HAGGAI

Michael Rydelnik

Author. The book is named "Haggai" after the prophet whose messages are compiled within it. His name means "my festal one," so it is commonly conjectured that he was born on a festival. Another explanation links his name to the book’s message, anticipating the restoration of the festivals in the soon-to-be-rebuilt temple.

The book of Ezra mentions the prophet Haggai’s message and work and links these to the prophet Zechariah, whose book follows Haggai’s in the canon (Ezr 5:1–2). The authorship of Haggai has been attributed to the prophet although it is possible that an editor compiled Haggai’s prophetic messages. Nevertheless, it is still correct to consider Haggai the author, since the messages are indeed his.

Date. The book of Haggai states that the messages were given "in the second year of Darius the king" (1:1; cf. also 1:15, 2:10). Scholarly consensus affirms that Haggai’s four messages were proclaimed between August and December 520 BC. The book itself must have been compiled some time after those dates.

Place in the Canon. Haggai is the first of the last three books of the twelve Minor Prophets (i.e., Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). All three are postexilic and together they provide the explanation for the great issue of their day: the relationship of the Messiah to the return. The people anticipated, based on 2Sm 7, that if they built the temple, the Messiah would come. Haggai’s message was to exhort the people of Judah to rebuild God’s sanctuary and prepare for the Messiah’s coming. Although he does not record the full response of the people, both Zechariah and Malachi do: they show that the people still did not believe and obey God fully. Therefore, Israel would still have to wait for their Messiah. All three of these books were placed in the canon to keep the postexilic Israelite community focused on the future, when the Messiah would come.

Theme and Purpose. The theme of Haggai is Judah’s need to renew their walk with the Lord by rebuilding the temple and worshiping the Lord in purity. The purpose was to force Israel to confront their spiritual indifference and renew their spiritual commitment so that they might once again receive God’s blessing. In essence, Haggai called upon the Jewish people to abandon their spiritual failures so that God would grant them success.

Background. The book of Haggai is set in the postexilic period, approximately 20 years after the restoration from the Babylonian captivity. Judah had gone into captivity in Babylon in three stages. In 605 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had besieged Judah and brought captives from the Judean nobility to exile in Babylon (cf. Dn 1:1–3, 2Kg 24:1–4; 2Ch 36:6–7, 10). Then, Nebuchadnezzar again assaulted Judah in 597 BC and brought 10,000 captives back to Babylon (2Kg 24:10–14). In 586 BC he besieged Jerusalem, this time destroying the city and the holy temple and exiling most of the people of Judah to Babylon (2Kg 25:1–12).

In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and adopted a more generous attitude, allowing exiled captives to return to their native lands. Thus, Cyrus, in 538 BC, decreed that the people of Judah could return to Israel and rebuild their holy temple (Ezr 1:4; 6:2–5). Immediately, some 50,000 Judean captives returned to their homeland (Ezr 2:64–65). In the seventh month of their first year back, those who returned restored the altar and began offering sacrifices (Ezr 3:1–3). The following year (537 BC), they laid the foundation and began to rebuild the temple (Ezr 3:8–13). Almost immediately afterward, the foreigners who had come to live in the land during the exile opposed the work on the temple. This discouraged those who returned, and they abandoned the rebuilding of the temple. This is where matters stood when the book of Haggai opens. The book addresses the small remnant of Judah who had returned and rebuilt their homes, but had failed to rebuild the temple. Thus, they did not succeed in fulfilling their actual purpose in returning (Ezr 1:2).

Structure. The book is composed of four addresses by the prophet Haggai (1:1–15; 2:1–9; 2:10–19; 2:20–23), of which the first has two sections (1:1–11 and 1:12–15). Each message is marked by its date and by the expression "the word of the Lord came" (to the prophet). The first and third messages address the disobedience of those who returned in not rebuilding the temple, while the second and fourth messages look forward to the day God will shake the nations and establish His kingdom on earth.

Contribution. Although Haggai lacks the poetic heights of other prophets like Isaiah, it has a clear, concise message from God, proclaiming "thus says the Lord" (or similar expressions) 26 times in its two short chapters. Readers from ancient days until today are reminded of the crucial need to make the Lord their priority and to live holy lives in order to receive God’s blessing. Ultimately, the book reminds readers that God’s glory would be revealed through the coming of the Messiah (2:7) who will fulfill the promises to David (2Sm 7) and restore the Davidic house (2:20–23).

Haggai’s first message has two sections: the first is an exhortation for the people to put God first by rebuilding the temple (1:1–11) and the second is a word of encouragement for the people’s response to the prophet’s exhortation (1:12–15).

1:1. Each of the four messages, including this first one, begins with a date. The first message was in the second year of Darius Hystaspes (who reigned 521–486 BC). Later, when work on rebuilding the temple had begun and local residents had objected to it, Darius researched the archives of Persia, discovered Cyrus’s original decree for Judah to rebuild, and reaffirmed it (Ezr 6:1–12). Marking the date by a Gentile king was a reminder that Israel, though back in the land, was still in the times of the Gentiles (cf. the Introduction to Daniel and the comments on Dn 2:1–49 and 7:1–28). The date, the first day of the sixth month (August 29, 520 BC), was on the monthly new moon when crowds of Jewish people gathered for worship. The word of the Lord was given through the prophet Haggai to the leaders of those who returned. The civil leader was Zerubbabel (a name which means "seed of Babylon"), also known as Sheshbazzar (Ezr 1:8; 5:14, 16), who had been appointed by Cyrus (Ezr 5:14). The religious leader was Joshua … the high priest, whose ancestor, Jehozadak, had been high priest at the time of the exile (1Ch 6:15). These two leaders were linked here and in Ezr 5:1–2 and Zch 3–4.

1:2–4. At the outset, Haggai’s message identified how Israel disobeyed God with their inverted priorities. He gave this message from the Lord of Hosts, a title for God that is used 14 times in this short book. The postexilic prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) used this title nearly 100 times, accounting for approximately one-third of all uses in the Hebrew Bible. It is better translated "the Lord of armies," identifying the God of Israel as the commander of the armies of heaven, an important reminder when Israel had no earthly army. The message was to this people (as opposed to the more common "My people"), showing God’s displeasure with Israel. The first aspect of their inverted priorities was delay. Although it had been 16 years since they abandoned work on the temple, they still procrastinated, saying, The time has not come (v. 2) for construction to begin again. Israel’s inverted priorities were also seen in their selfishness. Although the temple remained desolate, those who returned were living in paneled houses (v. 4). According to Ezra (Ezr 3:7), those who returned had obtained lumber from Lebanon to rebuild the temple. Once the project had been abandoned, there is no record of what happened to that lumber. Yet those who returned were living in paneled houses, which would be unusually expensive in ancient Israel. Perhaps they had used the lumber that had been imported for the temple on their own homes.

1:5–7. Not only had the people been disobedient, God reminded them that they also had become dissatisfied. Twice telling those who returned to consider their ways (lit., "Set your ways upon your hearts," vv. 5, 7; cf. 2:15, 18), they were called to recognize that despite all their selfishness, they never had enough drink, or clothing, or wages (v. 6). Only when they put God first would He then provide personal satisfaction and material necessities (cf. the comments on Mt 6:33).

1:8. At the heart of this rebuke, the Lord called Israel to change their ways by gathering supplies to rebuild the temple. Thus, God would be pleased (a word used of acceptable sacrifices in Lv 1:4; 23:27; Dt 33:10–11) and glorified (meaning, "to bring Him honor" by rightfully putting Him first).

1:9. Having rebuked them for their inverted priorities, the prophet showed the evidence of God’s disfavor. Israel had expected a good return for their labors, but God, as a discipline, withheld their crops, saying that He blew it all away in His displeasure.

