Haggai 1:1-2:23, Revelations
11:1-19, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 30:15-16
Today is the 20th day
of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be
here with you today as we come in and find our place around the Global Campfire
for the next step forward in the Scriptures. And as we move ourselves into the
end of this week, we will encounter a new book. Surprise. Today’s book, and we
will read the entire book in the Old Testament is called Haggai. And usually our
custom is to…to talk about a book that we’re going to enter into or that we’re
going to read in its entirety before we do that so that we have some context
for it but I’m gonna flip that a little bit. And we’ll talk about Haggai at the
end today once you had a chance to read it. And that might help us glean some
more meaning for it that we can take into our day and take into the rest of
this month and into our lives. So, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation
this week and we’ll read the entire book of Haggai, which contains two chapters.
Commentary:
Okay. So, let’s go back and just
to review some of the territory that we encountered today, especially in the
book of Haggai. So, Haggai is another one of the books that we know as the
minor prophets. It’s the 12th of the minor prophets and like the
other minor prophets there’s not a bunch to go on to find out, like who is…who
was Haggai. And to begin to investigate this we just need to remind ourselves
we need to go back to the time that this is taking place. We…we will recall the
fact that the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms, northern and southern
kingdoms, and we will recall through our journey this year that both of those
kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel in the North and the kingdom of Judah in the
south, both were conquered eventually. So, the Assyrian Empire conquered Israel,
the 10 tribes of the north and took them into exile and they disappeared…like
they were they were never cohesive tribes again. The kingdom of Judah was
conquered by Babylon and we’ve read a lot about that story and a lot of
prophetic utterances from within that time. And we recall that Babylon was then
subsequently conquered by Persia and then the exiles were allowed to begin to
return back to their homeland. And this is the time that we find ourselves in
in Haggai. And we should note, because it’s so easy to miss because, you know,
we’re just moving through the Scriptures that…these exiles, the destruction of
the promised land and the displacement of the Hebrew people, this occupies a
considerable amount of the Old Testament. This was a devastating thing to these
people. So, we know that Haggai was among those who returned from the
Babylonian exile and he was living in Jerusalem. And probably he was one of the
first, the first wave of exiles that were allowed to return to a destroyed city.
And we also know that Haggai, he had access to people who were in power because
the book of Haggai tells us who it is to. The message was delivered to the Zerubbabel,
the governor of Judah. And we should remember that name because we learned
about Zerubbabel. We followed his story in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. But
the book of Haggai also says that Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, were
to receive the message. So, obviously he had access to give important message…messages
to important and powerful people. And the message that Haggai received from the
Lord was hopeful and maybe even more motivational. But we have to understand
why. And that’s why we were just talking about some of the territory that we’ve
covered the get here. Babylon did conquer Jerusalem and Jerusalem’s people were
lead into exile somewhere around 586 B.C. And then Babylon, as we just
mentioned, was conquered by the Persian Empire in 539 B.C. And, so, the Persian
kingdom, the new ruler, King Cyrus allowed the first wave of exiles to go back
to Jerusalem, under the leadership of Zerubbabel who was in charge around 538 B.C.,
like a year later. Haggai’s message is 18 more years in the future, in 520 B.C.
