Ekev Torah Portion 2026 – Haggai & Zechariah: Prophets For The End Of Days – Part 1

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

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

HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH

We are going to study Zechariah and Haggai, but we are going to study Haggai first. These are the two earliest prophets of the post-Babylonian exile. Malachi is the last one coming about 100 years later. Haggai and Zechariah prophesied simultaneously and their prophecies dovetail which is why they should be studied together.

A thorough historical background is necessary to give us a complete understanding of why these 2 prophecies were given and how they will affect us 2500 years later. History becomes prophecy, as you know, and these prophecies have both near and far fulfillments.

In the Babylonian captivity and afterward, reckoning of timeframes, or dates, was done through the Kings of Babylon and then of Persia. Daniel was the first to reckon prophecies from the Kings of Babylon, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, but prophets before the captivity reckoned timeframes from the Kings of Judah. Not so any longer from that time to this because it was now the “times of the Gentiles”, a time that would stretch until Yeshua’s second coming, though the Jews probably had not understood this yet.

Note that Haggai and Zechariah both prophesied from Jerusalem, not Persia.

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES

The world entered the prophetic “times of the Gentiles” when Babylon captured Jerusalem in 3 waves: 605 BC, 597 BC and 586 BC. The “times of the Gentiles” extends all the way to now. This time will not end until Yeshua returns.

Although the phrase “times (or fullness) of the Gentiles” does not appear in the Tanach, as it does in Luke 21:24, Romans 11:25 and Revelation 11:2, that time is alluded to starting in Genesis 49:7, Leviticus 26:33, then repeated in Deuteronomy 4:27, 28:64 and 32:26, followed by everywhere from there forward where YHVH said He will scatter all the tribes among the nations.

The scattering among the nations is a more serious thing than most people understand the implications of. The scatterings literally resulted in the Gentiles ruling the earth to this day, for the last 2500 years, instead of Israel ruling it. In other words, Israel put the earth in Satan’s hands through their rebellions. Israel became the tail and not the head (Deuteronomy 28:44).

The other aspect of “the times of the Gentiles” is that almost no one considers that the Jews, for the last 2,000 years, are actually now Gentiles, also, because they killed their own Husband and King of Israel, Yeshua. That act completely severed any covenant relationship the Jews had with YHVH through Noah, Abraham and Moses. Everyone who is not an Israelite through Yeshua is a Gentile, one from the nations because that is what scattering among the nations means: loss of relationship and loss of peculiar identity (Exodus 19:5).

Here is an simplified look at how YHVH developed His covenants with us. If we start a funnel with Noah at the top, we will see that everyone who remained after the flood was, initially, God’s people. Noah’s sons and their families were God’s people until Nimrod rebelled and enticed others to, as well. Then they became “not God’s people”. And the funnel narrowed with Abraham.

People could be part of YHVH’s Kingdom by joining with Abraham or by being one of his descendants. Abraham had servants with him who were from the other nations who were part of the covenant through circumcision (Genesis 17:26-27) and he also had biological 2 sons. All who were with him were part of God’s Kingdom at that time.

Through Abraham came descendants by Jacob to establish the nation of Israel which YHVH had promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:2 and 18:18). After the prophesied time of Abraham’s descendants being in Egypt, the mantle of covenant passed to Moses.

Israel was formed at Mount Sinai from Jacob’s 12 sons. Until this point, the people of Abraham were called Hebrews. No longer were the people called Hebrews after they came out of Egypt and stood at Mount Sinai. They became Israelites on the day they ratified the Mosaic covenant. Anyone from the nations could become part of Israel through conversion from being Gentile to being Israelites like Rahab and Ruth did.

Fifteen hundred years later, after Israel became a failed nation, Yeshua came to take the helm because no King from the tribe of Judah had shown himself capable of continuing on David’s throne.

So, from Noah to Abraham to Moses to Yeshua, the covenant funnel narrowed to its final narrow point. The Jews have never understood or acknowledged how this covenant funnel works. None of the covenants were cast aside or done away. Rather, they were all restored on the Cross for those who 1) accept Yeshua’s blood sacrifice (‘pistis’ faith) and 2) His authority over them as their King through the Mosaic covenant, aka, the Law of Moses by which we exhibit our ‘pisteuo’ active obedience. And third, those who are Yeshua’s through faith, are also the children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7).

