Haggai

Purpose & theme

Haggai is a short, urgent, precisely dated book with a single burning concern: the rebuilding of the temple of the LORD. The people had returned from Babylonian exile some eighteen years earlier and had begun to rebuild God’s house, but opposition and discouragement had stalled the work. In the meantime the people had grown comfortable, tending their own affairs and living in “paneled houses” while the house of God lay in ruins. Through four dated messages delivered over a span of about four months in 520 BC, God stirs the prophet Haggai to confront this misplaced priority and to rouse the leaders and people to finish the task.

Haggai’s message is a call to put God first and to “consider your ways” (1:5, 7). He shows the people that their frustrations — sowing much and harvesting little, eating but never having their fill, earning wages only to put them in “a bag with holes” — are connected to their neglect of God’s house and God’s honor. When they respond in obedience and resume the work, God gives them a series of great encouragements: “I am with you” (1:13); “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” (2:9); “from this day on I will bless you” (2:19); and to Zerubbabel the governor, the Davidic heir, the promise that God will make him “like a signet ring” (2:23), preserving the messianic line. Haggai teaches that when God’s people honor Him first, He meets them with His presence, His blessing, and His promises.