This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
Why do you think it is important to those people to be in the military?
God fills the land of the whole world – God’s spirit present in all the land.
For the Children’s Sermon, click here.
Haggai, even shorter than Habakkuk, little is known about the prophet. In the 2nd year of King Darius – when the majority of Israel’s histories were oriented by their own Kings – the people are in exile. So Haggai dates the prophetic word of God to Darius who came into power in 522 BCE. In his 2nd year, the 6th month on the 1st day of the month God speaks to Haggai. The specific dating suggests Haggai was a scribe, educated.
The people of Judah are in exile 65-ish years, and they are asked to move out of, leave their now comfortable (albeit subpar) homes and rebuild the temple. They’ve been stripped of everything that symbolized their identity – the place of God’s presence (the temple); the fruit of their labors (cattle, crops, gifts from other countries – jewels, lumber, precious metals); and the place of God’s promise (the land).
But they’ve lived in the land of the Babylonians for a generation or two, so it is all many of them have ever known. Still, they do know they are the marginalized, the oppressed. They are less-than-human to Darius and his constituents. And because it is in the very DNA of the people to long for God, to be in right relationship with God, God’s words to them are enormously important.
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