Ezra 5:1 Commentary and Bible Study

We know what Haggai prophesied from reading the opening of his prophecy: ‘In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel.’ Verse 2 continues: ‘² Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built. ³ Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, ⁴ Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? ⁵ Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.’ Then an interesting fact given to us: ‘⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. ⁷ Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.’ So from Haggai we learn what the message was that stirred up the people. This sixteen years you have put off building; you have focused instead on your own houses; you have lost your enthusiasm; you have become more interested in your social comforts, and personal needs, than in the house of God. Now go back to work in the name of the Lord. So there is the great call of the two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to the people to continue building the house of God. Haggai and Zechariah – they were the ministers of God, but they were more than present-day ministers; they were inspired prophets – stirred up the people, chastised them and urged them to resume the building. The response was good: ‘Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet’ (Haggai 1:12). and Ezra reports the same. They were appealed to ‘in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them’, the Jews. What was the basis of the exhortation of Haggai, and his fellow prophet Zechariah, in appealing to the people? It was in simple terms that they had been named, as Israel, in connection with God. They bore the name that God had bestowed upon them, the God of Israel, Jacob their great forebear, given the name Israel by God, which means ‘one who prevails with God.’ So it was all done in the name of the God of those who prevail with God. The appeal was made on the basis, ‘you are God's people.’ What right had the two ministers to urge them to leave off building their houses and to make that daily commute from wherever their smallholdings were in the provinces to Jerusalem for that set period of labour? By what right did they appeal to them to face the hazards of that journey, and the constant ambushes by the Samaritans, and the plundering of their lands and estates while they were away in Jerusalem? What right did those ministers have to urge the people to give up so much and to come back to the building the temple? The answer lies in the name used to address them: ‘in the name of the God of Israel.’ Every minister has to have an authority. Haggai and Zechariah appealed to them on the basis that the people were God's people. We know that many of them lacked faith, but they were, in those days, the typical church of God. God had especially blessed them. He had redeemed them, transformed them, and led them into their own land. He done great things for them. He had poured out upon them demonstrations of his mighty power, and given them a law and a culture and a society. So it was on the basis that they are especially blessed and loved by God in that time, that they are appeal to.What was the reaction? The leaders, the governor, the Jewish governor of the province, and the high priest lead the way, and the prophets are mentioned as helping them. That is not just the prophets that are mentioned, but also others that were there.