To Hagai the prophet during the years of Darius came the word of God. He told Hagai that the people are saying, "It is not the right time to build the house of God." So God told Hagai to ask them, "You have time to sit in your houses and plant your vineyards, but you do not have time to build the house of God?"
You have to get the context right. The First Temple was ordered by God to be built while the Jewish people were still not even in the Land of Israel yet. You can see this in the later parts of Exodus. In those later parts of Exodus you can see God ordering the Jewish people to build a temple and bring daily offerings there. And later in Leviticus you can see many kinds of sacrifices that are to be brought there and the words are used חוקת עולם an everlasting law.
Later the Temple was destroyed by the King of Babylon. So what we have here in this later prophet is the idea that the Jewish people should rebuild the Temple in order to keep God's Law, the Law of Moses.
The house of God here is not a synagogue. It is the Temple in Jerusalem. And this is not personal nor subject to individual interpretation. It is a straight forward order by God to build the Temple.
Darius is famous in the Old Testament. He is also the King or Persia that had the famous run in with the Athenians.. The Athenians supported a rebellion of Ionian a Greek colony in Italy that was under Persian rule. The Athenians burnt the ships that Darius had sent to squelch the rebellion. When the messenger told him the Athenians had burnt his ships, he asked "Who are the Athenians?"
He swore to burnt Athens to the ground, and started the First of the Persian Grecian Wars
Presumably. by that time, he knew who the Athenians were. His expedition to conquer Greece included about a half a million men. It was the greatest armada the world had ever seen up until. Nothing stood between him and total conquest of ancient Greece except 300 Spartans.
His work to conquer Ancient Greece was stopped but his work to rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem earned him honor and mention in the prophets.
You have to get the context right. The First Temple was ordered by God to be built while the Jewish people were still not even in the Land of Israel yet. You can see this in the later parts of Exodus. In those later parts of Exodus you can see God ordering the Jewish people to build a temple and bring daily offerings there. And later in Leviticus you can see many kinds of sacrifices that are to be brought there and the words are used חוקת עולם an everlasting law.
Later the Temple was destroyed by the King of Babylon. So what we have here in this later prophet is the idea that the Jewish people should rebuild the Temple in order to keep God's Law, the Law of Moses.
The house of God here is not a synagogue. It is the Temple in Jerusalem. And this is not personal nor subject to individual interpretation. It is a straight forward order by God to build the Temple.
Darius is famous in the Old Testament. He is also the King or Persia that had the famous run in with the Athenians.. The Athenians supported a rebellion of Ionian a Greek colony in Italy that was under Persian rule. The Athenians burnt the ships that Darius had sent to squelch the rebellion. When the messenger told him the Athenians had burnt his ships, he asked "Who are the Athenians?"
He swore to burnt Athens to the ground, and started the First of the Persian Grecian Wars
Presumably. by that time, he knew who the Athenians were. His expedition to conquer Greece included about a half a million men. It was the greatest armada the world had ever seen up until. Nothing stood between him and total conquest of ancient Greece except 300 Spartans.
His work to conquer Ancient Greece was stopped but his work to rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem earned him honor and mention in the prophets.
