Re’eh & Haggai & Zechariah: Prophets For The End Of Days – Part 2

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT THE SAME AS THE RECORDING.

PROPHECY #1: THE COMMAND TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE

Haggai’s first prophecy was not a prophecy at all. It was a rebuke with a plea from YHVH to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem 16 years earlier.

Haggai 1:1  In the second year of Darius the king [520 BC], in the sixth month [Elul, the month of repentance before the Fall Feasts], in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came by Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 

Haggai’s name:

H2292
חַגַּי
chaggay
khag-gah’ee

From H2282; festive; Chaggai, a Hebrew prophet: – Haggai.

The root of his name has to do with ‘chag’ of YHVH, the Feasts. It is pronounced “Hag-ah-yee” in Hebrew because “ee” was added to ‘chag’ to personalize his name as “my feast”.

Haggai’s name is a hint about the prophecy of Zephaniah who prophesied between 640 BC and 609 BC during the reign of King Josiah just before the Babylonian exile. He had warned that Jerusalem would be severely punished.

Zephaniah 1:4  I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, 
Zephaniah 1:5  those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam, 
Zephaniah 1:6  those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him. 

Zephaniah had much to say about what was coming to the Southern Kingdom Jews, prophecies they ignored, followed by His judgement on the nations. You should read this book. It is only 3 chapters long but full of YHVH’s wrath toward His people. Chapter 3 is YHVH’s chapter of hope to His remnant.

However, among all the declared punishments which YHVH would send on the Jews, there is one prophecy that stands out that has to do with the Feasts.

Zephaniah 3:18  I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of you, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. -KJV

The word there for “solemn assembly” is the Hebrew word ‘moed’ (Strong’s H4150). YHVH says, “I will gather then that are sorrowful for the moed”, the Feasts of YHVH, to whom the reproach of not being able to keep the moed in Jerusalem is a reproach. The Jews had come out of Babylon with such a remnant (the 10% to 20% of the total Jewish population in Babylon): priests to oversee the sacrifices and everyone else to worship and rejoice at YHVH’s Feasts.

Thus, Haggai’s name is a declaration of the Feasts of YHVH. By the way, this prophecy of Zephaniah’s has a far fulfillment, too, for those who yearn to Feast with YHVH in His holy city and not do as the Jews began doing in Babylon – holding YHVH’s Feasts in their own homes and in the synagogues. These are not authorized places to hold the Feasts. It appears Haggai’s parents understood this, mourned for YHVH’s Feasts and harked forward, via Haggai’s name, to the time when YHVH’s Feasts would once again be observed in Jerusalem.

His first prophecy came in 520 BC, 16 years after the Jews left Babylon in 536 BC.

Elul, the 6th month, comes just before the month of Tishrei (the 7th month) with its Feasts of Trumpets, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. This is another prophetic clue about the timing of the coming Jewish temple. Because Zerubbabel had built the altar in time for the Fall Feasts, we have another a prophetic pattern for the building of the end times altar just prior to the Fall Feasts. And the other pattern suggests that there will be an altar erected before the building of the Jewish temple begins. I spoke of this in the last teaching since the Jews built the altar and got it functional and then stopped the work of rebuilding the temple. That means their altar could be functional before they build their third temple.

WHO WAS ZERUBBABEL?

His name means “seed” (zarab, Strong’s H2215) of “Babylon” (Babel, Strong’s H1101). It wasn’t that he was a seed of Babylon. It was that he was a seed of Judah who was born, not in Jerusalem, but in Babylon. And he was in that first generation of Jews to be born in Babylon after the captivity.

Zerubbabel was in the kings of Judah lineage. His grandfather was King Jehoiachin (aka Jeconiah and Coniah), the king who was dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Zerubbabel’s father, though, is a bit of a puzzle.

1 Chronicles 3:19  The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei… 

But Ezra 3:2, 3:8 and Ezra 5:2, Nehemiah 12:1, Haggai 1:1 and verses 12 and 14, Haggai 2:2 and verse 23 say Zerubbabel’s father was Shealtiel, the son of Jeconiah. So who was Zerubbabel’s father: Pedaiah or Shealtiel?

