The Book Of Haggah By Zechariah

Jerusalem is very important for Christianity. In ad 66, there was a big contradiction between Roman and Jews. Rome had frequently raided the temple treasury to make up for what is called unpaid taxes. They try to destroy the temple. The temple is located in the center of Universe. It means Loving and merciful to God. One Roman historian described Titus' intentions to tear down the temple as an effort to destroy Jews and Christians with the reasoning, "if the root were taken away the stock would easily perish." The temple was destroyed. Titus was incorrect in his reasoning; Judaism was not abolished, as it is still present today. The absence of the temple caused a bigger problem for the Jew's, because they were loosing their last resistance.

Their continued rebellions against YHWH and evil religious practices led them to where they were. He saw that the people of Judah were continuing to practice idolatry and other evil forms of worship. He believed that the Temple had been tainted and was no longer acceptable for worship based on the impure activities that were occurring. All these impurities led to YHWH leaving, but he also believed that if YHWH stayed in the Temple that it would survive, so he still believed in Zionism. He sees that the sins of all the countries who were being overrun was a direct result of the bad religious practices. He believed that if the people of Judah were to change their ways and cleanse the Temple of all the evil that was in it, YHWH would still be there and protect it from outside forces. The people of Judah did not and YHWH presence left the Temple and in doing so, allowed it to fall to the

Another key point, is that every sacrifice ceremony was providing just a temporary covering of once sin, and could never take it away forever. On the other hand, the foreshadowing of the perfect Lamb, would come to remove sin forever. That is what the temple represented, that there is one way to heaven, the lamb slain, Jesus Christ. Now, the time has come to have faith in Jesus Christ for salvation of our souls. The temple is no longer needed. In effect, no longer we need to wait for the foreshadow of Jesus Christ, we no longer need to slain a sheep to cover our sins, we no longer need to seek God on an altar, as he dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. God has never given us a spirit of fear, rather a spirit of faith in Jesus Christ. Under those circumstances, when Jesus declared, “I am the way,” is the reason why Jews hated Him. As a result, they were intolerance with Him and Christians, until this day. The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ becoming the stumbling rock for the Jews by not accepting his vicarious death. In fact, the incredible thing about Jesus is that “He is the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through

His third message largely addresses the principles of being unclean. Haggai's final message speaks to Zerubbabel of the eventual defeat of the Gentile kingdoms that have opposed Israel for so long. It is in this message that he reveals that Zerubbabel is chosen of the Lord. Zechariah is also divided into four sections. It begins with a call to repentance, then later describes eight separate visions Zechariah has in the same night. The second section ends with an oracle about Joshua. The third message of Zechariah rebukes the people for how they have turned away from God. It explains how the Israelites have ignored God in their rituals and placed more importance in the rituals themselves than God. The final area of Zechariah is about two oracles. One concerns the coming and subsequent rejection of Christ, then the second coming and reception of

The physical restoration of Jerusalem and the social restoration of the community would need to continue, and question about the composition of that community would have to be resolved. These issues became pressing in the mid fifth century BCE…” (Cogan 424). Again we get the theological and existential question of “who are we” in the return to Israel just like what was happening for them during their exile. Some tension came from the Persia giving authority to Zerubbabel (descendant of Jehoiachin) as civil governor and Joshua (descendant of Zakok) as high priest which we see in Haggai 1:1; 2:2. Supported by Chronicles and in Ezra 3-6 describes the rebuilding of the Temple under these 2 leaders. Zerubbabel responsible to king for tribute and tax payments from Yehud province Official agent of imperial policy Joshua managed money brought in by priesthood to Temple; chief legal authority Returning exiles are cream of crop, in charge. Other theological implication that are at play during this time is that “God of Israel” is also the God of history and the whole world once again we see tangible integrations with the world. The Era of return we see the the establishment of boundary makers of their faith to prove their Jewishness. Several of these boundary makers include the Sabbath, Circumcision, Physical walls around Jerusalem and the establishment of the Torah as Canonical and Marriage, and leads to Apocalyptic messages for

Not even the calamities of destructions to the religious temples could thwart the desire for a permanent place to worship for the followers of Judaism and even that of Christianity. Past tradition and customs is a cornerstone of belief and a way of life for these followers of God. The quest for rebuilding the past will always be of paramount concern for the believers in Yahweh. As long as the Torah exists, there will always be a blueprint for God’s

Israel’s was a united kingdom under the monarchal reigns of Saul, David and Solomon who ruled for forty years each. Solomon’s reign was considered the golden years for Israel and it was during this time that the first temple was built for Yahweh. With detailed plans from his father David, which were received from God through the prophet Nathan, the temple was constructed and no “hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard” in it as it was being built (1 Kings 6:7). It was modeled after the tabernacle instituted by Moses in the wilderness and took seven years to complete. The beauty of this temple can be imagined by the following passage in the Old Testament:

When talking about who wrote this book and when, we must keep in mind that the bible was put together in chronological order as events had taken place. The book seems to take place during the time of Judges (Flemming, 308). Scholars and researchers have debated who wrote the book and when. Seeing that in Ruth 4:18-22 references King David in genealogy, the prophet Samuel has been thought to have written the book between the dates of 1011 and 931 B.C. (Book) This has been difficult to prove because if Samuel did write the book, then levirate marriage would have to be

This scene looks forward to the day when people throughout the Earth will come to know the God of Israel, when the nations will come to Jerusalem for judgment and guidance (truthnet.org). This leads to what verse twenty-two says,”And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.” All these strong and authoritative nations will submit and bow down to the Messiah, the one who rules Jerusalem. To conclude, the final verse of Zechariah 8 talks about the knowledge that will flood out of Jerusalem and Israel “that will grasp the sleeve of the Jewish man” and show him the one true God, the God of

Ezra and Nehemiah addressed the issue of foreign wives in different but like manners. When Ezra learned of the marriage of non-Jewish women, he reacted with grief and prayer (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). The issue was addressed and a solution was reached through Ezra’s prayer and fasting (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). He called a council meeting and declared that all those that married non-Jewish women would divorce those women and send them off, accompanied by any children born within the marriage (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). Nehemiah confronted the issue of non-Jewish marriage arrangements by beating the men who married non-Jewish women (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). He issued a proclamation prohibiting such marriages; foreign influences were excluded

His task “was to prepare the people for proper worship and temple service once the building project was completed” (HW 688). God instructed Zechariah in the words to motivate the people. Scripture states in Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the Lord:….’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts”. The Lord is showing the people that it is only through Him that the temple will be finished and ready for worship. At this time the people were guilty of the same covenant violations as the generation that was sent into exile. The Lord sent Zechariah to offer the people a solution to their problems of sin and rebellion by genuinely repenting and returning to God. God knew that “only spiritual renewal could foster true worship and meaningful service in the temple” once it was finished (HW 691). Zechariah’s encouragement took many forms including a series of visions and repeated reference to the words of former prophets. Zechariah’s visions reminded the people that God cared for them and all that they were struggling with. Zechariah’s messages from the Lord were full of hope confirming that the Lord was continuing His covenant with them and was not going to forsake them. The prophet Zechariah was the cheerleader for the completion of the temple that Haggai had the people start to rebuild. Haggai got the physical building of the temple started while Zechariah was the encourager for the people to finish the temple and to get their spiritual lives in

The book of Revelation is broken down into 22 chapters. Each is described a different apocalyptic event. This was written during an era where an apocalyptic genre was written. It was among many other books in its day, written with such catastrophe. This letter was written to be shared around the major cities in Asia Minor. During this time, there were many Christian persecutions done by the Roman Empire. The book of Revelation brought comfort to those who were living in fear, by knowing that God himself was with them and He was in control of all good and evil. This book has been read by billions of people and has been interpreted in many different ways, but there are four main views that most people can categorize their interpretation into.

One of the first questions people ask about a book is who wrote it. That question is usually answered very quickly as the author identifies himself early on. That is not the case with Zephaniah. The topic of who wrote the book of Zephaniah is a very discussed topic among Bible scholars. Recent scholars have been agreeing that Zephaniah is a speaking voice, meaning they believe he is the implied author, but not necessarily the actual author. Many people argue that because he is mentioned in the superscription, that makes him the author. There are a few other explanations though. Zephaniah could have prophesied the general contents of the book, but a later editor rephrased the words. It is also possible that Zephaniah is just a fictive author or speaking voice. The scholars recently have been agreeing that it seems that Zephaniah is just the speaking voice. The reason that Zephaniah is being called a fictive author is because it lines up with the literary approach. The world may never know who wrote the book of Zephaniah (Berlin, A.,

The first part of the book of Zechariah is about different visions he had in which all the visions are prophesied by an angel and not by God. In the first visions he sees an angel and a man riding a horse in which God says that he is going to choose the city of Jerusalem again. In the second vision he sees four horns and four workmen. In the third he sees a man measuring Jerusalem because God is going to come and there will be glorious again. In the four visions he sees Joshua and Satan because God will come and forgive the sins of Jerusalem. In the fifth vision he sees and the lampstand and olive trees. In a seventh vision he sees a woman in a basket Finally, in the last vision he saw the horses that walked the earth.

Constructing the Identity of the Foreign Women in a Patriarchal Culture Exegesis of Ezra 9:1-15