1:10–11. Recalling the covenant warning that disobedience would bring discipline upon the land (see Lv 26:19–20; Dt 28:23–24), God sent drought, even withholding the dew that watered the land in summer (vv. 9–10a). This in turn caused famine (v. 10b), demonstrating that God was withholding blessing on all the labor of [their] hands (v. 11).

Upon hearing the prophet’s message from God, the people took immediate and dramatic corrective action. It is appropriate, but unusual, for people to respond so quickly to God’s Word.

1:12. Following their political leader Zerubbabel, and their spiritual leader Joshua … the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. Identifying those who returned as the remnant alludes to Isaiah’s prediction that a remnant would return to the land (Is 6:11–13, 7:3; the name of Isaiah’s son, Shear Jashub, means "a remnant will return"). Although the word "remnant" can be a technical term for the spiritually faithful few of Israel, here it refers to the small portion of the nation that actually returned from exile. Now leaders and people all responded by obey[ing] God’s Word through his prophet and they showed reverence (lit., "feared") for the Lord. The fear of the Lord has two aspects: positively, it regards God with awe, devotion, and reverence, while negatively, it views with apprehension God’s displeasure and loving discipline.

1:13. Upon seeing the nation’s response, the prophet came as a messenger of the Lord (the only place where the word messenger, normally used of angels, is used in reference to a prophet). God told them, I am with you. This recalled God’s promise to the remnant in Isaiah, "Do not fear, for I am with you" (Is 43:5). God was present with them, empowering them to do His work.

1:14–15. God’s presence became evident in that He stirred up the spirit[s] of both leaders and people so that they zealously worked on the house of the Lord. Although it took some weeks to gather supplies and make plans, 23 days after the original prophetic message, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month (September 21, 520 BC), they began to rebuild the temple. At the outset, the prophet’s message was about "this people" (1:2) but once they began to obey, the prophet described the Lord as their God (v. 12, 14), emphasizing His relationship to His people.

While Haggai’s first message served to correct the disordered priorities of those who returned, the second address dealt with their discouraged perspective. Seeing that their rebuilt temple would be inferior to Solomon’s, the people might have abandoned their reconstruction work. Therefore, the Lord gave Haggai a message of encouragement for them to persist in working.

2:1–2. The second message was proclaimed on the twenty-first of the seventh month (October 17, 520 BC), nearly one month after they had begun rebuilding. This was the last day of the Feast of Booths (Ex 23:16; Lv 23:39–44; Nm 29:12–38), also known as Hoshanah Rabbah, the great day of the feast (cf. Jn 7:37), when the people would have gathered for a grand harvest festival. However, the combination of the famine and the slow progress on the smaller temple would have made the celebration feel like a Thanksgiving dinner without a turkey. With discouragement rampant, the prophet offered an encouraging word of the Lord.

2:3. Sixteen years earlier, during the first attempt to rebuild the temple, those who returned looked at the foundation they had laid, and those present, "who had seen the first temple, wept" (Ezr 3:10–13) at its inferiority to Solomon’s magnificent sanctuary. Now, as the rubble was removed and the foundation restored, the people became discouraged once again. The first temple’s former glory made this one seem like nothing in comparison.

Those who returned were discouraged because their perspective was skewed. Therefore, God provided comfort by directing them to the present, the past, and the future.

2:4. God’s first encouragement pertained to the situation the people were in at that time. The command take courage was repeated three times for emphasis, using the same terminology as when commanding the conquest of the promised land (Dt 31:6; Jos 1:6, 7, 9, 18). Additionally, He ordered all of them to continue to work at their building project. Similarly, David commissioned his son Solomon to build the temple, exhorting him, "Be courageous and act" (1Ch 28:10).

