Summary:

God told Haggai to ask the priests some questions about the Law (2:11) because the “lawyers” mentioned in the New Testament were not His idea. They weren’t baptized (Lu. 7:30) so they weren’t saved (Mark 1:4) and so would answer questions wrongly. Their appearance in the Lord’s day show how far Israel had drifted from the Law. The Law said that priests should answer Law questions (Mal. 2:7).

“Holy flesh” (2:12) was the flesh of animal sacrifices (cf. Ex. 29:32-34). Men carried them to the priests in the “skirt” of their garment like an apron. The Law said that if the sacrifice touched something it was holy (Lev. 6:24-27), but not the skirt holding it, so the priests answered right. In times like this, when the Law didn’t address questions like this exactly, it was the priest’s job to settle it (Ezek. 44:15,23,24).

If a man touched a dead body he was unclean (Num. 19:11), and if he in turn touched something, it was unclean (v.22), so the priests answers this question right as well (Hab. 2:13). These laws should teach us not to hang around Christians who engage in unclean things (I Cor. 5:6).

But God’s point for Israel was that their sacrifices, which were usually holy (Ex. 23:32-34), could not make the people holy because the “skirt” of their disobedience was in between them and the holy sacrifices they were offering.

It’s like in the past when they offered their babies as human sacrifices “through the fire” to Molech (Jer. 32:35). God said the blood of those poor innocents was on their skirts (Jer. 2:34). Not literally, for fire doesn’t cause blood, just figuratively. And the skirts of the Jews’ disobedience in Haggai’s day kept their sacrifices from making them holy (cf. Isa. 1:11-13). So instead of their sacrifices making them holy, their sin was making the sacrifice unholy, just as when the man made unclean by a dead body touched something.

When they sinned, God chastened them with things like bad crops (Lev. 26:18-20), and that was happening in Haggai’s day (1:5-9). They looked for much but brought in little (1:9 cf. 2:15,16). “Blasting” and “mildew” (2:17) were also God’s chastening (Deut. 28:15,22). With no seed in the barn to plant that year (2:19), things were looking grim. But God promised to bless them now that they had repented (2:19).

Their ultimate blessing will come when God conquers their enemies at Armageddon (Hag. 2:20-22 cf. Joel 3:16) in “the day of the Lord” (Joel 3:14). The nations will have one “throne” (singular) in that day (Hag. 2:22) because the nations will give their power to Antichrist (Rev. 17:3,13).

The overthrowing of chariots and horses (Hag. 2:22) reminds us of Pharaoh’s overthrow in the Red Sea (Ex. 14:27,28), a picture of the day of the Lord (Isa. 19:2). The “Zerubbabel” of the day of the Lord in Haggai 2:23 can’t be the governor of ancient Israel in Haggai’s day any more than the “Egyptians” of Isaiah 19:2 can be the ancient Egyptians showing up at the day of the Lord. The “Zerubbabel” here is Christ. This Zerubbabel is called God’s chosen servant (2:23), making him a type of Christ was (Mt. 12:18).

Christ is called God’s “signet,” the king’s insignia that he pressed into a seal (cf. Dan. 6:17) to seal something up and serve notice that anyone messing with the seal messed with the king. In the day of the Lord, God will seal His people safely with Christ as their signet seal, and serve notice that anyone messing with them messed with God Himself.

The reason God brings up this business of a “signet” is because God promised David that Messiah would come from his seed (II Sam. 7:12,13). That meant anyone messing with any of Judah’s kings threatened God’s promise, so every king of Judah was one of God’s signets (Jer. 22:24).

But Coniah messed up somehow, so God swore no son of his would sit on Judah’s throne (Jer. 22:24-30), ending the line of David at Coniah. But how then could Christ be a son of David (Mt. 1:1) with Coniah in his ancestry (Mt. 1:12-16)? How could God give Him David’s throne (Lu. 1:32)? Well, by Law if a man has no sons to inherit his possessions, his daughters inherit (Num. 27:1-8), and Mary was a son of David as well (Lu. 3:23-31). The genius of God!

Summary:

The Jews in Haggai’s day were discouraged that the new temple wasn’t as big as Solomon’s temple, so God planned to glorify it by shaking the nations down for their money to finance it, the way a bully shakes down a classmate (2:6-8) When the mountain of the Lord’s kingdom is established (Isa. 2:2) the nations “shall flow unto it” (v.6). Isaiah mentions their “silver and gold” because God plans to shake them into bringing it to Israel (Isa. 2:21). But an earthquake alone usually doesn’t separate men from their money, so God will shake heaven and earth (Hag. 2:6 cf. Joel 3:16,17).

