December 16th
When the times require a prophet, Almighty God always sends one!
In the last years of the Fifth Century before Christ, the struggling Israelites had at last managed to escape from the nightmare of the Babylonian Captivity. Wounded and weary, with their hearts full of pain, they limped back to Jerusalem . . . back to the world they had known before Babylon, the world they had lost when they turned away from Almighty God.
Haggai would be their prophet.
Haggai, who had been born in Babylon of the tribe of Levi, had the vision required to see things as they are. (This was a great gift from God.) And when Haggai looked around, he saw that something was missing. Where was the great temple that should be full of people singing the praises of Almighty God?
Before the Captivity, the Israelites had worshipped in the exquisitely wrought and sumptuously beautiful Temple of Solomon. But that great edifice of cedar and bronze and gold had been destroyed in the same catastrophe that doomed the worshippers to a life of slavery and desolation. And now nothing stood in its place. . . .
Nothing, that is, until the prophet Haggai began to wander the streets of Jerusalem and to ask everyone he met: Where is the temple of the Lord?
With growing urgency, the Prophet urged the rulers of the Israelites, Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest, to restore the Temple of Jerusalem. With growing excitement, he pointed out that a new temple – if built on the foundation of an authentic reverence for God – would outshine the first: “The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,” says the LORD of Hosts. (Haggai 2:9)
And why exactly would this new house of worship exceed even the beauty of the dazzling shrine that had been built by Solomon?
The answer was simple, explained Haggai: This Second Temple would witness the arrival of the Holy Redeemer – the Savior who would redeem the entire world from the anguish of death and sin.
Haggai, the tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, prophesied in the early Fifth Century B.C. The birth of the Holy Redeemer Jesus Christ was still five centuries away . . . but Haggai could see. And so he walked the streets of the city, then under the rule of the Persian Emperor Darius Hystaspis. And in the end he convinced Zerubbabel and the priests to proceed with the construction of the Second Jerusalem Temple – the eventual location, he predicted, of what would be “the Word-Without-Beginning in the finality of times.”TAKEN FROMA contemporary of the Old Testament Prophet Zacharia, Haggai lived long enough to see a portion of the Second Temple actually rise from the earth in the heart of Old Jerusalem around 516 B.C. Most scholars of the period believe that he was buried with the priests in Jerusalem, since he was descended from Aaron.
The Prophet Haggai spoke with a voice that echoed through his world like thunder, as he warned the ancient Israelites that the One True God demanded their worship, and would punish them severely if they withheld it:
“For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more ( it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘ The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place will I give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it be holy?”’” Then the priests answered and said, “No.”
And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.”
Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the LORD, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean. And now, carefully consider from this day forward: from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the LORD— since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the LORD.”
(Haggai 2: 6-17)
From the life of the Prophet Haggai, we learn how to listen to God with our full attention. This great seer found the courage and the dedication required to hear the words of the Almighty – and then to pass them on to the rest of us. Let us strive to imitate Haggai’s faithfulness, so that we can open our own hearts fully to the healing and saving Word of God!
Apolytikion in the Second Tone
As we celebrate the memory of Thy Prophet Haggai, O Lord, through him we beseech Thee to save our souls.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
Illumined in mind with streams of light from Heaven's heights, thou brightly didst shine in prophecy throughout the world; and in manifesting types of Christ's dispensation, which was to come, thou becamest illustrious, O Prophet Haggai, wise in things divine.
