Haggai 1:2 – Doing What Is Right and Necessary

When Yahweh sends a message through Haggai to Zerubbabel and Joshua, the governor and the high priest, He does not ask a question, nor does He give a directive. He merely states what the people are saying.

This is what Yahweh Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild Yahweh’s house.’” (Haggai 1:1,2)

Why are the people saying this? Why are they talking about building the temple and asserting that the time is not now? Have Zerubbabel and Joshua been trying to get them to build? Has someone been agitating for this?

Rebuilding the temple has been on the minds of the people, but their considered opinion is that it is not the right time to do this. Perhaps there is still expected opposition from the Samaritans, or fear that the Persian government will resist their building. Whatever it is, for them that means it is not the right time.

How many other good things have we failed to do because it is not the right time? At the very beginning of our country, it wasn’t the right time to deal with the slavery issue.  Today it isn’t the right time to reform the immigration system. Maybe it isn’t the right time to repair our aging bridges, or fix our health care system, or help the poor in our community, or solve the homelessness problem, or address my family dysfunction, or quit the behaviors that are destroying my health, or say I love you to that special person.

Rebuilding the temple was crucial. God allowed it to be destroyed and His people exiled because of their habitual idolatry. Religious unfaithfulness had kept them away from their homeland for 70 years. They needed to be spiritually whole, dedicated to the Divine, keeping the statues of God’s law, if they were to thrive in their land. But they didn’t think it was the time to rebuild Yahweh’s house.

It is clear by Yahweh sending this message that He disagreed. It was the right time to rebuild. It was imperative for the people to fund and do the work necessary to restore faithful Yahweh worship in their country.

What is your excuse for putting off what needs to be done now? What good and necessary thing is God calling you to act upon? Has He spoken your excuse to you? Listen to the prophecy in your life.