The Book of Haggai is the written history of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. When Haggai returns to Jerusalem from exile, he finds that God’s people have not yet completed the temple, but instead have turned inward. They built up their own houses, and have paid no attention to the house of The Lord. Not only have their focused only on themselves, but they are in the midst of crisis. Though they work they are poor, though they plant their fields the fields are fallow, they are in crisis! God has turned his back because they refuse to put him first, and this is where Haggai comes in to set them straight. He tells the people that in order to lift this curse, they must rebuild God’s home, and so long as they place Him before all else they …show more content…
Though it is a short book, this does not make it any less important. In fact, the Book of Haggai could be considered one of the more important books of the Minor Prophets. Haggai returns from exile to give the people the push they need to rebuild God’s Temple. God will once again be able to dwell among His people, and the people will no longer suffer from drought. The Book of Haggai only covers a brief, six month period September through December of 520 BC. This has been proven due to the language used prior to each of his oracles, this has also been verified by multiple scholars. While the dating of the book is agreed upon, the author of the Book of Haggai is not. It is not possible for the author to be Haggai himself, mainly because of the use of third person and the hallmarks indicative of Deuteronomists. One theory, that the author is the Chronicler, can be dismissed mainly due to the fact that the Chronicler was an anti-Semite; there is no Anti-Semitic language found in Haggai. Instead of the author/editor blaming the Samaritans for the incompletion of the temple, the author/editor has Haggai pointing the finger
...hooses to overlook the fact that Abraham tried to rape Temple and simply honor the ties of his family. And although under sinful conditions, these bonds are not corrupt. They are true and powerful. The names Abraham and Moses are blatant allusions to the figures of the Old Testament. In the Bible, these two men plant the seeds of civilization. And in a sense, Moses and Abraham are doing the same. Every family in the novel is. The world did not end. Temple comments on this progress saying, “As long as you’re movin, it don’t matter much where you’re goin or what’s chasin you. That’s why they call it progress. It keeps goin of its own accord” (85). The fate of the world is in the hands of the people who remain. Strengthened by the resilient bonds between who is left, the American family becomes the singular hope for progress to continue amongst the surrounding chaos.
They were set apart; they had no earthly king and their history was one filled with miracles and impossible victories. Yet Israel’s people were still human; their failures were nearly equal to their victories and their frequent disobedience towards God had cost them greatly. They were hardly a unified nation, and despite a history rich in God’s provision, they were rebellious.
The Sarajevo Haggadah is an ancient and mysterious piece of literature that has passed through many hands. Much is revealed about the characters in the events leading up to, during, and after their possession of the Haggadah. There were a few characters, the priest and the rabbi, Ruti, and Lola, that especially stood out to me. Their tales and traits really were revealed with the Haggadah. In the novel People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks the Sarajevo Haggadah is used to reveal aspects or changes in the characters.
The major theme of the book, is rebuilding the Temple, only the first step. When we read Zechariah, it is almost like reading Haggai all over again. The messages are very similar and they are written around the same time. There was said to be a year between the two and their message of encouragement. The biggest difference of the two writings is that in Zechariah’s account, words like Messiah and Kingdom appear. There is more prophecy in Zechariah’s account than there was in Haggai. There is nothing negative about this; I liken it unto today’s lectureship where you have many different speakers on the same topic or theme. There is so much to learn from each one, it is wonderful.
Thomas Hobbes is a 17th century English philosopher who argued in Leviathan that the natural condition of mankind would result in a war of all against all if humans were not subject to state power. He concludes this by saying that if there were no government, no civilization, no laws and no common power to prevent human nature; human beings would result to the destruction of each other. In this paper I will show how Thomas Hobbes is right in holding that if we were not subject to state power; we would be plunged into a war of all against all. I will show this by using different scenarios in anarchistic community.
Senior, Donald, Mary Ann Getty, Carroll Stuhlmueller, and John J. Collins. "The Book of Habakkuk." Catholic Study Bible: The New American Bible. London: Oxford University Press, 1990. 1150-1153. Print.
