by
Damien F. Mackey
“Haggai’s message? ‘Hang in there. It’ll be OK in the end.’
And that’s the same message we have from Job. He had lost everything
that was important in life – family, home, livelihood, health –
his body was literally falling apart – and now his ‘friends’
were telling him it was all his own fault!
Job’s response? ‘Hang in there. It’ll be OK in the end.’ Wow!
I’m not sure I could have said that in his circumstances”.
Fay Rowland
According to my recent article:
“Where shall I place Habakkuk?”
(3) “Where shall I place Habakkuk?” | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
the obscure prophet Habakkuk, who grapples with the same problems as does Job, was actually Job with the Akkadian name that he must have acquired, as Tobias, while living a great part of his long life in Nineveh.
For the strange name “Habakkuk” is not Jewish, but Akkadian. Thus I wrote:
His years spent in Assyrian Nineveh would also account for another aspect of Habakkuk, the prophet’s very Akkadian name: “Habakkuk appears to derive from Akkadian ḫabbaququ, the name of a garden plant” (J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: A Commentary, 1991, p. 86).
Apart from contemporaneity and metaphysical convergences of thought, etc., Job, Habakkuk, can further be linked. For example, there are common language idiosyncrasies.
Job (3:23) - Habakkuk (3:3) uses a less usual term for the Lord, Eloah. ….
[End of quotes]
Haggai, I am inclined to think, would be the same great prophet, again, Job-Habakkuk, with the name, Haggai, being simply a hypocoristicon of the foreign name Habakkuk (e.g., Hakkai/Haggai).
Tobias-Job was unfailingly obedient to his parents.
His blind father, Tobit, had imparted to his son certain maxims by which to live out his life when sending Tobias away on the journey to Ecbatana (Bashan) (Tobit 4:1-19).
And Tobit concluded this teaching with:
‘Remember all my instructions. Don't forget them for one minute’.
Nor did his son ‘forget them’.
For he, later, as Job in the midst of his troubles, would recall his father’s maxims in his Negative Confession to his accusers (Job 31:1-40): ‘If I have … then …’.
For a fuller account of this, see e.g. my article:
Prophet Job not an enlightened Gentile
(DOC) Prophet Job not an enlightened Gentile | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Light of the Temple
Can we find any other sort of connection in the case of Haggai, where he, potentially as Job, echoes his father, Tobit?
I think that we may be able to.
The Book of Haggai is very short, comprising only two chapters.
But, in Haggai’s description of the second Temple and its glory, we may find an echo of Tobit 13 and the “bright light [that] will shine”.
Haggai, as the motivator for the completion of the second Temple might also have had well in mind Tobit’s prayer (13:12): ‘But blessed forever will be all who build you up’. And again (13:16): ‘How happy I will be if a remnant of my descendants should survive
to see your glory and acknowledge the King of heaven’.
Job’s father, a dying Tobit, had told his son about the second Temple (Tobit 13:11-18):
A bright light will shine to all the remotest parts of the earth;
many nations will come to you from far away,
the inhabitants of the ends of the earth to your holy name,
bearing gifts in their hands for the King of heaven.
Generation after generation will give joyful praise in you;
the name of the chosen city will endure forever.
Cursed are all who reject you
and all who blaspheme you;
cursed are all who hate you,
and all who speak a harsh word against you;
cursed are all who conquer you
and pull down your walls,
all who overthrow your towers
and set your homes on fire.
But blessed forever will be all who build you up.
Rejoice, then, and exult over the children of the righteous,
for they will all be gathered together
and will bless the Lord of the ages.
Happy will be those who love you,
and happy are those who will rejoice in your peace.
Happy also all people who grieve with you
because of your afflictions,
for they will rejoice with you
and witness all your joy forever.
My soul blesses the Lord, the great King,
for Jerusalem will be rebuilt as his house for all ages.
How happy I will be if a remnant of my descendants should survive
to see your glory and acknowledge the King of heaven.
The gates of Jerusalem will be built with sapphire and emerald
and all your walls with precious stones.