2:5. God’s second encouragement reminded the Jewish returnees of the past. Just as God had promised to be with them when they left Egypt (Ex 29:45; 33:12–14), so God’s Spirit was still abiding in [their] midst. They were not to fear, because the same promise of God’s presence that He had made at the exodus remained true at the return from exile.

2:6–9. The third encouragement looked to the future when God would take what seemed to be an inferior temple and fill it with glory (v. 7). The Jewish people who returned were encouraged to know that God would begin to act in a little while (v. 6), meaning imminently (at any moment) not immediately (in the next moment). When God glorifies the temple, He will once again shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land (v. 6). The Lord had done this previously when He had parted the Red Sea (Ex 14:21–22) and gave the Sinai covenant (Ex 19:16–20) and He will shake the world once again in the future. The writer of Hebrews, quoting Hg 2:6–7, interpreted this as occurring at the end of days, when God will establish His kingdom on earth (cf. comments on Heb 12:26–28).

God promised that He would shake all the nations, and then "the desire of all nations shall come" (KJV) to the temple and fill it with glory (v. 7). Past interpreters identified "the desire of all nations" as a person, the Messiah, the One who is precious and desired by all the nations (KJV, NKJV, NIV). Current interpreters, for the most part, view this as the treasures of the nations coming into the temple to fill it with wealth and glory at the end of days (NASV, ESV, HCSB, NET). At issue is the singular noun, translated as "desire" or "treasure." While the singular lends itself to the "Desired One" interpretation, it is also possibly a singular form with a collective sense, yielding the idea of "treasures."

Evidence for the "treasures" view is threefold. First, grammatically, the verb "will come" is a third person plural, yielding the meaning, "they will come with treasures." Second, inner biblical support is found in the parallel promise of Is 60:5: "The wealth of the nations will come" to Jerusalem in the end of days. However, the word for "wealth" in Isaiah is different from that in Hg 2:7. Third, the context supports it by speaking of silver … and the gold (v. 8).

Alternatively, there is support for taking the verse messianically as well. First, the messianic view has text critical support. The singular noun, without changing the consonants but only the vowels, could become plural, the very way the LXX understood it. The addition of vowels to the Hebrew text was quite late—between the eighth and tenth centuries AD. If the better reading is as a plural, it would be viewed appropriately as a plural of majesty with a plural verb, and would be translated, "the Desire of all nations shall come." Second, the messianic view is supported by lexical evidence in that the same plural Hebrew word is used in this way of other individuals like Daniel (Dn 9:23; 10:11, 19). Moreover, whether in a singular or plural form, the word is used frequently to refer to individual people (Gn 27:15; 1Sm 9:20; Ezk 24:16). Third, the messianic view is supported by its long history, being held by both ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters.

Herbert Wolf has suggested that this was deliberately ambiguous, allowing for both ideas (Herbert Wolf, " ‘The Desire of All Nations’ in Haggai 2:7: Messianic or Not?" [JETS 19, 1976]: 97–102). Thus, when the Messiah, or Desire of the nations, would come, the temple would be filled with the wealth of the nations.

Although the "deliberately ambiguous" view has the benefit of blending both alternatives, it is unlikely that this is what the prophet had in mind. Rather, the inner biblical reference in Mal 3:1 supports the messianic interpretation. There, using a similar idea, it prophesies that "the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple." The prophet Zechariah also had an expectation of the Messiah coming to the eschatological temple (Zch 6:11–15).

The end-of-days fulfillment of this prophecy was foreshadowed when the Messiah Jesus came to the temple and His presence filled it with glory. However, literal fulfillment of this verse awaits the future messianic kingdom, when the millennial temple will be glorified by the presence of the Messiah Himself, reigning over Israel and the world. Then the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former (v. 9). It will be a place of peace, not turmoil, when the Prince of Peace reigns over the world (Is 9:6–7).

2:10. The third message, given on the twenty-fourth of the ninth month (December 18, 520 BC), three months after the reconstruction of the temple had begun, addressed the situation as it was before they began building. It affirmed the need for internal spiritual reality, not mere outward ritual conformity.

