Biblical Revivals and Awakenings
So far in our series we’ve looked at thirty-one examples of revival in the Bible:
- Seth
- Noah
- Job
- Abram
- Joseph
- Moses
- Joshua
- Judges
- Naomi
- Ruth
- Hannah
- Samuel
- David
- Solomon
- Jehu
- Elijah
- Elisha
- Jonah
- Amos
- Hosea
- Isaiah
- Hezekiah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Zephaniah
- Josiah
- Jeremiah
- Daniel
- Ezekiel
- Zechariah
- Haggai
In the last part of our series, we saw that God used two prophets to help rebuild the Temple that the Babylonians had destroyed decades earlier. Their names were Zechariah and Haggai. We saw how God blessed Judah with revival through their ministry. What we didn’t see in the last part of our series is what they said. We find those words in the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Haggai.
Zechariah and Haggai’s Prophecies
Zechariah and Haggai are known as “minor” prophets because their writings are short. However, what God accomplished through their prophetic work was not minor.
The work of a prophet is not easy or without opposition. Prophets, true prophets, say whatever God tells them to say. That’s what Zechariah and Haggai did. When the king of Persia told the people of Judah to stop building the Temple, the two prophets stepped in to encourage them to keep building.
Zechariah
Zechariah came from a family of prophets. He was a descendant of Iddo the prophet. The “word of the Lord” came to Zechariah and he called on the people of Judah to repent and turn to Him –
In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, ‘The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Return to Me,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,’ says the Lord. Zechariah 1:1-4
Zechariah saw many visions, which he recorded in his writings. The Angel of the Lord told Zechariah what God said about Jerusalem and Zion. The first vision included the fact that God wanted the people to finish building His Temple –
I am zealous for Jerusalem And for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, And they helped—but with evil intent.‘ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘And a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.’ ‘Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; The Lord will again comfort Zion, And will again choose Jerusalem.’ Zechariah 1:14-17
In another vision, Zechariah saw that God was going to send “a wondrous sign” to His people –
Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ‘In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ Zechariah 3:8-10
The “wondrous sign” God was going to send was His Son, Jesus Christ, who would rule the nations from Jerusalem –
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ Zechariah 9:9-10
Zechariah’s message stirred the people of Judah to obey God and rebuild the Temple. He also promised that God would protect them and eventually bring a great King to rule over them and keep them safe –
The Lord their God will save them in that day, As the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land— For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women. Zechariah 9:16-17
Haggai
The first verses of the Book of Haggai read much like those of Zechariah –
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 Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, ‘Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, ‘The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.’ Haggai 1:1-2
The people of Judah who had returned from captivity in Babylon were hesitant to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem because of opposition. God withheld physical blessings from those Jews because of their disobedience. He used Haggai and Zechariah to prophesy to the people so that they would finish the work He had for them to accomplish. As you read these words from thousands of years ago, think about how God’s people today are holding back revival because of their hesitancy to finish the work God has for us to do.
Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ‘Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?’ Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! ‘You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. ‘You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands. Haggai 1:3-11
God’s people heard the words of the prophets, got back to work on the Temple, and God blessed them again. Even though the opposition continued, God took care of that. A new king of Persia found the original decree of King Cyrus and told the opposition to stay away from the Jews and to let them finish building the Temple.
The Book of Haggai is very short, only two chapters, but it contains a wealth of information about the future glory God will bring to His people –
For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:6-9
God will “shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land.” He “will shake all nations” and those nations will come to the “Desire” of all nations. God has been “shaking” nations for thousands of years. He sets kingdoms up and brings them down. Every nation, its people and leaders, have strong desires. They may be for wealth, for power, for safety, for influence. However, what every nation needs is God. The day is coming when God will shake the nations and establish His Kingdom on earth through His Son, Jesus Christ –
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29-30
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:25-29
May we learn the lessons of revival from God’s prophets and from His Son, Jesus Christ.
[Listen to a Podcast of this study by clicking this link.]
Next Time
We will see what God did when Ezra and Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem years after the Temple was rebuilt. What lessons about revival can we learn from them? We’ll also meet the last prophet of the Old Testament. That’s in the next part of our series, Revival – To Live Again.
Free eBook
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Here is the eBook for the parts thirteen through sixteen of this series. Please click here for the PDF eBook.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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