In this final study on the Book of Haggai, we shall consider Haggai’s third prophetic message – which we can find in Haggai 2:10-23. (Click links for part 1 and part 2.)

Background

Three months have elapsed since the people returned to work to rebuild the House of the Lord on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month (Elul). Now, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Kislev), Haggai has a final word from the Lord for the people. I have previously shown how both of Haggai’s earlier messages were received from God on days that were particularly significant and appropriate to the content of the message. I have no doubt that Haggai himself would also have understood something about the significance of the days upon which he had received those words. However, I doubt that he would have understood the significance of the twenty-fourth of Kislev, when God delivered his final message to Haggai. 24 Kislev is the eve of Chanukah, and this Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) pertains to a time that still lay in Haggai’s future.

The Third Oracle

The people had suffered unfavourable weather and bad harvests throughout the years while they had neglected the rebuilding of God’s House. Three months after resuming work on the House of the Lord, it seems that the people expected an instant turn-around in their situation. In his third prophetic message, Haggai begins with a question-and-answer session, eliciting from the priests the principle that unclean things can instantly contaminate what is holy, but the converse is not true. Years of inactivity and selfishness had made the people unclean, but their recent good efforts were unable to make them holy.

However, in spite of all this, the Lord promises to bless the people from that day forward. The seed in their barns would not be damaged and the year ahead would be fruitful.

There is also a special word for their governor, Zerubbabel. After the shaking of heaven and earth that was also foretold in Haggai’s previous prophetic message (Hag 2:6), the Lord will destroy the strength of the Gentile nations. Their warriors will be struck down, each one by the hand of his brother, as was also prophesied by a contemporary of Haggai (Zech 14:13). Zerubbabel himself has been specially chosen and he will become “like a signet ring” (Hag 2:23). This refers to Jesus, and the fact that Jesus was a descendant of Zerubbabel. Furthermore, we can read in Zechariah 4:9 that “the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this House, and His hands shall also finish it.”

Chanukah

So how does all of this relate to Chanukah?

In 167 BC, the Seleucid (Syrian) king Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’ openly began to persecute the Jews, forbidding them from carrying out their regular religious practices. Antiochus also desecrated the House of the Lord, where he had an altar to Zeus erected over the altar of burnt offerings – upon which pigs were sacrificed. Just as the site of the Temple was physically desolate in the time of Haggai, and just as Haggai described the handiwork of the people rebuilding the base of the Temple as “unclean” (Hag 2:14), so too was the Temple made spiritually desolate and unclean by the actions of Antiochus.

A notable incident at a town called Modi’in sparked a Jewish revolt led by Mattityahu the High Priest and his son Judah. The Jewish rebels, called the Maccabees (from the Hebrew for ‘hammer’), defeated whatever forces Antiochus sent against them. Eventually the Maccabees took control of Jerusalem and the Temple. The House of the Lord was cleansed and made ready by the twenty-fourth of Kislev, so that a service of dedication could be held the next day.

Just as 24 Kislev marked a turning-point for the people in the time of Haggai, with God’s unconditional promise to bless the people from that day onwards, so too did the eve of Chanukah mark a turning-point in the second century BC. The Temple was cleansed, and then it was re-consecrated to God at a service of dedication on 25 Kislev.

There was apparently only enough special oil for the menorah in the Temple to be lit for one day, but it is taught that a miracle of God allowed this oil to last for eight days, by which time a fresh supply of special oil had been prepared. This miracle was a special blessing from God, and it is the reason that the annual festival of Chanukah lasts for eight days.

I might also point out that the number eight signifies a new beginning. Chanukah marked a new beginning for the Jewish people in the second century BC, just as the twenty-fourth day of Kislev marked a fresh start for the people in the time of Haggai.

As the end of Haggai also relates to the End Times, it is likely that the date 24 Kislev, and the days of Chanukah following, could also relate to a new beginning in these ‘latter days’, with a possible new consecration of the Temple (or the site of the former Temple), whether literal or symbolic.

Chanukah in 2020 – A Personal Observation

Interestingly, on 24 Kislev 2020 (10 December), the world’s press reported that Morocco had now also agreed to normalise relations with Israel – following on from other significant historic agreements.

The first ground-breaking agreement, of course, was the ‘Normalization Agreement’ between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This document was approved by the Knesset on 15 October 2020, and the fourth clause of the text states that the Knesset reaffirms the 'Joint Statement of the United States, the State of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates' (the ‘Abraham Accords’), dated 13 August 2020.¹ This means that the Knesset’s approval of the ‘Normalization Agreement’ was also an endorsement of the so-called ‘Abraham Accords’.

The seventh paragraph of the ‘Abraham Accords’ concludes with this all-important statement: “As set forth in the Vision for Peace, all Muslims who come in peace may visit and pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, and Jerusalem’s other holy sites should remain open for peaceful worshippers of all faiths”² (emphasis mine). Now adopted into Israeli law (via the ‘Normalization Agreement’), this one sentence has changed the legal status quo on the Temple Mount by shrinking the Muslim-only area from the entire Temple Mount complex to the Al Aqsa Mosque only.

Thus, according to Israeli law, it seems that Jews can now legally worship at the site of the former Temple again. However, as in the days of Haggai, it might still be a little while before things get back to ‘normal’. In practice, the Jordanians continue to administer the Temple Mount site via an Islamic Trust (or Waqf).

So what might happen next? In respect of 24 Kislev last year, the eve of Chanukah (which was where we began), when the world’s press reported that Morocco had now also agreed to normalise relations with Israel, the veteran Israeli journalist Nadav Shragai subsequently wrote: “A new player has entered the Temple Mount arena. Rabat and Riyadh, who are coordinating their efforts, will try to make it as difficult as possible for Jordan to maintain its status at the holy site.”³ Only time will tell if this is significant. However, as of the eve of Chanukah in 2020, it seems that the scene is now set for things to change on the Temple Mount. As God promises the people in Haggai 2:19, “From this day on I will bless you.”

Endnotes

¹ See https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/Documents/Israel-UEA%20peace%20agreement.pdf
² See https://il.usembassy.gov/joint-statement-of-the-united-states-the-state-of-israel-and-the-united-arab-emirates/
³ A new challenge to Jordan’s status on the Temple Mount, by Nadav Shragai, JNS, 14 December 2020