Dear Friends:

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house (Haggai 1:1-2).

The first day of the month was typically a day of special religious observance for the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem in 539 BCE from their Babylonian captivity by the permission of the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius (Ezra 1:1-4; 5:17-6:5). That meant the people gathered at the temple on the day our contemporary calender would show as August 29, 520 BCE. The problem was that the temple was still in ruins.

It was a big problem because one of the reasons that the Jews were allowed to return was to rebuild the temple that had been plundered and burned by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE (2 Kings 25:8-17). Reconstructing the temple, the religious, economic, and administrative center of the Jewish people was the mission. They people began the building project with enthusiasm (Ezra 1:8; 2:6-8; 5:14-16). But nineteen years later, not much had happened which was readily apparent when they met at the ruins for worship.

It was a time of drought and struggle (Hag 1:11). The prophet Haggai challenged the civil and religious leadership that the people were resetting the priority from the mission to their own convenience to the dishonor of God and their hurt. In the nature of prophets, he was kind of “in-your-face” about it, speaking truth to power. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the message of Haggai was received by the leaders and the people with open minds and hearts. His message and the positive response it received is recorded in the Old Testament book that bears his name.

That book still rings with instructive and inspirational truth for men and women everywhere who are torn between putting God first and what they perceive to be their own best interests of work and home. Haggai loudly and clearly speaks to those who are conflicted about fidelity to mission and the pursuit of secular success.

The next six Word of Grace messages will be drawn from Haggai. I began to read and meditate on his message ten months ago while I was recovering from surgery. Haggai makes me think about the difference between the way things are and the way that they should be which is always the path on which God leads his people.
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The Jews had returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, remarkable men of prayer and study who listened for God’s direction and communicated it effectively to their followers.  Ezra was committed to reawaken the people to confession, repentance and action in the service of God. Nehemiah was focused on the rebuilding of the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Together, God used them to ignite the last spiritual revival recorded in the Old Testament.

Now, Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest were in charge, but were they leaders or managers?

There is an uncountable amount of literature on what makes a leader and how to be a leader. I have often wondered about the dearth of literature on how to be a good follower since that is the category that most of us are in. Perhaps the lack of instruction on followership is due to the fact that leaders are typically blamed for the poor performance of their followers.

Most of the leadership literature is really about being an effective manager of people and projects. Management is to leadership what compliance is to obedience — transactional versus transformational.

Managers have subordinates. Leaders have followers. Leaders tend to have a vision and inspire their followers to pursue it. Managers have objectives and direct people to achieve them.

There isn’t a question of whether leadership is good while management is bad. Both are necessary to the success of any organization.

I have worked with several truly visionary leaders who accomplished astonishing things, but left chaos in their wake because they didn’t plan for their successors or develop and implement systems of management that would support their success. Many of the managers I have known were competent, reliable, honest administrators who kept their teams focused on the accomplishment of the mission and kept the accounts balanced.

Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah led out in the erection of an altar in the temple on their arrival in Jerusalem, nineteen years before. They began the work of reconstruction and had completed about half the job.

But on the day of Haggai’s first prophecy, it was questionable whether Zerubbabel or Joshua had any leadership or management ability. The mission had stalled under Samarian opposition. The people were now concentrating on their own work and their own property over the restoration of God’s house.

The people still gathered at the temple for worship even though it lacked a complete roof and walls and furnishings. This made it something like the old cathedrals and chapels one finds around Europe, a romantic monument to a former devotion. What passes for worship in such places is more of a nod to history than an expression of active faith. God moved through Haggai to change that situation.

Scripture gives no personal details about Haggai except to label him a prophet, one who speaks the word of God to a particular people, place and time (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). His message carried one timeless point–we must put God first in our lives over jobs and possessions.

The fact that Haggai’s message endures, even though his biography has been erased from history, is proof of the integrity of that message as the word of God. In the words of the prophet Isaiah —

All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:6-8)

Haggai’s words must have pierced Zerubbabel to the heart. He was a descendant of King David.  His grandfather Jehoiachin was a king of Judah who lives in Scriptural infamy with the words, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father had done” (2 Kings 24:9; 1 Chron 3:16-19)

Jehoiachin had surrendered Jerusalem and the temple to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Kings 24:11). Nebuchadnezzar stripped the temple of its treasures and took them along with Jehoiachin, his family and his retinue back to Babylon. It was one of the lowest times in the history of the Jews, memorialized in the scathingly bitter Psalm 137.

A past like that usually changes a person for better or worse. It can motivate a descendant to live a better life or relegate him to a heritage of shame. There is great danger in this. In my experience, a leader or a manager with something to prove about their reputation will push off the back of someone else. People get hurt when the person at the top is driven to overcome their past, to look good or to maintain a family legacy.

Will the leader take counsel? If so, from whom will the leader take that counsel? Those are critical questions. Insecurity, prejudice and pride all threaten to close off the leader or compel him to listen only to those who agree with him. A secure, grounded leader will pay more attention to the message than the messenger and put the issue before the Lord in prayer. This requires an open mind.

Nehemiah sought the Lord’s guidance in prayer. Ezra was a peerless student of the word of God. Both of them actively sought to know and do God’s will and the result was revival. What would Zerubbabel and Joshua do?

The Lord spoke to these leaders through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. The Lord encouraged them to “take courage” and “work, for I am with you” (Hag 2:4). Zerubbabel was told that the mission would be completed, “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,’says the Lord of hosts” (Zech 4:6). Joshua was confronted with his sins by Satan who accused him of unworthiness, but the Lord took away the filth and guilt of his past and clothed him in the clean garments of righteousness (Zech 3).

An insecure leader can misread such encouraging guidance as Divine approval to do whatever the leader desires. At worst, he or she will reject such counsel out of pride as unnecessary. In reality, an insecure leader needs to offer his fears and pride to God for conversion to humility and to learn two all-purpose prayers–

(1) Make haste, O God to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me.
(Ps 70:1)

(2) Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
(Matt 6:10).

A secure and godly leader will gratefully receive the prophetic encouragement of a Haggai and a Zechariah as the empowerment of grace for the task at hand. Zerubbabel and Joshua proved to be secure and godly leaders. They took the Lord at his word, and finished the rebuilding of the temple. Their faithfulness became one more step toward the coming of the Messiah. In ten generations, Jesus would be born and in his genealogy as recorded by Matthew is Zerubbabel (Mt 1:13).

I spoke with a young leader last week about his future. “You have the right education, intelligence and heart for God,” I told him. “Between now and then you simply need to seek God’s wisdom and apply your good sense, but remember that leading is always about people. Sometimes you will see quite clearly what needs to be done, but your people won’t. Your job is to get them to move, but prepare to have your heart broken more than once when their fear and self-interest will cause them to want to settle for far less than the best. Don’t let that stop you from going for the best. Your heart will heal and grow stronger. I know this from experience.

“Stick with God and God will stick with you. At the end of the day, leadership is about faithfulness to God, not giving people what they think they want. You’ll need to show them that what they really need is God.”

That’s the message of Haggai which is also the message of Jesus who says: “Do not worry, saying, ‘what will we eat?’or ‘What will we drink?’or ‘What will we wear?’For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:31-33).

Next week we will take a look at how the stress of living distorts our priorities and what to do about it.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.