Thu Jan 1

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words (hosts or armies) and house.

Reading

Haggai 1—The Time Has Come to Rebuild the LORD’s House.

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Haggai spoke from God to the Jewish exiles.
They didn’t think it was time to rebuild God’s house.
God said it was time. And they listened and got to work.

Questions

(some read the ?s before notes, then ask them after)

Why had the exiles stopped building God’s house?
What were they focusing on instead?
How did they respond to Haggai’s message from God?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors. )

Haggai is the first of the prophets to write after the Jews were released from exile in Babylon. His prophecy parallels the book of Ezra and Ezra speaks of him. Like many of the prophets we know little about him other than this prophetic book. But he brings a message from God (1:1, 3, 2:1, 10, 20) to the exiles.

The LORD rebukes his people—He refers to them as these people, probably a reflection of His displeasure with them. And why do they face God’s displeasure? Because the work of rebuilding God’s house, the temple, which started some 16 years earlier, had been abandoned by the exiles. Although these people said it is not yet time to rebuild the house of the LORD, the LORD of hosts (or the LORD of armies) says otherwise.

These exiles had become complacent, perhaps due to the initial opposition after they laid the foundation to the temple (Ezra 3:8ff). Now they were busy with beautifying their own houses but had left the house of the LORD in ruins. They listened to Haggai and the Lord roused their spirits to get busy rebuilding His house.

Does the Lord care about His house today? We know that the Lord’s house today is the church of Jesus Christ. We know it is not a specific building and is not a dwelling made with hands. But, do we spiritualize God’s house in a way that we also become complacent? Are we devoted to God’s house—the church? Are we seeking to build the church of which we are a part? May we, because we are in Jesus’s church, labor for the building of her.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 122a, 119u

Prayer

Pray for your part of building God’s house at SRC.
Pray for the preparation for preaching God’s Word this Lord's Day.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.