Bible Books Explained

Book of Haggai, Background

Quick Rundown

The prophecy of Haggai is a short and straightforward prophecy about the rebuilding of the House of the Lord after it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:19), 374 years after its completion in 960 B.C (1 Kings 6:9-14). Ezra also wrote about the completion of the rebuilding under Cyrus king of Persia in 536 B.C. (Ezra 6:15). Three years before that, when Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C., he had allowed the exiled Jews to return home to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. One group returned the next year, completing and dedicating the temple foundation within two years. Then the people around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to continue building (Ezra 4:4-6:22). Sixteen years after Cyrus, Darius took the throne, and the prophet Haggai urged the people to restart their work. He called on Zerubbabel specifically who was the appointed governor and Joshua the high priest to lead the project. Within four years the reconstruction was completed and renewed worship in the temple resumed.

Haggai delivered his message in four parts during the first four months of Darius’ second year in power. The first message is about Israel’s crops which had not been blessed because the House of the Lord was left in ruins (1:2-12). The second message gave encouragement to those who found the new temple a bit disappointing compared to the original temple completed by Solomon (1:13-2:9). God promised that its original glory would outshine the first temple (2:9). The third message assured the people that from now on their crops would be blessed (2:10-19). The final message was a personal encouragement to Zerubbabel himself, the heir to the throne of David (both whom we’ll see later in Joseph’s genealogy). The people are back in their land and so is the Lord’s blessing.

Title

The prophecy bears the name of its author. Because his name means “festal one,” it is suggested that Haggai was born on a feast day. Haggai is the second shortest book in the Old Testament, Obadiah being the shorter, and is quoted in the New Testament (Hebrews 12:26).

Author and Date

Apart from his short prophecy little is known about Haggai. Haggai is mentioned briefly in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14, on both occasions in conjunction with the prophet Zechariah. The lists of refugees in Ezra does not mention Haggai; you would have to do your own footwork to trace his ancestry (*Ezra 5:1; 1 Kings 4:14; 1 Chronicles 6:21, 27:21; 2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15, 13:22; Ezra 6:14, 8:17; Zechariah 1:1,7). Interestingly he appears to be a relative of Zechariah (Zechariah 1:1; Ezra 5:1). It is likely Haggai may have seen the glory of Solomon’s temple before it was destroyed, making him at least 70-year-old when he wrote this prophecy (Haggai 2:3).

Since there is textual harmony with other prophets there is no ambiguity nor controversy about the date of the prophecy. The occasion of each of his 4 prophecies is clearly specified (1:1; 2:1; 2:10; 2:20), occurring within a 4-month span in the second year (520 B.C.) of king of Persia, Darius Hystaspes (ca. 521-486 B.C.). Haggai most likely had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon with Zerubbabel 18 years earlier in 538 B.C.

Background and Setting

In 538 B.C. as a result of the proclamation of Cyrus the Persian (Ezra 1:1-4), Israel was allowed to return from Babylonian captivity to Judah and Israel under the civil leadership of Zerubbabel and the spiritual guidance of Joshua the High-Priest (Ezra 3:2). About 50,000 Jews returned. Two years after resettling, they began to rebuild the temple in 536 B.C. (Ezra 3:1-4:5), but of course they faced severe opposition from their neighbors who eventually caused the work to be delayed until the reign of Darius king of Persia (Ezra 4:1-24).

Historical and Theological Themes

The primary theme is the rebuilding of the temple of God, which lay in ruins since its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. By way of 5 messages from the Lord Haggai exhorted the people to renew their efforts to build the house of the Lord. Haggai motivated them by noting that the drought and crop failures they were enduring were caused by misplaced spiritual priorities (1:9-11).

But to Haggai, the rebuilding of the temple was not an end in itself. The temple represented God’s dwelling place, His manifest presence with His chosen people. The destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar followed the departure of God’s dwelling glory (Ezra 8-11); to the prophet, the rebuilding of the temple invited the return of God and his presence. Using the historical situation as a springboard Haggai celebrated the supreme glory of the ultimate Messianic temple yet to come (2:7), encouraging them with the promise of even greater peace (2:9), prosperity (2:19), divine rulership (2:21,22), and national blessing (2:23) during the reign of Christ.

