Spoke 15 Ezra, Haggai, James

Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them. Ezra 4:24f (Spoke 15, Cycle 1) In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built. Haggai 1:1f (Spoke 15, Cycle 2)

The links between Ezra and Haggai are astounding to behold. The links are deep and intrinisc. They have been commented on by numerous scholars. As discussed in A Great Cloud of Witnesses, commentator H. A. Ironside published the following words in the introduction to his book The Minor Prophets in the year 1909:

There are six books of the Old Testament that may be read together most profitably. I refer to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, of the historical part of the Bible, coupled with the prophetic messages of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Note that the historical books are on Cycle 1 and the Prophetic on Cycle 2. The miracle of God is that Ironside's observation of the content of Scripture is now seen to be geometrically integrated on the Wheel. One of the common characters found in four of the correlated books is Zerubbabel, the prophet called forth by God to lay the foundation of the Temple after the Jews return from the seventy year exile in Babylon. The graph below represents the distribution of the name Zerubbabel on the Wheel:

The theme of laying the foundation naturally integrates with the theme of Spoke 15, governed by Samekh, which means to support or uphold. The graph is astounding. The correlation coefficient attains a value of .91 - a magnitude rarely encountered in scientific studies. If there were no structure of Scripture, we should expect this number to be closer to zero than unity!

To really understand the significance of this "coincidence," open any Bible and you will find the little book of Haggai consists of one or at most two pages. Now hold that page or pages between your fingers and consider the mathematical fact that if this tiny book were moved anywhere else in all Scripture, the correlation coefficient would plummet precipitously! One reason the coefficient is so high is that the distributions on Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 rise and fall together. If, for example, we were to simply interchange the position of Haggai with Zecharariah the distribution would still be maximized on Spokes 15 and 16, but the correlation coefficient would drop to .73 - an 11% decrease. Any other change, such as interchanging Haggai with Malachi (note this change falls within the correlated group) causes the coefficient to drop to 0.097, i.e. essentially zero.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders! There are many based on the name of Zeruabbel that distinguish even between the two Spokes where his name dominates. For example, searching the all seven versions for all verses that speak of Zerubbabel and the "house of the Lord" yields exactly two verses - Ezra 3.8 and Haggai 2.4:

Zerubbabel and the House of the Lord
Ezra 3.8	Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.
Hagai 1.14	And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

This means we have KeyLink between Ezra and Haggai:

	KeyLink: Zerubbabel and the House of the Lord
	EzraHaggai

Another KeyLink is found by searching for all verses that contain the words Zeruabbabel and prophet(s). This yields exactly three verses - one from Ezra and two from Haggai:

Zerubbabel and the Prophets
Ezra 5.2	Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.
Hagai 1.1	In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
Haggai 1.12	Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Thuse we have another KeyLink between Ezra and Haggai, which I write using geometric notation to make its relation to Spoke 15 clear:

	KeyLink: Zerubbabel and the Prophets
	PBible( 151 ) PBible( 152 )

As discussed in the articles relating to Spoke 16, the Zerubbabel combines with other words and phrases to form KeyLinks unique to Spoke 16. This is the miracle of the Lord.