You’ve sown much but bring in little, God’s message through Haggai. Could this be true?

The message of Haggai, (and Zechariah and Malachi for that matter), are completely prophetic, and targeted towards an end time people of God, whose eyes will be opened to understanding it, at the exact moment in God’s timing, but probably not too much before, except for the ones He intends to learn it first, so that they may teach it to those with eyes to see, and ears to hear. Although there was a previous occurrence of these things anciently, they were “types”, of a greater, more significant reoccurrence in the latter days. It is a very deep concept, but an example would be the message of Malachi. It was a very serious message to God’s priesthood (which are a “type” of His ministry), who were in place just before Christ’s first coming, and then prophetically, it is a very serious message to His ministry, who will be in place, before His second coming. Mr. Armstrong touched on some things in Haggai and Zechariah, but it wasn’t the time for full understanding. Consequently, things did not come together for him in his time. And how could they? There was no apostasy yet, no falling away, no break up of the church etc etc. God uses so many methods to “cover up”, for a time, or, to accomplish the revelation of it when He wants to. He is the total, perfect “director and choreographer '' of events. Sometimes He uses hind sight also. That is, we see and understand something via hindsight.

I will try and remember some of those things that Mr. Armstrong stopped at, as he studied Haggai and Zechariah. I think the greatest thing he left me with, was that he adamantly said that these books were prophetic. And although that didn’t help me much to understand them very deeply at the time, it did help me not to view them as strictly just “Jewish history”, but something else. An example from Mr. Armstrong's comments on Haggai for instance, is in Haggai 2. God draws a contrast between the temple built by Solomon, and what we’ll call Zerubbabel's temple, implying that this second one is obviously nowhere near the level of glory that the first temple was. And He asks, who among these returnees remembers, because there were some old Jews there that did remember. But notice in 2:9, God makes a proclamation, that this temple will be more glorious than the first one. Perhaps you will remember when Mr. Armstrong read that, knowing how much less glorious Zerubbabel’s temple was, (combined with many other curious things said), that this must be speaking of a spiritual temple, not a physical temple. We will be looking at that, but that is an example of what I’m talking about. Please once again, follow along with this article very closely with your bible!

And again, I ask myself, where to begin. Well, I once again will have to begin, by re-emphasizing, that God speaks to us in figurative language, with types and antitypes, and early and latter day fulfillments, and duality’s, and so much more method and ingenious technique. At some point in my bible studies, God showed me that the northern kingdom of Israel had so many similarities to modern day Manasseh. I know that it is the tribe of Ephraim, (not Manasseh), that is typically the leader of the northern kingdom, but they, (the northern kingdom), just look more like modern day Manasseh, (the USA), to me, than the United Kingdom. (But I suppose both the USA and the UK encompass all Joseph’s latter day characteristics). And I thought, if the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, is a type of both modern day physical, and spiritual Israel, then the southern kingdom of Judah, is a physical, and spiritual, type of spiritual Judah. I mention that because I want to make a distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel, and then physical Judah and spiritual Judah. I want to focus on their spiritual identity, and from the scriptures in Haggai, more on spiritual Judah’s identity. We may spill over here and there, but I want to try and discern what God is saying to His church in the latter days. So, Israel, after having lost all the identifying signs that it was God's people, goes into captivity, where the remnant becomes a people under the apostate church, known as the “mother of all harlots” for a time period, to eventually surface as a full grown harlot itself, also an apostate church, but broken away from it’s harlot mother, because it is bent on being a spiritual whore in it’s own right, and eventually becomes the Protestant church.

We’ll leave it there for now so we can focus on the southern kingdom of Judah, the ones who would hold on to the Temple, the law, the Sabbath, the holy days, the statues, the ordinances and the judgments. They would be the ones to type the true church (who would today be the divided remnant of the Worldwide Church of God, now divided into various spiritual houses, but most all still carry the Church of God somewhere in their corporate name). As we know from history (as ancient Judah), they also apostatized, but differently. They didn’t throw everything away and adopt something completely different. They just corrupted, twisted, changed and defiled the truth and all God's ways, until they also went into captivity. But God had a path that the northern kingdom was going to follow, and a path that the southern kingdom was going to follow, and they were completely different. One had to eventually become the birthright people’s, and inherit the greatest position of any company of related nations in history, and at the same time, “type” a great apostate spiritual congregation of God’s people. And the other had to suffer persecution, prejudice and world hatred, and “type” the true spiritual congregation of God’s people. Both were physically and spiritually lost, in so many ways, and yet God’s eyes were on them both constantly, as He led them to their respective destiny’s. Because this article’s main focus is on what we call God's true church, the focus will be mostly on spiritual Judah. (I have written another article that focuses more on spiritual Israel. It is called “There’s nothing new under the sun, Baal worship, anciently and modernly, could this be true”?).

This is a side note, but if it weren’t for the writings of the apostles, especially Paul, but also Peter and John, I don’t know if we could make all the connections from the Old Testament, that we do, because the New Testament is where we get the understanding that we are spiritual Jews from. We have a few clues from the Old Testament that Judah has been especially chosen to represent the spiritual first born, Christ being a Jew and the first of the firstborn. Some of these references are in Zechariah 8:23, 12:7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, and there are likely others. God obviously set Judah apart by the prophecies given by Jacob to his 12 sons just before his death, and then Moses did as well just before his death. Why God selected each one of the tribes for a distinct purpose, is not totally clear. That is, not if you look for virtues. When they were young brothers, it would appear that Joseph had the most virtues. He was certainly favoured by his father Jacob, and in a powerful way, God too. But Judah has no glowing virtues, and in fact, according to the scriptures, quite the opposite. He was crafty, he was quite willing to hire a whore for his lustful desires, he was quite willing to have his daughter in-law stoned for whoredom, until he found out it was he himself that had hired her for her services. He didn’t want to kill the younger Joseph like some of his other brothers, but he was quite willing to sell him as a slave. These all show his character was not very glowing. Even Jacobs' prophecy about Judah in Genesis 49 does not speak about character, but is focused on his power and capacity to rule. But God knows things, and has reasons that are way beyond our consideration. Didn’t He say as much in Isaiah 55:8-9? That’s a general fact but it would apply here as well. I guess my purpose in bringing this up is so that we do not have some glowing opinion of spiritual Judah either, like “oh, the true church is so holy”. That’s the ideal that Paul and Peter implied that we’re striving for, but let’s not think we’re there yet, because the evidence does not support that view. We shall see that the “types” anciently, portray the true church somewhat differently. Her learning path is painful and bitter at times. Painful for her and painful for God.

But getting back to speaking about spiritual Judah, and, as individuals, being spiritual Jews. I should mention that even before Paul and Peter developed the concept of being a spiritual Jew, Jesus Christ said it as a side remark, to the Samaritan woman at the well, when He said, “salvation is of the Jews”. Or as some other translations say it, “salvation comes through the Jews”. And why? Not because they are so spiritual, but as Paul said in Romans 3:2, “Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God”. They were the caretakers of the law, the statutes, the ordinances, the judgements, the Sabbath and the holy days. Christ did not choose to say anything to the woman about the fact that the true understanding of “the oracles”, could only be attained spiritually, which we know was not achieved by a strictly physical minded community of Jews. They were caretakers nevertheless, and in that sense, salvation is of the Jews. But it is also of the spiritual Jews. In Romans 2:28-29, Paul introduces the idea of a spiritual Jew. And there are many more scriptures in Paul’s Epistles that expand on the thought. And then there are Peter's references to a spiritual house in 1 Peter 2:4-10, which portray us collectively, as a spiritual house, typing us as stones being knit tightly together, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. With all of this introduction, let’s try to see how we are typed by the house of Judah just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. How I wish and pray that God would explain everything, and fill in all the holes, but if He doesn’t, we will have to see what we can truthfully derive from scripture, and connect it to this day and age. Remember, if it is not God’s will for us to understand, we never will. You will never ever break His code.