Interpretive Challenges and Application

It is interesting to note the phrase “the wealth of all nations” found in 2:7. Although many translations exist, there are essentially only two interpretations. Pointing to “The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine” in 2:8 as well as to Isaiah 60:5 and Zechariah 14:14, some contend that this refers to Jerusalem to which the wealth of other nations will be brought during the Millennium (Isaiah 60:11; 61:6). But it does seem preferable here to reference the Messiah, a Deliverer for whom all nations ultimately long. Not only is this interpretation supported by the ancient rabbis and the early church, the mention of “glory” in the latter part of the verse suggests a personal preference to the Messiah (Isaiah 40:5; 60:1; Luke 2:23).

1) Who has been your greatest influence towards obedience to God in your life? How has their influence and your obedience affected you?

2) Who has been your greatest opposition towards obedience to God in your life? How has opposition and indifference from others affected you? How will their opposition and indifference affect you in the future?

3) What has been the most difficult undertaking you’ve accomplished? What has been the most difficult thing or project you’ve had to abandon and then resume?

4) What are some of the greatest shake-ups you’ve experienced? What challenges and changes did these experiences bring about?

5) What have you tried to build in the past? What are you trying to rebuild right now? Are you waiting for everything to fall into place until you can worship God, or are you seeking and worshipping God now as you are building?

Outline

I. Rebuke for Disobedience 1:1-11

II. Remnant Responds and Rebuilds 1:12-15

III. Return of God’s Glory 2:1-9

IV. Religious Questions 20:10-19

V. Reign of The Lord 2:20-23

Source: MacArthur Study Bible, NASB, Updated Edition. 2006. Nelson Bibles, Thomas Nelson. La Habra, CA.

Introduction to The Bible

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:16,17

The Bible is the Word of God. This maxim is very familiar in most Christian circles and for the most part, deeply revered in many hearts. The Scriptures are the Words of God, a love letter to us. God loves us and greatly desires, and even commands us, to know His mind and heart. By studying the Word(s) of God we grow closer in relationship to Him.

I’ve created this online resource, surely one of thousands on the web, as a means by which you have an introduction to all 66 books of the Bible at the tip of a click. I hope you find richness and true understanding in your daily Bible reading.

Think of the academic rigor of studying the chapter introductions as a humble and thirsty approach to finding out “What does God mean?” As one of my favorite pastors exhorts, “It's not enough to read the text and jump directly to the application; we must first determine what it means, otherwise the application may be incorrect.”

Sixty-Six books comprise the Bible. These documents are gathered into two testaments, the Old (39) and the New (27). Prophets, priests, kings, and leaders from the nation of Israel wrote the OT books in Hebrew (with two passages in Aramaic). The apostles and their associates wrote the NT books in Greek.

The Old Testament record starts with the creation of the universe and closes about 400 years before the first coming of Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures take on a timeline in the following chronology:

- Creation of the Universe

- Fall of man

- Judgment flood over the earth

- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) - fathers of the chosen nation

- The history of Israel

~ Exile in Egypt - 430 years

~ Exodus and wilderness wanderings - 40 years

~ Conquest of Canaan - 7 years

~ Era of Judges - 350 years

~ United Kingdom - Saul, David, Solomon - 110 years

~ Divided Kingdom - Judah/Israel - 350 years

~ Exile in Babylon - 70 years

~ Return and rebuilding the land – 140 years

The details of this history are explained in the 39 books divided into 5 categories:

~ The Law – 5 (Genesis thru Deuteronomy)

~ History – 12 (Joshua thru Esther)

~ Wisdom – 5 (Job thru Ecclesiastes)

~ Poetry – 2 (Psalms and Song of Solomon)

~ Major Prophets – 5 (Isaiah thru Daniel)

~ Minor Prophets – 12 (Hosea – Malachi)

After the completion of the Old Testament, there were 400 years of silence, during which God did not speak or inspire any Scripture. That silence was broken by the arrival of John the Baptist announcing the arrival of the Promised Lord Savior. The New Testament records the rest of the story from the birth of Jesus Christ to the culmination of all history and the final eternal state; so the two testaments go from creation to consummation, eternity past to eternity future.

While the 39 Old Testament books focus on the history of Israel and the promise of the coming Savior, the 27 New Testament books emphasize the person of Christ and the establishment of the Church. The four gospels give the record of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Each of the four writers views with distinctive perspective, the greatest and most important event of history – the coming of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Each are listed below:

~ Matthew looks at Jesus through the perspective of His kingdom

~ Mark through the perspective of His servanthood

~ Luke through the perspective of his humanness

~ John through the perspective of His Deity

The book of Acts tells the story of the impact of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lord Savior – from His ascension, the consequent coming of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of the Church, through the early years of gospel preaching by the apostles and their associates. Acts records the establishment of the church in Judea, Samaria, and into the Roman Empire.

The 21 epistles were written to churches and individuals to explain the significance of the person and work of Jesus Christ, with its implication for life and witness until He returns.

The New Testament closes with Revelation, which starts by picturing the current Church Age, and culminates with Christ’s return to establish His earthly Kingdom, bringing judgment on the ungodly and glory and blessing for believers. Following the millennial reign of the Lord Savior will be the last judgment, leading to the eternal state. All believers of all history enter the ultimate eternal glory prepared for them, and all the ungodly are consigned to hell to be punished forever.

To understand the Bible, it is essential to grasp the sweep of that history from creation to Christ's consummation and beginning of the church age. It is also crucial to keep in focus the unifying theme of Scripture. The one constant theme unfolding throughout the whole Bible is this: God for His own glory has chosen to create and gather to Himself a group of people to be the subjects of His eternal Kingdom, to praise, honor, and serve Him forever and through whom He will display His wisdom, power, mercy, grace, and glory. To gather His chosen ones, God must redeem them from sin. The Bible reveals God’s plan for this redemption from its inception in eternity past to its completion in eternity future. Covenants, promises, and epochs are all secondary to the one continuous plan of redemption.

There is one God. The Bible has one Creator. It is one book. It has one plan of grace, recorded from initiation, through execution, to consummation. From predestination to glorification, the Bile is the story of God redeeming His chosen people for the praise of His glory.

As God’s redemptive purposes and plan unfold in Scripture, five recurring motifs are constantly emphasized:

~ The character of God

~ The judgment for sin and disobedience

~ The blessing for faith and obedience

~ The Lord Savior and sacrifice for sin

~ The coming kingdom and glory

Everything revealed on the pages of both the Old and New Testament is associated with those five categories. Scripture is always teaching or illustrating: 1) the character and attributes of God; 2) the tragedy of sin and disobedience to God’s holy standard; 3) the blessedness of faith and obedience to God’s standard; 4) the need for a Savior by whose righteousness and substitution sinners can be forgiven, declared just, and transformed to obey God’s standard; and 5) the coming glories end of redemptive history in the Lord Savior’s earthly kingdom and the subsequent eternal reign and glory of God and Christ. It is essential as one studies Scripture to grasp these recurring categories like great hooks on which to hang the passages. While reading through the Bible, one should be able to relate to each portion of Scripture to these dominant topics, recognizing that what is introduced in the Old Testament is also made more clear in the New Testament.

Looking at these five categories separately gives an overview of the Bible.

1. The Revelation of the Character of God

Above all else, Scripture is God’s self-revelation. He reveals Himself as the sovereign God of the universe who has chosen to make man and to make Himself known to man. His standard of absolute revelation is established in this self-revelation. From Adam and Eve through Cain and Abel and to everyone before and after the law of Moses, the standard of righteousness was established and is sustained to the last passage of the New Testament. Violation of it produces judgment, temporal and eternal.

In the Old Testament, it is recorded that God revealed Himself by the following means:

~ Creation – primarily through man – who was made in His image

~ Angels

~ Signs, wonders, and miracles

~ Visions

~ Spoken words by prophets and others

~ Written Scripture (Old Testament)

In the New Testament, it is recorded that God revealed Himself again by the same means, but more clearly and more fully:

~ Creation – the God-man, Jesus Christ, who was the very image of God

~ Angels

~ Signs, wonders, and miracles

~ Visions

~ Spoken words by apostles and prophets

~ Written Scripture (New Testament)

2. The Revelation of Divine Judgment for Sin and Disobedience

Scripture repeatedly deals with the matter of man’s sin, which lead to divine judgment. Account after account in Scripture demonstrates the deadly effects in time and eternity of violating God’s standard. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Only four of them do not involve a fallen world: the first two and the last two – before the Fall and after the creation of the new heaven and new earth. The rest is the chronicle of the tragedy of sin.

In the Old Testament, God showed the disaster of sin – starting with Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, the patriarchs, Moses and Israel, the kings, priests, some prophets, and Gentile nations. Throughout the Old Testament is the relentless record of continual devastation produced by sin and disobedience to God’s law.

In the New Testament, the tragedy of sin becomes clearer. The preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles begin and end with a call to repentance. King Herod, the Jewish leaders, and the nation of Israel – along with Pilate, Rome, and the rest of the world – all reject the Lord Savior, spurn the truth of God, and thus condemn themselves. The chronicle of sin continues unabated to the end of the age and the return of Christ in judgment. In the New Testament, disobedience is even more flagrant than Old Testament disobedience because it involves the rejection of the lord Savior Jesus Christ in the brighter light of the New Testament truth.

