Reading the Bible Together

Passage for the Day

 1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 2 ”Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak,  the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 ’Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. 5 ’This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

    6 ”This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. 8 ’The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. 9 ’The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Points of interest:

·         ‘the prophet Haggai’—Haggai was a contemporary of Zechariah, the prophet from yesterday’s passage.  Like Zechariah, Haggai’s main mission is to encourage the post-exilic leaders in Jerusalem as they re-build the temple.

·         ‘Does it not seem to you like nothing?’—the temple is in fact, at this point, nothing.  Though they had started rebuilding about fifteen years before, they’d only gotten as far as laying the foundation.  This was no grand house for God; it was a construction site.

·         ‘I will once more shake the heavens’—God is planning to ‘shake things up.’  The image here is of an earthquake, except that it shakes even the sky or heaven itself (it’s unclear which Haggai is referring to).  Just like in a major earthquake, some things that used to be on top will fall down, and some things that used to be on the bottom will end up on top.    I don’t think Haggai is talking about an actual earthquake here—it’s hard to see how that would help rebuild the temple.  Rather, he seems to be talking about a coming re-distribution of spiritual or political authority.

·         ‘what is desired by all nations will come’—this isn’t just some little construction project, and it’s not important to the Jews alone.  Somehow, the deepest yearnings of all of the nations of the world rely on what Zerubbabel and Joshua are doing here.

·         ‘will be greater than the glory of the former house’—from what Zerubbabel and Joshua can see, their work is pretty pathetic.  As I’ve mentioned, right now it’s just a hole in the ground.  Even if they were to complete it, the temple they have planned would be very modest in comparison with Solomon’s original temple.  They’re trying to recapture just a little bit of the temple’s previous glory, and they have every expectation that nonetheless they’ll fail.  Again and again in the prophets, we’ve seen the people of Israel look back toward some past golden age: ‘Remember the good old days when David was king, when we lived in the land God had given us, when we worshipped at Solomon’s temple?  Ah, to be back there again!’   Again and again, God has responded by saying, ‘Far from it.  The best is yet to come!’

Taking it home:

·         For you: How are you feeling this Monday about the week ahead?  Are you tired? Run down? Do you fear that all of your efforts this coming week will be ‘like nothing’? If your forecast for the week ahead is a little grim or overwhelming, spend a moment asking God to give you the strength and courage you need to thrive.

·         For your six: In the midst of a discouraging time, Haggai engages with his listeners through questions.  What do you know about each of your six? What’s their outlook on life, God, relationships, prayer, places of worship? Is there anything going on in their life that has been difficult or really discouraging recently?  Next time you talk to one of your six, try asking more questions than you normally would, really inquiring about their thoughts and perspectives.

·         For America: Ask that God would grant us his peace. Let’s pray today specifically for high-crime neighborhoods in our country, where instead of God’s peace, gang-violence, drugs, theft and fear are the more prominent overtones. The next story that you hear on the news about any form of violence, ask God to turn it around and to grant his peace in that situation. 

Jesus Teaches at the Festival

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the Festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷ Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

Division Over Who Jesus Is

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

¹ Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were controlled by our sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

¹⁰ “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?’ ¹¹ then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. ¹² But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

¹⁴ “However, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.

¹⁶ “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. ¹⁷ My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

¹⁹ LORD, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.

²⁰ Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”

²¹ “Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the LORD.

¹ In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.

² In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.

³ Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

⁵ For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.

⁶ From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
I will ever praise you.

⁷ I have become like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.

⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.

⁹ Do not cast me away when I am old;
do not forsake me when my strength is gone.

¹⁰ For my enemies speak against me;
those who wait to kill me conspire together.

¹¹ They say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue him and seize him,
for no one will rescue him.”

¹² Do not be far from me, my God;
come quickly, God, to help me.

¹³ May my accusers perish in shame;
may those who want to harm me
be covered with scorn and disgrace.

¹⁴ As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.

¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
of your saving acts all day long—
though I know not how to relate them all.

¹⁶ I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.

¹⁷ Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come.

¹⁹ Your righteousness, God, reaches to the skies,
you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?

²⁰ Though you have made me see troubles,
many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.

²¹ You will increase my honor
and comfort me once more.

²² I will praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
Holy One of Israel.

²³ My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you—
I, whom you have redeemed.

²⁴ My tongue will tell of your righteous acts
all day long,
for those who wanted to harm me
have been put to shame and confusion.