Haggai and Chanukah: How Messiah fills God’s House with greater glory

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Heaven calls us to be “ambassadors” of the Messiah (Christ) and “temple(s) of God” (1Cor. 3:16; 6:19), and Yeshua (Jesus) called His body a temple (John 2:19–22).

The prophet Haggai’s message was that the House of God is not a building, but it does reflect the heart condition of the people. Haggai proclaimed that the glory of God and foretold a time when God will fill His house with a greater glory than He did when Solomon commissioned the first Temple (Hag. 2:9). That greater glory arrived when Yeshua stepped foot into the Temple during the Festival of the Dedication (Chanukah, John 10:22-39) in fulfillment of what that prophet foretold would be a crucial work of the Mashiakh (Christ).

The gospel by apostle Yokhanan recounts Yeshua’s teaching in the Temple at the time of Hanukkah/Chanukah, which is called the Feast of the Dedication.

The gospel of John is a lot like Paul’s letter of Romans. It’s laid out as a running discussion from beginning to end. The gospel is a methodically and thematically laid out book. There are a couple of key statements in John 10 that really stirred up Yeshua’s audience.

None of the accounts Yokhanan brings into his gospel are haphazard, just as Yeshua’s visits to the Temple were never haphazard. During His celebration of Chanukah in the Temple, He proclaimed there, “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30), clarifying shortly thereafter, “the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (Jn. 10:38).

Yokhanan collected this account with those of what Yeshua said and did between a celebration of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles/Booths) in the seventh month of Israel’s calendar (roughly September–October) and the eight-day celebration of Chanukah, starting on the 25th day of the ninth month (typically in December).

• John 7: Yeshua goes to the Temple during Sukkot.
• John 8: Yeshua pardons a woman caught in adultery and teaches about true light in the world.
• John 9: Yeshua, ‘light of the world,’ brings ‘light’ to a man born blind.
• John 10 continues the discussion of chapter 9: the blindness of key leaders that Yeshua was the Messiah by way of His teachings and use of God’s power.

A deep dive into Chanukah: The Hell of Hellenism

The history behind Chanukah mirrors the themes of this week’s Torah reading: מקצ Miketz/Miqetz, covering Gen. 41:1–44:17. Miketz continues the story of Jacob and Rache’s oldest son Yosef. the title means “from the end,” relating to “at the end of two years” (Gen. 41:1). The Sages and commentators have noted over the centuries that this phrase points to the future.

Two major themes of Miketz:

• Yosef’s rise: Key to this is the God-given insight into pharaoh’s dreams, which positions Yosef as the savior of Mitzraim and Yisrael. 
• Yisrael’s descent: Famine drives Yisrael and his family into Mitzraim for food. This is the LORD’s doing.

The history of Chanukah leading up to the time of the gospels is recorded in the Apocrypha books 1–4 Maccabees (mostly 1Maccabees). The Jewish people’s descent into Hellenism was a slow slide but it was arrested for a time when that which was considered weak (the priestly Maccabees) were able to gain the upper hand and kick the evil empire out. 

The Maccabean movement overcame a far larger, better-trained and equipped army under Greek Seleucid king Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who profaned the Temple. 

The cultures of the Greek world blatantly co-opted and adopted the pagan practices of their conquered peoples. In modern parlance, we would call the Greek’s rampant cultural appropriation Hellenism. 

The priests then rededicated the Temple on the 25th day of the ninth month (also called Kislev) in 165 B.C. They celebrated for eight days to mirror the eight-day festival of Sukkot they weren’t able to celebrate two months before.

How did so many of the Jews fall for the lie of Hellenism? Most of the record of the Jews descent into Hellenism and civil war are recorded in the first book of Maccabees. 

• 1Macc. 1:11: “In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, ‘Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us.’”
• 1Macc. 1:30: “Deceitfully he spoke peaceable words to them, and they believed him; but he suddenly fell upon the city, dealt it a severe blow, and destroyed many people of Israel.”
• 1Macc. 1:41–43: “Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.”
• 1Macc. 1:54–56: “Now on the 15th day of Chislev, in the 145th year, they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah, and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire.”
• 1Macc. 1:62–63: “But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.”

Rebuilding of the Temple that was reconsecrated at the time of the Maccabees

The Maccabees lived during the middle of the second century BC (circa 165 BC), but I still want to go back even further, to the book of Haggai, which was placed very closely to the book of Zechariah for a reason. Both prophets received their messages to get the Temple rebuilt in the fourth and fifth centuries BC.

