Ezra 6:14

This reference to the influence excited by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah marks very plainly the nature and object of the prophetic office. The word which God in time past spake by the mouth of His holy prophets was no empty sound or mystical foretelling of future events, the interpretation of which was to be found when the events were fulfilled; it was then what it is now: the voice of God to His Church, stirring up zeal, and love, and faith, and obedience to every good word and work. It was the fresh spring of moral and religious life to the nation.

The great lessons we may learn from a review of the last canonical period of Jewish history are:—

I. The place which the spiritual element must occupy in all national and social organisation for the good of the people. Secular power, Act of Parliament power, intellectual power, public opinion power, philanthropic power, have been tested and tried to the uttermost, but no one of them nor all put together have ever succeeded in regenerating a nation or converting a soul. That people is on the high-road to apostasy which teaches for doctrines the commandments of men.

II. The religious teaching must be of the right stamp. It must be revealed truth. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi preached by inspiration of God.

III. If declension and backsliding come in among a people, what appeal can be made to awaken fear and rouse the torpid conscience? "The day cometh which shall burn like an oven" is no myth. The doctrine of everlasting punishment from the presence of the Lord is as certain as the hope of being with Him and like Him for ever. "Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men; for we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."

W. R. Fremantle, Oxford Lent Sermons, 1869, p. 169.

Haggai has three messages to deliver. These messages are comprised within the space of four months. And these months would seem to fit into the year of the favourable response or rescript from the Persian king Darius, to which Ezra refers in the text, connecting it devoutly with the commandment of the God of Israel.

Consider the three prophetic messages of Haggai.

I, The first (chap. 1) is not prophetic at all in our modern limited sense of what is prophecy. It contains no prediction. It is simply a word of admonition. As such, it is in harmony with what was the chief function of the Jewish prophets, whose office was really not so much to foretell future events as to bring to bear authoritatively on present sin and duty, on the rebuking of present sin and the enforcement of present duty, the principles of the Divine government as laid down by the Law. The special sin here rebuked is that of remissness in the present duty of building the Lord's house, when the opportunity is given and all things are favourable.

II. Haggai's second message (Ezra 2:1-9) partakes more of the character of prophecy in our modern acceptation of the term than his first, and for a natural and obvious reason. The partially suspended labour is now resumed. It is resumed as a labour of love. But it is resumed under the cloud of sad memories of the past. In these circumstances the prophet has a word in season from the Lord for the people. And it is fitly a word prophetic of the future. The people have to mourn a vacant temple and an empty shrine. But a higher glory is in reserve for it, a glory higher in respect of that very outward, palpable, visible manifestation of Jehovah's presence which constituted the first Temple's real distinction and chiefest boast. "I will fill this house with glory." "In this place will I give peace." It is the glory of the eternal Son, the Lord of the Temple, of which Haggai speaks, as raising the Temple then in building above that of Solomon.

III. The prophet's third and last message (Ezra 2:10-23) enforces a lesson of holiness. It is ushered in by a formal consultation of the guardians of the Temple's purity (Ezra 2:11-13). The priests lay down the law of ordinances, the principle of the ceremonial institute, to the effect that uncleanness is far more easily and naturally communicated than holiness. It is the prophet's function to give to this law a moral or spiritual application. He bids the people beware. Let them rid themselves of any leaven of wickedness, any germ of iniquity, which they may have been cherishing or allowing within their borders. Let them again consider their ways.

IV. The three causes which are apt to hinder our faithful zeal in building for the Lord—selfish sloth, unbelieving despondency, and carnal security—are they not the bane also of our own spiritual life? The Lord will not, He cannot, bless us personally while we yield to these temptations to slackness in the business in which He would engage us: the business of seeking out from amid the world's ruins stones for His living temple, doing what in us lies to build up Christ's spiritual house, to win souls to Him, to feed His sheep and His lambs, helping them to abide in Him.

R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 284.

Reference: Ezra 6:14, Ezra 6:15.—J. Menzies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 286. Ezra 7:10.—Ibid., p. 307.