Haggai is a book of new beginnings, in a sense. Whereas the previous prophets had been proclaiming the coming judgment and exile for the sins of the people of Israel, Haggai prophesied during the second year of Darius. This indicates that Babylon had fallen and Persia was now the major nation in the area. Scholars place the time described by Haggai as around 520BC, nearly seventy years after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Persians allow the exiled Israelites who wanted to return to Jerusalem to do so. The high priest Joshua and Zerubbabel, governor of Jerusalem and from the line of David, led the people to rebuild the city. The situation seemed hopeful. Except that when the people returned, they had improper priorities.
Haggai accused the people of considering their own houses as more important that their allegiance to God. While they rebuilt their houses and planted their crops, the temple sat in ruins. His words motivated the people to rebuild the temple. Yet the people who remembered the old temple were disappointed in the new temple, which was not as grand as Solomon’s temple. Haggai addressed the low morale by reminding the people of the promise of God’s future kingdom and the New Jerusalem promised by the earlier prophets. He reminded them of the prophecy of all nations joining God’s kingdom.
Haggai then led a conversation with the priests about the purity. He called the people to remain pure so that their works, including the temple, could be pure. For corruption affects the holy more than the holy affects the corrupt. Haggai’s message to the post-exilic generation is strikingly similar to Moses’s message to the wilderness generation. Obedience leads to blessing while unfaithfulness leads to ruin. Only true repentance and faithfulness to the covenant leads to the coming of God’s kingdom and blessing. Haggai closed his book with the promise of a future hope of God’s kingdom. God will come to defeat evil. He will establish the New Jerusalem with the Messianic King. He closes with a challenge to faithfulness with the question as to whether Haggai’s generation would experience the fulfillment of these promises.
Reading this from a New Testament viewpoint, we can say that Haggai’s generation did not experience the fulfillment of this. The good news is that we have experienced them, at least in part. The promised Messiah did come. Jesus of Nazareth defeated evil and death by His sacrificial death on the cross and by the power of His resurrection. Yet we live in the tension between times. His first coming was the beginning of the end, but when Jesus returns, He will put the final nails in the coffin. Death and evil will be completely defeated. Christ will restore that which is now corrupt and will make it incorruptible. Jesus gives a message of hope, just as Haggai brought a message of hope. Be warned, however, that it is also a message of caution. Just as Haggai and Moses challenged the Israelites to remain faithful to the covenant or experience ruin, the New Testament prophets proclaim the same message. You must be faithful to Christ or you will experience the ruin that is to come. Therefore, repent of your sin and cling to Christ!
Joel McReynolds 
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