Build My House

A pagan king had given authority to God’s people to rebuild the Temple of the Lord and was in Jerusalem. The supplies were gathered through the offerings of the people and the king. There were 42,360 who returned to Jerusalem not counting their servants and singers. The people were united but they began to fear the peoples of the Land. Nevertheless, the altar for daily sacrifices was set up, the festivals were reinstated, and the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in 536 BC (Ezra 3:11). When the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, there was rejoicing over the work of God and weeping as they remembered Solomon’s great Temple. The people of the land, adversaries, began to discourage the work of the LORD, and they became afraid to rebuild the Temple. The adversaries bribed counselors to frustrate the purposes of God’s people. This continued through the reign of Cyrus and Darius until they wrote accusations against God’s people in days of Artaxerxes (Ez 4: 7). Artaxerxes ordered the work to stop (Ezra 4:23-24). For 15 to 16 years, the work on the house of the LORD ceased.
This is where the prophets Haggai and Zechariah step onto the scene with a Word from God. God’s eye was on the people as Haggai gave his message over a 4 month period in 520BC during the reign of Darius the king Ezra 5:5). The purpose of today’s message is to remind you of the importance of keeping God first in our lives. The title of the message is “Build My House.” Our emphasis will be 1) The Danger of Indifference (v2-4) 2) The Dissatisfaction of Individualism (v.5-11) and 3) The Dedication Required and Delight Received in God’s Work.