So, the exiles, the first wave of exiles have been back in the land of promise
for 18 years. And, incidentally, Haggai’s prophecies are some of the most
precisely dated utterances in the Bible. Haggai, was prophesying between August
29th through December 18th 520 B.C. So, anyway, the first
wave of exiles is able to return from their captivity in Babylon and to begin
to resettle a homeland that had been lost. And for 18 years the temple was not
complete. So, all kinds of things came against people. We read of these things
in other books - political opposition, intimidation, right? Surrounding nations
threatening. Just…just all of the unrest just halted the efforts. Instead, the
people were building their own homes and building their own lives, but they
were building new homes and new lives without the temple being the centerpiece
of their culture, which it had always been. We will remember some of the
agonizing utterances that came out of the exile about the destruction of the
Temple and the captors asking people to sing songs of…of their homeland by the
river Kabbar. And how could they do that if they forget Jerusalem? How could they
do that if…if the temple is lost? And, so, now the people are back for 18 years
and they’re able to be back in their land and build the temple again and they
don’t. And, so, God comes to Haggai abd says, “why…why are you living in luxury
while my house is in ruins?” And then God began to reveal to the people why
they had been struggling so hard for these 18 years. And it was ultimately
because the people had become self-absorbed and focused upon themselves and
neglected God and neglected the building of God’s temple. And, so, Haggai’s telling
them, “you gotta like…the priorities are wrong. Like, this is backward. We’re
just repeating the same story we keep repeating. We’ve got to put God first
because God has future plans.” And, so, according to Haggai, construction
resumed again on September 21st 520 B.C. and in less than a month
later on October 17th of that same year now that the temple is being
rebuilt God reveals what He’s up to. This is what the Lord of heaven’s says, “in
just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans
and the dryland. I’ll shake all the nations and the treasures of all the
nations will be brought to this temple. I will fill this place with glory, says
the Lord of heaven’s armies. The silver is mine and the gold is mine says the
Lord of heaven’s armies. The future glory of this temple will be greater than its
past glory, says the Lord of heaven’s armies. And in this place, I will bring peace.
I, the Lord of heaven’s armies have spoken. Alright? So, that is what God
intended to do with his people when he brought them back from exile, to restore
them and then begin to flow the riches of the world, the very peoples that had
conquered and attempted to destroy them to bring the wealth of the nations back
into the temple. And there was no temple because the people were too busy
seeing about their own welfare in their own lives. So, let’s make this come
home. Let’s bring this a little closer. I…I have been to Jerusalem many times
and there is no temple in Jerusalem. The final temple of the Lord, the one that
Jesus himself would have been familiar with was destroyed in A.D. 70, by the
Romans, so there is no temple there anymore. But the Scriptures…the Scriptures
tell us that we are the temple of God. In other words, the glorious presence of
the Lord of heaven’s armies indwells and resides inside the temple of our
lives. The people in the time of Haggai had spent their energy trying to make
life work on their own, but all of their efforts were yielding far less results
than they were expecting because they had put their exterior lives first,
ignoring the rebuilding and upkeep of the temple. Do you…do you see the
parallels going on here? We are the temple. Is its in ruins because we have
spent all of our efforts trying to create an exterior life that is curated and
looks magical to the exterior world, but inside here inside ourselves where we
live we know it’s in ruins? And are we working our butts off his heart as we
know how to do and we simply are not in any way yielding the results we
expected? Aor the hearers of Haggai’s message, God’s plan had always been to
consolidate the prosperity of the other nations who had pillaged them, and
bring it flooding back into the temple. So, if they had maintained the temple,
if they had put God first then their toil for those 18 years would’ve been
vastly more fruitful. Maybe that could explain a lot about things going on in
our lives. Maybe the temple is in ruins. While we build and build and build and
surround ourselves with stuff so that we can pretend that’s not true. And maybe
this has yielded far less results than we were expecting and so we’ve confused
ourselves and felt as if it’s God’s fault, that he’s withholding from us.
And then we encounter what we read
in the Psalms today. “How precious are your thoughts concerning me oh God. How
vast in number they are. If I try to count them there would be more of them
than there are grains of sand.” That’s a lot of thoughts about you. Maybe God
isn’t withholding anything from us. Maybe it’s we who are withholding from him.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. As
we stay in this season of longing and expectation, we consider our own hearts.
It’s easy enough for us to consider the baby Jesus but You have indwelled the
temple of our hearts and this is where You reside. And, so, we invite Your Holy
Spirit to see what kind of place we’ve made for You to live in. Is it in ruins
or are we lovingly maintaining it? Come Holy Spirit into that question today. We
ask in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
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here.
