About This Book
Haggai addresses the returned exiles who have neglected rebuilding God's temple, calling them to reconsider their priorities and resume construction, promising God's presence and future glory. The book is precisely dated to the second year of King Darius, sixteen years after the initial return from Babylon. The people have been saying it's not time to rebuild the Lord's house, yet they live in paneled houses while God's house lies in ruins. God challenges them through Haggai to consider their ways: they plant much but harvest little, eat but never have enough, drink but never have fill, put on clothes but are not warm, and wages go into purses with holes.
Why? Because God's house lies in ruins while everyone runs to their own house. Therefore the heavens withhold dew, the earth withholds crops, and God called for drought upon the land. The problem is misplaced priorities—seeking personal comfort while neglecting God's house.
Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and all the remnant respond obediently to God's message, and the Lord stirs up their spirits to work on His house. God promises, 'I am with you.' A month later, as they work, some who remember Solomon's temple's former glory become discouraged by this comparison. God encourages them to be strong and work, for He is with them according to His covenant promise. Moreover, He will shake the heavens and earth, fill this house with glory, and the glory of this latter house will be greater than the former, though it doesn't look that way now.
God promises peace in this place. The final messages address purity—holiness doesn't transfer by contact but defilement does, illustrating that Israel's earlier half-hearted efforts were defiled. From the day they laid the temple's foundation, God will bless them. God speaks specifically to Zerubbabel, declaring that He will shake the heavens and earth, overthrowing kingdoms, and make Zerubbabel His signet ring, for God has chosen him.
This points forward to the Messianic line.