If you don’t understand ‘pistis faith’ and ‘pisteuo active obedience’, please listen to my teachings starting with the first one in the series on Galatians.

After the Jews killed their husband and King, they still maintained they are in the covenant funnel at the point of Abraham and Moses but without going through Yeshua. For the last 2,000 years, since 70 AD, the Jews are actually non-Israelites, meaning their scattering among the nations made them just as much Gentiles as the nations are Gentiles and as the northern House of Israel aka the House of Ephraim are Gentiles. This makes the Jews, then, part of “the times of the Gentiles” who are now, and who will continue, trampling the Holy City. 

Let me reiterate that you are no longer a Gentile once you believe and accept Yeshua as Messiah and King. You are part of Abraham’s descendants, and a still exiled citizen of Israel (Ephesians 2:12), just happening to have to live among the Gentiles until Yeshua returns.

THE TIMES OF THE JEWS

The times of the Jews overlapped with the start of the times of the Gentiles because YHVH’s objective in rebuilding the temple was to maintain the current but failing structure of the covenants long enough to bring Yeshua Messiah. YHVH kept the Southern Kingdom of Judah in place until the Messiah came the first time. Haggai’s job in 520 BC was to get them to return to the work of reconstructing the temple. They had stopped working after they erected the altar.

Haggai’s prophecies were foremost about the physical structure and secondarily about the temple’s leadership. It was Zechariah who built on Haggai’s prophecies, urging them to repent and return to YHVH with their hearts.

Haggai and Zechariah prophesied under the reign of Darius I (aka Darius the Great, (not to be confused with Darius the Mede who put Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel 6)). Haggai prophesied twice before Zechariah began to prophesy. And then Haggai prophesied twice more after that. They prophesied in tandem, their messages dovetailing for the physical rebuilding (Haggai) and the spiritual rebuilding (Zechariah).

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

To understand that time period, we must get the context of the time in 520 BC through scripture and history. Cyrus the great had conquered Babylon in 539 BC and had issued his repatriation decree in 538 BC allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem. The Babylonian exile, which began in 605 BC, was over in 536 BC. That was the year the Jews, all 49,897 (Ezra 2:63-65) of them, left Babylon returning to Jerusalem.

The Jews did not return to Jerusalem in 538 BC. Why? Ending the exile in 538 BC did not fulfill Jeremiah’s 70 year prophecy of exile because the first wave of exile happened in 605 BC. From 605 BC to 538 BC is only 68 years. The Jews had the decree in 538 BC but it took them another 2 years, until 536 BC, to get everything together so they could return to Jerusalem. Their preparations for 2 years made the prophecy fulfill 70 years.

The Book of Ezra which was written around 60 later gives us some details of what happened.

Ezra 1:1  Now in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia [539-538 BC], that Yahweh’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

Cyrus’s decree was not only for the Jews. It was for all the captured expatriate families from the nations Babylon had captured. YHVH was not concerned with the nations, though. His primary concern was the Southern Kingdom Jews and His temple. He had an objective which was to fulfill the 70 years punishment and then return the Jews back to Israel. In freeing the Jews, though, all the other nationalities were also freed. There is a prophetic hint in this which is that YHVH freeing His people from Babylonian also frees the entire world.

Ezra 1:2  “Thus says Cyrus King of Persia, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Cyrus declared who had given him his throne. Nothing more is said about Cyrus and his relationship with YHVH but apparently there was one. How deep it went would be entirely speculative but it was deep enough for him to declare YHVH is the God of Heaven who had given him all the Kingdoms of the earth and that it was YHVH himself who commanded Cyrus to rebuild the Jerusalem temple. In this, he was like Rahab who gave her testimony of faith to the 2 spies of Joshua 2:10-11.

Isaiah had mentioned Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1, 140 to 150 years before Cyrus became King. YHVH had a plan. He planned to use a Gentile King for His purposes and he had Isaiah prophesy about it.

