Haggai 1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

The excuses the people gave for not finishing the work, the loss their indifference brought

2 “This is what the LORD of hosts has spoken, saying: This people say, ‘The time has not come, the time for building the LORD’s house.’ ”

3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, and this house lie in ruins?

1:3-4 They had built good houses for themselves but left God’s house a ruin (it had been destroyed about seventy years before – 2 Kings 25:8-15). Like so many Christians today the people put themselves first and neglected God’s work. They had time for themselves, but not for Him.⚜

5 “Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, but have harvested little. You eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And the wage earner earns wages to put into a bag with holes.

1:6 This was the result of their self-centered ways. They got little from their hard labour and were sinking into poverty. Their purses had “holes” – as fast as they earned money they had to spend it and it seemed to be going for nothing. All this was God’s punishment for their sin of forgetting His work (compare Deut 28:38-40; Lev 26:18-20).⚜

7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring timber and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD.

1:7-8 He wants them to realize the cause of their poverty and do something about it. If they would try to please God He would please them. If they would honor Him He would honor them (v 13; Hag 2:19; 1 Sam 2:30; Isa 58:13-14; John 12:26; 2 Cor 9:6-8). We have no right to expect God’s blessings if we care nothing for His pleasure and honor, and think only of our own.⚜

9 You looked for much, and, see, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew on it. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of my house, which lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds her fruit. 11 And I called for a drought on the land, and on the mountains, and on the grain, and on the new wine, and on the oil, and on all that the ground produces, and on men, and on cattle, and on all the labour of your hands”.

1:10-11 It is the one true God Who gives rain, and sometimes He withholds it as a punishment for people’s sins. Compare Lev 26:4, 19; Deut 28:22-24; 1 Kings 17:1; Jer 14:1, 22.⚜

The people listen and show reverence for God

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the rest of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, because the LORD their God had sent him, and the people feared the LORD.

1:12 “Remnant” – those who had returned from captivity in Babylon. They were a small number compared to the many people who had once lived in Judah.⚜

God’s promise, beginning the work again

13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the LORD”. 14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they came to work on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.