Recall that the priesthood is a type of the ministry in our day and age. (God has various metaphorical ways of depicting the ministry, ie: shepherds, cedars, wolves, harvesters/field workers, sons of Levi, and there are more). In the book of Jeremiah, it is priests and prophets, almost all false ones. An apostasy is in full swing in Jerusalem, (during Jeremiah's ministry), and their iniquity is “full”, and God is on a  time schedule. Remember that He uses figurative language. He has already prepared the situation, having sent numerous Jews to Babylon already. He had already determined that the official time period of their captivity was to be 70 years. Jeremiah 29:10. God was preserving a blood line, (in Babylon), that He intended to use after the captivity, to continue His plan with the Jews. It would be good to keep a principle in mind when studying God's word. I have to speak about it because I run into so many people that take every word in the bible as being literal and absolute, and attribute it to God. This leads to misrepresenting God. When God so often says He is going to do this or that, I have found that He means, unless you change your conduct, intent, action or whatever. He holds out hope until He finally says, “that’s it”, or “it’s full”, and now My word is final. Similarly, when He says He is going to destroy a city because of its iniquity, (such as Jerusalem), He doesn’t mean that all the people are hopeless, but that there’s a distinction to be made between those that are salvageable, and those that are not. Not to go off on a tangent about salvation, (but I will digress just a little), God is in the salvage industry. Salvation and salvage are derivatives of each other after all, and there definitely are many who will be deemed unsalvageable by God in the judgement. I’m not taking time to prove that, but it’s there in God's Word and Christ implied it powerfully. Men preoccupy themselves in various salvage operations for profit in this world. They judge what can be salvaged from that which can’t, and discard, burn, melt down or bury that which is non salvageable. And that which is salvageable they repair, fix, reprogram or restore. God is salvaging humans made in His own image for His great purpose, and can we not see the similarity?

To make the point from scripture, please turn to Jeremiah 24. It is the vision of the good and bad figs. I will summarize; God portrays the people of Jerusalem (the last holdouts in the southern Kingdom), as being figs that are either still good for eating, or so rotten that they can only be discarded. The good ones, He sends to Babylon, (as captives), where they will learn serious lessons through punishment. The interval of time is to be 70 years which means most will likely die there. But they will teach their children what happened and why. Then when the time is right, God will bring their children back to Jerusalem and continue His plan. The bad figs on the other hand will perish. They will of their own choice and God’s invisible intervention, stay behind in Jerusalem until the siege is complete, and when the city falls, they will be killed this way and that way. (Sword, famine, disease etc). Thus we have the good and bad figs explained. But there’s another category of people God is working with at the time also, let’s look at them. Not everyone in the southern kingdom was either holed up in Jerusalem, or dead, or already in captivity in Babylon. Some had fled to other lands, and some were hiding up in the hills etc. When the siege was over, word got out that the Babylonians were getting ready to return to their own land, or move on to the next conquest. And that they had chosen a remnant of Jews more loyal to the emperor, (Nebuchadnezzar), and had appointed a governor over them, (Gedaliah). The prophet Jeremiah and his assistant Baruch were amongst this group. And there were others such as the king of Judah’s daughters. The group grew even more, as people came out of hiding seeking safety, food, clothing and fellowship with their own kind, etc. I am only briefly mentioning this part of an epic story, because it has very important significance to God’s people, who make up His church in the latter days. You must read the story play out from the fall of Jerusalem in Jeremiah 39 through at least to Jeremiah 45. I will summarize it though.

A series of good and evil events happen to this remnant. There is much terror going on in the forsaken land of Judah. There are bands of robbers and murderers marauding. And the nations who have always hated Israel, (even though most of them are blood relatives through Abraham), are exacting their hatred by thieving, grabbing, enslaving and oppressing any remaining Jews and straggling Israelites. Even the group of remnants under Gedaliah’s protection end up as captives by a murderous rebellious Jew named Ishmael, who murdered Gedaliah and his few soldiers, and took everyone captive, and who now must be rescued by a different Jew named Jonathon. After much murdering and suspense, as the story plays out, and this group is trying to decide the best path forward, they decide that they should seek The Lord's guidance for them, and especially because they have the prophet Jeremiah right there amongst them. So they seek God's will through Jeremiah, promising that no matter what that is, they will do it. God though, having the insight that He has, can see that most of this remnant is very shallow, and He deliberately makes them wait for an answer. He sees that they have a residing desire to go to Egypt, and waits 10 days to answer. In the meantime, God, (and Jeremiah), observe their whispering amongst themselves, about this idea of going down to Egypt to escape this seemingly hopeless dangerous land of Judah. Then God answers Jeremiah, telling them, (through Jeremiah), to stay in Judah, promising to protect them and provide for them, and give them favour in the eyes of the Babylonians and all others, but knowing that they have already decided that they are going, and have no intention of keeping their promise to God to do whatever He says in this matter. So Jeremiah plays their little game and gives them God's answer. And when they reject God's word back to them, Jeremiah calls them out as the hypocrites they are. And God also tells them, (through Jeremiah), that if they insist on going to Egypt they will surely all perish there by the sword, famine or pestilence.

So let’s connect the ancient to the modern now as much as we are able. What is the meaning spiritually for us (the church, the spiritual Jews if you will), to discern through an early and latter day fulfillment. Well, we see a distinction made between the good and the bad figs. The bad figs and the good figs are both in the congregation of God. (Apostate physical Judah and Jerusalem at the time). He knows already that the bad figs are not salvageable. He knows the good figs are, but are in need of fixing, or correction, so He sends them to Babylon for correction and to fulfill His plan going forward. Then there are other members, the stragglers who were hiding out in the hills and the others. But He tells them that they must not go to Egypt, or, better put for “us”, as a "type" of people He has rescued FROM Spiritual Egypt, you must not “go back” to Egypt. If you do, you will surely perish. Remember, Egypt pictures a sinful culture and society full of the worship of demons and various idols. You cannot disrespect the sacrifice of Jesus over and over. God The Father will not allow it. We saw quite a few people “go back to Egypt”, in the late 1990’s after the apostasy, in the wake of Mr. Armstrong's passing, and all I can say is, I fear for them. The remnant in the Jeremiah account, did go back to Egypt, and took Jeremiah, Baruch, the king's daughters, and some others who did not want to go, with them. And they all perished there except for a very small number that God said would survive. Jeremiah 44:14. There is a whole lot more to the story in Jeremiah, for one thing, Jeremiah and Baruch’s ministry did not end there, but that is another subject.

In a parallel way though, in the latter days, not all those who went back to Egypt have perished, some made it back to spiritual Judah, and others will yet “escape”, and make it back to God's remnant before it’s too late, for God looks on the heart. He was looking on the heart when the original stiff necked group were making the decision to go back to Egypt, and He could see who the real conspirators were. So, reviewing the situation anciently, we have Israel and Judah in the following situations. Some are scattered, some are in captivity, some are slaves to their surrounding relative nations, some are dead, and a very few are under God's protection this way and that way. But all are figuratively looking around in dismayment.  (I deliberately used that word because God said, (in Ezekiel 4), that they would eat their defiled bread in the lands He would drive them to, "in dismayment". The Jews in Babylonian captivity, (the good figs), are settling into their present and future existence. The bloodline of David is there in captivity waiting to fulfill its destiny. The Priesthood, and the bloodline of Aaron, (the original high priest), is there in captivity waiting to fulfill its destiny. Ezekiel is there in captivity and is fulfilling his destiny. Daniel and his three counterparts are there in captivity waiting to fulfill their destiny. Seventy years must pass and many things must occur. Without discussing them, consider Nebuchadnezzar’s destiny, Cyrus’s destiny and role, and Darius’s too etc. God’s plan and purpose is being accomplished unbeknownst to men in various places around the globe. The Great Creator God is not obligated to tell puny little men what He is doing. They are but clay that He is working with and He can shape them, and history too, as He sees fit.

For instance, how did the Indians of America get here? God knows. How did the Polynesians get to Hawaii? God knows. Etc etc. He has placed people’s where He has seen fit according to His purposes for the latter days. He guided the Latin people’s to settle and dominate South and Central America. He gave Alaska, Texas, California, the whole American Midwest to the people of modern day USA. He caused the 49th parallel to exist as a peaceful border line between 2 brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh. He gave Reuben a certain level of glory on the world scene, giving him territories beyond France, in Canada, Africa, the Caribbean and a few other places, but limiting him, so that Jacobs prophecy that he would “not excel”, (as a consequence of his trespass with one of his fathers concubines), would take place, as history has shown it did. He permitted Ishmael and Esau to come into their own in due time, so that now there is over 1 billion Muslims on this earth, (with their own counterfeit version of God, [Islam], another huge topic for another time), and they have been a constant thorn in the side of Jacob and all men just as God said they would be, and they have a big part of history to fulfill yet, before it is all said and done. And let’s not forget Japheth. God said through Noah in Genesis 9:27, may God enlarge Japheth. And who can deny the enlargement of Japheth, the people of China and east Asia, reaching up to nearly 2 billion people. The point is that no matter what Israel and Judah were doing, God is invested in His great plan for all mankind, and is always working it all out. You might say that God is a very busy Person. Jesus said as much if we read the verses in proper context. John 5:16-17, quote: "For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working". Think about it; working is logically what we will be doing for all eternity. It makes so much sense. It puts to rest people’s silly ideas about what we will be doing in the hereafter. Consider all the goofy ideas people have as they picture people sitting on clouds, strumming harps etc. God made us in His image, and I ask, what is perhaps the most common everyday thing we have done for thousands of years? It's to wake up to a new day and go to work! Think about it, where is Dad, the children ask? Mom replies, he’s at work. When will he be home the children ask? Mom replies, soon, or, when dinner is ready. It’s been the most natural pastime men have preoccupied themselves with since God created us. That’s why Christ said to the Pharisees, My Father has been working, and I too must be working. So, the next time some ignorant person challenges you about what Christians will be doing for all eternity, (implying that they want nothing to do with such a boring pastime), we can tell them straight up; we will be working, because that’s what living beings do, else life would be monotonous, and void of purpose. But we will always have the Sabbath to rest, and reflect,  and celebrate a continuous life of achievement and fulfillment, and give thanks to the One who made it all possible.