But how would it encourage the Jews in Haggai’s day to know that God didn’t plan to glorify their temple until after they died? Well, doesn’t it encourage you to know that God is going to glorify the temple of your body until after you die if the Rapture doesn’t come first (Phil. 3:21,22)? If that doesn’t encourage you, you need to grow up (Eph. 4:15) and stop looking for instant gratification in this life.

But if all that’s true, why’d Haggai say the Lord would glorify the temple in “yet a little while”? Well, that phrase can mean a few moments (Lu. 22:56-59) or weeks or months (John 7:33) or thousands of years (Heb. 10:37), as it does here in Haggai 2 (cf. II Pe. 3:8).

God will only have to shake the nations “once” because that shaking will remove the world’s kingdoms (Heb. 12:26-28). After that their kingdoms will become the Lord’s kingdoms (Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15) and there will no further need to shake the nations.

“The desire of nations” (Hag. 2:7) is not Christ, it is money, and all the things money can buy (Eccl. 6:2). A stream of it will come to Jerusalem so steadily they’ll never be able to close the gates (Isa. 60:7-11). This will go on for eternity in New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22-25).

It is wrong when a bully shakes down a classmate for his lunch money, but it isn’t wrong for God to shake down the nations, for their money is His (Hag. 2:8). By virtue of the fact that God is the Creator of all things, He owns all things (Ps. 50:10-12). Men don’t know that now, but they will when it comes time to glorify the temple, just as the Jews knew when it came time to build Solomon’s temple (I Chron. 29:14-16). In the same way, the money you give to the Lord is His! Just like the body you give Him (Rom. 12:1 cf. I Cor 6:19,20). If you don’t give Him the body He owns, you’re not rendering to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17).

Solomon was the richest man who ever lived, how could the new temple be grander? It’ll be glorified with the combined wealth of everyone on earth (Isa. 2:7).

But how could God call the millennial temple “this latter house” when “this house” in the context is temple in Haggai’s day that was destroyed in 70 ad? Well, if the house of your body is destroyed, you have a resurrection body (II Cor. 5:1). It’s so sure that you’ll have it that God says you “have” it now, since He promised it to you (cf. Rom. 4:17). But your resurrection body will be your body (cf. Job 19:26,27), just far more glorious (I Cor. 15:37,38). Well, if God can call your resurrection house “your” house, even after it is destroyed, He can call the millennial temple “this house”, even though that house was destroyed in 70 ad.

All of this is symbolic of the difference between the Old and New Covenants. Just as the glory of the new temple will exceed the glory of the old temple, the glory of the New Covenant will exceed the glory of the Old (II Cor. 3:7-10). The Law was glorious, it upheld the high, perfect standards of God. But it condemned everyone, for no one could keep it. But the New Covenant of grace exceeds the Old Covenant in glory because it upholds the high standards of God, but gives believers perfect righteousness because of the blood of the New Covenant! The Law has no glory at all by comparison with that, just as Solomon’s temple will have no glory at all compared to the glory of the millennial temple.

Finally, God says “in this place will I give peace” (Hag. 2:9). That land that has known less peace than any other spot on the planet throughout history will not only have peace, it will be the source of peace for the rest of the world.

Summary:

It had been 70 years since Solomon’s temple was destroyed, but there were some “left” in Israel (v.1) who remembered it. We know they were discouraged that the new temple wasn’t as big because they “wept” when they saw the foundation (Ezra 3:12).

They were also discouraged by the king’s order to cease building the temple. But Zechariah, who was raised up with Haggai to encourage the Jews (Ezra 5:1,2), predicted the “mountain” of Persia’s king would flatten before Israel’s governor Zerubbabel (Zech. 4:7) — and he did!

But Zerubbabel didn’t level that mountain by lifting his hand against the authority of the king. He just reminded him that a previous king had ordered the temple built, and when the king checked, he found that it was true (Ezra 6:1-3), and knew that that command couldn’t be altered (Dan. 6:8).

That’s why Zechariah went on to predict that Zerubbabel would finish the temple (Zech. 4:8,9). But for that to happen they would have to learn not to despise “the day of small things” (v.10), and instead “be strong” (Hag. 2:4). That’s the secret to overcoming discouragement!

