53 lines
3.5 KiB
XML
53 lines
3.5 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Hag.i" n="i" next="Hag.ii" prev="Hag" progress="92.10%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Hag.i-p0.1">Haggai</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Hag.i-Page_1388" n="1388"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Hag.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Hag.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Hag.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Hag.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Hag.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
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<h2 id="Hag.i-p1.4">H A G G A I.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Hag.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Hag.i-p2.1">The</span>
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captivity in Babylon gave a very remarkable turn to the affairs of
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the Jewish church both in history and prophecy. It is made a signal
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epocha in our Saviour's genealogy, <scripRef id="Hag.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.1.17" parsed="|Matt|1|17|0|0" passage="Mt 1:17">Matt. i. 17</scripRef>. Nine of the twelve minor
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prophets, whose oracles we have been hitherto consulting, lived and
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preached before that captivity, and most of them had an eye to it
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in their prophecies, foretelling it as the just punishment of
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Jerusalem's wickedness. But the last three (in whom the Spirit of
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prophecy took its period, until it revived in Christ's forerunner)
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lived and preached after the return out of captivity, not
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immediately upon it, but some time after. Haggai and Zechariah
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appeared much about the same time, eighteen years after the return,
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when the building of the temple was both retarded by its enemies
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and neglected by its friends. <i>Then the prophets, Haggai the
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prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews
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that were in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, even unto
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them</i> (so we read <scripRef id="Hag.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezra.5.1" parsed="|Ezra|5|1|0|0" passage="Ezr 5:1">Ezra v.
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1</scripRef>), to reprove them for their remissness, and to
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encourage them to revive that good work when it had stood still for
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some time, and to go on with it vigorously, notwithstanding the
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opposition they met with in it. Haggai began two months before
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Zechariah, who was raised up to second him, that out of the mouth
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of two witnesses the word might be established. But Zechariah
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continued longer at the work; for all Haggai's prophecies that are
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recorded were delivered within four months, in the second year of
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Darius, between the beginning of the sixth month and the end of the
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ninth. But we have Zechariah's prophecies dated above two years
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after, <scripRef id="Hag.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Zech.7.1" parsed="|Zech|7|1|0|0" passage="Zec 7:1">Zech. vii. 1</scripRef>. Some
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have the honour to lead, others to last, in the work of God. The
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Jews ascribe to these two prophets the honour of being members of
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the great synagogue (as they call it), which was formed after the
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return out of captivity; we think it more certain, and it was their
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honour, and a much greater honour, that they prophesied of Christ.
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Haggai spoke of him as the <i>glory of the latter house,</i> and
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Zechariah as <i>the man, the branch.</i> In them the light of that
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morning star shone more brightly than in the foregoing prophecies,
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as they lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of
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righteousness, and now began to see his day approaching. The LXX.
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makes Haggai and Zechariah to be the penmen of <scripRef id="Hag.i-p2.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.138.1-Ps.138.8" parsed="|Ps|138|1|138|8" passage="Ps 138:1-8">Ps. cxxxviii.</scripRef> and of <scripRef id="Hag.i-p2.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.146.1-Ps.148.14" parsed="|Ps|146|1|148|14" passage="Ps 146:1-148:14">Ps. cxlvi., cxlvii., and cxlviii.</scripRef></p>
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</div2> |