This digression was for the purpose of showing that while Judah was learning what God had for them to learn in Babylon, He had many more things that He was taking care of in the world. You might say that we all are just like little children in a family, who are completely unaware of all the many things our parents do for the sake of the whole family, (that being, all men).  But, regarding Judah’s time in Babylon, we have very little to give us a summary, or synopsis, of what went on. We do have Ezekiel's writings, but they are very mysterious and prophetic. We also have the book of Esther which adds some pretty important history. We also have the book of Daniel, and that too adds very important information, but it’s also very mysterious information. We don’t have much to show us what their everyday life had become. But we can glean some things by implication and hind sight in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. I’m not going to go into a lot of it, but I will touch on some of it. The fact that they can provide such an accurate accounting of the lineages of so many Jewish families is pretty impressive. And the preservation of the lineage of the Priesthood also. This also tells us that they were practicing their religion as an everyday/every week part of their culture. And as I have noted in a previous article, they finally got rid of their idol worship, but fell into another ditch; legalism and Judaism, but at least there was a zeal for it that had its good points. Think about this, they were still worshipping idols, (mostly versions of Baal), right up until they went into captivity. And when they went to Babylon, they went into a culture still rife with idol worship. Think of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar set up, and tried to force everyone in the kingdom to worship it. But there is no mention of idol worship on the part of the remnant who returned to Jerusalem after the captivity in the prophetic books of Haggai, Zechariah, or Malachi. And there is no mention of it being an issue in the books of Ezra or Nehemiah either.

Early on in the book of Zechariah, we see God speaking to them saying that He was very angry with their ancestors because of their ways. And we see Him saying that everything He said would happen to them did happen. And we see them reply and say in Zechariah 1:6, yes, just as The Lord of Hosts had determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our deeds, so He has done to us. So this remnant did learn who the real Lord and Master was, (God not Baal), and also that the real Lord and Master had laws, statutes, ordinances and judgments, that required obedience to, or else. There are so many things I could talk about, but they would go off on tangents. They’re important subjects, but I am going to try and stay on that which my title implies, that being, “You’ve sewn much, but bring in little”. But it is interesting to note how much God blessed them and protected them while they were “putting in time”, or “doing time”, so to speak, in Babylon. A lot of Jews in Babylon became quite comfortable there and did not want to return to Jerusalem. They got to liking their captors and their lifestyle. Returning to Jerusalem was optional, but the number that chose to return was pretty big. Ezra 2:64 says there were 42,360, not including their male and female servants of which there were 7,330, plus 200 men and woman singers. That’s 49,890, almost 50,000 people with all their beasts of burden, and all their livestock and wagons. That’s quite a caravan. Think of all the famous wagon train stories and movies we have heard and seen over the years in America. This dwarfs them in its size and scope. This is no small project going on. We can be sure God was overseeing it.

Now let me pose a question, both to myself, and to any possible readers of this article. How do I make a connection between the Jews who come out of Babylonian captivity, and the spiritual Jews who make up the Church of God in the latter days? I have to admit that there is not a perfect series of parallels and duality’s to convince without a doubt that one is just a type of the other. I will try and present possibilities for the various things that we have no answers for. They are the curious and mysterious things in God's Word that make a person with eyes to see and ears to hear stop, and ponder what they are reading, because they sense that there is “more than meets the eye”, going on. Many of the things that cause this sensing do not occur immediately, or on the first reading of the scriptures associated with a particular scenario. A random reading of any book in the bible does not deliver all the spiritual meat that is there. But the truly hungry child of God will dig and dig and dig, (meaning study, pray, meditate, ruminate, contemplate, deliberate, cogitate, ponder, consider, reflect on, mull over, chew the cud over, and last but absolutely not least, pray about with great fervency, not letting up, (that is, not giving God a break)). Remember the parable about the unjust judge? Luke 18:1-8, and the parable of the man who asks a neighbour for bread to feed a guest who arrives unexpectedly and late? Luke 11:5-8. These depict the situation I’m referring to.

The Great Almighty God, who is beyond “figuring out”, has many reasons and purposes and “ways'', in all that He does. One is what we would call numbers. He applies numbers, and His judgments come with numbers, and numerical values. God deemed that Judah would go into captivity to Babylon for 70 years. That is, they would be exiled to Babylon for 70 years. At the end of this time, God would punish the Babylonians, by raising up the Medes and the Persians, destroying the Babylonian kingdom, and use Cyrus, king of the Persians, and then Darius, king of the Medes, to return the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city. But the return of the Jews was not a receiving of freedom. It was a whole lot more like being reassigned to a new workplace. For all intents and purposes, they were still captives. In the book of Nehemiah, they have been back in Judah and  Jerusalem for some years now, and they are by no means, a free nation or people. Notice Neh. 9:36-38. A prayer of recounting their journey up to this point is being spoken, and a new commitment to God is being implemented by the people. Verses 36-37 clearly show that they are still servants of the empire. True Christians in God's church are also. Christ said the truth shall make you free. Yes, free from the opposite of the truth; lies, false doctrine, twisted versions of the facts, and wrong concepts of what life and God's purpose is all about. But as far as this world goes, we are still captives on a planet doing it all wrong, busily destroying the earth, and most of us have jobs, (are servants), to this end. I am a truck driver. I haul lumber that has been greedily produced by cutting down trees at an alarming rate. It’s all very wicked, but what can I do? That’s what my job is. Most people are in a similar situation. So the returned exiles and God's true church in the end times share a similar situation, and that is that we are both still captives.

The title of this article is, “You have sown much but bring in little”. This comes from the book of Haggai 1:5-6. The book of Haggai is only 2 chapters long but its message is powerful. Mr. Armstrong used to say that this book is prophetic. Haggai was a prophet, and along with Zechariah was sent by God to speak to the Jews who returned from Babylon to awaken them to the state they had fallen into. Where Haggai comes from, no one seems to know. The book of Haggai is real though and just says, Hag. 1:1. In the 2nd year of Darius, in the 6th month, on the 1st day of the month, the word of The Lord came by Haggai the prophet, to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying……”These people are saying, the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord”.

Little is known about the prophet Haggai except that he is a prophet of God. This is substantiated in the book of Ezra 5:1 and 6:14, but all we know is that God sent him, and that his name could be derived from the word “festive”, because Hag in Hebrew, is translated “festive”. But I have found that all the prophets' names connect them, and us, back to God. So his name could mean “festival of Yahweh”, in a similar way that Obadiah means “worshipper of Yahweh”, or “servant of Yahweh”, etc. We could surmise that the Jews accepted his prophesying because maybe Zerubbabel and Joshua knew of him in Babylon. But God did send him, along with Zechariah, (who we know a little bit more about), to the Jews to speak certain words to them, which God gave them, to stir them to action, because work on the temple had stalled. When the Jews first came back from Babylon, they had a certain zeal and sense of mission. Let’s step back a bit from this point and gain a synopsis of what happened according to the scriptures. The book of Ezra fills us in a bit. The Persians and the Medes have displaced the Chaldean/Babylonian empire, by war, and Cyrus king of the Persians is ruling. The prophecies of God regarding Cyrus have all come to pass up to this point. Read Ezra 1:1-4. We could wonder how Cyrus knows to make this proclamation, so that scripture is fulfilled. I have observed that many things in scripture are inferred or implied. Since all we would like to know about this situation is not available, but there is some information available that we can piece together, let’s consider the possibilities. Daniel was one of the Babylonian captives. The book of Daniel does not flow in a chronological order. The chapters seem to bounce around a bit in terms of time and history. Daniel served as a wise councillor in the court of the kings of Babylon, through the ups and downs, and ups again, of Nebuchadnezzar, through his sons and grandson, until the 1st year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Daniel 1:21. Since it’s estimated that Daniel was 16 years old when he was chosen to be trained to be in the king's service, and since the king, (Nebuchadnezzar), was in his 3rd year of reigning, and Daniel served right through to the 1st year of Cyrus, this would put his age in his mid 80’s when Cyrus took over the empire. Daniel’s reputation would have been known. Consider, on the very eve of the collapse of the Babylonian kingdom, it is recorded in Daniel 5, (please read the whole chapter, but I will summarize it). During a feast that King Belshazzar (grandson of Nebuchadnezzar) was having, the Queen mother came into the banquet hall because of the conundrum going on in there over the mysterious writing on the wall incident, and reminded the younger king that there was a man, (Daniel), in his kingdom, who had wisdom from God, who could likely interpret the writing, which none of the kings wise men or magicians could. This implies that when the younger king had inherited the kingdom from his father, that he, (the younger king), disregarded, disrespected, and consequently dismissed Daniel as a wise councillor to the king, and pretty much retired him, probably because he was just an old Jew after all. And being a foolish young monarch, chose to surround himself with “yes men '', probably younger, like himself, and likely of Chaldean descent.

