Haggai
Purpose
Haggai bursts onto the scene in 520 BC, eighteen years after a small band of Judean exiles had returned from Babylon to a ruined Jerusalem, where the temple foundations laid years before still sat abandoned under weeds while the people poured their energy into their own paneled houses. The LORD's rebuke is pointed: "Consider your ways" — your harvests shrink, your wages leak through bags with holes, because my house lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own. Through four short, precisely dated messages Haggai stirs the leaders Zerubbabel and Joshua and the whole people to resume the work, and the LORD promises that the modest new temple, far less glorious than Solomon's in the eyes of the older returnees, will one day be filled with a greater glory — and that from it the desired treasures of all nations will come. Haggai closes with the LORD sealing Zerubbabel, the descendant of David, as his "signet ring," assuring a discouraged remnant that the covenant with David's house still stands even under Persian rule.
Author
Haggai the prophet
Time Period
520 BC, the second year of Darius the Persian
Key Themes
- Priorities and God's house
- Covenant faithfulness
- The glory of the latter temple
- Zerubbabel and David's line
- Courage
Outline
First message — the call to rebuild (ch. 1:1–15, dated day 1 of month 6): "Consider your ways"; the people's poverty; "build the house"; and the leaders and people obey, and the LORD stirs their spirits. Second message — the greater glory to come (ch. 2:1–9, dated day 21 of month 7): be strong, for I am with you; the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former; "in this place I will give peace." Third message — purity, blessing, and a people made clean (ch. 2:10–19, dated day 24 of month 9): the question of defiled offerings; "from this day on I will bless you." Fourth message — Zerubbabel the signet (ch. 2:20–23, dated day 24 of month 9): the shaking of the heavens and earth; the overthrow of kingdoms; and Zerubbabel made like a signet ring, "for I have chosen you."