Haggai

Part One: Introduction to Haggai

The Prophet

Haggai's name means "festive" or "my feast," perhaps because he was born on a feast day. He is mentioned with his younger contemporary Zechariah as one of the two prophets who stirred up the returned exiles to rebuild the temple: "Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem... and with them were the prophets of God helping them" (Ezra 5:1-2). "And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo" (Ezra 6:14). His question, "Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?" (2:3), has led some to suggest he was an old man who remembered Solomon's temple before 586 BC, but this is uncertain.

The Historical Setting

Haggai is the first of the three post-exilic prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi), who ministered after the return from Babylon.

After the foundation was laid with joy and weeping (Ezra 3:10-13), enemies discouraged the builders and the work stopped. Years passed. The people turned to building their own homes and farms, and told themselves, "The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built" (1:2). Meanwhile, they suffered drought, poor harvests and economic frustration, without realising why.

Four Dated Messages

Haggai is one of the most precisely dated books in the Bible. All four messages were given in 520 BC, "the second year of Darius the king" (Darius I of Persia), over less than four months:

The response was immediate: within 23 days of the first message, the work had begun again (1:15). The temple was completed about four and a half years later.

Purpose and Theme

Haggai called God's people to put God first. Their neglect of His house showed misplaced priorities, and their frustrations were God's discipline. When they obeyed, God promised His presence, His Spirit, future glory for the temple, and blessing. Key phrases include "Consider your ways" (1:5, 7; compare 2:15, 18), "I am with you" (1:13; 2:4), and "the LORD of hosts," which appears fourteen times in thirty-eight verses.

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Haggai 1:4-5

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace

Haggai 2:9

Outline of Haggai

Part Two: Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1 — Consider Your Ways

The Excuse (1:1-2)

"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" (1:1). The message went first to the civil and religious leaders. Zerubbabel was a descendant of King David through Jehoiachin (1 Chronicles 3:17-19; Matthew 1:12); Joshua was the high priest.

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 1:2

Notice God calls them "this people," not "my people." They did not say they would never build, only that it was not the right time. Procrastination often disguises disobedience.

The Rebuke (1:3-11)

Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

Haggai 1:3-4

"Cieled" means panelled, finished with fine wood. They had time and resources for their own comfortable homes, but not for God's house. King David had felt the opposite: "I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains" (2 Samuel 7:2). Then God told them to examine their lives:

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Haggai 1:5-6

Their work was frustrating and unproductive. Their food, drink and clothing never satisfied. Their income disappeared as if their purse had holes. These were the covenant curses God had warned of (Leviticus 26:20; Deuteronomy 28:38-40). When we put ourselves first, we never have enough.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

Haggai 1:7-8

The command was simple and practical: go, gather materials, build. God would take pleasure in it and be glorified. Then He explained their frustration directly:

Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Haggai 1:9

They hurried to their own projects while God's house lay in ruins. So God had withheld dew and rain, and called for a drought on the land, the grain, the wine, the oil, the people, the cattle and "all the labour of the hands" (1:10-11). Their hardships were not random but God's loving discipline to get their attention. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).

The Response (1:12-15)

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.

Haggai 1:12

Leaders and people alike responded with obedience and reverent fear. Few prophets saw such a quick and complete response. God immediately answered with a promise:

Then spake Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.

Haggai 1:13

"And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel... and the spirit of Joshua... 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" (1:14). God's Spirit gave them the desire and strength to work (Philippians 2:13). They began "in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month" (1:15), just 23 days after Haggai's first message.

Chapter 2 — The Latter Glory, Holiness, and the Signet

Discouragement (2:1-3)

About seven weeks later, on the 21st day of the seventh month, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people would have remembered Solomon's dedication of the first temple at the same feast (1 Kings 8:2), discouragement set in:

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

Haggai 2:3

The older people remembered the splendour of Solomon's temple, with its gold and cedar, and the new building looked poor by comparison (Ezra 3:12). Comparison with the past can drain zeal for the present.

Encouragement (2:4-5)

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

Haggai 2:4-5

Three times God says "be strong," and then "work." The reason: "I am with you." The same Spirit who was with Israel at the Exodus was still among them (compare Joshua 1:6-9; Zechariah 4:6). The size of the building did not matter; the presence of God did.

The Promise of Greater Glory (2:6-9)

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:6-9

God would shake the whole created order and all nations. "The desire of all nations shall come" has traditionally been understood as a title of the Messiah, the One for whom all nations long, though many translate it "the desirable things" or "treasures" of all nations, which would flow into the temple (compare Isaiah 60:5-7). The silver and gold already belong to God (Psalm 50:10-12); He could adorn His house whenever He chose.