Let’s read about Shealtiel and Pedaiah.

1 Chronicles 3:17  The sons of [King] Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son [he was the firstborn of Jeconiah and heir to Jeconiah’s throne until 597 BC. He never succeeded to the throne], 
1 Chronicles 3:18  Malchiram, Pedaiah [the biological father of Zerubbabel, according to 1 Chronicles 3:19], Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. 

Shealtiel was the oldest son of king Jeconiah, the king of Judah who was taken captive to Babylon in 597 BC. He was taken at the same time as Jeconiah and all the other nobles so that he never became the next king of Judah.

Because the Jerusalem prophets list Zerubbabel as the son of Shealtiel but the Chronicler lists him as the son of Pedaiah, we can conclude, then, that Pedaiah was Zerubbabel’s biological father but that he died in Babylonian captivity and that Zerubbabel was likely raised by his uncle, perhaps even legally adopted, at a young age after the death of his father, Pedaiah. Thus, the Chronicler presents the biological father but the prophets in Jerusalem presents the adoptive father who raised Zerubbabel.

There is no record of Shealtiel leaving Babylon with the Jewish returnees. We don’t know if he was simply too old to travel or if he died. What we do know is that Jeconiah’s grandson, Zerubbabel, who was from Pedaiah but raised by Shealtiel, was the next tribe of Judah monarch but he never became King. He was the Governor, the appointee of Babylon to the vassal nation, Israel. He and Joshua, the High Priest, led the Jews out of Babylon.

It is no accident that the one who was half of the Jews’ leadership was named Joshua. His Aramiac name was ‘Yeshua’. It is, though, that after the Cross, our Yeshua holds both offices: King and High Priest and, in the end of days, he alone will lead His people back to Jerusalem.

Israel never again, to this day, has had a sovereign king. This is why it is so important to understand that their messiah is a human King from the line of David who we designate as the Antichrist. They have the same expectation today that their forebears had in the 1st century AD which was that they wanted a King, a warrior, to conquer the world and set up the Southern Kingdom of Judah as the final supreme power on earth.

THE REASON YHVH GAVE THE REBUKE

The Jews had been in Jerusalem since 536 BC and nothing more had been built.

Haggai 1:2  “This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for Yahweh’s house to be built.’” 

Why were they saying that after receiving the decree from Cyrus with the explicit instructions to rebuild the temple? Ezra can give us a clue about that.

Ezra 3:1  When the seventh month [536 BC] had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
Ezra 3:2  Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak stood up with his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

They did this…

Ezra 3:3  In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

It was out of fear that they backed away from rebuilding the temple.

Who were they afraid of? The peoples of those living in the mountains of Israel, Samaria and some from within their own Tribal territory.

Here is what the Jews let that do to them. They let that harassment stop them from rebuilding the temple and gave them an excuse to do something else, too. They gave into a temptation that led to YHVH punishing them.

YHVH will now have something to say about their misguided declaration that it must not be time to build God’s House because look at all the trouble we’re having doing it! You know… If it was YHVH’s will, we wouldn’t be having these difficulties!

That’s what people think, right? God tells them to do something and then they run into some head winds and other troubles and they say, “Well, I must have heard wrong” or “I must have gotten ahead of the LORD, it must not be time yet”. YHVH tests us to see if we will keep going, will we keep doing what He told us to do no matter what? They did not forge ahead.

In the surface appearance, it looks like they really didn’t have a heart for the temple and not a heart for YHVH. There was no zeal. Yes, they wanted to get out of Babylon, but that is where their interest ended. This was true of Zerubbabel and Joshua, also. They simply returned to Jerusalem and settled in to do their own thing. And what was their own thing?

REBUILDING THE TEMPLE

Haggai 1:3  Then Yahweh’s word came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, 
Haggai 1:4  “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste? 

Their own thing was to take care of their of worldly desires first. This wasn’t just them taking care of needs. They were taking care of wants, and what they wanted was to continue being the nobles, the elites, that they had been before the captivity. The problem was that the captivity happened because of the wickedness of the upper class, the nobles. Now, they were returning to the same ways.

