Settings

There are three main messages in the book of Haggai, and therefore three slightly different settings into which these messages are delivered. All are given in the second year of King Darius, the first two in consecutive months, the sixth and the seventh, and the last on the ninth month of that year.

In the first message, the people are rebuked for their dereliction of God’s house, which has caused a famine, and they actually listen to God’s message and rebuild the temple.

The second message, coming after the reconstruction of the temple, begins with a comparison. Those who remember the old temple are asked to compare it with the new. Not much is it?

The third message is framed by a question of law. Does the holy thing make the profane holy? No, is the answer. Does the unclean make the holy unholy? Yes.

The overall context of these messages, then, that is, the common element of rebuild, of departed glory, and of clean versus unclean, might distill into a unified setting of drudgery. As we will get to, during the famine, the people are described as putting wages into a bag of holes. Less than ideal. Likewise, though they build the temple, it all seems vainglorious. The people are unclean, laboring without hope.

Summary

So, to Haggai, Haggai to the governor and high priest, through these leaders to the people, God sends a message. It is pretty clear. The people, busy building their own houses, are not concerned with building a house for their God. “It is not time,” they say.

So, God wants the people to consider a few outstanding points: You have planted much, but how much have you harvested? Oh? only a little, you say. Well, you have eaten. What? You have not eaten enough? Interesting. You drink, but still not satisfied? You’re clothed, but you’re not warm, are you? “You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

That’s a lot to consider. Why this state of affairs? Well, God has withheld the rain and crops because his people have not built his house. The people had to have high hopes, but God blew them all away.

The leadership and the people do something amazing; they obey God. (Write it down. It might not happen again.) Haggai then gets to deliver this message from God: “I am with you.”

Now, work on the temple is going well, or is it? God again sends Haggai to the governor and the high priest to ask this question of the people, specifically to those who had seen the former glory of the previous temple: “How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?”

Oof! That’s gotta hurt. But this message is one of comfort: “Be strong Zerubbabel,” “be strong Joshua,” “be strong all you people.” “Work” he commands, “for I am with you.” God reminds his people of the covenant made long ago when he brought them out of Egypt. Is this temple shabby? God has something much better than a building. As he was with the Israelites in the wilderness, “my Spirit remains among you.” So, “Do not fear.” Things are going to be better than they ever were.

Again, God sends Haggai, specifically to the priests this time. A new question is asked: “If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil, or other food, does it become consecrated?” The answer is in the negative. Next question: “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?” Affirmative.

So, says God through his prophet, is this people. “Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.”

Here is something new to consider: God wants the people to remember how things were before the temple was rebuilt, the famine and want, and to pay attention closely to what comes next, to what happens now after the temple’s foundations are laid. God promises his people, “From this day on I will bless you.”

There is one last epitaph. Haggai was sent to the priests last time, and now he’s sent to the governor. Like in the passage when God promised to be with his people (the bit when the temple seemed kinda shabby) God repeats: “I am going to shake the heavens and the earth.” God has choses his people, but he has specifically chosen Zerubbabel to be his “signet ring.”

Effect

The major effect of this book, I find, is in its style of questioning. God’s messages come as inquiries. He asks, he tells his audience to consider, and then he answers. It is somewhat like a teacher: “Pay attention,” says God, “This will be on the test. How much did you sow? A lot. How much did you reap? A little. Are you paying attention?”

But, being prophecy, there is a fair amount of poetic language as well. I may be harping on this line, but it is so powerful, “You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” One only needs a familiarity with the covenant of Moses to know that something is not right. God’s people are supposed to be blessed; blessed if they keep the covenant, cursed if they break it.

The book starts off low, but ends high: Famine to promised abundance; a state of inglorious shambles to a returned and in fact a better glory; uncleanness made clean; and a conquered people given the promise of that their overlords will be overthrown.

The question answer, the allusions and references to the covenant promises, the movement from low to high, all work well to convey God’s closeness to his people. He is like a teacher asking questions, or a husband remembering his vows. He is there with them, making them holy.

One other effect of note is the way the messages are delivered. Until the last two messages, it is, God through Haggai, and Haggai through the governor and high priest, and through these two to the people. There is a direct line, as it were.

Meaning

To use hoity toity theology terms, I’d say God’s eminence is striking in this book and his faithfulness is being assured.

The people are returning from exile, but they do not consider God and his worship of prime importance. Let’s plant and build for ourselves first. God loves his people, and he will not let them have anything before him, but he also speaks to them. He doesn’t just punish them; he tells them how to repent. Here is drudgery, work without fruit; now would you like to work for me instead? You will? Well, here’s blessing and abundance. God is faithful and God is with his people.

What else? The people see their work; some remember what was. This again is useless, some might think, just as disheartening to work for God as to work for yourself. There is no glory. Yet, God’s glory, the text reminds us, was with his people even before there was a temple. God’s glory, God reminds them, is real glory, better than what they remember.

To the priests and the ruler come special messages, these people are now holy again, and I have chosen you, respectively.

Application

God directs us. He is not some distant dictator punishing because he can. His hand, even when it is against his people, is for his people, drawing them back to proper relationship with him. It is not idolatry, that is, the people are not worshiping false gods, but like idolatry, they have placed things between themselves and God, are giving things higher primacy over God; their own houses, their own fields, goods which are part of God’s promises, but even these, they are not the Spirit of God. God takes away their wages and increase, he punishes them, but for their sakes. I hear Ebenezer Scrooge saying, “I think I’d rather not,” but God loves his people too much to lose them; he will fix the broken relationship between himself and his people.

So, on the practical side, on the personal individual side, keeping in mind the terrifying nature of God’s love might be a good application of this book.

What else? God to prophet, prophet to priest and governor, priest and governor to the people. God works in hierarchy, and that is a hard lesson for me, a rebel born of a rebellious nation. I would much prefer all to be prophets, for everyone to hear the voice of God direct, and that is the eventual hope, as Paul tells us to pray for such a gift, but still God works through and respects hierarchy.