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Haggai was the first prophet to break the divine silence after the exiles returned from Babylon. A century separated Haggai’s ministry from those of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, who had warned Judah of their impending doom. The prophets vowed that a remnant would survive the exile, return, and rebuild. For Haggai, the remnant was not a metaphorical group in the future; they were his audience. Haggai’s exhortation elicited a refreshingly positive response from the remnant. While many had ignored prophets from the preexilic era, these were now eager to listen to the prophets in their own era. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the three Minor Prophets who ministered to the remnant after their return to the land.
In 586 BCE, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple after a brutal, protracted siege left the Jews weakened and starving, unable to defend their city walls against Nebuchadnezzar’s army. They set aflame the temple and the palace (Jer. 52:13). Nebuchadnezzar’s army deported thousands of Judah’s fighters, skilled workers, artisans, and royal elite to Babylon (2 Kings 24:16). Those who remained eked out their existence in the ruins of their kingdom.
The decree of Cyrus
Babylon’s fall came about as suddenly as its rise to power. By 539 BCE—only 50 years after Jerusalem’s destruction—the Persian Empire overtook the Babylonians. King Cyrus of Persia espoused a refreshing philosophy concerning conquered peoples. He encouraged the Judeans living in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their lost capital and temple (Ezra 1:1-4; 2 Chron. 36:23). According to the Bible, 50,000 Jews in the Diaspora accepted his generous offer, “everyone whose spirit God had stirred” (Ezra 1:5). Those returning were enthusiastic about fulfilling the prophesied role of the survivors of captivity. They understood that Cyrus’s decree resulted from God’s fidelity and the manifestation of his promises.
The historical record in Ezra corresponds with the theme of Haggai’s prophecies. Only seven months after the first wave of Jewish exiles returned to the land, they enthusiastically erected an altar atop the ruins of Solomon’s Temple so they could properly celebrate Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. With only an altar, they reinstituted the sacrificial system as “prescribed in the law of Moses” (Ezra 3:1-7). They resurrected the priesthood and laid the foundations of the new temple. Most of the people responded to the acts of renewal with joyful shouting. However, older witnesses in the audience wept because they understood they did not have the means to build a temple as beautiful as the one they had lost (Ezra 3:11-13).
People of the land
Soon, the remnant faced opposition from the “people of the land,” the Gentiles who had made their home in the land that had been vacated by Judah and Israel. The Jews’ return was considered a threat by the “people of the land,” who wrote a letter to King Darius accusing the Jews of illegally rebuilding the temple and plotting to rebel against the Persian Empire. The Judeans became demoralized by the intrusion, and all their temple work stopped (Ezra 4). Only once imperial authorities had located the decree of Cyrus in the royal archives were the Jews able to continue their work on the temple (Ezra 6).
Postexilic dating formula
Haggai’s prophetic ministry dates precisely to 520 BCE, “the second year of Darius the king” (1:1). It is a sad note that Haggai’s superscription includes the reign of a foreign king rather than naming Judah’s own king. Thus, the book opens with a reminder that, even though the Jews had repatriated their own land, they still lacked independence.
Haggai’s book comprises four self-contained oracles recorded over four months. No prophet living before the exile used precise dating formulas with the month, day, and year, but it became customary practice for prophets during and after the exile. Ezekiel and Daniel, prophets in exile, used calendar dating in their oracles, as did Zechariah. They all show the same commitment to chronological precision, a value clearly learned in exile. Historians compare the new prophetic dating format to the system found in the Babylonian chronicles. The royal historians of Babylon and Persia consistently used exact dates for every event that affected the throne. The prophets who survived the Babylonian exile were not immune to the cultural influences of Babylon.
By correlating Haggai’s four dates with the Babylonian chronicles, we know the exact dates of each of his oracles: August 29, September 21, October 17, and December 18. All took place in the year 520 BCE.
Haggai first shares “the word of the Lord” with Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and with Joshua, the High Priest (1:1). By speaking to the community through the political and religious leaders, Haggai was acknowledging their legitimacy. Zerubbabel’s grandfather was Jehoiachin the last king of Judah before the Babylonian destruction. As a descendant of King David, Zerubbabel was a legitimate heir to the throne, but because they were living under Persian rule, he held the lower title of governor and had limited authority (1 Chron. 3:19). Joshua was also an appropriate choice for High Priest since he was in the line of Aaron. Haggai’s prioritization of Joshua and Zerubbabel illustrated his recognition of their proper credentials as leaders.
Rebuild the temple
Yahweh had one message to deliver to the people through Haggai, his prophetic megaphone. The overcomers must rebuild his holy temple. For 16 years after their return, the Jewish community delayed the temple’s reconstruction, initially because of the discouraging effect of the hostility of their neighbors, but by the time Haggai was ministering, they were procrastinating out of sheer complacency. Haggai sarcastically noted, “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house” (1:2). Modern Christians who use the parlance of God “closing doors” as an excuse for inaction are like Haggai’s audience.
