to that lifestyle. You wanna love the Lord. The only thing you want to hate is the devil himself. And your heart came through your words, through that song, that poem that you wrote and read. You read it with such passion. Let’s just pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this young man that has changed his mind and changed his course. Lord, but he is crying out for just the peace in his mind. May his mind stay on You and may You give him the peace that surpasses all understanding. And a mind that stays on You, is a mind at peace, Lord. And you tell us to keep our minds on things above and I pray this over Trejan. I pray that he would burst forth with a song, with this rap, that he would speak to people, and he would be inundated with Christian friends, that they would just surround him, be able to lift him up, show him the way that he would have friends that would walk with him, beside him. And Holy Spirit, You are the number one friend, that You would speak to him in his mind. That You would draw him near and say, this way. And that he would follow you. He is eager, he’s hungry. Give him the sweetness, show him the way to go. He wants to follow the truth of life and we know that that’s You, and he has confessed it Lord. I pray that You would give him favor. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Hello my name is Maggienita. I’m from Australia. This is my first time calling but I have been listening since 2009. But this morning I’m calling because I need everyone to pray for my son Lucas. My son has been in accident at work this morning. And he was hit with high pressure costic in his face and eyes. And right now, all I know is that he is blind and they are flying him to a hospital. So, I’m asking would you please pray for my son Lucas. That his sight would be restored. Thank you.
This call is for Trejan in Massachusetts. I normally do not listen to the weekend community prayers because they’re pretty long but I felt led to listen to this one. And I say, for some reason I felt led, I know that reason, that was the Holy Spirit. And your prayer, your call really resonated with me, Trejan. And I’d like to pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank You for saving Trejan from the darkness that surrounds him there. From the hatred and Lord, I pray for Your deliverance for him. Surround him with spiritual brothers and sisters that can, that he can lean on. And this community too, Lord. Help him to realize that this community loves him and that there are people praying for him around the world, whether or not he hears that prayer, his prayer request. So Lord, just connect him with those people. Teach him how to connect with You on a daily basis. To spend time with You, to praise Your name and help him to be a light, a strong light in his community. I’m praying for you brother. This is Greg from Pennsylvania. Thanks.
Hi everyone, it’s Kristy in Kentucky. I wanted to call today to pray for some of our brothers and sisters. Lord, we praise You and we love You, Father God. And You have heard the petitions of Your children Lord, laid at Your feet. So, we come beside them, Jesus, and we pray for our brothers and sisters who love you so very much. Father, today, I lift up Chris to You Lord. He had a horrible battle with COVID, which has left him with MS. And Lord, the desires of his heart is to be healed so that he can spend time, quality time with his children doing all the things that he had planned to do with them, Father. And we’re asking that You hear his pleas, Father, for healing. Lord Jesus, Your hand is not too short to do any miracle. And so Father, we are asking for that for Chris today. Father, we are also praying for Jeremy. Lord Jesus, Kelly’s friend has received a horrible diagnosis of cancer, which has spread throughout his body. Lord, we know this man Father, and I know Lord Jesus, we all know Father God, that You love Your children. And we pray, Father God, that Your will for him is to live. And so, Father, we are asking that You place Your hands upon him, Father. Touch his body, Lord Jesus. Remove this cancer, Father. You’re a miracle working God, Lord. And we love You. We’ve seen your work before and so now we’re asking for a miracle for Jeremy. Lord, we love You so very much. We praise You and we honor You and we thank You for this privilege to come before Your throne. In Your heavenly name we pray. Amen. Alright everyone, I pray that each of you have a most blessed and lovely day. Merry Christmas.