Habakkuk as a minor prophet book of the Bible is mainly a conversation between Habakkuk and Yahweh; therefore there are not many characters in the book. The only two present characters in the book are Habakkuk and Yahweh although, Habakkuk does mention terrible ruling, inferring a bad king but never mentions names. The uniqueness of this minor prophet book is that there is little known about Habakkuk as a prophet. It is assumed the Habakkuk was some sort of temple musician (1 Chron. 25:1) because he played with his own instrument to sing his song that is chapter 3 of the book. It is known that Habakkuk lived during the time as Nahum, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah (Bruckner 202). The importance of the book is not focused on Habakkuk
However, even though the exiles were allowed to return to their ancestral homeland of Judah, many of the people chose not to return but to remain in the recently conquered city of Babylon. There are many contributing factors concerning why these Hebrew exiles chose to remain. Even so, it is difficult to understand why a people, who were located in Palestine for over a millennium and who had such strong religious beliefs and practices, would choose to abandon the location of their now destroyed sacred Temple and ancestral home after being exiled for only fifty years.
...map of proper behavior for the new society that has been liberated from slavery. Within the context of history, the myth offers future generations a glimpse of a new religions beginnings. As the new code of laws is set into place, a new and more powerful god emerges – a god of great strength, a god that supersedes all other gods, one god above all others.
Hagar is the woman some commentators think treated Sarai with disdain, while others view her as the victim of Abram and Sarai’s impatience and disobedience to God. In this paper I will review each commentators thought on Hagar in Genesis 16, and my opinion on their observations. This paper will be broken into four sections: Harsh criticisms of Hagar, Hagar as the victim, unbiased of Hagar, three different points of view, and the conclusion.
Around 1400 B.C. Exodus was written in Hebrew. The Exodus, which is one of the books in the Old Testament, are rules, similar to Hammurabi Code placed by God for the descendants of Abram. This literature gives insight into the structure of the Jewish community, which includes the hierarchy of their community as well as the roles important in this community. Scholars can further understand the Hebrew community by reading Genesis. Genesis consists of religious stories that talks about how farming, slavery, and the world came into being. But overall, scholars can see a society very much center on religion.
As a one reads through the Old Testament, he will find the story as it unfolds of the children of Israel. Beginning in the book of Exodus the children of Israel are in Egyptian bondage and being forced to work as slaves. God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him that He [God] has heard His people and He is going to deliver them out of bondage. God at that time tells Moses that He has chosen him to be the leader of this people. After God brings ten plagues against Egypt the children of Israel are driven out of the land, and God promises to lead them to a land “flowing with milk and honey.” On their way to the “Promised Land” they cross the Red Sea in which Pharaoh and the Egyptian army is defeated by God. Then they go to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. After receiving the law they then go to the Promised Land, and there Moses sends twelve spies into the land. Ten of these spies come back and give a bad report to Moses and the children of Israel. Since they did this Israel was punished by God and made to wonder in the wilderness for forty years during which time all who were over the age of twenty perished. The only two that did not die was Caleb and Joshua who had come back with a good report, and told Moses and the children of Israel to go up at once and take the land. Once they had completed the wilderness wondering they returned to the Promised Land and took the land under the new leadership of Joshua. However, Israel did not drive out all the inhabitants as the Lord God had commanded them, thus the inhabitants that were not driven out would be a snare to them. Once they had established themselves in the land they began to chase after the gods of the inhabitants before them. God then sent judges to deliver them which ...
...leadership them telling them to not expect a swift return to Jerusalem, but to build homes and starts businesses. During the worst days of the siege in 588B.C.E. Jeremiah purchased some ancestral land. With this act he was affirming his deepest faith in Yahweh that he would not abandon his people and remove them from the Promised Land forever. Jerusalem finally fell in 587B.C.E. actualizing Jeremiah's fears and predictions. Jeremiah was captured during the fall but was later released to travel where he pleased. After the assassination of Gedaliah in 582B.C.E., Jeremiah was forced to travel with refugees to Egypt where he continued to prophesize until his death.
The people of Israel heard of Holofernes destruction of the west nations and then feared him. They were worried because they just recently moved to Judea and their temple had been declared sacred after they moved. The Israelites then prepared for war and started to pray out to God. They cleansed themselves of all sins before the altar of their Lord. They prayed that God was to not give up on their people and land.