There is a lot “under the hood” of Haggai’s two short chapters. There are four prophesies recorded there. 

• First prophecy: Rebuild the Temple (Haggai 1)
• Second prophecy: Glory will return to the Temple (Haggai 2:1–9)
• Third prophecy: People are blessed while they’re a mess (Haggai 2:10–19)
• Fourth prophecy: Authority to restore (Haggai 2:20–23)

First prophesy: Haggai 1

This Prophecy came on the first day of the sixth month (Hag. 1:1). The first day of each month is called Rosh Chodesh. The start of the sixth month (Elul) is commemorated today as a time of reflection and repentance leading up to the reconciliation memorials in the seventh month:

• Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing Trumpets, aka Rosh Hashanah): first day of the seventh month
  • Hear the LORD’s call to repent, to return to Him.
• Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement(s)): 10th day of the seventh month
  • The LORD covers sin, transgression and iniquity, removing them from the community, remembering them no more.
• Sukkot (Tabernacles, Booths): 15th to the 21st days of the seventh month
  • Remember your humble beginnings in your new life of freedom.
  • Remember that the LORD desires to dwell among His people.
• Shemeni Atzeret (Convocation of the Eighth [Day], “eighth day” of Sukkot): 22nd day of the seventh
  • A new beginning: Fall rains make the new cycle of crops possible.

God rebukes the people through the prophet Haggai several times. 

Rebuke 1: Putting off the important work when it gets difficult

“‘The time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.’” (Haggai 1:2 NASB)

This was a rejection of the LORD’s grace, mercy and activity. God brought them back to rebuild and they were not rebuilding. 

The LORD foretold the exile and return of the people through Moshe (Deut. 30:1–3) and Yermiyahu (Jer. 25:12; 29:10), and Heaven moved the Persian emperor Cyrus to do set it in motion the return so that the Temple would be rebuilt (Ezra 1:1–4; 2Chron. 36:22–23). He didn’t bring them back just to entertain Himself. God brought them back to be a light to the nations, but most them didn’t bother coming back. 

The Tale of Two Temples

• 966–959 BC: Temple (Solomon’s) built (1Kings 5–8)
• 723–722 BC: Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) falls to Assyria (2Kings 17:3–7; 18:9–12)
• 605 BC: First exile of Yehudah by Babylon (Dan. 1:1)
• 597 BC: Second exile of Yehudah by Babylon (2Kings 24:8–14)
• 586 BC: Babylon destroys Yerushalayim and the Temple on the ninth day of the fifth month (2Kings 25:1–12; Jer. 39:1–10; 52:4–16)
• 538 BC: Cyrus the Great (II) of Persia issues an edict to rebuild Yerushalayim and the Temple (2Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4)
• 537 BC: Zerubbabel and Yeshua ben-YoTzadaq leads a return of exiles from Babylon (Ezra 1–2)
• 536 BC: Foundation of the second Temple (Zerubbabel’s) is laid during Sukkot (Ezra 3:1–4:5, 24)
• 536–520 BC: Opposition to the rebuilding (Ezra 4:1–5, 24; 5:6–17; 6:1–12)
•  522 BC: Darius I (the Great) comes to power in Persia (Ezra 4–6; Neh. 12:22)
• 520 BC: Khaggai prophesies (Hag. 1:1) in the sixth month, and rebuilding restarts by the end of the  month
• 516 BC: Second Temple is completed (Ezra 5:1–6:19)
•  486 BC: Xerxes I (Akhashverosh) comes to power in Persia, and opponents of Israel’s restoration write to him to stop rebuilding of Yerushalayim’s walls (Ezra 4:6–23)
• ca. 479 BC: Xerxes I marries Esther
• ca. 474 BC: Xerxes I allows the Yehudim to defeat their persecutors
• 458 BC: Artaxerxes I Longimanus allows Ezra to return to Israel (Ezra 7–10). Ezra arrives in the fifth month.
• 445 BC: Nehemiah returns to Yerushalayim to rebuild the wall

Rebuke 2: Complacency

“‘Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?’” (Haggai 1:4 NASB)

This uses similar wording to the LORD’s response to David’s desire to build the first Temple (2Chron. 7:1–17; 2 Sam. 7:1-17). Just as the LORD took Israel from bondage to freedom, Heaven took David from pasture to palace because of his humility and desire for service (2Chron. 7:8–9). And because of David’s desire to glorify the resting place where the Name of the LORD is based on Earth, so Heaven would glorify the legacy of David and give rest to Israel from her foes (2Chron. 7:10–11). The foretelling of David’s seed through whom Heaven, as father to a son, would build the house for the Name and establish the seed’s kingdom (2Chron. 7:12-14).