2:11–13. Haggai began by asking the priests for a ruling on the laws concerning consecration and defilement (v. 11). This was their role as interpreters of God’s law (cf. Dt 17:9–10), contrasted with prophets, whose job it was to exhort faithfulness to the law. The first question asked whether there was secondary consecration. According to the law, when a priest carried meat consecrated as a sacrifice in the fold of his garment, the priest would be ritually consecrated by touching the sacrificial meat (Lv 6:27). The question, based on this, was whether the garment could spread holiness to any other food by mere touch, to which the priests answered, "No" (v. 12). The second question was whether ritual defilement from a corpse could be spread to these other elements merely by touch (cf. Nm 19:11–13 and the comments there), to which the priests answered affirmatively. These questions proved that ritual defilement could be transferred to consecrated objects but that holiness was not transferable, much like disease, which can be infectious, whereas health is not contagious.

2:14. The prophet moved from interpretation to application. His questions were not some abstract, hypothetical discussion. Rather, they were designed to teach a lesson about the nation’s sin in failing to rebuild the temple. Once again, God speaks of Israel as this people (1:2), showing His displeasure with their past behavior. All their sacrifices offered on the altar while there was no temple (Ezr 3:1–6) failed to consecrate the people. Instead, their offerings had become unclean because of their sin of abandoning temple reconstruction. All their sacrifices were defiled because they reflected mere ritual conformity to the law instead of true faith and obedience to God. The Pentateuch had given Abraham as an example of faith leading to obedience. It says that Abraham "believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gn 15:6). As a result of his faith, Abraham was also considered obedient to the law even before God gave it to Moses. God said "Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws" (Gn 26:5). The point of the law itself was that only faith could produce genuine obedience. The converse was also true: the lack of faith defiled mere formal obedience. The same is true for believers today: religious ritual without authentic faith defiles those acts of devotion. In contrast, a life of faith will consecrate rituals and transform them into holy worship.

2:15. The prophet began to address the response of the Lord to their renewed obedience by telling them to consider (lit., "set upon your hearts," cf. 1:5, 7, 2:18) what the Lord would do for them from this day onward (lit., "upward"). The difficulty with this expression is that in what follows immediately, God reminds the nation of the past, not the future. This has led some to translate "upward" as "backward," a possible but unlikely translation, in light of its use for looking forward in 2:18. It seems more likely that the words about the past that follow immediately are a parenthetical discussion of God’s discipline of the nation before they began to build (before one stone was placed on another). Then, in 2:18, the prophet returned to the same phrase ("consider from this day onward") to complete what he had begun to say about the effect on the Lord of their renewed obedience.

2:16–17. The parenthetical note about the past reminded them of the lack of return for all their labors (v. 16; cf. 1:9–11). Moreover, what little they did grow, God smote with a blasting wind and mildew, just as the law foretold if Israel were to disobey (cf. Dt 28:22; note that the same Hebrew word for "blasting wind" in Hg 2:17 is translated "blight" in Dt 28:22). God also sent hail to destroy their crops, a sign of judgment (cf. Ex 9:25; Is 28:2; 30:30).

2:18. Returning to what he began to say in 2:15, the prophet urges the nation to consider, since on this day, they had completed restoration of the temple’s foundation. Although the NASB translates the phrase, the temple of the Lord was founded (italics added), the Hebrew word for founded, yusad, can be translated "repaired," "restored," or "rebuilt" (as in 2Ch 24:27; 2Kg 12:12; cf. Anthony Gelston, "The Foundations of the Second Temple," Vetus Testamentum 16:2 [April, 1966]: 232–35). In obedience, they had begun work and now rededicated the restored foundation.

2:19. The prophet asks, Is the seed still in the barn? rhetorically. The entire nation knew the answer, that all the seed had been planted by December for their winter crops. Yet, the seed had not yet borne fruit. At this point, God promised that He would bless them with a large crop because of their renewed obedience.

