had very much indignation, they would suffer calamity just as did those fathers for not listening or paying attention to the warnings and counsel of Jehovah’s prophets. They also would have the prophetic words and decrees of Jehovah against the disobedient ones catch up with them in this “time of the end” Wisely, therefore, the anointed remnant began to “return” to Jehovah in 1919 C.E.

Chapter 7

Blessings and Good Rulership as the World Rocks

1. In the month following his opening prophecy, what did Zechariah see take place, and what did this move Jehovah to do?

THE OPENING prophecy of Zechariah in the eighth lunar month (Heshvan) in the second year of the reign of King Darius I of the Persian Empire was short, yet timely and pointed. (Zechariah 1:1-6) In the very next month the prophet Zechariah saw take place at Jerusalem significant action upon which the future welfare of the Jewish nation was hinged. On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth lunar month (Chislev) “the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was laid”! Zechariah’s companion prophet, Haggai, records that momentous fact. (Haggai 2:18) That action taken in the face of an imperial ban against the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem was of such religious importance that it moved Jehovah of armies to inspire Haggai to prophesy again.

2, 3. (a) To whom was Haggai’s first prophecy on Chislev 24, 520 B.C.E., addressed? (b) What start of a dialogue does Haggai 2:10-12 record?

² The first one of Haggai’s prophecies on that historical day was addressed to the Levite priests who were hoping to serve in Jehovah’s temple when completed. Those priests of the family of Aaron the Levite included the high priest, Joshua the son of Jehozadak. It impressed upon all those priests a lesson that is important for us in this late day. So let us read Haggai’s record of it and follow the dialogue that took place:

³ “In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah occurred to Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said, “Ask, please, the priests as to the law, saying: ‘If a man carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and he actually touches with his skirt bread or stew or wine or oil or any sort of food, will it become holy?’”’”​—Haggai 2:10-12.

4. According to Malachi 2:7, why should those priests have been able to answer that test question, and yet what may have affected them?

⁴ The “law” here spoken of is the divine law given through the prophet Moses and has reference to ceremonial matters and to the priests who would be the ones that carried “holy flesh.” Of course, the priests should have been familiar with the Mosaic law, for it is said by the later prophet Malachi: “The lips of a priest are the ones that should keep knowledge, and the law is what people should seek from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of armies.” (Malachi 2:7) Reasonably, then, the priests should have been able to answer correctly the test question put to them by means of Haggai. Or had their familiarity with the law been affected by seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah during which the Jews had been exiles in the land of Babylon, and also by the troublous seventeen years that had elapsed since the return of the faithful remnant to their homeland? So how did the priests answer?

5. What law may those priests have had in mind in giving their right answer, and so what should an unclean person not think about gaining holiness?

⁵ “And the priests proceeded to answer and say: ‘No!’” (Haggai 2:12) That is to say, “Holy flesh” of an animal victim that had been offered to Jehovah in sacrifice did not impart its holiness to any other foodstuff with which it might accidentally be brought in contact. For a guiding rule as to this answer, the priests may have had in mind what the Mosaic law says in Leviticus 7:19, 20: “The flesh that may touch anything unclean is not to be eaten. It is to be burned with fire. As for the flesh, everybody clean may eat the flesh. And the soul who eats the flesh of the communion sacrifice, which is for Jehovah, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul must be cut off from his people.” According to this, an Israelite who was unclean for any reason (Leviticus 7:21) should not think that because he comes in touch with “holy flesh” by eating it he is thereby cleansed, that what he has eaten has imparted holiness to him. Wrong reasoning according to the Law!

6. What question did Haggai next propose, and with what answer?

⁶ The prophet Haggai did not say that the priests had reasoned wrong. So now he proposed a question that called for an opposite answer. “And Haggai went on to say: ‘If someone unclean by a deceased soul touches any of these things, will it become unclean?’ In turn the priests answered and said: ‘It will become unclean.’”​—Haggai 2:13.

