SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2016 10:01 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Encouragement: God’s Presence
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Haggai 2:4-9
Message of the verses: “4 ’But now take courage, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD, ’take courage also,
Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares
the LORD, ’and work; for I
am with you,’ declares the LORD of hosts. 5 ’As for the promise which I made you when you
came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’ 6 “For thus says the LORD of
hosts, ’Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the
earth, the sea also and the dry land. 7 ’I will shake all the nations; and they
will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with
glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. 8 ’The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’
declares the LORD of hosts. 9 ’The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’
says the LORD of hosts, ’and
in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.’”
We can see
in these verses that God, through Haggai, is speaking to the same people that he
did in verses one of this chapter, but this time He is giving them
encouragement. We also see that God’s
name in this section is “the LORD of Hosts,” and Dr. Wiersbe has an end note
references this title. “Zechariah uses
the title ‘Lord of Hosts’ thirty-seven times and Malachi twenty-three
times. Why should the little Jewish
remnant fear the Gentile armies around them when the Lord of Armies is their
Savior and Commander? The Hebrew word
for ‘hosts’ [tsaba] is transliterated as ‘Shabaoth’ in Romans 9:29 and James
5:4. Martin Luther used it in verse 2 of
his hymn ‘A might Fortress Is Our God.’”
Haggai knew
that this temple that they were building was nothing compared to the temple
that Solomon had built, but this was not the point, nor was it important. The important thing was what they were doing
was God’s work, and they could compare on the Lord to see this done. Haggai encourages the people to be strong,
the same people he spoke to in verse one.
We
mentioned in our last SD that the people were celebrating the Feast of
Tabernacles right before they began to build and Dr. Wiersbe points out that the
book of Deuteronomy was read during that time so in verse five Haggai mentions
the Exodus from Egypt and in the book of Deuteronomy Moses tells Joshua to be
strong three times in Deut. 31:6-7, and 23.
The Lord told Joshua to be strong
three times in Joshua 1:6-7 and 9 and David also told Solomon who had
the task of building the first temple to be strong three times also found in 1
Chron. 22:13; 28:10, and 20. So we can
see that this was not an empty phrase, but something that was very important in
the history of Israel.
The reason
that the people could be strong was because the Lord was with them as seen in
Haggai 2:4 and also in 1:13, so they had a good reason to be strong and as we
mentioned the Lord of heavens armies was the One telling them to be
strong. The Lord of Hosts means the Lord
of heavens armies.
Dr. Wiersbe
concludes that “Believers today can claim the same promise as they serve the Lord,
‘For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Heb. 13:5,
NIV; and see Deut. 31:6, 8.”
3/30/2016 10:29 PM
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