Daniel did interpret the writing, which  although the king respected Daniel for reading it, and expressed confidence in Daniel interpreting the meaning, (Daniel 5:29), it is implied that he either did not believe him, or there was no time to react, because that very night his kingdom fell, and he was killed, and the kingdom came into the hands of the Medes and the Persians, their kings being Cyrus of the  Persians, and Darius of the Medes. It’s very possible, and likely, that Cyrus would have met Daniel, and had words with him. Daniels' reputation would have preceded him. And he was a Jewish councillor, not a Chaldean. (I would imagine that many Chaldean heads were rolling as Cyrus was taking over). Daniel had proven in 5:22-23, that he had no problem speaking the truth, even to an emperor, even though they were words that could easily get him killed. Daniel also knew about the words God had already prophesied, because as Dan. 9:2 says, he knew “by the books' ', certain things. Although it only mentions Jeremiah's name in the next few sentences, (regarding the length of time that the exile was to last for), Daniel likely would have known about the scrolls of Isaiah. The Jewish priesthood had brought more than the book of Jeremiah with them to Babylon, (if they even had that complete book yet, they may have only had his letters that he had previously sent at that time). As I suggest, Daniel would have also known about the prophet Isaiah’s writings, because the priesthood had likely taken them with them to Babylon, (remember, they are the caretakers of the oracles of God). If he had words with Cyrus, he would have been able to tell him, that God predicted well over 100 years before Cyrus was even born, that God would name him Cyrus, and make him a king and an emperor, and use him to conquer and punish the Babylonians, and then would use him to organize a great gathering of Jews, and send them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God and the city. (These revelations from Daniel using the scrolls of Isaiah, and letters from Jeremiah, combined with inspiration from God on the mind of Cyrus, can account for why he implemented the decrees for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple). Can you imagine Daniel showing all the scrolls with these predictions written more than a 100 years previous to Cyrus? And Cyrus would have heard that this Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall the previous night, saying that the same God has given the empire of Babylon to the Medes and the Persians. (All found for us, in Isaiah 45). I would think it very possible that both Cyrus and Darius were superstitiously impressed, and fearful a bit of this God of Daniel.

As for the book of Jeremiah, it’s a little off topic, but one can only imagine how the priesthood came to possess that completed book, as we understand that Jeremiah and Baruch’s ministry went down a different path than captivity in Babylon. They went, (amongst others, including the king of Judah’s daughters), as captives to Egypt, under the authority of Jonathon, the one who rescued them from wicked Ishmael, after he murdered Gedaliah, the governor who had been put in place in Judah by the Babylonians. Baruch, (as Jeremiah's assistant, and secretary, so to speak), was very possibly his recorder. He did write things for him in the past. God had told the remnant of those who were hiding out in the hills not to go back to Egypt, (“a type” for spiritual Jews today), that they would surely perish if they did. He did say that there would be a few, (but a very few), who would escape Egypt though. God's destiny for Jeremiah, Baruch, and the king's daughters, quite possibly have been traced to the Isles of Great Britain, (specifically Ireland at first), to fulfill His purposes there. (I’m referring to the Pharez and Zerah prophecy, and the transplanting of the seed, (the king's daughters to another land where the seed of David could mix with the seed of Joseph producing the modern kings and queens  of Britain). But it is entirely possible that some escapees from Egypt, could also have journeyed back to the land of Judah and even back to Babylon, where a society and culture of Jews was growing and thriving according to God's purpose there, and could have carried back with them the writings of Jeremiah, again, according to God's purpose. God is not obligated to tell us what He is doing, or how He gets it done, or what servants He uses to accomplish it. Somehow though, the book of Jeremiah got into the hands of the Jewish or Levitical priesthood in captivity in Babylon. Daniel could have been exposed to those writings there, well before Cyrus came to power. Then having both Isaiah and Jeremiah's writings, he could have wisely told Cyrus of all that God had predicted and prepared Cyrus to be a part of. I ask again, can you imagine, an emperor like Cyrus, being shown that his name had been chosen over 100 years before he was even born. There were already a lot of hindsight things for Cyrus to ponder? He had defeated the Babylonians and captured the city, and without a siege too. Those details are available for the interested reader to dig into.

I want to jump way forward for a bit, to this present time, to bring God’s church into this as a latter day type. We will likely jump back and forth a bit. Oh how I wish everything would dovetail together perfectly, but let’s see what God will show us. Haggai is a message for God’s church in the latter days, and the ancient original exiled  Jews who are returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple are a type of the spiritual Jews of today who are in a spiritual exile of sorts. Let’s look at some similarities, and some differences as well. The ancient city of Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. It was destroyed and the temple was also destroyed and burned. It all happened just as God had predicted. God allowed the evil forces of the devil to have their way, and the good figs went into captivity for the stipulated period of time, that being 70 years, fulfilling God's purpose. Then they returned to rebuild the temple, the wall and the city. Now let’s compare that to what happened to God's true church between 1985 and 1996. It too was besieged by the devil through human agents that were similar to Nebuchadnezzar in some ways. And God let it happen, or more accurately, God made it happen. The reasons for that are another topic. We may get into that but not right here. But the siege was successful in accomplishing the undoing of all that had been accomplished through Mr. Armstrong. Consider many parallels. The vast majority of members were so shallow. If this was God's true church, how could this have happened? I was there at the time, just a spiritual youngster to be sure. But now, decades later, I’m a little more grown up, and God has allowed me to “look back”, and see what happened. People had the false notion that we, being the true church and all, were so pleasing to God. We had the truth. We had the “signs” that identified us as the true church. We must be the apple of His eye. We had no idea that our motives and intents were so selfish and shallow. Most were just trying to “get” something from God, that being; eternal life. We wanted to live forever as God does, but for the wrong reasons. It was all about “getting”, not "giving"; not loving etc. Isn’t it a paradox, that we can know, (because we were taught it), the difference between “the get way”, and “the give way”, and still not realize that our main motive for living God's way, “can still be”, to “get” eternal life. I suspect the devil wants to live for eternity too, (which most think he is going to, but I wonder?). Did this condition mirror the ancient physical Jews? Turn to Jeremiah 7:8-15, please read it but I will summarize. God says the people are trusting in lies, (notions and preconceptions; they have it all wrong, but think it’s right). They think the establishment is so precious to God; that is, the temple, their religious ways including their worship etc. They do not realize their conduct is what it is, as described in verse 9, (but for spiritual Jews it must be spiritualized, ie: literal murder becomes character assassination, and murder in the heart, etc). And God asks a reasonable question, I'll paraphrase: "do you think you can carry on like this, and then come into My house, come before Me, thinking it’s all good, that we’re God's true church etc, and I, (God), will just accept it"? Verse 10. At the time, He’s talking to the physical Jews, and He tells them to go to Shilo, (located in Samaria, the northern kingdom), where the tabernacle had resided, and see what I did to that place, because of their wicked ways. Do they think they, and the temple, are so special, that He would not do it again? (And of course He did).

Church members in the 1980’s and 1990’s were similar. Not to get too far ahead of things, but He could ask again, who among you now, remembers that first (spiritual house, under Mr. Armstrong in its zenith), and is not this house, (whichever one finds themselves in, for me it's the LCG), is as nothing compared to it, (the WCG in its zenith)? So what happened when God allowed the devil to hit the trunk of the tree with a ferocious impact? It shattered, into splinters and slivers, and some bigger chunks. Mr. Armstrong said at various times that he questioned whether even 10 percent of our membership were completely committed to the great thing God was doing, and thus deeply converted, and in the end, he was pretty close. Because after his passing, and the apostasy occurred, the majority concluded, this can’t be God's true church because God wouldn’t have let this happen to His true church after all. And they further concluded; Mr. Armstrong must have been a false apostle too then. They were being subtlety duped by the devils agents who were in control at the top, and by the devils agents in greater Protestantism, and by their own delusion. Consequently, most of them went back to spiritual Egypt, where just as God told the remnant in post war Judah, they would perish if they went back, so did this remnant. Many have physically perished by now, and some will spiritually perish also. But let’s ask a reasonable and (I think), logical question. It is a question that everyone of those who left the church should have asked. How do we know for sure, whether we are God's true church, (or true people), or not? It is not by whether we are in good standing with God at any given time, (which people ultimately measure by how blessed they think they are). It is because they possess the identifying signs that they are. God can be mad at us, and we can still be His people. He even divorced the northern kingdom, but intends to eventually have her back, for she, (Samaria, or modern day Protestantism), is His wayward wife too, just as Jerusalem or The Church of God is). If you think that He is going to roll over and confess defeat to the evil one, then you do not know God. But what are the identifying signs;  basically? They are the  Sabbath, the holy days, the statutes, the ordinances and the judgments, the testimonies,  the commands, the precepts and ways of God, (and there are more, which David goes to great lengths to detail in Psalm 119).

