Early in the year 521 B.C. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, of ancient Persian line, took the MedoPersian throne by killing the false Smerdis and his chief adherents. Yet it was nearly a year and a half before work was resumed upon the temple of God in Jerusalem.
The people of God in Jerusalem and Judea had lost faith in God. They knew that the decree of the false Smerdis stopping the work, was secured by false representations; and they knew that the decree was illegal in itself, because of the fundamental principle of Medo-Persian law that no law of the Medes and Persians could be changed.
Yet though they knew that the usurper was dead, and though they had in their hands the original decree of Cyrus which could not be lawfully reversed by any other Medo-Persian decree, still they did not have the faith to take up the work again. In their lack of faith they had imbibed the notion that the work was really dependent upon kings and their decrees, instead of upon God; that the Lord’s part in the work was really secondary to that of kings and powers; that the kings’ motions and decrees must come first, and then the Lord cooperate; instead of the Lord and His work being first, and then the king’s cooperate.
Also as a consequence of their lack of faith, and so their neglect of the cause and work of God, there had come hard times in the land; the seasons were unfavorable; there was drought in the land, the crops of all kinds were short; what money was received went such a little way that it seemed more as if it had been lost than as if it had really been spent; what was bought with the money seemed to do so little good, that, whether it were food or clothing, it seemed almost as though they had not had it at all.
In view of all these things, which were only the consequences of their loss of faith in God, in His cause, and in His present work in the world; and in the face of all that God had done, not only before their very eyes, but by their very selves; they actually reached and expressed in words the astonishing conclusion that,
“...The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” (Haggai 1:2)
To correct these utterly mistaken thoughts, reasonings, and conclusions, the Lord sent to them the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to revive their faith in God; thus to open their eyes, that they might see things in their true light.
Haggai spoke first: The first day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius--520 B.C.-- the word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high priest, saying,
“Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built... Is it time for you, O you, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourself, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that is waste, and you run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.” (Haggai 1:2,4-11)
This message of the Lord by His prophet was promptly received by all to whom it came. Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest,
“...with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spoke Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, says the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.” (Haggai 1:12-15)
In the following month, “in the seventh month,” in the twenty-first day of the month, came again the word of the Lord by Haggai to Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and all the remnant of the people, saying:
“Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work: for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you: fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, says the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:3-9)
In the next month, “the eighth month in the second year of Darius,” the message of the Lord came to them by the prophet Zechariah, saying:
“The Lord has been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say unto them, Thus says the Lord of hosts; Turn unto me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, says the Lord of hosts. Be not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts; Turn now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, says the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.” (Zechariah 1:2-6)
In the next month, “the ninth month,” the twenty-fourth day of the month, the message of the Lord came again by the prophet Haggai in which
He said:
“...consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord: Since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you turned not to me, says the Lord. Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, has not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.” (Haggai 2:15-19)
In the eleventh month and the twenty-fourth day of the month of that same year, the word of the Lord came again to the prophet Zechariah. He saw in a vision a man riding a bay horse, followed by bay, speckled, and white horses. They stood among myrtle trees in a valley. Zechariah asked what were these. The angel answered,
“...These are they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.” (Zechariah 1:10)
And they reported to the angel, in the hearing of the prophet,
“...We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sits still, and is at rest.” (Zechariah 1:11)
Then the angel said,
“...O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You have had indignation, these threescore and ten years?” (Zechariah 1:12)
Then the angel spoke to Zechariah, saying:
“...Cry, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus says the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 1:14-17)
Next in the vision the prophet saw the four horns--powers--that had scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and also four carpenters come to repair these desolations. And the angels said:
“These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And the Lord showed me four carpenters. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spoke, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.” (Zechariah 1:19-21)
Next in the vision he saw a man with a measuring line in his hand “to measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.” Then the angel who talked with the prophet went forth and was met by another angel who said to him:
“...Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: For I, says the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, says the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, says the Lord. Deliver yourself, O Zion, that dwells with the daughter of Babylon. For thus says the Lord of hosts; After the glory has he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” (Zechariah 2:4-13)
Next Zechariah saw in the vision,
“...Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Sa- tan; even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with change of raiment.” (Zechariah 3:1-4)
And Zechariah said, “...Let them set a fair miter upon his head.” (Zechariah 3:5)
So they set a fair miter on his head, and clothed him with the beautiful garments. Then said the angel to Joshua:
“...If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you places to walk among these that stand by. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at [a sign]: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.” (Zechariah 3:7-10)
Next in the vision there was shown to the prophet a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and seven lamps upon it, and seven pipes to the seven lamps; and an olive tree on each side of the bowl; this signifying to Zerubbabel that the building of the house of the Lord was to be done.
“...Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” (Zechariah 4:6-7)
And in the vision the word of the Lord was spoken:
“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” (Zechariah 4:9- 10)
Next in the vision the prophet saw a flying roll of the law of God; the length twenty cubits, and the breadth ten cubits; revealing the curse, because of the sins, that goes forth over the face of the whole earth.
After that the prophet saw go forth two women, having between them in an ephah, named “wickedness,”
“...To build it a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.” (Zechariah 5:11)
Next in the vision the prophet saw going forth four chariots, each with horses; two toward the north, one toward the south, and the remaining one to and fro through the earth.
And last he was instructed to take certain men by name, and have them make crowns of silver and gold, and set them upon the head of Joshua the high priest, and say:
“...Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” (Zechariah 6:12-13)
Then the crowns were to be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
And the vision closed with the words of confirming promise upon all:
“...And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.” (Zechariah 6:15)