Haggai 1:5  Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. 

“Consider your ways” is the beginning of YHVH calling the Jews to repentance. This call would be further developed by Zechariah. The Jews had been misbehaving ever since they returned from Babylon. First, they had let their fear of people stop them from the mission YHVH gave them.

Second, they were afraid to build YHVH’s House so they built theirs. For 16 years, they had been busy putting themselves ahead of YHVH. They were not building just any homes, either. These were “paneled homes”, fancy homes, with interior paneling made from Lebanese imported cedar wood, decorated and stylized for status. Status against who?  

They were making known their status as nobles, a class above the other Jews who had remained behind because they were poor. These new luxurious homes contrasted sharply with the homes of the people who had been living there for the last 70 years whose own homes were made of stone and mud.

This reinstated the class system, the division between the haves and the have nots, that existed before the captivity. And it would have become the source of animosity between the poor Jews who were still in Judah’s tribal territory toward the elite returnees. It wasn’t only the Samaritans who might have complained. Nehemiah records the bitterness between the poor class and the rich.

Nehemiah 5:1  Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. 

These were Jews who had remained behind in the tribal territory of Judah and had lived in or around Jerusalem for 70 years. Then, the returning nobles came and began to exact taxes and lay heavy burdens on the poor of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. How do we know? Let’s go to Nehemiah 5:7.

Neh 5:7  Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, every one of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them. 

Nehemiah’s history, like Ezra’s, was written about 60 years after the return. He records what had been happening as soon as the Jews returned from Babylon to the time when he went to Jerusalem 60 years later. The returning Jews put heavy burdens on the people who were their brethren and who were not taken to Babylon because they were too poor and unskilled.

Now back to verse 2 to see the burdens brought on by the returnees.

Nehemiah 5:2  For there were that said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” 

These were those poor people who had no properties.

Nehemiah 5:3  There were also some that said, “We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.” 
Nehemiah 5:4  There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. 

These were the burdens of those who had properties. Not only were the returning Jews taking money in the form of usury to pay taxes, but now there was a famine because of the returnees’ disobedience. More on that in a minute.

Nehemiah 5:5  Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.” 

This was the complaint of the Jews who were left behind against the Jews who returned and took over again doing the same thing they had been doing before the captivity for which YHVH had exiled them!

Rather than live in less luxury, in homes made of stone and mud while the reconstruction was ongoing, the returning Jews got busy making homes that were better than YHVH’s and better than their brethren’s. It caused animosity between the returning Jews and the poor Jews who were left behind.  

The returning Jews reinstituted the same kind of class system that got them in trouble before the exile, the system where there was them, the “elites”, and then there was the lower class, the poor and widows. They were simply repeating what had been before the captivity.

We will read of Joshua’s unclean garments in the Book of Zechariah. Those unclean garments were not just because he had been in Babylon. It was also because he had not led the Jews to give their hearts to YHVH and not repeat what was done before and he had not encouraged them to continue the reconstruction. He had participated in setting up his own luxury, had not taken care of the poor and was part of the same system that existed before the captivity. The same goes for Zerubbabel. This is why after Haggai began to preach and exhort the Jews to continue building, YHVH used Zechariah to turn their hearts so He could use Joshua and Zerubbabel.

What Joshua and Zerubbabel did, allowing themselves to be led by the crowd and doing what the crowd did, was a shame on them and the entire Jewish community. Shame on Zerubbabel and Joshua for not stopping it. This is why Haggai’s and Zechariah’s prophecies were sometimes specifically for Zerubbabel and Joshua. They were failing as leaders and YHVH was telling them that if they turned their hearts, He would use them mightily!

That’s the second reason the reconstruction coming to a halt. The third reason is because of drought that was brought on by their sin of neglecting their mission and what they had already begun to do again to their own brethren. We just read about the famine that was still going on during Ezra and Nehemia’s time 60 to 70 years later. But the problem did not start 60 to 70 years later. It started as soon as the altar was set up and the Jews stopped building the temple in 536 BC. So now in 520 BC, YHVH said through Haggai:

Haggai 1:6  You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.” 
Haggai 1:7  This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways. 
Haggai 1:8  Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says Yahweh. 
Haggai 1:9  “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. 
Haggai 1:10  Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 
Haggai 1:11  I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.” 

