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By the mouth of the prophets - The day or time of the foundation was about two years before, as this discourse of the prophet was in the fourth year of Darius. After this God raised up prophets among them.

Let your hands be strong - The fulfillment of God‘s former promises are the earnest of the future; His former providences, of those to come. Having then those great promises for the time to come, they were to be earnest in whatever meantime God gave them to do. He speaks to them, “as hearing in these days,” that is, that fourth year of Darius in which they apparently were, “these words from the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, the temple, that it might be built.” Haggai was now gone to his rest. His voice had been silent for two years. But his words lived on. The fulfillment of what the prophets had then spoken in God‘s Name, was a ground, why their hands should be strong, now and thereafter, for every work which God gave or should give them to do. Ribera: “Some things are said to Jerusalem, that is, to the Jews, which belong to them only; some relate to what is common to them and the other members of the Church, that is, these who are called from the Gentiles. Now he speaks to the Jews, but not so as to seem to forget what he had said before. He would say, Ye who hear the words, which in those days when the temple was founded, Haggai and Zechariah spake, be strong and proceed to the work which ye began of fulfilling the will of the Lord in the building of the temple, and in keeping from the sins, in which ye were before entangled. For as, before ye began to build the temple, ye were afflicted with many calamities, but after ye had begun, all things went well with you, as Haggai said, “so, if you cultivate piety and do not depart from God, ye shall enjoy great abundance of spiritual good” Haggai 2:15-19. Osorius: “The memory of past calamity made the then tranquillity much sweeter, and stirred the mind to greater thanksgiving. He set forth then the grief of those times when he says;”

Those only who lay their hands to the plough of duty, shall have them strengthened with the promises of mercy: those who avoid their fathers' faults have the curse turned into a blessing. Those who believed the promises, were to show their faith by their works, and to wait the fulfilment. When God is displeased, he can cause trade to decay, and set every man against his neighbour; but when he returns in mercy, all is happy and prosperous. Surely believers in Christ must not trifle with the exhortation to put away lying, and to speak every man peace with his neighbour, to hate what the Lord hates, and to love that wherein he delights.

Word Flows Into Messengers’ Hearts—[Zechariah 4:11-14 quoted.] These empty themselves into the golden bowls, which represent the hearts of the living messengers of God, who bear the Word of the Lord to the people in warnings and entreaties. The Word itself must be as represented, the golden oil, emptied from the two olive trees that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. This is the baptism by the Holy Spirit with fire. This will open the soul of unbelievers to conviction. The wants of the soul can be met only by the working of the Holy Spirit of God. Man can of himself do nothing to satisfy the longings and meet the aspirations of the heart (Manuscript 109, 1897). 4BC 1180.1

12 (Isaiah 58:8). To Constantly Receive, One Must Constantly Impart—The capacity for receiving the holy oil from the two olive trees which empty themselves, is by the receiver emptying that holy oil out of himself in word and in action to supply the necessities of other souls. Work, precious, satisfying work—to be constantly receiving and constantly imparting! The capacity for receiving is only kept up by imparting (NL No. 12, pp. 3, 4). 4BC 1180.2

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