Emotional motivation can so often get in the way of logic and reason. So, a great deal of people wandered away. Figuratively speaking, some went back to Egypt, and some got lost in the mountains and forests and were spiritually eaten by spiritual wild beasts etc etc, and on and on go the metaphors. Where  the remainder are will be discussed in detail, but not yet. The point is, God did let it happen to the young spiritual house, just as he did to the ancient house bearing His name. But the two types are not exact. We will miss what God is doing through each if we try and force them into an exact copy of each other. Even the northern apostate house of Israel and modern spiritual Israel are not exact copies. They had different assignments to fulfill in God's master plan. So do the ancient and modern spiritual Jews. The ancient Jews exile was to last 70 years. Remember, they were exiled from the land of Judah, and in captivity. Their exile from their homeland and Jerusalem ended, but their captivity to a foreign empire and system continued. The modern day spiritual house of Judah are also in captivity, as I tried to point out, but we were not exiled in the same way. For us, it was more like, "strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter". For us, it is quite possible that we are being punished according to God's decree, for a 40 year period. For us, it is a connection to what God is doing such as is spoken of in Ezekiel 4, which involves not only the southern kingdom but the northern kingdom also. We are not in exile in Babylon, we’re actually in Babylon the Great, the system. We’re also in spiritual Jerusalem, the harlot, and the system. Remember that I have said, (but really God has taught me), that He speaks in a figurative language. You can’t discern what His intended meaning is unless you understand the language. And you can’t understand the language unless He opens our mind to it. That language involves many metaphors, analogies, figures of speech of various kinds, riddles, parables, types and antitypes, early and latter fulfillments, parallels and imagery. He uses whatever technique He chooses at the time. It can be very enigmatic, it’s like an unbreakable code. We don’t figure it out, He reveals it. Jesus is the revealer. One analogy that God uses often throughout the whole bible is the agriculture analogy. This is perhaps the one He uses the most. It could be because God made matter, and that is its own subject. But the matter that He composed the earth of has the capacity to support life. Everything comes from the ground, and returns to the ground. God is the source of life, and has life inherent in Himself, and is all about life. So it makes sense that His most common metaphors and analogies would be the ones that involve life and husbandry. In a very great sense, He is the Farmer, and He is producing living things. Knowing this makes it easier to understand the whole garden concept, with mountains, valleys, fields and pastures, lakes and rivers, and also the beasts of the field portion of the agrarian analogy, etc.

Most of us have heard of the garden of Eden. But this whole world is a garden belonging to God; it is the earth, it is a womb, and in that sense it could be thought of as a sort of mother earth. God loves His creation, the flora and the fauna, and when He was finished creating it, (before Adam and Eves garden trespass), He said it was “very good”. He also loves mankind, who He made in His own image, and therefore values man the most. Mankind is what His purpose is really all about. It’s what He is preoccupied with. When He speaks about the great project that He is doing, it’s generally about man in some way. But He may not say it directly. This is where His metaphors and analogies come in. For example, when God talks about a subject, and it is an agricultural subject, and He is not being literal, (because He does speak literal too if He is telling you how to till the ground, or not to yoke different beasts of burden together, or to let the land rest 1 year in 7, etc, these are literal communiques from God). But if He is speaking agriculturally, in a figurative sense, it’s almost for sure He is speaking about man. So, what might that look like? Here’s a very common explanation. If God uses the metaphor of “the field”, and uses typical animals on the field, then people are almost always sheep. (They can be goats too).  Sheep need shepherds, so shepherds are often ministers or priests, (but there can be bad shepherds too, often depicted as liars and thieves). And sometimes, the shepherds are a reference to leaders, (like government ministers etc). Then there are the predators, usually depicted as wolves, or lions. (And there can be snakes, and vipers and scorpions, etc). But God will sometimes use the metaphor of grains growing in the field. In this case people are wheat, but the enemy will be briars and thorns, and tares. Ministers in this field depiction could be trees, like cedars and oaks. And fruit is used also such as the grapes and vines and branches analogy, and also there can be good and bad fruit. This is very important in trying to discern what God is saying to whoever; in our case, the church. Or, God can use the husbandry metaphor, allowing His people to be the farmers, who, like any farmer, is looking for, and hoping for, the best harvest possible. In this case though, God is rarely talking about a harvest of grains, or livestock, but more likely, He is talking about the souls of men, or truth and doctrine, and prophecy etc. The book of Haggai is written like this. It is written to the returnees from Babylon, using the metaphor of agriculture, (and that is what those Jews were preoccupied with), but for us, it is not talking about crops, and harvests, but it is talking about men, and converts, and truth and doctrine; a totally different harvest.

Please turn to the book of Haggai now. Please read it but I will summarize it. I cannot explain why God is so specific about the timing of this prophecy. That is yet to be revealed. Or who Zerubbabel and Joshua are in the latter days, or if they are even literal in the latter days. But there is quite a bit of information left out between verse 1 and verse 2, that requires us to go back to the book of Ezra to fill in some blanks. The Jews have been back for a couple of decades by now. When they first returned, there was a zeal to get their relationship with God from a state of poor standing, to good standing, ( so to speak). They wanted to get the morning and evening sacrifices to God going ASAP, so they had reconstructed an altar according to the Levitical  priesthood’s understanding. They also wanted to get the temple reconstructed, and at first they were zealous to this end, but all they really got done was the foundation. This was largely because their enemies, (agents of the devil), mounted a campaign to defeat what they were trying to accomplish, and their enemies were for a time successful. (And I am not just surmising that it is satan behind their efforts to halt the construction of the 2nd temple. God actually says it Zechariah 3:1, quote: "Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of The Lord, with satan standing at his right hand to resist, (or oppose) him."  Zechariah's another book and very mysterious, and I have written on it as well, but it’s for a later read. But remember, Zechariah was sent back along with Haggai to prophesy to the Jews. Work on the temple halted for a period of up to 20 years, (estimates vary). During this time, both Zerubbabel and Joshua aged some more. The people have settled into this situation and have become complacent and somewhat comfortable. Things could have been a whole lot better, (which God points out), but from their perspective, which is the human perspective, they could be worse too. When God sends Haggai to speak to them, God addresses them (in verse 2), where they’re at, having become complacent, and having accepted what seems to them to be a reality not likely to be overcome by their efforts, and they don’t appear to even consider that God is in the picture.

So, verse 2; God says, that they are thinking, the time has not come that the Lord's house should be built; this being a conclusion they have settled for based on their enemies efforts to shut them down. Then God poses a question to them. He asks, "Is it time for you to be dwelling in your panelled houses while this house lies in ruins"? Right here we have to stop. Our spiritual curiosity antenna has to go up. This is the bible, the most epic book ever. Has God preserved the writings of Haggai just for chronological reasons? Or for principles of learning only, or is there a prophetic element to it as well? Let’s continue. He says, "consider your ways". The following is something they were going through, and again, I ask, is that all we’re gleaning from this, just chronology and principle? Again, let’s continue. God says, "you’ve sewn much but bring in little, you eat but do not have enough, you drink but you are not filled with drink, (that is satisfied, or, your thirst is not quenched), you clothe yourselves but no one is warm, and he who earns wages, earns wages to put it into a bag with holes in it". And then God reiterates His question of “consider your ways”, or, “think about it”! Do you want to know why things have not gone as you have hoped, and worked so hard for? It’s because you have all been running to the development of your own houses while My house lies in ruins. Before God tells them that it is He that has caused all their efforts to fail, He tells them, to restructure their priorities, go up to the mountains and get wood and build His house. He was implying that they should get their priorities straight, then He will bless their work. Now He gives them the synopsis of what, and why, their efforts have all been in vain. Verse 9. He says that they looked for much but it came to little, and the little bit they did glean, He blew it away, and why? Because “My house lies in ruins”, "while you all are so busy with working on your own houses". Verse 10. Therefore, God caused a drought on all the work of their hands. Now, do you really think this is talking only to the ancient Jews that came out of exile from Babylon? What great purpose is there in God preserving a chronological record of these events? But, if these people were typing His people in the latter days, and He intended that we should learn from this when the time came, then let’s view this from a more spiritual perspective.

