Warm-up / Opening activity
Background
- Book of Haggai
- One of the shortest Old Testaments books (2nd shortest) – only 2 chapters
- Historical Background
- Previous lesson – Remember temple was destroyed during Babylonian period
- Post-Exile (Post-Babylon)
- Babylon was conquered by the Persians
- The Persians let the Jewish people go back to Israel. They went back with the intention of rebuilding the temple and restarting worship
- People returned to re-build the Temple and started, but was sitting idle for 15 years at the time of Haggai.
Lesson Time
Discussion point – Message to rebuild (Haggai 1:3-15)
- People had stopped building the temple and took the time building their lives up
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v4 “Is it time for you dwell in your paneled houses, while this house (ie. temple) stands in ruins?”
- But the toil was in vain – v6
- Temple construction starts within 3 weeks of God’s message through Haggai.
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- Application/Discussion: What keeps us from completing our spiritual tasks?
- Examples:
- Lack of prioritization of that task compared to other things
- Laziness
- Don’t see immediate benefit
- etc…
- How do we overcome these?
- Examples:
- Lack of prioritization of that task compared to other things → set aside specific time for God
- Laziness → build discipline.
- Don’t see immediate benefit → take time to reflect on your lives and be thankful. keep a log of blessings. often the biggest gifts are least appreciated…
- Have everyone share ideas/thoughts
- Examples:
- Examples:
- Application/Discussion: Are we guilty of the same thing as the people during Haggai’s time?
- Physically: do we live and take care of our living space…but leave the church a mess…
- If our room/house is in a mess, would it be acceptable to leave it like that? Eventually (maybe not immediately), we do clean it.
- Spiritually: how are we building the church? (not physically)
- Are we friends with the friend-less – or only with our clique/group?
- Are we serving Christ with whatever gifts/capacity He has given us?
- Are we spending time with God — building the temple in our heart?
- etc..
- Physically: do we live and take care of our living space…but leave the church a mess…
Group Time
Break up into 3 groups and discuss and answer questions about each passage (or assign a passage per group.)
Passage 1 – Haggai 2:1-9
- What were the people concerned about?
- What was God’s response?
- What is an application we can take from this?
Passage 2 – Haggai 2:10-19
- What was Haggai/God saying?
- What is the analogy used?
- What is an application we can take away from this?
Passage 3 – Haggai 2:20-23 + Mathew 1
- What was the message?
- Who is Zerubbabel?
- What is a signet ring?
- Where do we see Zerubbabel in the New Testament?
Discussion notes for teacher:
Wrap-up
Fill at least 3 boxes in the reflection worksheet.
Extra Resources
Here is a powerpoint to fit this lesson plan: