The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 33

belonged to the nation. But the nation, through its disobedience in neglecting to lruild the tomple, was defiled, since according to J ebovah "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearkou than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. xv. 22). Hence their uncleanness rendered all about and around them unclean. In particular, it put the land beneath a curse which made its harvests scanty. III. Tim APPLIOATION OF THE PARADLE. 1. To the days before the buudi:ng of the temple was resumed. (1) In character those were days of scanty harvests and bacl trade (eh. i. 6), of fruitless labours and disappointed expectations. Whereas the farmer might have anticipated from a heap of sheaves twenty measures of wheat, on threshing it out he found only ten; and the vine-dresser who hoped to draw off fifty vessels of wine from the pressing-trough, bad to content himself with twenty (ver. 16). (2) The reason of all this was, though it never seemed to strike the people, that Jehovah had, in punishment for their disobedience, smitten the land with blasting and mildew and hail (ver.17). 2. To the days since the templefoondationwas laid. Not at the first (Ezra ill, 10), but then, under Haggai, in the four and twentieth day of the ninth month of the second year of Darius (Ezra v. 2; Zech. viiL 9). As yet there was, comparatively 1peaking, no seed in the barn, and only a small supply of vines, figs, pomegranates, and olives, since the preceding harvest had been bad, so that no evidence as yet appeared that, as regards their condition, any change for the better had begun, nevertheless they were confidently to anticipate that from that day forward Jehovah would bless them. Learn: 1, The limitations of personal religion. 2. The greater contagion that belongs to sin. 3. The blindness of the human heart to Divine judgments. 4. The certainty that piety will be rewarded. 5. The ability of God to do beyond what reason warrants or sense expects. Ver. 23.-ZerubbabeZ the son of Shealtiel,. I. THE SUBJECT OF A SPECIAL DIVINE CALLING, This alluded to in the words, "I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts." By this was meant, not merely that his birth in Babylon, preservation and growth to manhood, high esteem and favour among bis countrymen and with Cyrus, as well as obvious natural abilities, had all come about in accordance with that general provi- dence by, which God appoints to all men the times of their coming into life and of their going out at death (EccJes. iii.1, 2), the .bounds of their habitation (Acts xvi i. 26), and the particular circumstances of their lot (Ps. xvi. 6); but, in addition to this, that God had specially selected, endowed, and trained him for the office into which he bad been thrust, that of leading the people forth from Babylon, and for the work he had now to do, that of laying the foundations, not of a second temple merely, but of a second empire. What Haggai wished to impress upon Zerubbabel was that we position he occupied at the head of the new community was one that bad come to him, not by accident, but, •as in the earlier cases of Abraham (Isa. xii. 2), Moses (Exod. iii. 10), and Cyrus (Isa. xliv. 28), by Divine appointment. One can imagine the inspira- tion a thought like that must have imparted to Zerubbabel, the ~timulus it must have given to every good impulse of his heart, the elevation and dignity it must have lent to even the least significant action he performed. Similar inspiration, stimulus, and dignity might be enjoyed by all, were all to realize that "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 23), and that for each man's life there is a plan existing in the mind of God, into which each will be surely guided, if only he will meekly put himself into the hand of God (Ps. xxv. 9). II. THE POSSESSOR OF A LOFTY FAITH, This distinction may be claimed for Zerub- babel, though not assigned a place in the magnificent picture-gallery of Heb. xi.; because it is difficult to see how Zernbbabel, being the man he was, a descendant of the royal line of David, and located where he was in the prosperous city of Babylon, and situated as he was in the manifest enjoyment of the Persian monarch's favour, would have acted as he did, had he not been possessed of faith. In comparison with those who remained behind in Babylon, but a handful set forth to seek the land of their fathers; and it is little probable that Zerubbabel would have cast in his lot with the pilgrims, had he not been persuaded that the movement was of God, tbat tho journo.v upon which they were about to enter had been marked out for them by lfof1Ve11, and that the insignificant and feeble company itself was a true represcntati,·e of Jehova.h's Church upon the earth. 'l'h11t spirit, it may be added, wbich was vre;ent  '.12 THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. [OH, IT, 1-23.