3. The Revelation of the Divine Blessing for Faith and Obedience

Scripture repeatedly promises wonderful rewards in time and eternity that come to people who trust God and seek to obey Him. In the Old Testament, God showed the blessedness of repentance from sin, faith in Himself, and obedience to His Word – from Abel, through the patriarchs, to the remnant in Israel – and even Gentiles who believed (such as the people of Nineveh).

God’s standard for man, His will, and His moral law were always made known. To those who faced their inability to keep God’s standard, recognized their sin, confessed their impotence to please God by their own efforts and works, and asked Him for forgiveness and grace – there came merciful redemption and blessing for time and eternity.

In the New Testament, God again showed the full blessedness of redemption from sin and repentant people. There were those who responded to the preaching of repentance by John the Baptist. Others repented at the preaching of Jesus. Still others from Israel obeyed the gospel through the apostle’s preaching. And finally, there were Gentiles all over the Roman Empire who believed the gospel. To all those and to all those who will believe through all history, there is blessing promised in this world and the world to come.

4. The Revelation of the Lord Savior and Sacrifice for Sin

This is the heart of both the Old Testament, which Jesus said spoke of Him in type, picture, and prophecy. The New Testament gives the biblical record of His coming. The promise of blessing is dependent on grace and mercy given to the sinner. Grace means that sin is not held against the sinner. Such forgiveness is dependent on a payment of sin’s penalty to satisfy holy justice. That requires a substitute – one to die in the sinner’s place. God’s chosen substitute – the only one qualified – was Jesus. Salvation is always by the same gracious means, whether during Old Testament or New Testament times. When any sinner comes to God, repentant and convinced he has no power to save himself from the deserved judgment of divine wrath, and pleads for mercy, God’s promise of forgiveness is granted. God then declares him righteous because the sacrifice and obedience of Christ is put to his account. In the Old Testament, God justified sinners that same way, in anticipation of Christ’s atoning work. There is, therefore, a continuity of grace and salvation through all of redemptive history. Various covenants, promises, and epochs do not alter that fundamental continuity, nor does the discontinuity between the Old Testament witness nation, Israel, and the New Testament witness people, the Church. A fundamental continuity is centered in the cross, which was no interruption in the plan of God, but is the very thing which all-else points.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Savior and sacrifice are promised. In Genesis, He is the seed of the woman who will destroy Satan. In Zechariah, He is the pierced one to whom Israel turns and by whom God opens the fountain of forgiveness to all who mourn over their sin. He is the suffering substitute spoken of by the prophets. Throughout the Old Testament, He is the Messiah who would die for the transgressions of His people; from beginning to end in the Old Testament, the theme of the Lord Savior as a sacrifice for sin is presented. It is solely because of His perfect sacrifice for sin that God graciously forgives repentant believers.

In the New Testament, the Lord Savior came and actually provided the promised sacrifice for sin on the cross. Having fulfilled all righteousness by His perfect life, He fulfilled justice by His death. Thus God Himself atoned for sin, at a cost too great for the human mind to fathom. Now He graciously supplies on their behalf all the merit necessary for His people to be the objects of His favor. That is what Scripture means when it speaks of salvation by grace.

5. The Revelation of the Kingdom and Glory of the Lord Savior

This crucial component of Scripture brings the whole story to its God-ordained consummation. God controls redemptive history, and it will culminate in His eternal glory. Redemptive history will end with the same precision and exactness with which it began. The truths of eschatology are neither vague nor unclear – nor are they unimportant. As in any book, how the story ends is the most crucial and compelling part – so with the Bible. Scripture notes several very specific features of the end planned by God.

In the Old Testament, there is repeated mention of an earthly kingdom ruled by the Messiah, Lord Savior, who will come to reign. Associated with that kingdom will be the salvation of Israel, the salvation of Gentiles, the renewal of the earth from the effects of the curse, and the bodily resurrection of God’s people who have died. Finally, the Old Testament predicts that there will be the “uncreation” or dissolution of the universe, and the creation of a new heaven and new earth – which will be the eternal state of the godly – and a final hell for the ungodly.

In the New Testament, these features are clarified and expanded. The King was rejected and executed, but He promised to come back in glory, bringing judgment, resurrection, and His kingdom for all who believe. Innumerable Gentiles from every nation will be included among the redeemed. Israel will be saved and granted back into the root of blessing from which she has been temporarily excised.