“The people of the land” (v.4) is a phrase that appears 52 times, and refers to the land of Canaan. Jews and Arabs fight over which people are the people of the land, but God promised it to Abraham and his seed “for ever” (Gen. 17:8).

But Abraham took his time about going there (Gen. 12:1), and by the time he got there, Satan had filled the land with his people — and Moses called them “the people of the land” three times (Gen. 23:7-13). Moses knew God promised the land to Abraham, but he knew God recognized the “squatter’s rights” of the Canaanites. People who occupy a land have legal right to it until the rightful owner evicts them.

But Joshua served an eviction notice when he led God’s people into Canaan and God enforced His promise to Abraham to give him the land. After that, the phrase “the people of the land” referred to the Jews — until they were taken away captive to Babylon. Then some new squatters moved in, and we know God recognized their rights because He called them “the people of the land” (Ezra 4:4; 10:2,11).

The land still belongs to Israel, but God won’t enforce His promise to them until the Lord returns, any more than He’ll enforce His promise that Jews should rule the world until then. So until then, we should be concerned with who owns the Jews’ hearts, not who owns their land (Rom.10:1).

By the way, Haggai called the Jews “the people of the land” at the same time Ezra called the Canaanites by that name to remind them they are the true owners of the land and had the right to build a temple on it. Plus, this chapter is a type of the kingdom. The chapter began on the day of Tabernacles (2:1 cf. Lev. 23:39), a type of the kingdom. It was the last of Israel’s feasts, like the kingdom is the last thing on their program. It’s called the feast of “ingathering” (Ex. 23:16), and that’s how the kingdom will start (Mt. 24:31).

God’s command to “be strong” was not for them to defy the king’s order, but to be strong in faith (cf.Rom. 4:19,20 cf. Josh. 1:6). To be strong and know that the king’s order wouldn’t be overturned by their might or power (Zech. 4:6,7) but by God. But the people would have to shout grace to the headstone (4:7), i.e., the cornerstone of the temple (cf. Ps. 118:22). The word “shout” should remind you of how some “shouted” when the temple foundation was laid (Ezra 3:11-13). It was their shouts of praise and thanksgiving that would bring the foundation forth to a temple (Zech. 4:7). Grace is God doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves, and that’s what their shouts were asking God to do — overturn the king’s order. Shouts also brought down Jericho’s walls (Jer. 6:5-20), God doing it for them!

Summary:

Most of the time when preachers talk about the Jews it is in a negative way, and there is nothing wrong with this. God recorded their sins “for ensamples” for us (I Cor. 10:11), and if preachers don’t use those examples, they can’t give us the “admonition” we need. So we should point out their sins as faithfully as we point out the sins of the Corinthians and other Gentiles. But we should also give the Jews credit when it is due, and it is due in Haggai 1:12! And when everyone in Israel obeyed God, from the governor down to the people, it was a type of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Zechariah also prophesied at that time (Ezra 5:2), and he gave another type of the kingdom. He tells how God told him to put two crowns on the high priest (Zech. 6:10,11), but high priests were only supposed to wear one (Ex. 39:27-30). Why two? The only other men in Israel to wear a crown were kings (II Ki. 11:11,12). But kings weren’t allowed to be priests and priests weren’t allowed to be kings! Saul lost his kingdom that way (I Sam. 13:9-14). So why would God tell Zechariah to put two crowns on the high priest? He was acting out a prophecy (cf. Ezek. 24:16-24) that he was about to give (Zech. 6:12,13). Christ will be a king and a priest in the kingdom, and Zechariah was acting that out. He says the Lord will build the temple (Zech. 6:13), so if the Jews at that time rebuilt the temple, they would be acting out their part of this prophecy of the kingdom!

They feared the Lord (1:12) because of the judgments that were already falling on them (1:6). They took Haggai’s advice and began to “consider” (1:5) that the last time they persisted in disobedience they ended up in Babylon for 70 years. Of course, grace believers think they needn’t fear God because He won’t chasten us like that, but Paul says otherwise (II Cor. 7:1). We should be afraid to grieve the Spirit who has sealed us to the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30).

It’s for your own good. When Christ will be both the political leader and spiritual leader of the world in the kingdom, it will be heaven on earth. Well, Christ is already your spiritual leader. If you make Him the king of your life, you can experience a little bit of heaven on earth right now!

Any prophet who ever delivered a message from God was a messenger of the Lord, but only Haggai is called that (1:13). That’s because he was a messenger “in the Lord’s message,” which was “I am with you.” That was God’s main message for Israel, so the message was delivered by the messenger.

But God was only with them if they were with Him (I Chron. 15:2). And they didn’t start building the temple till Verse 14. So how could God say He was with them in 1:13? What proof did He have they were with Him? Well they resumed work on the temple (1:14) 21 days after Haggai told them to go gather the wood (1:1 cf. 1:8). That means they must have gathered the wood in those 21 days. That’s how they “obeyed” in 1:12, and how God could say He was with them.

God “stirred” them (1:14) as he did Cyrus (II Chron. 36:22,23). He stirred him by naming him centuries before he was born and predicting he’d build the temple (II Chron. 36:22,23). When Cyrus saw that, he knew Israel’s God was the true God, and knew he’d better do what His Word said! In other words, God stirred him up using His Word, and that’s how He stirred the Jews in Haggai’s day as well. Haggai and Zechariah preached and got them stirred up.

It’s a pastor’s job to get people stirred up, so if you’re not feeling stirred up about the things of the Lord, get to church! You may know the Word well, but it’s the pastor’s job to stir you up about the things in the Bible you already know (II Pe. 1:12,13). Peter stirred them up even though they were “established in the present truth.” The present truth then was the New Testament, but today we need to be established in the truth of the Old Testament, the truth of the New Testament, and the truth of the grace message (Rom.16: 25,26), and let the pastor stir us up about it all!

Summary:

The hard financial times the Jews were experiencing (1:5,6) meant God was chastening them, as He warned He would (Deut. 28:15-41). God told them they’d sow much and reap little (28:38) and it was happening (1:6). Their fruitful land wouldn’t prosper if they were bad (Ps. 107:33,34).

Often they knew they were being chastened and were ashamed (Jer. 14:4), but when they forgot God reminded them (Joel 1:11). Here in Haggai they forgot, so God tells them to “consider” their ways (1:5). They ate, but didn’t have enough to eat (1:6), something else God warned about (Lev. 26:14,26; Hos. 4:10; Mic. 6:13,14). They drank but weren’t filled with drink (1:6) as God also warned (Ezek. 4:16,17; Deut. 28:39).

They ignored Leviticus 25:4 for 490 years, so God allowed them to be taken captive to let the land catch up on her sabbath years of rest (Lev. 25:33,34 cf. II Chron. 36:17-21). That means all the nutrients farming takes out of land were restored, and their land should have been producing big time. When it didn’t, they should have known they were being judged.

Just as the coats they were putting on weren’t warming them, the money they were making wasn’t profiting them (1:6). God warned them they’d spend their strength at work in vain (Lev. 26:14,20). So when God told them to consider their ways they should’ve done what the psalmist did (119:59,60).

They should have gone back to work on the temple. God repeated that order after chastening them (1:7,8) just as He repeated His order to Jonah after chastening him (1:1,2; 3:1,2)

Of course, when you’ve been away from the Lord for awhile, a sort of spiritual paralysis sets in, and you want to return, but are not sure how to start. God knew this, so told Israel what to do, step by step, i.e., to go up to the mountain and get the wood to build the temple and bring it back (1:8). He started with the basics, and built from there. If you feel spiritually paralyzed, you too need to get back to basics! And the first thing Paul tells us to do is stop doing bad things and start doing good things (Rom. 6:12,13). That’s pretty basic, but no more basic than “go get the wood…”, etc.

God said He’d take pleasure in the rebuilding of the temple (1:8). He knew that they knew if they started obeying, He would not only stop chastening them, He would start blessing them, so He gave them this added incentive. Then He gave them more incentive by saying it would glorify Him (1:8). In saying that, He was asking them to look past what obeying would do for them, and look at what it would do for God. Obedience glorifies God in any dispensation! We should remember that, since God is not spanking us when we are bad and blessing us when we are good in this dispensation, our only motivation to obey Him is to glorify Him!

Why would they look for much if they knew they were bad and deserved the chastening of getting little for their efforts (1:9)? Ah, they thought they were being good, obeying the king like God’s people should, when he ordered the work on the temple stopped. But they should have known from the example of the 3 Hebrews in Daniel 3 that they weren’t to obey the king if he ordered them to do something against God’s orders. They also should have known it was time to build the temple from Daniel 9:25, so they shouldn’t have been saying it wasn’t time to build the temple (1:2).