First, a little review of where we’ve been and where we’re at. The church was attacked in the 1980’s to the 1990’s. Its establishment has been dismantled by the enemy. An apostasy has occurred. The people, (like sheep), have been scattered across a spiritual landscape. The church has been shattered into splinters, slivers and chunks. Many sheep have perished by going back to Egypt, others have been eaten by the beasts of the field. (Metaphorically speaking, their spiritual potential has been devoured by spiritual ravenous wolves, satan and the demons). Remember, the landscape is the metaphor. Some sheep are trying to survive as “slivers” in their living rooms on the Sabbath, huddled together with other lost sheep. These can be likened to sheep who are out in the woods, unsheltered from the elements, exposed to many possible dangers etc. Then there are other sheep who have found their way to safer places to wait it out. Perhaps like the larger COG groups, (and let’s not get distracted by some of the things that different organizations do that we think are wrong, voting etc, they’re still God's sheep whether in good standing or poor). These larger groups can be likened to sheep that have found their way to valleys and places where they are more protected from the harsher elements, where there is spiritual nourishment being served up, and a ministry that is trying to serve them etc. But as God said, they all have become complacent and used to their situations, and have reached the conclusion that it is not time to be rebuilding the house of God, (the one unified church of God, the spiritual temple if you will). I don’t know if it’s a conclusion that they reasoned out, or one  that settled upon them slowly, (the ancient Jews I mean, and then the antitype, the spiritual Jews), because they’re enemies were initially successful at stopping the work. And all they got completed was the foundation. In some ways we could view Mr. Armstrong’s accomplishment was: laying the foundation, because that is what we were taught got restored (the foundational truths that had been lost). Continuing the more spiritual interpretation then, and again, I summarize; we truly believed we were members of God's true church, (the apple of His eye). And if that was true, then why did He allow satan to successfully attack us and break us up? Were we not in as good a standing with Him as was our normal perception back then? And I’m not talking about during the decade of the apostasy and beyond. I’m talking about the period between 1960 and beyond. I think God's disapproval with much of “the establishment”, goes back that far or farther. If we are in large part an antitype of the complacent Jews of pre and post destroyed Jerusalem, then we need to remove the rose coloured glasses and see ourselves as God sees us.

It is not my purpose to make a critical type list of all that was wrong that we didn’t see, but I would like to help us see that it was not as good as most thought, else why did God allow us to be impacted with such a force that it fractured us into splinters, slivers and chunks . So then, getting back to Haggai, and thinking of those”chunks” and “splinters”, and “slivers”; we find ourselves in various “house’s “, most of us still believing the core things, (the foundational things), but in various houses. Most still even bear the COG initials somewhere in their corporate name, (if they’re incorporated). And most of the houses believe that they are still doing the work. And we find God's spiritual temple is not built, but the foundation is in place, (that’s why we still all embrace most of the core things). But we’re divided, but people don’t see that we are. They think they’re united, but really they’re only (somewhat united) in their own spiritual houses. We should be united all in one house, and no one can even actually give a good reason why we’re not together in one house. Have you thought about that, that no one can give a good reason why we are divided? I’m not going on a tangent, but why haven’t the leaders got together in some conference room, and said to each, this is wrong. We all came from the same trunk and we know it. We should not be divided. We have the teachings of Paul and Peter, and James and John. The church should not be divided. What do we need to do to get united? But that doesn’t ever happen, or hasn’t yet. There is a reason brethren, and God tells the reason in various places in scripture. This may sound hard to believe, (because I know we respect and love our leaders), but we have to see this the way God sees it. And the plain truth is that our leaders are standing in the way, and God says that He will have to intercede to remove them. It hurts me to say it, but that is the truth. And we will go to the sections of scripture where God says it eventually. But it  is another huge topic and I’ll leave it there for now.

Back to Haggai, so, the splinters are all busy building their  own houses, and God wants us to see the vanity of it, and asks us to consider our ways. I was a member of the LCG, and was thankful to be in this denomination. I know our ministry works diligently to do “the work”. We have so many programs for spreading the seed. The TWP, (acronym for Tomorrow's World Program), the magazine, booklets, articles, TV and a presence on the internet through our websites and social media outlets, etc etc. And some other “houses” have their similar programs, which are all intended to be efforts to continue to do "the work". And the true latter day message of Haggai, is that God is speaking to them all, trying to reason with them (to consider their ways). He says, you’ve sewn much but bring in little. This is so true, look at the pittance of new members, and conversions, and baptisms. It’s almost pitiful in the LCG, and I suspect that all the other houses are experiencing similar results for all their efforts. Think about it, we’re all publishing the gospel of the soon coming Kingdom of God, through all the mediums available, and the writing's on the wall, in the “signs” of the times, that we are close to the time of the end, and hardly nobody is responding yet. The message of Haggai 1:6 is as follows: you’ve worked so hard but with no satisfaction or reward for your labour’s, and it was all for naught. And God reiterates, in verse 7 to “consider your ways”, or put another way: think about it. And God asks (in various translations), why do you think there’s nothing coming in from all your labour’s? Or, “look what’s happening to you”, as in the NLT. Verse 8, and God leads off with, (I muse), here’s what you should be doing, firstly,  go to God, the mountains (God the Father and Christ), and get from God wood, which metaphorically speaking, is all that He alone can provide, all the physical and spiritual resources, and build His house that He may take pleasure in and be glorified.

God is not talking about a physical temple. He was for the original Jewish exiles, but they were just a “type” of the latter day spiritual anti-type of the “spiritual Jewish exiles” who are us; the church, and therefore God is talking about a spiritual temple. Verse 9, He goes back to reasoning with His thick headed people. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away, and why? Because My house lies in ruins, while everyone of you runs, (that is; is focused and preoccupied with), your own spiritual houses. Verse 10, that is why the heavens withhold the dew, (the all important Spirit of God), and the earth withholds its fruit, (which for them was the physical bounty of a physical harvest), but for us, is the bounty of a spiritual harvest, such as the souls of converted men and women. In fact in verse 11 God called for a 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 labour of your hands. God is using figurative language to tell us a literal thing. These are spiritual metaphors. God is using the agrarian metaphor of planting and sowing and reaping a harvest, but not a harvest of grain, but of men.  We needn’t get bogged down trying to put a literal meaning on each one of these symbols. If you’re the type that is bent on that, you could stumble over it. But to show you there are literal intents for God’s words, here’s a few, (avoiding the obvious ones), grain is spiritual food or nourishment, new wine is unrealized truth, oil is the rich characteristic of God’s Spirit, which is a different characteristic from the life sustaining pure water of God’s Spirit, livestock is various, but can be all manner of sources and engines for doing the work, (beasts of burden anciently, but the internet for example in our day), and there are many other symbols which once they are spiritualized, we can see what God was intending to be understood by them when the time in history came for Him to reveal them to us.

Back to Haggai; the people finally get it. Verse 12, they respond positively. God's time for them is here. He is on a schedule and this all happens right on time. The summary is that the people obeyed. That means they stopped putting all their time, money and resources into building their own spiritual house’s, and “combined”, or better said, “unified”, all their efforts into one project; the building of God’s house on the foundation that has been waiting. For all intents and purposes, a literal revival occurs within the remnant of the WCG exiles, which was mirrored by the revival that occurred in ancient Jerusalem after the combined preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, which was energized and empowered by God's Spirit which stirred the people to action because the time had come for it. It was all ordained and written by God through the Word of God in the script, which we refer to as scripture. Another thing verse 12 says they did was fear the presence of The Lord. They became a whole lot more conscious of His presence among them, albeit His presence was an invisible presence. And God confirms it in verse 13 quote, "I am with you declares The Lord," and they finally believe it. And a very inspiring time comes about for God's people. There is a great buzz and zeal amongst God's people as the process of coming together takes place. Not only are the fractured remnants of God's church coming back together into the one unified body of Christ, but the work itself is going to be blessed by God with a huge harvest, some would refer to it as a revival. (This gets covered in Haggai 2). And it is interesting that God records the dates of these things anciently, (He puts dates on the beginning and end of chapter 1, and then the beginning and near the end of chapter 2). I don’t know what the purpose of that is yet, but God knows, and I’m confident that we will know when it is time for us to know. I do not know how this will all play out in real-time, but again, God knows. I do not know who all the players are, but God knows, but I would think it will involve the remaining leaders of all the splinters, and the remaining ministers, and then the remaining members. (I used the word remaining, because there is going to be a cleansing of all those in opposition to what God is going to do, and those details are covered in other books of the Bible that also speak about this). Although it’s going to be one of the most exciting times in Church history, (think of the first Pentecost in AD 31), there will be enemies both within and without the Church, but God will work it all out. It will all come together just as He has planned.