2:20–21. The fourth and final message came on the same day as the third message (the twenty-fourth day of the month, December 18, 530 BC, v. 20) and was directed to Zerubbabel (v. 21). Not only was he governor of Judah but he also was a descendant of David and the one through whom the royal Davidic line would continue. This message was designed to remind readers of the coming Messiah and His kingdom, and thereby give end-time hope. Just as predicted previously (2:6–7), the Lord promised to shake the heavens and the earth (v. 21), indicating the upheavals that will take place in the last battle.

2:22. The prophet used God’s victories for Israel in the past to picture His future triumph (v. 22). At that time, God will overthrow the earthly nations and powers that are in revolt against Him. This is the same word used of God’s "overthrow" of Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Dt 29:23, English versions; 29:22 in the Hebrew text; Is 13:19). The promise to overthrow the chariots … riders … and the horses reflects Moses’ song after the exodus and the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea (Ex 15:4). Also, the prediction that God’s enemies would destroy themselves by turning the sword on one another reminds of Gideon’s defeat of the Midianites (Jdg 7:22).

2:23. Although some commentators believe that the referent of this promise is solely the historical figure Zerubbabel, this is unlikely. Rather, it addresses Zerubbabel as the prototype of the Messiah. First, considering the eschatological language used in this section ("shake the heavens and the earth" (v. 21) on that day) the passage addresses the end of days and not the postexilic period when Zerubabbel lived. Second, the predictions of this passage were not fulfilled in the days when Zerubbabel was governor of Judea—kingdoms and armies were not overthrown as they will be in the end of days when Messiah comes (Zch 12:6–9; 14:1–7). Third, two of the three titles used are used of the Messiah ("Servant"—Is 42:1; 49:5; 50:10; 52:13; "chosen"—Is 42:1). The question remains: Why then is Zerubbabel addressed by name? The answer is that as the key royal descendant of the House of David, Zerubbabel, is the link to the Davidic covenant. It is through his seed that the promise of Messiah will be fulfilled. Thus, he is addressed as the prototype of the future messianic king. Other prophets used this same literary device, speaking of the Messiah but using the name of David as the one to whom the promise was given (cf. Jr 30:9; Ezk 34:24; 37:24–25; Hs 3:5).

With the Davidic covenant, God had promised David that he would have a descendant who would have an eternal house, kingdom, and throne (see the comments on 2Sm 7:12–16). However, with the Babylonian exile, God seemed to have spurned the Davidic covenant, casting David’s crown into the dust and overturning his throne (Ps 89:39, 44). Just before the exile, God cursed one of the last Davidic kings, Coniah, describing him as a signet ring whom God would cast off (Jr 22:24). Therefore, Haggai’s promise, ostensibly to Zerubbabel, but actually to the Messiah, affirmed the restoration of the Davidic promise.

Zerubbabel represents the future Messiah who would fulfill the Davidic covenant. God used three messianic terms of him. First, God speaks of the Messiah as My servant, a word used for the messianic Servant of the Lord (Is 42:1; 49:5; 50:10; 52:13). Second, He calls him, a signet ring, seemingly undoing the curse on Coniah, the signet ring that was cast away. Moreover, ancient kings protected signet rings because they represented the king’s identity and authority. Therefore, they wore and guarded the ring as that which was most valuable to them. Calling the Messiah "a signet ring," represents his position as most precious to the Lord. Third, the Lord declares that He has chosen him, just as the Servant of the Lord was called God’s "chosen one" (Is 42:1) who would fulfill all the promises of the messianic King.

The Book of Haggai ends on this promise, reminding the faithful remnant of Israel that God would indeed fulfill His unbreakable covenant with David by sending the future Son of David and by establishing his house, kingdom and throne forever. Thus, the book that began with such a negative message of correction ends with the hope of the coming Messiah.