I will introduce this series by reminding the readers that the church’s teaching that the Old Testament was written strictly for the Israelites is yet another Satanic lie embraced by professing Christendom. Writing to Timothy the evangelist, the Apostle Paul told him to continue to believe and obey the things which he had learned, knowing from whom (Paul) he had learned them. Paul went on to remind him that the Holy Scriptures would make him wise enough to be saved (provided he believed and obeyed them). Then Paul wrote one of the most important passages in all of the Bible: “ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness,” without which one cannot be saved (2 Tim. 3:13-17). In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul told our ancient ancestors that the Old Testament is holy because the New Testament Church is founded on the writings of the PROPHETS and the apostles. Further proof of the importance of the writings of the Old Testament prophets is found in the Apostle Peter’s message to the church in which he declared that “holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by God’s Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). Their scribes then recorded what they said. What the prophets said comprises some 80% of the Holy Bible. With these Truths in mind, let us study what the Prophet Haggai wrote. The Truths he shared applies to the New Testament Church just as it did to her biological and spiritual ancestors–the children of Israel.

In the first chapter of the Book of Haggai we find the prophet being sent by the Lord to the leaders of Judah (the Judahites–the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, nicknamed “Jews” by the King James translators). Haggai was to tell them to stop doing what they were doing and to begin doing something else, something the Lord had earlier told them to do which they had failed to do (vss 1-5). In verse five Haggai tells the Jews to “consider your ways.” They were to take a long, reflective look at what they were doing. Speaking what he was hearing from God through His Holy Spirit, Haggai gave the Jews the message that came straight from God’s mouth. He reminded them that they had sown many seeds and had reaped very little. Though they had eaten, they were still hungry; they had drank but remained thirsty. Though they had clothed themselves, they continued to be cold. They had earned wages, but then lost what they had earned (vss 6,7). In verses 9-11 God told them that, because they had disobeyed Him: “You expected much, but received little. And when you brought it home, the wind blew it away …. Therefore the heavens above you withheld their dew and the earth withheld its fruit. For I CALLED FOR THE DROUGHT on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” In verses 14-18 God tells the people through His Holy Spirit that, because they had disobeyed Him, not only were the works of their hands unclean, THEY THEMSELVES WERE UNCLEAN. As a result of their disobedience, when they expected 20 ephas of grain, the land had yielded only 10. And when they expected 50 baths of oil, there had resulted only 20. The Lord had struck their crops with blight, mildew and hail. He had brought to nothing all of the works of their hands. Yet for all this they had not repented and turned to Him. It is obvious by Haggai’s statements that the Jews had suffered severely over many years before the Lord sent Him to remind them of His earlier commands and to explain the curses He had place on them for failing to obey those commands. L.J.