Hag 1:8-9 | TNotes | STEP | 1:8 Now go up into the hills: The stands of trees around Jerusalem were insufficient to meet the demands of the Temple project. Such supplies would have been imported from Lebanon and Syria to the north. • The challenge to rebuild my house underscores the importance of worship in the life of the community and the need for a proper sanctuary so worship of the Lord might take place according to the law. The land would experience blessing and prosperity when the Lord’s Temple—his dwelling place

‏ Haggai 1:8-9

1:8 ^a Now go up into the hills: The stands of trees around Jerusalem were insufficient to meet the demands of the Temple project. Such supplies would have been imported from Lebanon and Syria to the north.

• The challenge to rebuild my house underscores the importance of worship in the life of the community and the need for a proper sanctuary so worship of the Lord might take place according to the law. The land would experience blessing and prosperity when the Lord’s Temple—his dwelling place—was rebuilt (2:4 ^b).
1:9 ^c I blew it away: The Lord destroyed the harvest because the people’s priorities were wrong—they thought only of themselves rather than of God.

• says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: The “God-as-speaker formula,” which often closes a prophecy (1:13 ^d; 2:8 ^e, 17 ^f, 23 ^g), verified Haggai’s message as the sure word of God.