the prophet Ezekiel. Is there not a point in this that we today, who hope in the transformation of the whole earth into a Paradise, should take to heart? Yes. But what was the remedy that needed to be applied back there? It should be an advisory example for us now.

Chapter 3

The Remedy for Those with Disappointed Hopes

1. It was still what date, and Jehovah raised up Haggai to help the Jews to see the connection between what two things?

IT IS still Elul 1, or the first day of the sixth lunar month, in the second year of the reign of Darius I, the king of the Persian Empire. That would be about the middle of the month of August of the year 520 B.C.E., according to our calendar of today. (Haggai 1:1) By means of his prophet Haggai, Jehovah was calling attention to the ways of his repurchased people whom he had restored to their homeland after it had lain desolate for seventy years. (2 Chronicles 36:17-21) Jehovah was urging them to give heartfelt consideration to the unusual ways in which things were happening to them. Then they would be able to see the connection between their having all their hard work on the land prove to be so unrewarding and their letting the house of Jehovah’s worship lie waste, although they were taking good care of themselves as to housing conditions.​—Haggai 1:2-6.

2. Basically, what kind of issue was it for those Jews, and so who could prescribe the right remedy, and how did the prescription begin?

² Was the reason for the Jews to fare so badly after being back on their homeland for seventeen years basically a religious one? If it was, then Jehovah was the One who could unerringly point out to them that reason and also prescribe the remedy. He was not pleased at their being so concerned about their material welfare and their neglecting his house of worship. So, after putting up with this unbalanced attitude of theirs for so long a time, he said to them by means of the prophet Haggai: “This is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Set your hearts upon your ways.’ ‘Go up to the mountain, and you must bring in lumber. And build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and I may be glorified,’ Jehovah has said.” Then to point out what was really responsible for their disappointing results from such hard work, he had Haggai prophesy further:

3. Who claimed to be responsible for their bad economic plight?

³ “‘There was a looking for much, but here there was just a little; and you have brought it into the house, and I blew upon it​—for what reason?’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies. ‘By reason of my house that is waste, while you are on the run, each one in behalf of his own house. Therefore over you the heavens kept back their dew, and the earth itself kept back its yield. And I kept calling for dryness upon the earth, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon what the ground would bring forth, and upon earthling man, and upon domestic animal, and upon all the toil of the hands.’”​—Haggai 1:7-11.

4. Despite the imperial ban, what action did Jehovah prescribe for the Jews to take, and what decisive question did this pose for the Jews?

⁴ When those foregoing words were declared, the unconstitutional ban that was laid by the late King Artaxerxes of Persia upon the building of Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem was still in effect. Yet Jehovah of armies, speaking through Haggai, told the hard-faring Jews to get materials and “build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and I may be glorified.” (Haggai 1:8) The question at issue now became, Which is to be obeyed​—Jehovah’s will or the imperial ban, the will of a now dead misinformed man? Whose order is to be carried out​—that of the living Most High God, the Great Theocrat, or that of a dead Persian emperor? If they did as the later Christian apostles did, “obey God as ruler rather than men,” they would arouse the objections and opposition of those who favored the ban, but they would gain the approval of God. (Acts 5:29) They were already pleasing those pagan oppositionists but were displeasing God. So, now, were they willing to stir up the displeasure of their pagan adversaries and thereby win the good pleasure of Jehovah of armies?

5. What could the adversaries and opposers not control, and what could they not remove in behalf of the Jews?

⁵ Those pagan adversaries could not control the weather of the land of Judah. Not even the whole Persian Empire could do so. They could not cause the heavens to produce the needed dew in the dry season of the year. They could not cause the earth to render its yield, so that the Jewish tillers of the soil not only sowed much and looked for much but also brought in much. Or, conversely, those imperial Persians and the neighboring adversaries of the Jews could not remove, during the ordinarily wet season, the dryness that came upon the earth, upon the grain, upon the new wine, upon the oil, upon all other produce of the ground, nor the dryness that came upon man, domestic animal and what men toiled for with their hands. But Jehovah of armies could do so, for those adverse things were from him in expression of his displeasure.

