Reflections on Haggai

I posed some questions on Haggai a few days ago, here are some follow up thoughts on the questions; I'll have one more post with more thoughts.

How many movements are in the second chapter?

I see three movements; 2:1 – 9; 2:9 – 19; 2:20 – 23. While we see different points within each movement, if we look at 2:1, 2:10, and 2:20 we see that these verses initialize each movement. Once we identity the movements we can drill down within each movement.

Yesterday I was pruning our crepe myrtle trees. We have a row of seven crepe myrtles out by the street; when I look at them as a group they look pretty much the same, but as I get close to each one I see different branch structures and patterns, different areas of health and deadwood, and so I prune each according to what I see when I am close to it. I need to prune based on the appearance as a group, how each tree grows in relation to other trees, and how I see each tree when I am solely focused on that tree.

When we are working with a text in order to preach, teach, or facilitate a small group, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us “see” the text from different and integrated perspectives – we want to “hear” the music of the text, see the dance of the text, feel the pulse of the text. We want to drink it, breathe it, taste it, absorb it. We want Holy Scripture to flow through the pores of our very being, to permeate our soul.

What is the emphasis of each movement?

The first movement is one of encouragement, along with a promise that God will shake all things and that God will fill His House with His glory. Note that in verse 5 that God invokes the promise He made during the Exodus, some one thousand years prior to Haggai – God always keeps His promises, His promises, His Covenant, is the foundation for our lives…individually and as a People.

The second movement focuses on the temporal situation with the remnant who have returned from captivity – their disobedience, God’s judgment, their repentance, and God’s blessing.

The third movement echoes the first movement – God will judge the nations and through His judgement He will preserve His people (as represented in Zerubbabel).

How do the movements relate to each other?

The second movement, the temporal situation with the remnant who have returned to Judah and Jerusalem, is bracketed by the first and third movements which look beyond the temporal into the eternal. These two movements see a heavenly people who God is bringing through the shaking of the heavens and the earth. They see a Living Temple (Ephesians Chapter 2, 1 Peter Chapter 2) in whom God’s glory lives in Jesus Christ (John 17).

As much as we might like to look to the past and yearn for the “good old days”, God is saying that the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former house. Surely on the Day of Pentecost we see the beginning of the fulfillment of this promise in Christ; but even with Pentecost we are looking at the former house, the inception of the Church, the birth of the Church – there are greater glories in Christ yet to come; just as there are greater shakings yet to come.