But the greater glory of the second temple would not be its gold. This temple, later greatly expanded by Herod, was the temple to which Jesus Christ came. As an infant He was presented there, and Simeon called Him "the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2:22-32). As a boy He sat among the teachers there (Luke 2:46). As a man He taught there, cleansed it, and said, "in this place is one greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:6; John 2:13-17). God's glory, which had filled Solomon's temple in a cloud (1 Kings 8:10-11), came to the second temple in the person of His Son, "and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14). "In this place will I give peace": Christ is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).

Hebrews quotes 2:6 and applies it to the final shaking at the end of the age: "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven... that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace" (Hebrews 12:26-28).

Holiness and Defilement (2:10-19)

On the 24th day of the ninth month, Haggai asked the priests two questions about the law:

• If someone carrying holy meat in the fold of his garment touches bread, stew, wine, oil or any food, does that food become holy? The priests answered, "No" (2:12).
• If someone made unclean by touching a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean? The priests answered, "It shall be unclean" (2:13; Numbers 19:11-13).

Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

Haggai 2:14

Holiness is not contagious, but defilement is. Being near holy things did not make the people holy; but their disobedience made everything they touched, even their offerings, unclean. Simply working on the temple or offering sacrifices could not make them right with God; their hearts must be right. Only God can make the unclean clean. In the New Testament, Jesus reversed this pattern: when He touched a leper, the leper did not make Jesus unclean, but Jesus made the leper clean (Mark 1:40-42).

"And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward" (2:15). Before they began to build, their harvests had failed: they expected twenty measures and found ten; they came for fifty vessels of wine and found twenty; God struck their crops with blight, mildew and hail, "yet ye turned not to me" (2:16-17; Amos 4:9). Now, though the seed was still in the barn and the trees had not yet borne fruit, God made a promise:

From this day will I bless you.

Haggai 2:19

The blessing would begin the day they obeyed, before any visible evidence appeared. They were to trust God's word.

Zerubbabel, God's Signet (2:20-23)

On the same day, Haggai received a second message for Zerubbabel personally:

I will shake the heavens and the earth; And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen... In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:21-23

A signet ring was a king's seal, a symbol of authority and identity, carefully kept and highly valued. Zerubbabel's grandfather Jehoiachin (Coniah) had been told, "though Coniah... were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence" (Jeremiah 22:24). Now God reversed that judgment: the royal line of David, apparently cast off, was chosen again. Zerubbabel himself never became king, but through him the line of David continued to Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:12-16; Luke 3:27). The promise that God would overthrow the kingdoms of the nations and exalt His chosen servant points to Christ, the ultimate Son of David, God's chosen Servant (Isaiah 42:1), who bears God's seal (John 6:27) and whose kingdom will replace all others (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 11:15).

Part Three: Christ in Haggai

The Desire of All Nations

Christians have long sung of Christ as "the desire of nations," drawing on Haggai 2:7. Whether the phrase refers directly to the Messiah or to the treasures of the nations, the promise that God would fill the second temple with glory was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus came to it. Malachi foretold, "the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple" (Malachi 3:1). The glory of the latter house was greater because the Son of God Himself walked in its courts.

Pictures and Prophecies of Christ

Joshua and Zerubbabel

Haggai addresses two leaders: Zerubbabel the governor, of David's royal line, and Joshua the high priest. Zechariah, preaching at the same time, saw a crown placed on the head of Joshua as a picture of "the BRANCH," who would "build the temple of the LORD... and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne" (Zechariah 6:11-13). The offices of king and priest, held by two men in Haggai's day, are united in one Person, Jesus Christ, whose name is the Greek form of Joshua, and who is the Son of David and our High Priest (Hebrews 7:1-3; 8:1).

Part Four: Fulfilled Prophecies and Promises

Part Five: Key Passages in Depth

Haggai 1:2-4 — Misplaced Priorities

The people said it was not the time to build God's house, yet they found time to panel their own homes. Believers today can make the same mistake, investing time, money and energy in personal comfort while God's work is neglected. The question "Is it time for you...?" challenges every Christian's priorities.

Haggai 1:5-11 — Consider Your Ways

God invited His people to look honestly at their lives and notice the pattern: much effort, little result; constant consumption, no satisfaction; income that vanished. When we neglect God, nothing satisfies. God sometimes uses frustration and lack to call us back to Him (Hebrews 12:5-11). The solution was not to work harder at their own projects, but to put God first.