6. For that reason, whom should the Jews fear, but how were they not showing that fear?

⁶ Unlike those Israelites referred to in Jeremiah 5:24, the repatriated Jews should not fear the wrath of the Persian Empire but should say: “Let us, now, fear Jehovah our God, the One who is giving the downpour and the autumn rain and the spring rain in its season, the One who guards even the prescribed weeks of the harvest for us.” (Jeremiah 10:10-13) Such fear of Jehovah they could not show by merely running to their own private houses so as to get as quickly as possible into their own cozy homes while at the same time letting the house of worship of their God lie waste. The house of so great a Personage as Jehovah of armies, the Great Theocrat, ought to be put first. Fear of man ought not to deter them from building it, that he might take pleasure in it and be glorified.

7, 8. (a) Why did Jehovah tell the Jews to bring in lumber for the house? (b) Why was such a material house not necessary, and yet fitting, for Jehovah?

⁷ That was the remedy for their having such disappointing conditions in a material and spiritual sense​—namely, obey God as ruler rather than man and go ahead and build God’s house of worship. Let them go up to the forest-clad mountain and fell trees and bring in lumber for building the all-important house. Not that God’s temple was to be built all of wood. But the stones of the former demolished temple were lying there at the site, and wood for paneling and other needs was the material most required to be prepared. Not as though Jehovah of armies needed an earthly material house as a home in which to dwell among the well-housed Jews. He already had his dwelling place not made with human hands, in the holy heavens, and this stone and wood temple on Mount Moriah at Jerusalem was just a representation of a future spiritual temple, a true house of worship of the Most High God. It was just as Solomon the temple builder said:

⁸ “But will God truly dwell upon the earth? Look! The heavens, yes, the heaven of the heavens, themselves cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built!”​—1 Kings 8:27.

9. (a) Hence, how would God reside in that house? (b) By worshiping at such a temple, what would the Jews renew, with what results to themselves?

⁹ Hence God would dwell in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem, not personally, but only by his spirit, his holy invisible active force, and by turning his face or attention to that temple. He would sanctify it or make it a holy house, and it would be the center of religious worship for the whole nation. There sacrifices for individuals or for the whole nation would be offered on the one authorized altar, and it would be the place to which the nation would assemble during its three annual festivals and on the Day of Atonement for the whole nation. There the high priest Joshua the son of Jehozadak and all the underpriests could officiate in behalf of the people. Thus the nation of Israel could maintain renewed relationship with their Theocratic Ruler, Jehovah, and keep in good condition spiritually. Jehovah would be glorified by the rebuilding of the temple upon which His name would be placed, and he would make his good pleasure known by pouring down blessings upon them, blessings spiritual and material.

OBEYING GOD AS RULER? OR MAN?

10, 11. To whom was Haggai’s opening prophecy addressed, and the action that followed showed that what decision had been made?

¹⁰ The prophet Haggai’s opening message was directed specially “to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest.” (Haggai 1:1) This made it obligatory upon them to take the lead and set the right example for the whole nation. However, those two men, the governor and the high priest, knew what to expect from the adversaries if they resumed the building of the temple at Jerusalem. What does history show that they did​—obey Jehovah of armies as Ruler or man? They put spiritual interests first and obeyed God. Haggai reports:

¹¹ “And Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and all the remaining ones of the people began to listen to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people began to fear because of Jehovah.”​—Haggai 1:12.

12. The people appreciated the sender of Haggai to be whom, and what fear did they overcome?

¹² By the message that the prophet proclaimed to them on that day of the sixth new moon of the year, the people knew where this courageous Haggai stood on the issue of obeying God or man. They realized that Jehovah had sent Haggai, and that is why they listened to him as the conveyor of Jehovah’s message of the hour. Openheartedly they considered what he had to