This is the beginning of the prophecy that the Messiah would be a “son” of David (John 7:42). Apostle Paul riffs on prophecies of the “seed” of David (Galatians 3) and of Khavah (Eve) (Gen. 3:15). This uses similar wording to the LORD’s response to David’s desire to build the first Temple (2Chron. 7:1–17).

The rebuke through Khaggai continues with a call to the exiles to reflect on why their lives aren’t substantially improving in the Land after the return from exile (Hag. 1:5–11). 

Hag. 1:7–9 sounds like a proof text for the “prosperity gospel”: Do something for God, so Heaven will do something for you. Haggai had two obsessions in his ministry: The Messiah and the House of the LORD. 

Some may also point to this passage as more proof that the process of salvation pre-Messiah involved the Temple and its services, while the avenue after Yeshua’s resurrection was grace alone. However, it is helpful to note the observations from some notable Protestant theologians on the book of Haggai.

“In Old Testament thought, the house was not desired for itself, as a sort of lucky charm (see Jer. 7:4), nor is there any suggestion that without the house any rituals performed must be defective (Petersen, Haggai, pp. 79–85). The house was the outward form of the real presence of the Lord among his people. To refuse to build the house was at best saying that it did not matter whether the Lord was present with them. At worst it was presuming on divine grace, that the Lord would live with his people even though they willfully refused to fulfill the condition of his indwelling that he had laid down. It amounted to seeking grace but refusing the means of grace. Not to build the house was not to want the Lord as and for himself.
—J. Alec Motyer, “Haggai,” The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 974.

The Bible is as monotonous as you want it to be. Life itself is as monotonous as you make it. Apostle Paul reminds us that we are called to be ambassadors of the Messiah (2Cor. 5:18–21), and our bodies are mobile tabernacles of the Spirit of God (1Cor. 6:18–20). Grace and truth were magnified in the Messiah (John 1:17), but that doesn’t mean that grace and truth did not exist before the Messiah was born. 

“The book of Haggai must be read against the background of the Mosaic covenant; otherwise, there is a real danger of distorting its message into one that seeks to manipulate God by human-centered religion (i.e., build the temple to win God’s blessing), a distortion that denies God’s grace and twists the message into a “prosperity gospel.” In Exodus, God saved his people by grace and gave them the law to show them how to live as his saved people. At the end of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Moses spells out not only the blessings that will continue if God’s people obey but also the curses that will come should his people disobey, the ultimate curse being exile from the promised land (e.g., Deut 28:63–68). Even then, God promises restoration and blessing when they repent (“return”) and “obey” (Deut 30:1–3).

In Deuteronomy, this repentance is ultimately a work of God (Deut 30:6), highlighting his grace. Haggai does not say, “Give to the temple, and God will make you rich.” Rather, he calls the people back to covenant obedience and promises the blessings of the covenant. Furthermore, when the people heed the call to obey, Haggai explains this as God working in their midst by his Spirit through his powerful word (1:12–14; 2:4–5). This response in Haggai’s day anticipates the new covenant (cf. Jer 24:7; 31:33; Ezek 11:19–20; 2 Cor 3:3; Heb 8:10).
—Richard S. Hess, NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).

This is all about what God is doing within people and within a body of people. God wants to use His body of people to influence the entire world. God will shake the nations and they will come into Jerusalem from all the nations. This will come after a profound falling away and after two-thirds of the people of God are destroyed (Zechariah 14). The time of testing and the time of trouble (“abomination of desolation”) happens multiple times through history. To hold fast to God will mean running for the hills (Matt. 24:15–22). 

We have to ask ourselves if we are just being a zealot for the sake of being a zealot or are we really going in the right direction? 

Do we want to rebuild our personal temples to make sure they are a worthy home for God? Sometimes we just need a jump start, like the one the prophets Haggai and Zechariah gave the people of their generation. 

Summary: Tammy