And we’re just moving ourselves…I
mean…it’s right in front of us, right? Christmas is upon us. And, so, we’ll
move through this weekend and the final Sunday of Advent and then into
Christmas. And it’s gonna be busy, probably for most of us, but we can choose
how…how we’re gonna approach this, whether grounded and rooted or whether swept
away. And I guess that’s one of the main things that we learn from the Bible is
it continually gives us a path to choose. And, so, right now, my choice is to
stay rooted and grounded knowing that they’ll be challenges to that but
deciding ahead of time helps an awful lot. So, that’s kind of where I’m at and maybe…maybe
you’re thinking about the same kinds of things because here we are. And one of the
things that I find to be really grounding around the Christmas season is our…is
our annual Christmas party and we’re putting that together…together now to come
out to release sometime between now and Monday. So, be on the lookout for that
and it will just…wherever it is that you listen to the Daily Audio Bible, it’ll
just show up as an episode. So, just watch for that. Putting the final…final
touches on it. So, keep an eye out for it.
If you want to partner with the Daily
Audio Bible here in these last…last weeks of the year…actually we’re inside
of two weeks of this decade. So, wow! If you to partner with the Daily Audio
Bible thank you profoundly and humbly. There is a link on the homepage of the
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And that is it for today. I’m
Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community
Prayer and Praise:
Father God, thank You so much for
this new day, for this new opportunity we have to serve You where we are. Thank
You, Lord so much for where You have placed us. Thank You for the village, town,
or city that we are in. Thank You for the country that we are in. Thank You for
the people that we interact with day by day. Help us Lord to please be a
shining light and a good ambassador for You. Lord, thank You for the
opportunity the British people had yesterday to vote for who they wanted to
represent them in parliament. Father God, thank You for the 650 people who have
been voted into the British Parliament. I pray Lord that they would be good
role models for us all. I pray Lord that each of them will be looking to work
together for the good of the British people. And Lord, probably most
importantly and I should’ve said at first, I pray that they would come to know
and love You as Lord and Savior because that is what is most important, their
salvation. Father God, thank You so much for my brothers, our brothers and
sisters who have been elected into the British Parliament and I pray Lord that
they would be shining lights where they are. Thank You so much for this opportunity
that these 650 people have to serve the British people for the next five or so
years. May You be at work Lord Jesus holy and precious name. Amen. Hi guys,
Michaela from Gloucester. Please be praying from unity in the UK. There are a
lot of disappointed and disillusioned people but there also a lot of happy
people. Please continue to pray for us. Thanks. Bye.
This is Rachel from Pennsylvania.
Dear God, I want to pray for those that are bipolar and who struggle with
knowing when they are off and need to make adjustments. I want to pray for Matt’s
cousin Diane who is bipolar and did something and ended up arrested and then
charges were dropped because of her condition, is now in an institution. And I
just pray for her recovery and that you will move in her and you will use Matt to
witness to her and to help change her life. I also want to pray for the boy
with bipolar syndrome who wanted to be with Jesus and stabbed himself and is
now in an institution. Lord, just be with him, heal him, and just help him to
stabilize so that he can function and…and be with You by understanding that You’re
with him, always in him, and, you know, that he can walk with You here on earth
before he meets You in heaven. And I also want to pray for Standing Firm in
South Carolina whose I think wife may be bipolar. I want to thank You that you
are straightening things out there. I don’t know details, but you called in
with a praise report. So, thank You God for that. And will continue to pray for
him. And I also want to pray for my dad to just keep him stabilized as well.
Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible community
my name is Jimmy I’m calling from Connecticut. I’ve been with the Daily Audio
Bible since the second year. Been going through a lot ever since then. Been
through a very long separation and divorce. Had a lot of depression since my
brother passed away last year. And lately, I just lost my job. I am now in my
home that I bought for my family by myself and trying to financially get back
on my feet. I’ve been praying nonstop for the past couple years. It’s been hard
because I’ve been doing the work of the Lord, praying for people and it seems
like personally I am just not making it. So, asking for prayer in my finances
that I will find a good job. I was in my job for 13 years and let go for doing
the right thing. Also, prayer for my daughter who’s being baptized, seven and
wanted to be baptized, which is an amazing thing. But I am thankful for Brian
and your family for all these years that it’s been a staple in my life. So,
yeah, thank you.
Hey Daily Audio Bible to Be a Blessing
in California. Just wanted to let you know it’s wonderful to always hear the
community connecting and even though I haven’t been calling in for a while it’s
just, you know, sometimes there are those moments when we just don’t call, and
we really should. So, here I am. I…it’s been a challenging time with work and
my health and the season and knowing that there are people that I miss. I know
that there are those of you who are experiencing similar situations with
relationship issues and lost loved ones who have passed away or jobs that have
gone away or just…it’s a hard time. So, know that I am praying for you. Ask
that you would pray for me also. There’s a man in the hospital, Anthony, is in
need of a lung transplant. So, if you would keep him in prayer and his family.
He’s been needing it for a while, and this is just a really trying time. Ms.
Johnson had a mini stroke and is it in acute rehab. So, they believe she’ll be
able to get back home but needs to have intensive care rehab. So, please keep
her in prayer. Lastly, there will be a blue Christmas service that I will be
participating in, leading on the 21st and really ask for your
prayerful support for those who will be a part of the service, that they will
be healthy, for those who will be coming that they will receive the love of
Jesus in so many ways and just for how the service will be organized. Really
appreciate that support. God bless you all. Bye-bye.
This is Pam and Dallas and I just
wanted to reach out to the man who reached out about his wife, the registered
nurse who has been ill and is discouraged and with a child who has cerebral
palsy. Just praying for your whole family. That’s a tough situation to be in
and just want you to know that you’re being prayed for. Bye.
This is TM from Botswana. Candace
from Oregon, thank you so much for the prayer for you say has been attributed
to Francis of Assisi which you prayed for us today on the 13th of December.
This is the one that says, “God let me be an instrument of thy peace.” This
prayer was exactly what I needed to hear with all the small challenges I am
currently experiencing with various aspects of my life and relationships. I
started listening to DAB this year in February and this is the first time that
I have called. I thank God so much for leading me to DAB, which I have found
quite coincidently it seems but which must be God’s answer to my prayer a year
ago when I asked him to help me read and understand the Bible and for him to
reveal himself to me through the Scriptures. Thank you, Brian and the entire
DAB community for all that you do to guide us through the word of God and for
your commentary which unravels the Scriptures so aptly and in a way that speaks
so directly to our individual experiences. I am so glad to be part of this
community and look forward to beginning next year’s listening right from the
first day of the year and to experience a repeat of the journey through the
Bible. And, Rebecca from Michigan, thank you for your prayer for all the
children and for reminding us to raise our children in the way of God. I was
very blessed by that teaching. I thank you all DABbers.
Good day, it’s Kelly from
Australia. How are you all going? I’m calling today to ask if you’d keep our
country Australia in your prayers over this festive season. We are experiencing
severe drought right now as well as devastating bushfires that are ravaging our
country, destroying our properties, livestock, and wildlife. Scorching hot
temperatures are forecasted for the coming weeks and not a drop of rain is
insight. Our firefighters will be working tirelessly over the festive season.
The Bush fire smoke is as thick as fog, our rivers and dams have dried up, and
farmers crops have not been sown or harvested. Even if farmers have the money
to feed their livestock, which some don’t, the feed now is scarcely available.
And what’s gonna happen in the coming months and years from this drought and
bushfires is unimaginable. So, I’m just wondering, could you please keep our
great southland in your prayers? We desperately need rain. We desperately need
relief from this drought in bushfires. It has reached proportions that I don’t…I
just don’t know what’s in store for us. Thank you and have a great day. Bye.