7. The right answer of the priests proved that they knew what law about cleansing someone defiled by a dead body?

⁷ This correct answer of the priests proved that they knew Jehovah’s law that was stated in connection with the “water for cleansing.” This was water with which the ashes of the sacrificed red cow had been mingled and which was sprinkled upon persons defiled by contact with dead bodies. This law said: “Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must also be unclean seven days. . . . Everyone touching a corpse, the soul of whatever man may die, and who will not purify himself, has defiled Jehovah’s tabernacle, and that soul must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleansing has not been sprinkled upon him, he continues unclean. His uncleanness is still upon him. And it must serve as a statute to time indefinite for them, that the one spattering the water for cleansing should wash his garments, also the one touching the water for cleansing. He will be unclean until the evening. And anything the unclean one may touch will be unclean, and the soul who touches it will be unclean until the evening.”​—Numbers 19:2-5, 11-13, 21, 22; Hebrews 9:13.

8. What did this illustrate with regard to uncleanness, and how did this apply with regard to one’s attitude toward the erection of Jehovah’s temple?

⁸ This illustrates how infectious an uncleanness can be​—not only physically, but also spiritually. A person who is bearing something holy may not be able to pass on holiness to another person automatically or easily, without effort. But an unclean, contaminated person can easily infect another person by mere association and contact with him. As the Christian apostle Paul said: “Do you not know that a little leaven ferments the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:8, 9) That is the way it could be with a person’s unclean attitude of indifference toward how the temple of Jehovah is being neglected. Such indifference and carelessness toward the pure worship of Jehovah and its full expression through a temple could act like spiritual leaven and infect the whole nation of Israel. Even after the erecting of Jehovah’s temple it became necessary for a later governor of Judah and Jerusalem to say: “We should not neglect the house of our God.” Worship there should be fully supported.​—Nehemiah 10:39.

9. What evidently had happened to the Jewish attitude since the remnant’s return seventeen years previously?

⁹ Undeniably the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem had lagged during the seventeen years since the return of the Jewish remnant to their homeland. The evidence indicated that there were indifference and unconcern on the part of many, and the original enthusiasm for the rebuilding of the temple had cooled off.

10, 11. (a) What shows that the Jewish remnant had lost the love that they first had? (b) According to Haggai 2:14, how did the nation and its works appear to Jehovah?

¹⁰ As with the Christian congregation at the close of the first century C.E. it could be said to the Jewish remnant: “You have left the love you had at first. Therefore remember from what you have fallen, and repent and do the former deeds.” (Revelation 2:4, 5) Without a question there was a need on the part of the Jewish remnant to “return” to Jehovah that he might “return” to them. (Zechariah 1:3, 4; Jeremiah 2:2, 3) At the time for the celebration of the festival of the booths (tabernacles) at Jerusalem, immediately after their return from Babylon, the Jewish remnant had erected an altar temporarily at the proper location and began offering up the proper sacrifices thereon. (Ezra 3:1-6) But was that enough? With just that and a temple foundation, how did the nation appear to their God? Listen:

¹¹ “Accordingly Haggai answered and said: ‘That is how this people is, and that is how this nation is before me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and that is how all the work of their hands is, and whatever they present there. It is unclean.’”​—Haggai 2:14.

12. So, how were the sacrifices that they presented at Jehovah’s altar affected, and in view of that could he bless them?

¹² It was as in the case of the Israelite who became unclean by touching a dead body: everything that he touched before he was cleansed by being sprinkled with the water containing ashes of the sacrificed red heifer was made unclean. Being unclean in Jehovah’s sight because of their neglect toward His house of worship, the restored nation of Israel contaminated the sacrifices that they presented to Jehovah on their temporary altar at Jerusalem. Under such circumstances, could Jehovah bless them, not just spiritually but also materially? Consistently, No.

NEED FOR MODERN-DAY CLEANSING

13. Similar to the Jewish remnant in 520 B.C.E., how was the Christian remnant unclean?

¹³ Similar to that was the situation that beset the anointed remnant of Christ’s dedicated, baptized disciples after World War I. Christendom, with its hundreds of sectarian churches, had besmeared itself with the blood of the millions who were slain in that bloodiest war up till 1914 C.E. The anointed remnant of Christ’s disciples had tried to keep clean from such bloodguilt and other unchristian conduct, but did not wholly succeed and bore a measure of community