Haggai: What's Next?Sample

God Has The Final Word

The prophet Haggai had a message for Zerubbabel which is applicable to us today. We may not have had first-hand experience of warfare, but it can feel as if we’re at war with the fallen world, the evil one, and our own flesh. It can feel unrelenting, exhausting, and overwhelming. And yet, we can celebrate that one day, God will assert His victory in an epic display of His omnipotence.

A central theme of the book of Haggai is that the greatest expression of worship is obedience from a heart surrendered to God. Haggai calls God’s people back to true worship to restore God’s rightful authority over their hearts. What you worship exercises power over your heart, and therefore your life. We aren’t above worshiping our way into sin by prioritising, even idolising, things other than God, and we need to take practical steps to recentre our hearts on God, to fight sin in our lives. Haggai reminds the Israelites that God alone must be worshiped, and God alone has authority in our lives. He will have the final say (Haggai 2:20–23). God’s people have just returned from exile, and God’s declarations and promises – expressed in Haggai’s vivid political and military imagery – would have been particularly comforting to them.

Haggai’s message to Zerubbabel speaks to us today. We’re at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and God reminds us too that He’s sovereign over every power, authority, kingdom, and government that has ever existed and will ever exist. They will all ultimately be brought under His supreme authority and judgment. No matter how unrelenting, exhausting, and overwhelming the battle in your life feels right now, allow the truth that God will have the final word to encourage you and bring you hope. One day, God will wipe out all opposition in an epic display of His omnipotence, because He is both holy and just.

God proclaims through Haggai that He has chosen Zerubbabel, a descendent of David, to faithfully restore worship in the temple. God will make Zerubbabel into a signet ring: a sign of royal authority and personal ownership. God is reclaiming His authority over, and ownership of, His people from every nation, using Zerubbabel to play an important part. Zerubbabel isn’t widely remembered or talked about today – but someone else from the line of David is, and He is the one God was pointing to through Haggai’s prophecy: Jesus. Rebuilding the temple was a foreshadowing of God making a way, through His Son Jesus, for humanity to again worship Him in Spirit and truth. In Christ, we are brought under the Father’s authority. This reading plan is drawing to a close, but your journey into what’s next has just begun. Remind yourself to trust God, putting Him first in all things, pursuing holiness, and celebrating the wondrous truth that He will have the final word in all things, including your life.

This plan was adapted from the series, Haggai: What’s Next?, on RightNow Media. To find out more, visit:https://www.rightnowmedia.org/af/get-access