Now, Haggai 2. With all the buzz and excitement going on, it’s very possible, that just like in ancient Judah about 500 BC, or the early first church of AD 31, or the revived church of the 1950’s Church Of God and beyond; there is great potential for us to puff up collectively, and put on the rose coloured glasses again. So God has a further message for the people. In verse 2 God tells Haggai to express it to the whole remnant. Consider; even if there is such a buzz going on because the church is getting back together, there will still be a good many people (just like right now), who will remember the glory days of the WCG, with the auditorium, and the incredible campus etc. And God asks, in verse 3, who among you, remembers those glory days, and the spiritual temple of those days, and does not this coming together, and this rebuilding effort that we’re all so excited about, seem like nothing in comparison? Verse 4. (Keep reading along please). God wants us to know some things. There is a great work about to explode on the world scene. We haven’t even talked about what’s happening on that stage, (in the world I mean). It's a whole other subject, but you can be sure that God is very very busy on that stage too. (Just think of the declining image and power of the USA and the UK on the world stage. And think of the war going on in Israel and the growing hatred of the Jews worldwide). It’s another huge stage, with all its actors and players, and God is the director, and will steer it to its destiny. But when this great work of preaching the gospel explodes on the earth, (quote: Matthew 24:14:  "this gospel must be preached in all the world as a witness", then the end will also eventually come); but when it explodes on the earth, we will be on the verge of both a titanic physical and spiritual world war with the evil ones. Call it WW3 if you want, with emphasis on the spiritual also. But it is naïve of us if we think WW1 and WW2 were physical only. They too were great spiritual conflicts as well as physical, which looking back in hindsight, we should be able to see.

Back to Haggai 2:4. God says, “be strong” all you people of the land and “work”! And; “I am with you”, says The Lord! And in verse 5, God has not forgotten the covenant He made with the Israelites when coming out of Egypt, He reconfirms that His Spirit remains among us this time around too, and He says “Do Not Fear”. Oh it will be a fearsome time, but God tells us not to fear. There may be some vetting going on through all of this too. Much has to happen, God knows the sequence, the timing and the details. Things will not happen immediately. That’s why In verse 6, He says it will be a “little while”, but He will shake the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the dry land. Oh that will be a shaking like none of us have ever experienced. And it’s not talking about an earthquake, (although they will be happening in various places also). It’s talking about upsetting the world in various ways. As I write this, the world is in the midst of the COVID 19 crisis. (Well now it’s past because it’s now 2023). This crisis is what I would call a little tiny shaking compared to what Haggai 2:6 is talking about. But look at how fragile and precarious our world is, even by how the Corona virus has upset our world. It doesn’t take much to “shake us up” does it? And since we’re talking about COVID 19, do we understand that God is likely behind it too, no matter that it came to be by the wickedness of satan inspired men. Yes men have likely caused it, and by the swaying of the devil, but all of it with God's allowance. We know so many more things must take place though, so this is going to pass. And I’m not saying I know either, but have you considered that this may be God doing various things to pave the way for a great false saviour to come on the world scene? One who could find a solution for the COVID 19 crisis and restart the great evil wicked world economy, so that the merchants of Babylon,  (Revelation 18), can get back to “getting” and “grabbing”, and satisfying their wicked hedonistic cravings, at the expense of God's planet. Maybe such a one could go on to lead a great restoration of the beast, (I’m just surmising), but we need to keep watching and considering. Only God knows how things will play out, but we need to diligently watch and pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and to pray that we may witness it.

Back to Haggai now. Verse 7 is a continuation of verse 6, but after all is said and done, God will fill this temple with glory by all His great acts that He is going to do. Why God mentions the silver and gold I’m not sure, but it all belongs to Him. It makes me think of Malachi though, and how everyone is cheating God by withholding, or mismanaging what already all belongs to Him. (We could ponder many things about it, but let’s leave it be for now, except to say that gold and silver, is what drives most all men it seems). Now verse 9. It’s famous for having made Mr. Armstrong be convinced that this book is all about the rebuilding of a spiritual house or temple, not a physical one. In type, Zerubbabel’s temple was nothing in comparison to Solomon’s temple. But God says this temple's glory shall be greater, and I would muse and say, “far greater”, than the former. The glory of this spiritual temple will exceed the glory it appeared to be in its prior hay day. But, lest the people get ahead of themselves, (which we are so so prone to do), here comes a spiritual warning, and again, it’s dated, which makes me say hmm again, but with no answer. That fact is likely important even though we don’t know why yet. But the message is important right now. Verse 11. Again God begins with another question. He says, ask the priests concerning the law: if one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food for that matter, will it become holy? And the priests immediately answered; no. God implies, (through Haggai), ok, right answer to that question. Now conversely, God asks, if one who is unclean because of a dead body, (for example), touches any of these, will it be unclean? Again the priests answer correctly, and say yes, according to the law, anything the unclean thing touches, also makes whatever it touched become unclean or defiled. Then God answers (through Haggai), “so is this people, and so is this nation, and so is every work of their hands, and in fact, everything they offer up, is unclean”.

Wow! Let’s try and understand what God spiritually intends by these literal analogies. Back to verse 12. What would have made the meat that one was carrying in the fold of his garment holy? It has been offered to God, and that dedication of it, makes it holy, or “sanctified “. But its holiness cannot be transferred to something that is not ceremonially holy simply by touching it or coming into contact with it. Conversely though, if something that is ceremonially (or spiritually) unclean for some reason, happens to touch any of these foods, they become defiled. Verse 14 again. God says everything: the people, their work, and all they offer up, is unclean. Up to this point, everything is in God's eyes “unclean”. It might be hard for us to accept, but it says what it says, and if this is a message to God's church as it is coming back together, then spiritually, it means that all our respective works, methods, and programs, used for preaching the gospel are unclean in His eyes. Maybe not in ours, but in His, and who else’s eyes matters? It also means that our church services are unclean in His eyes. And although we obey the holy day offering ordinances, they are unclean in His eyes, and so are our tithes. Our worship service music (which is canned where I attend), is lame, and unclean in His eyes. I digress just for a moment to say, when God uses metaphors like blind, broken, and lame, etc, (such as in Malachi and other places), He is speaking figuratively, about a literal thing. Now I know this is hard to hear, but it is what God is saying.

Here’s another hurtful reality. This will be more deeply explained in the next article when we get into Malachi. But metaphorically, church services can be likened to a meal, with a table with food on it. (Spiritual food). Ministers serve up the food to brethren. It is God's table so to speak, and we are at it. At that table He is there too, and we offer up things also; our heartfelt worship, praise and reverence, and most importantly, truth, and doctrine. Again, this is hard to say, and hard to hear, but our sermons and sermonette’s are only semi nourishing at best. You can live on it, but what we’re feeding the brethren is defiled in God's eyes. (Remember Ezekiel 4, it has been defiled by what cometh out of a man). Sometimes it’s better than at other times. It’s a mixture of truth and error. To me it can be likened to K-rations. I know it’s hard to hear, but what are K-rations? They are the same thing over and over that is fed to the troops and refugees, and become very blazer after a while. You can live on them but that’s it. They go in one ear and out the other quite a bit. We just keep repeating it and repeating it every week, and God says what He thinks of that in great detail in Malachi. And it may even be referencing our baptisms and converts. If we apply the sheep metaphor to people, and we are bringing Him the blind, the lame and the broken, as an offering, we may not be seeing things the way He sees things. I don’t mean to imply that we should be looking for only the best in society, no that’s not what I mean. I mean that before we offer them up to God, maybe we need to make sure they are no longer spiritually blind, lame, or broken. Again this comes out in Malachi. All I’m saying is that they too may be defiled in God's eyes, because He says, “everything” we offer up is unclean.

And Christ has some interesting parables in the NT regarding the people who come from the highways and bi-ways near the end time. I feel terrible saying these things but I do believe it’s the truth and God wants it said. It goes on and on; I don’t want to belabour it. But He wants it said so that we know it. He doesn’t say it to make us hopeless. He is hugely working with us, and has just switched to high gear in dealing with us, as is brought out in Haggai 2, and He’s not telling us this at this time to deflate us. He has just told us to “fear not”, and that He is “with us”, just like He was when the Israelites left Egypt. But we must be realistic, and see ourselves, and the “establishment” we have created, as He sees it. Because now notice verse 15. He has told us to “consider” our ways a couple of times in this short two chapter book. And now He says it again with even more emphasis, because He says, “now carefully consider” (and I’ll ask what?), and He answers: “from this day forward, before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord”, verse 16, He reiterates what their situation was like, (saying it in a little different way), "you expected to reap some good harvests from all your labour’s, but to your disdain, you were greatly disappointed to see there was barely half of what you expected", and then in verse 17, He reminds them that, because of their wrong priorities, He blew it all away and subjected them to the correction described in verse 17, quote: "I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labour’s of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me, says The Lord".

