"4" Months (Haggai)

On the FOURTH day of Christmas we look at Haggai and his prophetic critique that spans four months. Haggai is one of the smaller prophetic books and is historically situated around the mid 500’s BCE. He is accusing Israel of breaking covenant with God following the remnant's return to Israel from captivity in Babylon. This four-month stretch challenges the people of Israel’s expectations. They have returned from exile, so they believe the future looks bright. But not to Haggai - Haggai sees the same problems that led to the exile as present in and among the people. 

Month One - We get an accusation and a response. The rebuilding of the temple is stalled while resources are spent on private homes, frustrating the leadership. Zerubabel and Joshua are provoked by this and ignore the people to rebuild the house of God. Seems good right?

Month Two - In the rush of rebuilding, the Temple is a tad shabby. The effort is incomplete and rushed. Sometimes we give half-hearted efforts for God, rushing to finish tasks without real dedication. And at the same time, we see a comparison to how things used to be. The “good ole days of glory” They want to make the temple great again. In the same vein, it can be dangerous to relive the days of our history in a way that we believe they are the best they could ever be. The new temple is to be a place for all nations to find peace. 

Month Three - the call to return to covenant faithfulness. The parable given in this third month is one that ties ritualistic impurity to the injustice and apathy to the returning remnant. Whatever they build, however grand, will always be impure so as long as they continue their path of injustice and apathy. We would do well to listen to this parabolic overture. Every policy, every dollar, every building—even every good deed—is impure when rooted in selfishness. This falls short of what God desires for the world.. 

Month Four - the final month of Haggai’s prophecy finishes like most prophetic books, a future hope in a messianic kingdom. God at work in the world will confront evil and defeat it. There will be a king from the line of David who will rule, but this king will not be like the other ones. The question arises, will Haggai’s generation be faithful to trust this hope? 

Today the words of Haggai are necessary to reflect on. We, especially in the west, have desired the Christ to be an old line of David. Politically powerful, wealthy, and strong. We want an old Jerusalem. We want the line of David to be great again. We tie goodness to power. We connect wealth to winning. We situate ourselves on the mountaintop, forgetting that God is at the bottom.  And so we hold tightly to that hope. And so everything we build, everything we do, everything we work towards is called impure because God sees that we want nothing to do with justice. Our choices matter - what we do shapes who we are becoming. It matters because our action is a very concrete way of how God works in the world. And this should motivate us to seek justice and create a world that is more whole, beautiful, and true.

Let us challenge the status quo of empire and seek to liberate all from the exiles we have made for ourselves and others.