The towers of Jerusalem will be built with gold
and their battlements with pure gold.
The streets of Jerusalem will be paved
with ruby and with stones of Ophir.
The gates of Jerusalem will sing hymns of joy,
and all her houses will cry, ‘Hallelujah!
Blessed be the God of Israel!’—
and the blessed will bless the holy name forever and ever.”
Now, speaking of that Temple that Haggai was helping to complete, and the bright light that would fill it, the prophet proclaims in terms reminiscent of Tobit (Haggai 2:3-9):
‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
The following article regards Tobit 13 as pointing to the Magi and the Star (2013):
https://spectrummagazine.org/post-archives/follow-star/
Follow the Star
The Bible. It’s a sacred, if not holy word for many, denoting the collection of books which comprise both the Old and New Testaments for Christian believers. Spanning thousands of years of religious history and ancient wisdom, it is the foundation for many whose lives are anchored in its words. And with Christmas Day upon us, one story in particular becomes more and more of a present reality for believers around the world: the birth of Christ. Though the event took place more than two thousand years before, billions across the globe continue as countless before have in the past, to feel and experience the Christmas Miracle each December.
As part of this yearly memorial and even before its invention, Christians from the earliest of times have sought to show where in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) Jesus’ birth was prophesied. Popular verses such as Micah 5:2, Isaiah 7:14 and Jeremiah 23:5-6 are often cited, demonstrating what Christians have historically viewed as the unifying nature of the Bible and the bridge that connects Israel with the beginning of Christianity, the culmination of a desired hope for a Messiah.
But there are two other Biblical texts, just as important, if not even more so, which are often forgotten or ignored. One of them is from the pages of the Bible (but perhaps not yours) and the other at one time was within scripture, but has been neglected by Christian tradition for over a thousand years. Both texts date from prior to the birth of Jesus and the two at one time were well read by the early Christians in their formative years.
The first of these, beginning in the chronological order of when they were first penned, is the book of Tobit. For most Christians in America, this book’s name will sound quite foreign, while for most Christians outside of the States, the name will be as familiar as that of Esther. This is because for the majority of Christendom around the world, the book of Tobit represents one of the canonical works of the Old Testament. For a minority, Protestants, the book has historically been considered Apocryphal (not finalized as canonical) and was typically included in a separate section of the Bible that lay hidden between the Old and New Testaments. However, in the late 1820’s a certain controversy within a Bible society paved the road for today, the result being that Protestant Bibles do not typically include the Apocrypha at all. Unfortunately, as a consequence, the average Protestant is now generally unaware of the fact that millions of Christians read from books in the Old Testament that they as Protestants have no knowledge of.
The book of Tobit represents a fascinating work of ancient Jewish literature. Quoted and alluded to numerous times within the New Testament, it was clearly well read both by those who took its words as authoritative and those who did not (for example, the Sadducees: Mark 12:18-24). It was included in the Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible (the Septuagint) and multiple copies of the work were, this past century, discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls where it appears it was viewed as scripture by the Jewish Essenes at Qumran in the years leading up to the birth of Christianity.
Within the thirteenth chapter of the work, the main character Tobit prophesies of the coming future and glory of God’s eternal kingdom. Within this text is an often missed gem.
A bright light will shine to all the ends of the earth; many nations will come to you from far away, the inhabitants of the remotest parts of the earth to your holy name, bearing gifts in their hands for the King of heaven.” – Tobit 13:11 (NRSV)
The verse is reminiscent of another, no?
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men (magi) from the East came to Jerusalem…. They set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” – Matthew 2:1, 9-11 (NRSV)
In Tobit, a bright light is predicted to shine to the ends of the earth, and by implication, attract worldly kings to come and give gifts to the King of Heaven. In Matthew, a bright star attracts the attention of an unknown number of foreign magi (according to later tradition: kings) who bow before the newly born Jesus and present the young child with gifts.
