Christ does shine from the Old Testament, which gives us many and diverse lenses through which to see the gospel with more clarity.
It is clear that while those in exile have returned to the land, nothing much seems to have changed: the spiritual exile continued.
• Haggai accused the people of having tragically misdirected
• Zechariah described significant
• Malachi pointed out
The physical exile has finished, but the real exile continues.
HAGGAI
Haggai 1:4
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
Haggai 1:5–6
5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
Theme
Yahweh is turning the hearts of His people to seek His glory and to please Him in rebuilding His temple, which serves as a type of the greater glory of the coming end-times temple.
Haggai overall is divided into four different oracles:
Haggai’s
Haggai 1:7–8
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.
• God was telling them to think and then act.
• God focused on their motivation
Haggai’s response to the people’s
Haggai’s second oracle came less than a month later, in October of 520 BC.
Haggai 2:3
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
Haggai 2:6–9
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
Haggai’s
Haggai 2:11–13
11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.”
The third oracle ends in verse 19 with encouragement that ultimately points to Christ: though return from exile thus far has been an experience of hardship, from this moment on, now that priorities are right, God will bless.
Haggai answers an important question – 2:20-23
Will
Haggai 2:23
23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
Haggai was saying that this great temple, greater than all prior, will be built in the time of God’s excellent chosen Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. And, as we know from the perspective of life after Jesus’ coming, the temple that Yahweh builds though His Son is not a literal physical temple, but a temple of people.
Paul said,
2 Corinthians 6:16
16 For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And Peter says that Christ is the chief cornerstone…
1 Peter 2:4–5
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
God is the builder, Jesus is the foundation, we are the stones, and we exist to bring pleasure and honor and glory to our God!
And so Haggai serves to encourage work on the temple in his present context, but to point to the ultimate fulfillment of that work as God builds his new temple—greater than Solomon’s indeed, the church of God through Solomon’s son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
ZECHARIAH
Context
• Zechariah shared the same historical context as Haggai
• He began preaching only a few months after Haggai and continued to prophesy during the time that the temple was being completed.
• The redemptive-historical niche that Zechariah fills is slightly different than Haggai’s.
• Zechariah explained what the events since the return from exile mean for the future, and for the nation’s messianic expectations.
• He took the current situation and used it to paint a greater and grander picture of the future.
Theme:
Yahweh has
Zechariah is full of many visions that can really confuse the reader. But if you understand his context after the exile, and his redemptive-historical context as a time of expectant rebuilding, and if you can see his messianic emphasis, then those strange visions and prophesies will make a little more sense.
The Coming Messianic-
Zechariah 6:9–15
9 And the word of the Lord came to me: 10 “Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 11 Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 13 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’ 14 And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 15 “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
What does that mean?
Hebrews 5:5–6
5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 7:14
14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
The point of it all is that Jesus’ priesthood is greater than any priesthood ever seen in Israel, and that His kingship is forever.
These chapters point forward to this day when the priesthood and kingship are truly reestablished, as they are combined in the One Great High Priest and King forever.
So, this idea of the priest-king really does summarize the first eight chapters of the book.
Zechariah’s Messianic
Starting in chapter 9, the book changes as the focus becomes God’s final redemption of his people.
This is a look forward to Christ’s
And this is where Zechariah leaves us, looking forward to a time beyond the exile when the Priest-King will come. And that is also how Matthew opens his book, waiting for the exile to finally and completely end with the coming of the Priest-King forever.
MALACHI
Context
• Malachi lived at roughly the same time that Nehemiah did, in the late 5th century BC.
• His main concern is that he saw the people of God drifting into secularism.
• They did not have hearts or minds for God, but rather for this world.
• There was laziness and a movement toward spiritual lethargy.
• Malachi is the last Old Testament book in your English Bible.
• Historically speaking, Malachi is also the last prophet before God becomes silent for over 400 years.
It’s almost as though Malachi knows he’s the last prophet before John the Baptist. In other words, “the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” won’t be long now (4:5)!
Theme
God’s people are beginning to
Malachi is a fascinating book to work through, in part because it’s structured in a unique style that we haven’t seen before.
God Will Not Be
Malachi 1:10–14
10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
These are powerful words of warning.
• The people thought they could bring the lame from their flocks for their offerings.
• They thought that all that mattered was going through the motions of religious duty.
• God’s people had no heart or mind for the Holy One of Israel, just unenthusiastic and apathetic religious drudgery.
God will not allow marriage
Not only had God’s people failed him through empty religiosity, but they had also broken covenant both with him (2:11), by worshipping other Gods—and with each other, through broken marriages.
Malachi 3:2
2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
God will not be
Malachi 3:9–12
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
God will be
Malachi 4:1–3
1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
At the end of the Old Testament God’s wrath burns brightly and His promise to his own people is held high, yet we are as confused as ever as to how these can ever be reconciled.
Who will do these things?
• The suffering servant of Isaiah
• The priest-king of Zechariah
• The son of man coming with the clouds of heaven in Daniel 7.
We have plenty of hints, but still no progress.
We have seen the sinfulness of man traced out from the fall in Genesis three to revolting and disgusting detail.
We have seen God’s promises begin small, of one to crush the serpent’s head, but crescendo even as reality becomes ever more depressing, prophesying a new heaven and new earth in Isaiah before the exile, a heavenly temple in Ezekiel during the exile, and world peace and perfect fellowship between God and his people as the exile draws to an end, even as God’s people sink into immorality, idolatry, and political obscurity…essentially disappearing off the spiritual and world maps.
And through it all, we have seen God’s incredible patience, as he continued to hold out his perfect plan in the face of a people who deserve anything but.
The physical exile is completed, the seventy years are done. So where does Malachi, this last prophet, leave us?
Malachi 4:4
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Here is a command of continued
Malachi 4:5–6 (NAS)
5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. 6 “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
Thankfully, we are given that sign of continued hope, a new Elijah coming to turn our hearts.
Malachi 3:1
1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
The Old Testament finishes exactly where it begins—and yet so much has been learned along the way.
God’s vision of redemption has become so clear; it is just waiting to take hold.
If the message of the Old Testament is
Praise God for his faithfulness to his promises.