While God’s house remained a heaping ruin, the remnant were busily constructing their own homes. Yahweh asked, “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (1:4). Paneling was a luxury in antiquity, available primarily for palaces or for the temple (1 Kings 6:9, 7:3). Perhaps the paneled houses referenced in Haggai belonged only to Joshua and Zerubbabel and not to the common people. If so, he was holding the leaders accountable and questioning their priorities. One of the greatest leaders Israel ever had was King David, and his attitude towards God’s house was the opposite. King David had wanted desperately to build the temple. He had lamented to Nathan the prophet that he felt guilty living in a “house of cedar” while the Ark of the Covenant languished in a tent (2 Sam. 7:1-11).
The average Judean likely did not have a luxurious home. Still, Haggai had a pointed challenge for everyone. How could they claim it was not time to build God’s house, if they had built pleasant homes for themselves? Neglecting the building of the temple was not just the fault of Judah’s leaders, but it was a failure of the entire community. Their apathy about rebuilding the temple reflected an apathy toward Yahweh.
Haggai addressed all the returned exiles when he chronicled their recent hardships. He said, “You have sown much and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes” (1:5-6). The people of Judah were struggling. Food, drink, and clothing were in short supply. Their money ran out so quickly, it felt as if they had holes in their purses.
Haggai explained that the drought and crop failure were part of Yahweh’s judgment on them. God’s withholding of rain and produce made their planting and labor useless. In their complacency, they had not connected their agricultural hardship to their neglect of the temple. Haggai twice instructed, “Consider your ways” (1:5). He was reminding them to think about their actions regarding their covenant obligations. Since the time of Moses and the establishment of the terms of the covenant on Mount Gerizim, God had promised that if the people stayed faithful to him, he would bless them with the success of their crops and security on their borders (Deut. 27-28). If they stopped following him and ignored his commandments, God would turn the earth under their feet into iron (Deut. 28:23).
Although Haggai’s prophecies highlight the community’s failures, he gave them exact instructions for how to move forward and right their wrongs. He instructed the builders to “go up to the mountains” and “bring wood” to rebuild the temple (1:7). Years earlier, when the exiles had enthusiastically returned from Babylon and laid the foundation for the temple, they had purchased quality cedar from Lebanon (Ezra 3:7). The existing wood was inadequate for the temple’s scaffolding, so more was needed.
Ezra reported that the people used large stones and timber to rebuild the temple (3:8). Presumably, they used the rubble strewn about the Temple Mount from the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, repurposing the materials for the Second Temple. But Solomon’s scaffolding did not survive the fires of the Babylonian army. Interestingly, the prophet was telling them to gather local, inexpensive wood for the rebuilding of the temple. God was not making harsh demands on them during tough economic times. He did not require an ornate house or the use of the finest timber. It merely needed to be rebuilt.
God “stirred up the spirit” of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the community so they began diligently collecting the building materials (1:14). The phrase “stirring of the spirit” used in Haggai is the same wording used for what God did in the heart of Cyrus (2 Chron. 36:22). When God stirred the spirit, people were rushing with adrenaline to fulfill God’s purpose. Christians read about the rousing of spirits in God’s people throughout the Bible and rightly see an early, supernatural working of the same Holy Spirit who continues to stir our spirits today.
Obedience to the call
Haggai was fortunate enough to witness an exceptional right response to the divine message. Before the exile, the people had spurned prophets, like Amos, because they were unwilling to accept their condemnation as the voice of God. In Haggai’s case, the people were eager to have a prophet among them once more.
When reading Haggai, a theological conundrum arises. Why is the prophet so insistent on building a house for God? The preexilic prophets were far more concerned with moral and ethical obedience than with ritual responsibilities. “Obedience over sacrifice” had been their mantra, yet Haggai focused on the rebuilding of the temple. Why? Did he think God would leave the people if there was no temple?
Most people of the ancient Near East built sanctuaries to their gods on the suspicion that if they placated the gods, those gods would protect and provide for the community. A Jewish believer had to be of two minds with their sanctuary worship. They believed that Yahweh, their God, could not be confined to a physical temple or depicted by carved images. Even King Solomon, at the dedication of his beautiful temple to Yahweh, prayed, “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). Superior faith in Yahweh understood he did not require a house.
However, building a sanctuary to Yahweh was their way of communicating their eagerness for him to dwell in their midst. In the wilderness period, God instructed Moses, “make me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8). Refusing to build a sanctuary was equivalent to rejecting the divine indwelling. Even without a completed sanctuary, the remnant in Judah acknowledged Yahweh’s presence, but in God’s grace, he designed the community so that a sanctuary dedicated to him would be a symbol of their covenantal relationship. The temple was not for God; it was for the people. What was important to God was not the measure of the temple’s wealth, but the spirit of the people’s desire for him to dwell among them.
The book of Revelation tells us that the eschatological temple will far overshadow the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, or Herod. In the Messianic Age, the Lord and the Lamb will be the temple. The New Jerusalem will have no need of the sun or moon because the glory of God will provide the light. As that light radiates out, “the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it” (Rev. 21:24).