Why did it take 2 years after Cyrus’s decree for the Jews to return to Jerusalem. They had to make preparations. They needed construction tools, skilled craftsmen, cedar logs from Lebanon and textiles for sewing the priestly garments. And they needed to assemble the people who would return because the record says they all traveled together like another exodus but coming out of Persia.

Ezra 2:63-64 says … the number of people was… “forty-two thousand three hundred sixty” Jews…

Ezra 2:65  in addition to their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred singing men and singing women.

The Jews did very well in captivity to the point that they had acquired servants. They were taken from Jerusalem with nothing but built wealth again in Babylon. Jeremiah had told them to do this in Jeremiah 29:5 and 28.

Jeremiah 29:4  Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: 
Jeremiah 29:5  “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 
Jeremiah 29:6  Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished. 
Jeremiah 29:7  Seek the peace of the city [Jerusalem] where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” 
Jeremiah 29:8  For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your [false] prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 

These were the same words spoken of by Yeshua in Matthew 24:11 and 24. “Your prophets” means they were not from YHVH. They were men who declared themselves to be prophets because they thought they “saw” the future through divination and they interpreted their dreams as divine messages. He would send His own prophets in 520 BC. Their names would be Haggai and Zechariah. Until then, don’t listen to “your prophets”.

Jeremiah 29:28  For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 

The time period of the end of the Babylonian captivity corresponds to the time we are in at the end of the age. Our captivity in Babylon is about to end. But unlike the Jews back then, we do not know the exact number of years of our captivity; we cannot know when we will be let go. But when it happens, we must hurry to “come out of her” (Revelation 18:4).

So it was that YHVH wanted His people to become wealthy in Babylon so they could use that wealth in their return. And they did use it, as we will see in a minute.

The acquired servants correspond to the erev rav that came out of Egypt. Those servants would not remain servants over time, however. They would become cultural Jews and the Gentile DNA would be mixed in with Jewish DNA.  

The group of almost 50,000 Jews was led out of Persia by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, grandson of King Jehoiachin, the last rightful heir to the throne of Judah. Just imagine the logistics of this! They purchased food, animals and wagons along with provisions for the trek back to Jerusalem and probably sustainable food for at least the first year while they began to grow crops even though there were Jews still living in and around Jerusalem. These Jews were the poor and unskilled workers left behind when Babylon took the nobles, the priests and the craftsmen.

Therein lies another prophetic hint for the end times spoken of in the Book of Revelation with the” coming out of Babylon” (Revelation 18:4). We will come out of end times Babylon en masse when it is time for Yeshua to lay the foundation for building His temple. But we will come out again as 12-tribed Israel, not as 4 tribes with Gentile servants.

Don’t be deceived. The Jewish “third temple” is not the one Yeshua will build. He will destroy that one because it will hold Mystery Babylon within. Our coming out will be done as an ingathering. And then the Messiah’s temple will be built when we cross over the Jordan river with Him as in the days of Joshua. He will lead us like Joshua led the 2nd generation and like Zerubbabel led the Jews out of Babylon.

Here is the list of more items returned to the Jews from King Cyrus’s treasury, items from Nebuchadnezzar’s theft of the temple’s sacred vessels, which also were cargo to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 1:7  Also Cyrus the King brought out the vessels of Yahweh’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; 
Ezra 1:8  even those, Cyrus King of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 

It is debated whether Sheshbazzar was a Babylonian name given to Zerubbabel who was the prince of Judah because he was the grandson of Jehoiachin, the last rightful King of Judah. It is not the objective of this teaching to make the case one way or the other. I am just letting you know that Sheshbazzar may have been Zerubbabel.

Ezra 1:9  This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives, 
Ezra 1:10  thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second sort, and one thousand other vessels. 
Ezra 1:11  All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. 

Funding for the return also came from Jewish donations of those who were going to stay behind, according to Ezra 1:6. Cyrus’s decree said:

Ezra 1:4  Whoever is left [those Jews who were staying behind which was, according to historical records, 80%-90% of the Jewish population], in any place where he lives [throughout the empire], let the men of his place help him [the one going to Jerusalem] with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the freewill offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’” 
Ezra 1:5  Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah [Judah was a composite of Judah and Simeon who had been absorbed into Judah by both geography and tribal ethnicity. This is why Simeon is not mentioned here.] and Benjamin, the priests [the line of Aaron], and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up rose up [after receiving enough funds and goods] to build Yahweh’s house which is in Jerusalem. 
Ezra 1:6  All those who were around them [those who were being left behind] strengthened their hands [those who were leaving Babylon] with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered. 