Haggai 1:12-14 — Obedience and God's Presence

The people obeyed at once, and God responded with the simplest and greatest promise: "I am with you." Then He stirred up their spirits to work. God provides both the presence and the motivation for the work He commands.

Haggai 2:3-5 — Overcoming Discouragement

The new temple seemed like nothing compared to the old. God's answer was not to deny the difference, but to remind them of His presence and His Spirit. What matters is not the size or splendour of the work, but whether God is in it. "Who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10).

Haggai 2:6-9 — The Greater Glory

God promised a glory far beyond gold and silver: His own presence in the person of the Messiah, and peace. Christ's coming to the second temple made it more glorious than Solomon's. The final shaking of all things will leave only God's unshakeable kingdom.

Haggai 2:10-19 — Holiness Is Not Contagious

Religious activity cannot make an unholy heart holy, but sin defiles everything it touches. The people's work on the temple could not cleanse them; only genuine obedience and God's grace could. And once they obeyed, God promised blessing from that very day, even before the harvest proved it.

Haggai 2:23 — The Signet Restored

God reversed the judgment on Jehoiachin's line and chose Zerubbabel as His signet, preserving the line of David for the coming Messiah. God's promises survive even His judgments.

Part Six: The Major Teachings of Haggai

1. Put God First

God's house and work should take priority over personal comfort (1:2-4; Matthew 6:33).

2. Procrastination Is Disobedience

"The time is not come" was an excuse for neglecting God's command (1:2).

3. God Uses Hardship to Discipline

Drought and failed harvests were God's call to repentance (1:6, 9-11; 2:16-17).

4. Consider Your Ways

God calls His people to honest self-examination (1:5, 7; 2:15, 18).

5. Obedience Brings God's Presence and Blessing

"I am with you"; "from this day will I bless you" (1:13; 2:19).

6. God Stirs Up His People

He gives the desire and strength to do His work (1:14).

7. Be Strong and Work

Discouragement is overcome by God's presence and Spirit (2:4-5).

8. God Owns All Resources

"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" (2:8).

9. Holiness Comes from God, Not from Contact

Religious activity cannot cleanse a defiled heart (2:11-14).

10. God's Glory and Peace Will Fill His House

Through the Messiah, the latter glory exceeds the former (2:7-9).

11. God Keeps His Promises to David

The chosen signet points to Christ, whose kingdom will overthrow all others (2:21-23).

Part Seven: Connections — How Haggai Links to the Rest of the Bible

Haggai in the New Testament

Haggai in the Old Testament

Themes That Run from Haggai Through Scripture

Part Eight: Practical Lessons

• Don't say "the time is not come" when God has spoken (1:2).
• Check whether your comfort comes before God's work (1:4).
• Consider your ways honestly (1:5, 7).
• When nothing satisfies, ask whether God is first (1:6, 9).
• Obey promptly (1:12, 14-15).
• Fear the LORD with reverence (1:12).
• Rest in God's promise: "I am with you" (1:13; 2:4).
• Ask God to stir up your spirit for His work (1:14).
• Don't let comparisons with the past discourage you (2:3).
• Be strong, and work (2:4).
• Remember that God's Spirit remains with His people (2:5).
• Trust God to provide for His work; the silver and gold are His (2:8).
• Look for the true glory: Christ's presence, not outward splendour (2:9).
• Religious activity cannot cleanse an unclean heart (2:14).
• Expect God's blessing from the day you obey (2:19).
• God keeps His promises, even after judgment (2:23).

Part Nine: Key Verses to Memorize

Conclusion

Haggai, the first prophet after the exile, preached four short messages in 520 BC to a discouraged people who had stopped building God's house and started building their own. "Is it time for you... to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Consider your ways." Their failed harvests and empty purses were God's call to put Him first. Within 23 days, governor, high priest and people were back at work, strengthened by the promise "I am with you." When the old men wept over a temple that seemed like nothing, God told them to be strong and work, for His Spirit remained among them, and promised that the glory of this latter house would be greater than the former, for He would shake the nations and fill it with glory and peace. He taught them that holiness is not caught by contact, and promised blessing from the day they obeyed. And He chose Zerubbabel, heir of David, as His signet. Those promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the desire of nations, who came to that very temple, who gives peace, who builds His church as God's living house, and whose kingdom alone will stand when heaven and earth are shaken.

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:9