Israel’s promised kingdom will be enjoyed, with the Lord Savior reigning on the throne, in the renewed earth, exercising power over the whole world, having taken back His rightful authority, and receiving due honor and worship. Following that kingdom will come the dissolution of the renewed, but still sin-stained creation, and the subsequent creation of a new heaven and new earth – which will be the eternal state, separate forever from the ungodly hell.

Those are the five topics that fill up the Bible. To understand them at the start is to know the answer to the question the question that continually arises – Why does the Bible tell us this? Everything fits the glorious patter of those five topics. As you read, hang the truth on these five hooks and the Bible will unfold, not as 66 separate documents, or even two separate testaments – but one book, by one divine Author, who wrote it all with one overarching theme.

(MacArthur Study Bible, NASB. Quoted and Paraphrased. xi-xiv.)

Bible Books Explained

About Me

Search This Blog

Category of Use	Example
Preferences	These cookies allow our websites to remember information that changes the way the site behaves or looks, such as your preferred language or the region you are in. For instance, by remembering your region, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news. These cookies can also assist you in changing text size, font and other parts of web pages that you can personalize. Loss of the information stored in a preference cookie may make the website experience less functional but should not prevent it from working. Most Google users will have a preferences cookie called ‘NID’ in their browsers. A browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language (e.g. English), how many search results you wish to have shown per page (e.g. 10 or 20), and whether or not you wish to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on.
Security	We use security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use of login credentials, and protect user data from unauthorized parties. For example, we use cookies called ‘SID’ and ‘HSID’ which contain digitally signed and encrypted records of a user’s Google account ID and most recent sign-in time. The combination of these two cookies allows us to block many types of attack, such as attempts to steal the content of forms that you complete on web pages.
Processes	Process cookies help make the website work and deliver services that the website visitor expects, like navigating around web pages or accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, the website cannot function properly. For example, we use a cookie called ‘lbcs’ which makes it possible for Google Docs to open many Docs in one browser. Blocking this cookie would prevent Google Docs from operating correctly.
Advertising	We use cookies to make advertising more engaging to users and more valuable to publishers and advertisers. Some common applications of cookies are to select advertising based on what’s relevant to a user; to improve reporting on campaign performance; and to avoid showing ads the user has already seen. Google uses cookies like NID and SID to help customize ads on Google properties, like Google Search. For example, we use such cookies to remember your most recent searches, your previous interactions with an advertiser’s ads or search results, and your visits to an advertiser’s website. This helps us to show you customized ads on Google. We also use cookies for advertising we serve across the web. Our main advertising cookie on non-Google sites is called ‘id’ and it is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net. We use others with names such as _drt_, FLC, and exchange_uid. Other Google properties, like YouTube, may also use these cookies to show you more relevant ads. Sometimes an advertising cookie may be set on the domain of the site you are visiting. In the case of our DoubleClick product, a cookie called ‘__gads’ may be set on the domain of the site you are visiting. Unlike cookies that are set on Google's own domains, this cookie can't be read by Google when you're on other sites. It serves purposes such as measuring interactions with the ads on that domain and preventing the same ads from being shown to you too many times. Google also uses conversion cookies whose main purpose is to help advertisers determine how many times people who click on their ads end up purchasing their products. These cookies allow Google and the advertiser to determine that you clicked the ad and later visited the advertiser site. Conversion cookies are not used by Google for interest-based ad targeting and persist for a limited time only. These cookies are generally set in the googleadservices.com or google.com/ads domain, and have names like ‘Conversion’ and ‘TAID’. Conversion cookie data may also be used in combination with your Google account to link conversion events across different devices you use. Only anonymous data gathered from these cookies is shared with advertisers. Some of our other cookies may be used to measure conversion events as well. For example, DoubleClick and Google Analytics cookies may also be used for this purpose.
Session State	Websites often collect information about how users interact with a website. This may include the pages users visit most often, and whether users get error messages from certain pages. We use these so-called ‘session state cookies’ to help us improve our services, in order to improve our users’ browsing experience. Blocking or deleting these cookies will not render the website unusable. These cookies may also be used to anonymously measure the effectiveness of PPC (pay per click) and affiliate advertising. For example, we use a cookie called ‘recently_watched_video_id_list’ so that YouTube can record the videos most recently watched by a particular browser.
Analytics	Google Analytics is Google’s analytics tool that helps website and app owners to understand how their visitors engage with their properties. It may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. The main cookie used by Google Analytics is the ‘__ga’ cookie. In addition to reporting website usage statistics, Google Analytics can also be used, together with some of the advertising cookies described above, to help show more relevant ads on Google properties (like Google Search) and across the web. Learn more about Analytics cookies and privacy information.