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Haggai. A name that alternately means “One who celebrates” and “My holidays” in Hebrew. In shorthand, others say that Haggai simply means “festal,” possibly because he was born on a feast or festival holiday. 

Like so many of the prophets, we know very little about the person Haggai himself. Except that he is referred to by name in the biblical book of Ezra. That, and he conveyed the notion that God was about to shake things up. 

One can feel an excitability, or “animation,” as one analyst describes it, in his writing here. He gets animated or I would say “passionate” about some of the themes in his book. Like a “Day of the Lord,” or the emergence of a King-Messiah who would spring from the house and lineage of David. 

But there is one topic that stands out above all the rest. What we shouldn’t miss in this book is a testimony that Haggai himself was persuasive in making a successful case that the Temple should be rebuilt. 

This was his conviction. His true dream. One that the prophet attributes to a word from God. 

In Haggai’s day, and in ours, the center of religious life was the house of worship. He conveyed God’s blessing and God’s request that was a simple one. Go back, rebuild the house of worship and then use it. Here was yet another prophet sent by God. 

Can we possibly ignore what God is saying even still in our day? The regular assembling on the Lord’s day, the Sabbath, was an expectation by God. A low bar for God to expect at that. 

Yet today, we constantly hear things like, “I don’t have to be in a church to worship God. I can worship God on the golf course. Or on the beach. Or at the lake.” Yes, but do you? 

We hear stories about how someone at the church was ugly to them. Hurt their feelings. Well, I can think of an array of life where humans will eventually do that to each other. Does that mean we just quit them all? One of my favorites is, “Sunday is the ONE day I get to sleep in.” Well, that’s been true for generations yet previous generations made church-going a priority. 

Why can’t we prioritize regular gatherings on the Lord’s Day in 2025? In fact, unless you have a much more leisurely workday schedule than mine, you can sleep in a little and still be in Bible Study at 9:45 here at the church. 

We’ll even hear, “There are hypocrites at church. I just can’t stand being around them.”  Well, at our church we’ve got one (in me) behind the pulpit. The church is exactly that. A hospital for imperfect persons who are trying to heal, one insight at a time. 

Do you ever wonder what meaning your life is taking on? Do you ever wonder if your living will one day even matter? 

Haggai’s life mattered in two ways, which we can read about here. First, indeed his vision and impassioned call for the rebuilding of the Temple did take root. He was the driving voice, a force that sold this vision that needed a surprising amount of selling. 

Second, though, Haggai’s life and work matter because, in his conviction about returning home to rebuild, his message carried a promise of better times. 

God’s promises of a better life haven’t changed since the Garden of Eden. God wants a simple fellowship with humanity. God wants an obedient humanity that can live together ethically, kindly and with integrity. All in a world where God is God, and we are not. 

In today’s world, I am more convinced than ever that God wants to enter our world and shake the Heavens and the Earth, until we all regain our focus on the Almighty. Then, I think God wants to help us rebuild from the displacement, the very ruins of selfishness, incivility, greediness and self-obsession. So that God once again has a place.

A place for God in our lives. A place for God to rule from. A place of honor that God can only have once we displace ourselves as our objects of worship. 

A place for God that Haggai might approve of as a home for the Holy Spirit to reside in the Zion that we best understand as being within us. That, I believe, is why God sent Haggai. To them and to us.

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.