The Lord led me to the book of Haggai today and I was wondering if you could help me out with the months the Lord is talking about in Haggai 2:18 and in 2:20.
According to Haggai 2:18, which Jewish month on the Calendar is the 9th month? Would God be using the pre-diaspora calendar or the post one? Would this be the year that the half month was added changing the month that would be called number 9?
In verse 2:20, again God says He sent His word to Haggai on the twenty fourth day of the month. Was this the following month? Or was this one year later on the same 24th day of the ninth month as His word came to Haggai in 2:18?
Also, in verse 2:18 God says to remember the date that the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. He says…”give careful thought to that day”. Was that date also the 24th? If not, which date was that?
I can’t help but wonder with all that is going on over in Israel today, if these days are important again.
Today is the 11th day of Kislev. Which month number is that? The twenty fourth day of Kislev lands on the first day of Chanuka when we are supposed to light the first candle.
In light of our current economic situation here in America and our pressure to force a peace deal that splits apart Jerusalem that should be taking place that very week, I can’t help but read verse 2:21 and think….hmmmmm.
The Book of Haggai consists of 4 messages. The first one is chapter one delivered on August 29, 520BC in our calendar. The second one consists of chapter 2:1-9 and came on October 17, 520. The third is 2:10-19 and the and fourth 2:20-23. These were both given on Dec. 18, 520. So all messages came in the same year within a 4 month span of time.
The 9th month on the Jewish calendar is Kislev usually mid November to mid December on ours. The 3rd and 4th messages came on the same day, the 24th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar.
According to Ezra 3:7-11, the foundation of the second Temple had originally been laid in the spring of 536BC, sixteen years earlier. But due to the resistance the returning Jews had received and the setbacks they endured they had given up, convincing themselves that the time wasn’t right for the Temple to be built. Instead they turned their attention to building their own homes.
What followed was a period of even worse resistance compounded by a withdrawal of God’s blessing. Finally He sent Haggai to encourage them to begin again. Haggai’s first message told them that giving up on the Temple had caused the withdrawal of blessing. His second message told them that even though it was much smaller, the glory of the Temple they were building would surpass that of Solomon’s Temple because the Messiah (the Desired of all Nations) would visit it.(Haggai 2:7-9)
In Haggai’s third message the Lord said that the potential for blessing had existed from the day the foundation was originally laid but their strife had been caused because they stopped building it. He was going to begin blessing them again because they had obeyed Haggai’s exhortation to resume building (Haggai 1:13-15). Telling them to focus on the day they had originally begun was God’s way of warning them not to fail again.
Haggai’s fourth message concerns the End Times. The Lord had Haggai tell Zerrubabel that he would be the Lord’s guarantee that when what He had promised to Zerrubabel came to pass it would confirm that the End Times promises were guaranteed to happen as well.