It’s very hard not to see the incredible similarities between the two verses, and it is even more unlikely to imagine that the author of the Gospel of Matthew was not aware of the similarities when he wrote of Jesus’ birth, for on other occasions within his narrative he includes allusions to or quotes from other parts of Tobit (for example, compare Tobit 4:15 with a statement by Jesus in Matthew 7:12). As a Nativity prophecy in the Christian interpretation, though almost never spoken of, it stands as one of the most awe inspiring.
But this sort of interpretation of Tobit lends itself even more potent when one remembers how the book can be summarized: the story of a father who sends his only son to redeem his promised bride from the snare of the Devil. At the very outset the book sounds tantalizing familiar to a Christian reader, but the familiarity grows even more toward the end of the book where the Devil is banished by the power of blood and the newly married bridegroom and bride return in victory and celebration to the groom’s father, upon whose return sight is restored to the blind and an angel reveals his glory for all to see freely.
The earliest Christians, as witnessed by their extensive use of the book, did not fail to catch sight of the potential for allegory. ….
And this, taken from Fay Rowland’s 2016 article):
https://reflectionary.org/2016/10/24/job-1923-27-haggai-115-29/
Job 19:23-27, Haggai 1:15-2:9
….
….
A Reflection
Is anybody else singing bits of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ right now? No? Just me then.
It is interesting that in the two alternative Old Testament readings are songs from ‘Messiah’. First, describing Jesus’ birth, we have the passage in Haggai: Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: Yet once a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come.
Later, concerning the resurrection, he uses the Job passage: I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
Now, while these make awesome lyrics describing Jesus’ life and work, that’s not what they were originally written for. Haggai was talking to the exiles who had returned to rebuild the temple after Solomon’s temple had been destroyed. Job was arguing with some ‘friends’ who were trying to convince him that his devastating personal tragedies were a punishment from God. But both passages hold essentially the same message – it’s gonna be rough for a while, but hold on, the roller-coaster will eventually come to a stop and it’ll be OK in the end.
You might notice a phrase in Haggai that we’ve heard before: ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak … Do not fear‘. In Genesis we have ‘Joshua son of Nun … Be strong and courageous‘ when he was about to take over from Moses going into the promised land. Different Joshua, different job, same quaking fear in the face of a mountainous challenge.
Notice that it is not Joshua in either case who actually doing the challenge. For the Joshua back in Genesis it was God who would drive out the nations, Joshua simply had to follow what God was doing. The Joshua here is not doing the shaking of the nations. God would do that, Joshua simply had to follow what God was doing. In the end there would be peace.
Haggai’s message? ‘Hang in there. It’ll be OK in the end.’
And that’s the same message we have from Job. He had lost everything that was important in life – family, home, livelihood, health – his body was literally falling apart – and now his ‘friends’ were telling him it was all his own fault!
Job’s response? ‘Hang in there. It’ll be OK in the end.’ Wow! I’m not sure I could have said that in his circumstances.
There’s a beautiful alternative translation for the slightly uncertain Hebrew of verses 25-26. Job is talking about what he expects when he dies and says:
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after I awake,
though this body has been destroyed,
then in my flesh I will see God
I love the ‘after I awake’ phrase. Normally we’d say ‘fallen asleep’ as a euphemism for death, but calling death the awakening sheds fresh light.
Job wanted to think of his life as a nightmare, from which he would gladly wake. Job’s life was being shaken, and he could not see how it could end well. But he held tightly to the truth that it would, even though he could not understand how. ‘I know that my redeemer lives‘.
Our Response
Many people today live in nightmares from which they would gladly wake. I think of the innocent bystanders to the war raging over Aleppo, the nameless girls sold into slavery, the youngsters forced to fight as soldiers for wars they do not understand, the poverty-stricken for whom drugs and gang culture are the only escape they can see, the refugees far away, and the homeless in our own cites.
There is plenty in our world that needs shaking. Can we see what God is doing and follow? Can we be part of the ‘And in this place I will grant peace’?
Bible Text
Job 19:23-27 New International Version – UK
‘Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock for ever!
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes – I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
Haggai 1:15-2:9 New International Version – UK
on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:
‘Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,” declares the Lord. “Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,” declares the Lord, “and work. For I am with you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”
‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty.’ ….