Now for the ancient remnant, this was literal blight, mildew, and hail, which were sent by God to ruin their physical harvest, (or at least diminish it to a discouraging state). But for us it is allegory. The blight, mildew, and hail must be spiritualized, so that we understand that in the same way, God has ruined almost all of our efforts to produce a spiritual harvest of converted men and women. And for both remnants, the reason was the same; because we were all focused on the building of our own houses, (for them physical houses, for us spiritual houses), while God’s house lay in ruins!       However, He says it again, (but after the fact, because the people have considered their ways and have went back to building God's house, (so this bit of scripture is serving as a reminder), but also it is introducing a major pending intervention by Christ, and He says: “consider”, from this day forward, (and He mentions a certain date), (so there is one coming), and He continues: “from the day that the foundation of The Lord's temple was laid”, (and again He says) “consider it”: and then He asks an incredible rhetorical question in verse 19: “is the seed still in the barn”? He’s not talking about physical seed for planting and reaping a harvest of some sort of grain as it pertains to us. Jesus said the seed is the word of God, the gospel of the soon coming kingdom of God. He follows this question with a metaphor depicting that as yet there has been little or no fruit born from all our labour’s, BUT, the obvious rhetoric is implied, (yes the seed is still in the barn, we know that, right? Because we have the tools to spread the gospel). Therefore, He says, BUT, from this day forward, I will bless you. Yes, a great harvest is coming before the great and terrible day of the Lord, and before many other things occur. But not a harvest of wheat or some other grain or fruit, but a harvest of what God is farming for, converted men and women. Mr. Armstrong sensed that Haggai, (and Zechariah and Malachi also), were prophetic. The only way to understand them is to interpret the language, converting it from literal, to spiritual, and even then, only once God has deemed that it is time to understand. Christ said “My words are Spirit”, and in Daniel, He, Christ, as “the Word of God”, said that at the time of the end, knowledge would be increased. And we have surely seen that, but have we considered that knowledge of the truth would also be increased? There’s so much more, so much more! And I’m not implying that I know it but God knows it. I’m just implying that there is a lot of revelation to go yet, (including the book of Revelation).

Back to Haggai. There’s only 3 verses left in the book of Haggai, and I don’t feel God has revealed the specific full meaning to me but I have a few thoughts. In verse 20, God gives another dated message to Haggai, with instructions to pass this message on to Zerubbabel, where God repeats the shaking that He is going to do to both heaven and earth. It is implied that this is a titanic shaking. It will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; (this must be satan’s throne), and God will overthrow all Gentile kingdoms. This is a world wide shaking. And in the end, it says in verse 23, God will recognize Zerubbabel as His chosen servant, who God will make like a signet ring, for God has chosen him for the reason that He has. I do not know who this is a reference to in the sense of it possibly referring to some human in the end times. But I would say that if I had to say who it most likely is a reference to, it would seem to me that it sounds like a reference to Christ, more than any man. A signet ring is a sign of authority that is usually worn by a son who is the future heir to a throne. Who else could bear the signet ring of the Father. It is Christ’s destiny and future to inherit and possess the whole of creation, and to rule on this earth. I don’t know how to explain this scripture, except to say that to me, Christ is the true bearer of the signet ring. I don’t know if God is singling out some other human to be the focus of this signet ring reference. But Christ is the Messiah, the Saviour, the Superhero, The One, The Solution, The Waymaker, The Promise Keeper, The Healer, The Omnipotent One, (and I could mention many other names and titles), etc etc. I don’t know who else could be the one to bear the signet ring of The Father, but I don’t know how to explain this scripture either. As a point of trivia, the only memories I have of seeing a signet ring in books or movies, occurs for me in the Hollywood epic of Ben Hur. If you’ve seen it, you may recall that Ben Hur saved the life of a great Roman general, who expressed his gratitude, by adopting Ben Hur, making him a Roman citizen, and his heir, and bearer of his signet ring, the sign of his wealth, power, and status. And that the signet ring was used to stamp certain things like documents and seals, signifying the bearer's authority, to represent his father, and denoting that he is the heir. That’s just a bit of trivia, but possibly helpful. But it makes me also think of the scene in the book of Revelation, where no one is found in heaven or earth, that is able to open the seals of the scroll, except the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who alone has been granted the authority by His Father.

But please let me be clear, I am not saying who Zerubbabel is. I do not know the answer to that. But in my own personal thoughts, it makes me think of His one true Son, Jesus Christ. Let me say that over the years, we have frustrated ourselves trying to figure out “who was who” in the bible, in the world of earlier and latter day “types” when it comes to human servants of God. So many of these “latter day types”sound so much like Christ to me. And I wondered if it might be possible, that it is Christ in the Spirit, working in people in the latter days; a more literal “Christ in us”, than we ever perceived that actually gets the job done. It would solve a lot of figuring out if it were so. But I don’t mean Christ as He was as a human individual man, who is now composed of pure “God Being” Holy Spirit. (Now remember, I’m just surmising). But do we not expect, that since He was “cut off”, in the middle of the week, having completed only half His ministry, that He must finish the job, before He returns in power and glory? And if He must return to finish the job, and it won’t be in power and glory, where every eye will see Him, but instead, it will be invisibly; ie, Him literally working in His saints, to complete His mission, isn’t it possible that He could fulfill all the references to certain names and individuals who we are possibly looking for, like Elijah etc. I can make a powerful argument from the scriptures, that Christ is the Elijah to come. But that is another subject too.

Back to Him possibly coming in literal Spirit to His saints in the end time. He might (to a degree, or even fully), possess certain of His servants in order for them to do His work. For all intents and purposes, and to the naked eye, they are the individuals that they are, who we know, or don’t know, who are doing the work, or speaking the words etc. They would be people, (male or female), who have made themselves available to God by surrendering their lives to Him. They are completely in love with God, and converted, and full of the Holy Spirit. And so, Christ as God, also as the Person of The Holy Spirit, works in them, and through them,  (invisibly to the naked eye), fulfilling all that He must do, (every jot and tittle if you will), in these latter days, that lead up to the very end. And I know I just ruffled a bunch of feathers referring to the Holy Spirit as a person, when most COG groups officially view the Holy Spirit as "a power", "His power".

Let’s not jump to any conclusions, or even go there right now. Let’s just say that the Holy Spirit is both a power and a person, just not a “third person”, (of a trinity). I can explain it, but enough said about that for now. Back to the concept, of God fulfilling certain roles that we get hung up about, like Elijah, My Messenger, Zerubbabel, Joshua, etc, that can sound so much like Christ Himself, but also like a human, that could be fulfilled by “Christ in us”, in a more profound way, than we ever imagined.

Let me be clear again. I’m not saying this is the way it is, I’m just saying let’s be open to however it is, and not try to force ideas and concepts that we’ve adopted and embraced, and labeled as “truth”, when we don’t know for sure. It’s another topic, and I don’t want to go here either, but much of our fasting needs to be on things like this. Not trying to “get close to God”. We need to be super super close to God already, and stay stay stay close to God, every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, every thought, and with every fiber of our being. (And if regular fasting helps you achieve that; then good, keep doing it). But our fasting, which needs to increase, should be about rending our hearts, and seeking that His will be done, and His purposes be done on this earth as it is in heaven, and that He should reveal the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, (as the great American saying goes), and even with humility and courage, the rest of it: “so help me God”. Enough said about fasting for now. That pretty much ends my commentary on the book of Haggai. What I have said is what I think has been revealed to me. I do not know why I feel that, but I do, and I feel it stronger than before. I can’t help but tell the truth of what I think, even if it gets me in trouble with the church. There’s a whole lot more, but this is what I think the message of Haggai is truly about. The original prophet Haggai, carried a message to the original remnant people of God who returned from exile in a physical Babylon, who were assigned to rebuild God's temple and the city and wall of Jerusalem. And it was all done as a type, with spiritual meaning and purpose, for another time in history, when it would happen again to a spiritual remnant, who would return as exiles from a spiritual Babylon. The deeper spiritual message, which was sealed, (or wrapped up by God), would be unwrapped at His specified time, and revealed to our understanding. There will be another glorious physical temple in the millennium, but God's glorious spiritual temple must be completed first. Thank you.

Glen Clarke

Written in late spring to early summer of 2020. Edited Mar. 13, 2020, and April to October 2023.

PS: I know I did not go to the scriptures which explain how God will remove the shepherds who stand in the way of the revival of God's true church. That's because I am writing an article, (an open letter actually), to the modern day remnant of God's true church, in which I break it down in detail. Were I to have included it in this 2023 edit, it would have increased the size of this article significantly. Thank you.

Glen Clarke.