Haggai: Lesson 4

1.  This takes place during the Feast of Tabernacles.  This is one of 3 pilgrimage holidays the Israelites were commanded to keep.  We are told that all of the commandments are for our own good. In what way is keeping these holidays for our own good?

2.  Read:  Haggai 2:1-3. Our hearts must ache for those who had been alive and old enough to remember Solomon’s temple.  That took years to build.  This took months.  Our hearts must also ache when we look back to our country’s origins and the hopes of our founding fathers.  While we might long for those leaders and those days, what can we, individually, do to restore our country?

3a.  Read Haggai 2:4-5.  “Be strong and work for I am with you.  My Spirit is among you.”  God says the same thing to us today.  We are His hands and mouthpiece, His workers. What is the work God has for you?  How does the Holy Spirit help you in your work?

3b.God does not give us work without enabling us to do it.  They could not have rebuilt the temple without God’s Spirit and His strength. What has God’s strength enabled you to do during the past week?

3c..  For the Jewish people, the events of the Passover and the covenant when He brought them out of Egypt created and defined them as a people.  Write here the covenant He made with you. (Hint Read Jer. 31:31-37)

4a.  Read Haggai 2:6-9.  When before (God says, “once more”) did God shake the heavens and earth, the sea and land?  How are times today like they were then?  How are they different?

4b. Haggai shifts from the practical to the prophetic.  Read Isa. 13:9-13. Do you believe this will happen as it is written? What do you say to people who say this should not be taken literally?

4c.  Who are “the desired of all nations” who will come? (Read Rev. 5:6-9)

4d.  “In this place”, meaning the temple in Jerusalem, The Lord Almighty will bring peace.  This is why we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps. 122:6), because the Lord Almighty will be the One who brings it.  Do you pray for the peace of Jerusalem now? Will this encourage you to pray for Jerusalem?

5. Read Haggai 2:10-19.  Can you recall the day you came to faith?  God wants us to remember what our lives were like before we gave them to Him. That was the day that, as for these exiles, the Lord changed everything.  Tell us about it.

6. Read Haggai 2:20-23.  The signet ring was a guarantee.  It was a physical sign of a promise that something was going to happen.  The Lord Almighty here says that He has chosen Zerubbabel to be His signet ring, His guarantee.  What is God guaranteeing here?  In what sense is Zerubabbel the manifestation of God’s promise?  Do our lives reflect God’s promised return?  How can we be God’s signet ring, a sign to others that God’s promise will happen?

7.  What ideas or verse(s) of this brief book will stay with you?