December 11: Haggai

Haggai 1-2

There are just two chapters in the book of Haggai. It needs just two pages in our church’s large-print worship Bible. Perhaps you have not noticed Haggai. There is much there to notice.

Jews who returned from exile were to rebuild a temple. It was hard for them to see any progress. One of the messages from the prophet was to keep going and not give up. God has plans and purposes.

God made this promise; it’s verse 9 in chapter 2: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”, says the LORD of hosts. And remember: God keeps his promises.

Like most prophecies, this was fulfilled gradually, and the final fulfillment is still to come. In the Gospel of John, in chapter 2, Jesus connected the Old Testament temple with himself: once God met his people in the temple, now God meets us in Jesus Christ. And the final temple, the greatest and best, is described in the last book of the Bible, in Revelation 21. John wrote, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."


he Jews could not see all God’s purposes for a temple and their work. They wondered if it was all a waste. God came to them with a word of promise: Take courage. Keep going. Trust me. Give yourself fully to the work of the Lord. Your labor is not in vain.


Pastor Cory Dahl

First Baptist – Sturgeon Bay



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