We now see that the Jews let the troubles of the surrounding people groups and the building of luxurious homes for themselves bring on the droughts each year. YHVH had sent them to rebuild His temple. It was time, contrary to what they were saying. The 70 years of exile punishment was over 16 years ago. It was time to build the temple again and for the Southern Kingdom of Judah to be restored.

Let me just jump ahead for a minute to tell you why YHVH needed the Southern Kingdom to continue. It’s going to come out in Zechariah. YHVH needed a lineage of David to still exist so Yeshua, the Branch, could come be the Messiah. But now, the Jews have effectively stopped YHVH’s plans.

What happens when YHVH calls us to do something and we stall or don’t do it at all? You get the curses. You get drought bringing too little food and higher prices so that your money, which you spent on yourself as the Jews did, goes through your pockets because your whose wages go in and then come right out as if the pockets have holes in them.

Yeshua said seek the Kingdom first and all the rest will be added to you (Matthew 6:33 and Luke 12:31). But that is not what they did for 16 years from 536 BC to 520 BC. They sought their own interests first.

To their credit, Zerubbabel and Joshua took this Word from Haggai and ran with it. That means they understood and repented! God can still use us after we have sinned if we just repent.

It doesn’t recount any repentance here but that is most likely what happened because, guess what, they gathered the remnant of the people. They obeyed the Word that YHVH gave Haggai which was “get up and keep building!” The alternative was “continue what you’re doing and die” having not rebuilt the temple.

Haggai 1:12  Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed Yahweh, their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as Yahweh, their God, had sent him; and the people feared Yahweh. 

They obeyed YHVH. They heard His voice through the prophet Haggai and they did the other right thing: they feared YHVH.

Haggai 1:13  Then Haggai, Yahweh’s messenger, spoke Yahweh’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says Yahweh. 

This is always YHVH’s response to us when we return to Him. “I am with you”. That is always and only what YHVH wants. It starts with our obedience followed by Him being with us.

Haggai 1:14  Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of Yahweh of Armies, their God, 
Haggai 1:15  in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king [520 BC].  

Here is why I believe they repented. And by the way, they may have been doing what was not right in YHVH’s eyes and they may have started down the wrong path with the same ways as their ancestors, but they didn’t. Do you know why? There was still something of a softness that had come from being in captivity. Their hearts were still kind of soft. So, on the 24th day of Elul, they were back to work.

But why did is take 23 days for them to return to work? Haggai’s prophecy came on the 1st day of Elul. It was more than getting everyone rounded up. I believe there were repenting. Nothing is said about this but I believe they went before that altar and offered sin sacrifices and thanksgiving and peace offerings. I wish we knew for sure. Scripture doesn’t tell us, but I believe they had a national call to the altar and they nationally repented for most of those days and then they got back to work.

It has sounded like I’ve been really hard on the Jews. It is easy to read Haggai’s word and completely miss the understanding of the context. “Paneled houses”. We have those today and so, for us, that’s not a bad thing. We have to understand the context and we don’t We have to understand that people never change until they have a real repentance and a real change of heart and most people never have that. I have not been hard on the Jews of 2500 years ago. I have provided the context so that you can see that from that time to this nothing has changed!

But I want to add this. YHVH intends to save His people. The Israelis are not His people except for those tens of thousands of Jews who believe in Yeshua. Other than them, the Israelis are not God’s people! They are not chosen and they are not His! But He intends to save them and He has had Jews all through the millennia who were His people. So don’t think I am relegating all Jews to destruction. I am not. But I know God has a plan for His people, Israeli Gentiles or other Gentiles, because here is what He told Jeremiah when He told the Jews to build houses, plant gardens and make marriages in Babylon:

Jer 29:10  For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. 

That prophecy extends all the way to now, but not just for the Jews. It extends to everyone who knows Him. After the times of the Gentiles is accomplished, God will call His people out of Babylon again and give them their future.

And so ends Haggai’s first prophecy given by YHVH on the 1st day of the 6th month (Elul).