“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”
God's first word through Haggai does not name the enemies who had stopped the work. It names a sentence the people kept repeating about timing. The building of His house had stood still for years. God sends the prophet to show them where the real blockage lay.
History and the real reason
The history of that time records how enemies halted the work. Haggai looks past them to the words of the builders themselves.
Hamilton SmithIf we judge by the history alone, we might conclude that what the enemies said stopped the building of the house. From the word of the LORD, through the prophet, we learn the true reason: it lies in what the people said... For twelve years they had stopped doing the one thing for which God had delivered them from Babylon. They try to excuse their failure by saying that "the time has not yet come" to build the LORD's house.
"This people"
The wording of the message carries its own rebuke. God does not call them by the warm name He might have used.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHis message starts with the excuse the people offered for their apathy in the things of God... The Lord does not address them as "My people." He speaks of them in a way that shows His disapproval. Their excuse, that His time had not yet come, was empty. In reality they were cold towards the cause of the Lord, and sought their own things instead of it.
Waiting for a favourable moment
They read "the time" off the state of things around them: enemies nearby, and no peace. One writer asks what such a delay is waiting for.
Edward DennettThe Lord had worked in the heart of Cyrus, and had stirred up the spirit of His people, to carry out His purpose of rebuilding His house. Now they had forgotten the purpose of their return, and they claimed to see that this was not a suitable time for their work. And what led them to this conclusion? There were enemies, and the times were not peaceful. As if enemies to the Lord's work would ever cease! As if the time would ever come when the natural eye would see the right moment for work for the Lord! Ah, we all have to learn the lesson that the Word — the mind of the Lord — is our authority for service.
The hindrance was fear, not the calendar
Was the official ban on building the real cause? One writer compares the dates and finds that the people had already stopped long before any ban existed.
J. N. DarbyThere were enemies in the land who made them afraid, and so stopped their building... The ban only came two reigns later. The Jews had already given up building through fear of their enemies... And they did not start building again because a king's decree reached them. They started again because they feared the LORD and did not fear the king's command, as people who see Him who is invisible. God was no more to be feared in the reign of Darius than in the reign of Cyrus or Artaxerxes. Their weakness came from having forgotten God.
Two kinds of energy
The excuse did not mean idleness. These people were busy — just not with the work they came back to do.
The Christian's FriendDivine energy will never lose its purpose for God. Human energy will say, "The time has not yet come to build the Lord's house," and will keep itself busy with its vineyards, its fields and its houses. It wastes the time. It does not press on with tireless energy in the settled purpose of the soul, through all the difficulties and dangers that may threaten or oppose.
The excuse has a long life
The plea that God's moment has not arrived is not confined to one generation of builders.
William KellyThis is a common excuse — a lack of care for the glory of the Lord, on the plea that His time has not come. We find exactly the same pretence today, and it misuses the coming of the Lord Jesus. It says that the time has not come for glory to set things right by divine power, so we may give in easily to the moral confusion, the disorder, and the departure from the will of God found at this present moment.
Summary
- The saying. God quotes their own words back to them, not their enemies' threats. Their saying is why the house lay unbuilt.
- The naming. He calls them "this people," not "My people." The cool distance matches their coldness toward His cause.
- The reason. Fear of enemies and forgetting God lay behind the talk of timing. They had stopped building long before any decree forbade it.
- The cost. Human energy still works hard on vineyards, fields and houses. It spends the very time it says has not yet come.
- The remedy. The mind of the Lord, not good circumstances, is our authority for service. Once He has spoken, the number of enemies settles nothing.