The Message Remix (279 page)

INTRODUCTION HAGGAI

 

Places of worship are a problem. And the problem does not seem to be architectural.
Grand Gothic cathedrals that dominate a city don’t ensure that the worship of God dominates that city.
Unpainted, ramshackle, clapboard sheds perched precariously on the edge of a prairie don’t guarantee a congregation of humble saints in denim.

As we look over the centuries of the many and various building projects in God’s name—wilderness tabernacle, revival tent, Gothic cathedral, wayside chapel, synagogue, temple, meetinghouse, storefront mission, the catacombs—there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the buildings themselves and the belief and behavior of the people who assemble in them.

In noticing this, it is not uncommon for us to be dismissive of the buildings themselves by saying, “A place of worship is not a building; it’s people,” or “I prefer worshiping God in the great cathedral of the outdoors.” These pronouncements are often tagged with the scriptural punch line, “The God who made the universe doesn’t live in custom-made shrines,” which is supposed to end the discussion. God doesn’t live in buildings—period. That’s what we often say.

But then there is Haggai to account for. Haggai was dignified with the title “prophet” (therefore we must take him seriously). His single task, carried out in a three-and-a-half-month mission, was to get God’s people to work at rebuilding God’s Temple (the same Temple that had been destroyed by God’s decree only seventy or so years earlier).

Compared with the great prophets who preached repentance and salvation, Haggai’s message doesn’t sound very “spiritual.” But in God’s economy it is perhaps unwise to rank our assigned work as either more or less spiritual. We are not angels; we inhabit space. Material—bricks and mortar, boards and nails—keeps us grounded and connected with the ordinary world in which we necessarily live out our extraordinary beliefs. Haggai keeps us in touch with those times in our lives when repairing the building where we worship is an act of obedience every bit as important as praying in that place of worship.

From:
A few thousand Jews returned to their promised land with high hopes. Haggai was among them. He may have been born in exile. Or he may have been a survivor of the nation’s destruction, in his seventies when he prophesied. He delivered just four messages over a few months, but the people did what he said.

 

 

To:
The returned exiles quickly laid the foundations for the new Temple. Eighteen years passed. No Temple. What was distracting them? First, they had to feed their families and build houses for themselves. Persia went to war against Egypt and had to march its army through Palestine; all those troops consumed the local resources and drove up the prices. Second, the Jews were squabbling with their non-Jewish neighbors. These personal concerns seemed a lot more important than building a place to worship God. After all, God didn’t seem to be doing his job taking care of his people: the recent harvest was pathetic.

 

Re:
520 B.C. King Croesus, from whom we get the expression “as rich as Croesus,” ruled a kingdom in what is now Turkey. His wealth came from gold mines. Legend has it that Solon, who reformed the laws of Athens, visited him. Croesus showed off his riches and asked Solon if he wasn’t the happiest man he’d ever met. Solon said, “I count no man happy until his death.” Later Cyrus of Persia, the king who let the Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem, threatened to attack Croesus’ kingdom. Croesus asked the Greek oracle of Delphi whether he should fight or submit. The oracle said, “If Croesus goes to war he will destroy a great empire.” So Croesus went to fight, Cyrus crushed him, and Croesus’ empire was no more.