“The Prophets of God Helping Them”
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blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of Mine house
that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the
heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her
fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon
that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle,
and upon all the labor of the hands.”
Verses 9-11
.
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“Consider your ways,” the Lord urged. “Go up to the mountain,
and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and
I will be glorified.”
Verses 7, 8
.
The message of counsel and reproof given through Haggai was
taken to heart by the leaders and people of Israel. They felt that God
was in earnest with them. They dared not disregard the repeated in-
struction sent them—that their prosperity, both temporal and spiritual,
was dependent on faithful obedience to God’s commands. Aroused
by the warnings of the prophet, Zerubbabel and Joshua, “with all the
remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the
words of Haggai the prophet.”
Verse 12
.
As soon as Israel decided to obey, the words of reproof were
followed by a message of encouragement. “Then spake Haggai ... unto
the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Zerubbabel” and of Joshua, and “of all the remnant of
the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of
hosts, their God.”
Verses 13, 14
.
In less than a month after the work on the temple was resumed,
the builders received another comforting message. “Be strong, O
Zerubbabel,” the Lord Himself urged through His prophet; “be strong,
O Joshua; ... and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord,
and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Haggai 2:4
.
To Israel encamped before Mount Sinai the Lord had declared: “I
will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And
they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth
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out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord
their God.”
Exodus 29:45, 46
. And now, notwithstanding the fact
that they had repeatedly “rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit” (
Isaiah
63:10
), God once more, through the messages of His prophet, was
stretching out His hand to save. As a recognition of their co-operation