What little they did bring home God blew upon (1:9) with His fiery breath (Isa. 30:33 cf. 40:6,7), and it went up in a figurative puff of smoke. All because they let the house of God lay “waste” while they “ran” to build their own houses (1:2 cf. 1:4). That word “run” shows they were obeying God but their heart wasn’t it in. They couldn’t wait to stop serving God and start serving themselves (cf. Amos 8:4-7).

God not only cut off their rain, He cut off their dew (1:10), and thoroughly chastened them (1:11). But He doesn’t chasten us. We’re not under the law that says God will chasten us if we break it (Rom. 6:14,15). Your apostle never says to consider your ways, consider what you’ve done, he says to “forget” what you’ve done (Phil. 3:13) and think about virtuous things (Phil. 4:8). But sin will have a deadening effect in your life (Rom. 8:13), so don’t watch your circumstances for evidence God is chastening you, but watch your heart for signs of deadening. Serve Him by “considering” all He has done for you (I Sam. 12:24).

Summary:

Israel’s prophets usually dated their prophecies by the reign of Jewish kings (Isa. 1:1;Jer. 1:1-3; Ho. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1) But Israel had persisted in sin and rebellion so God allowed the Babylonians to conquer them. Then when the Persians conquered them, Hosea and Zechariah were forced to date their prophecies by a pagan king (1:1 cf. Zech. 1:1). God warned this would happen (Deut. 28:1-44).

Babylon’s victory over Israel began “the times of the Gentiles,” i.e., the time when Gentiles rule the world instead of Jews as God intended. These times will continue till the Lord returns and the Jews once more rule the earth under Him (Lu. 21:23-27). They are why we must obey the government even if unbelievers are our rulers (Rom.13:1-8).

You’re not under the law that says God will make someone else your king if you disobey Him (Rom.6:15), but you can make sin your king (Rom. 6:16). Balaam couldn’t curse Israel but taught Balak how to get them to curse themselves (Num. 31:16). No one can curse you, but you can curse yourself by not obeying God.

The Persian king allowed Israel a “governor” (1:1). His name means “born in Babylon,” which means he was born on the wrong side of the tracks, spiritually speaking, but he built Israel’s temple and helped bear the Messiah (Mt. 1:12,13; Lu. 3:23-27). You too can be used of God no matter where you were born.

Haggai prophesied “in the second year of Darius” (1:1) which means right after some troublemakers convinced the king to order work on the temple stopped (Ezra 4:1—5:2). Haggai wrote “the governor” because he could order the Jews back to work (1:1), but he also wrote “the high priest” because the problem wasn’t the king’s order to stop the work, the problem was how the Jews were reacting to it. They were too quick to give up (1:2).

“Aren’t God’s people supposed to obey the government?” Yes, unless they order something contrary to God’s orders (Acts 4:19,20). If they order us to stop preaching Christ, we shouldn’t because we are building the temple of Christ’s Body (I Tim. 3:15).

God called the Jews “my people Israel” 28 times, but called them “this people” when He was displeased with them, like the Lord called His Father’s house “your house” in speaking to those who rejected Him (cf. Jo.2:16; Mt. 23:37,38).

Only the most luxurious houses were ceiled (1:2) or plastered, so God was saying, “How come it’s not time to build Me a nice house but it is time to build yourselves nice homes?” They should have felt as David did (II Sam. 7:2), and challenged the ruling on legal grounds. Long before a Persian king ruled the temple not be built, an earlier king ruled it be built (Ezr. 1:1-3). They should have pointed out that that earlier law could not be altered (Dan.6:8).

Instead they did what Christians today do, they interpreted God’s will by their circumstances instead of by God’s Word. They knew Cyrus was right to order the temple built because Isaiah predicted he would (Isa. 45:28). Instead of interpreting the opposition to the work as God’s will, they should have remembered that any time you serve God you will experience opposition.

It’s always easier to let opposition make you think something is not God’s will and then find ways to justify it. God says men should work for a living, but men come up with excuses not to (Pr. 26:13-16; Eccl. 11:4). If you stop serving God every time the going gets tough, you’ll never accomplish anything for Him. Paul says we are appointed to opposition (Acts 14:22; I Thes. 3:3).

Instead of giving up on building the temple, the remnant should have had the same attitude David had when he was just trying to find a place to pitch the tabernacle for God. He said he wouldn’t sleep in his bed till he found it (Ps. 132:1-5), and he said that amid his “afflictions.” They included dodging javelins chucked at him by Saul! So no matter what afflictions are in your life, why not choose to say with David that God’s will comes first in your life?