This is where the wealth of the Jews was used. They contributed to the return of the 10% to 20% who went back to Jerusalem.

All the money, not paper but coin (which is heavy), the goods, the temple treasures left Babylon returning to Jerusalem.

Cyrus returned everything except the ark of the covenant, menorah, table of shewbread and the table of incense which were not among the returning items and have never been found.

Ezra 1:7  Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of Yahweh’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; 
Ezra 1:8  even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 
Ezra 1:9  This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives, 
Ezra 1:10  thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second sort, and one thousand other vessels. 
Ezra 1:11  All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. 

Those were the items that came from King Cyrus’s treasury, the items plundered by Nebuchadnezzar.

The building materials were contracted from Phoenician merchants in Tyre and Sidon once they reached Jerusalem. The history of Ezra further says:

Ezra 3:7  They [the Jews, when they got to Jerusalem] also gave money to the [local] masons, and to the carpenters [to work for hire]. They [the Jews] also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia. 

The temple was not built between 536 AD and 520 AD. Only the altar was built and became functional. This is the reason YHVH prophesied through Haggai and Zechariah.

Ezra 3:1  When the seventh month had come [in the Fall of 536 BC], and the children of Israel were in the cities [of Judah again], 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. 
Ezra 3:3  In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands [mostly the Samaritans of the mountains of Israel aka the West Bank today], they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, even burnt offerings morning and evening. 

The Jews had reason to fear but they should not have let it stop them. The peoples surrounding the Jews included a mixture of hostile Gentiles and descendants of the Northern tribes that had been resettled in the mountains of Israel by the Assyrians who were called Samaritans. These were the common people of the tribes of the House of Israel who had been left behind. The Assyrians had taken the nobles, the leaders and the craftsmen and left the poor people and the farmers. They then mixed in people from the other nations and resettled them in the mountain of Israel aka the West Bank. Today, the people there are called Palestinians but 61% of them have Jacobite DNA as ascertained by Israeli DNA tests.

The rebuilding of today’s Jewish temple will come with the same hostility between Jerusalem and Samaria/the West Bank as existed when the Jews returned. All of this is prophetic especially for the Gog-Magog war being a war between brethren.

Ezekiel 38:21  I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 

“All my mountains” is a reference to the mountains of Israel, aka the West Bank today, and YHVH says the sword will be between the brothers. The Gog-Magog war is a family fight!

Ezra 3:4  They kept the feast of tents, as it is written [Sukkot in 536 BC], and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required; 
Ezra 3:5  and afterward the continual burnt offering, the offerings of the new moons, of all the set feasts of Yahweh that were consecrated, and of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to Yahweh. 
Ezra 3:6  From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh; but the foundation of Yahweh’s temple was not yet laid. 

The Jews erected the altar and made it functional long before the foundation stone was laid. This is a prophetic hint.

WHO WAS HAGGAI?

Jewish tradition holds that Haggai was a priest. I do not believe that. The reason I don’t believe it is because those prophets who were priests were said to be priests in the scriptures. They declared their rightful authority. Those prophets who were not priests did not claim to be. YHVH uses His priests and His people to prophesy alike. Amos was such a prophet who was not a priest. Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Daniel, Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Obadiah, and Joel are not recorded as being priests. And neither did Haggai report that was in a priestly lineage as did Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Ezra.

Instead, Haggai was more likely from the working class mentioned in Ezra 3:7. He was either a craftsman of some kind, a mason or a carpenter that returned with the 49,897. He was, however, a man with a personal relationship with YHVH because YHVH called him to prophesy. As a craftsman, YHVH calling him to prophesy about rebuilding the physical structure was in line with his life’s work. It is likely that Haggai was a leader of the masons and/or carpenters because, after he began prophesying, the Jews got busy. So Haggai carried authority.

We will learn many more details about our time by studying the histories and prophecies of the ancient times after the Babylonian captivity.

Until next time… Amen.