Haggai prophesied from August 29, 520 BC to December 18, 520 BC, early in the Second Temple Period (539 B.C. − A.D. 70). His vision and relentless exhortations spurred to completion the rebuilding of Yahweh’s sacred shrine.
Haggai is one of the Bible’s lesser known prophets. Brief references elsewhere in contemporary writings (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). According to the Ezra references, he was a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah, although neither prophet mentions the other. Haggai’s name, which means “festival” or “of a festival,” may indicate that he was born on a feast day or, symbolically, that he was destined to devote his life to the restoration of Israel’s religious festivals, at the center of which stood the temple in Jerusalem.
His book is a mere two chapters long, but he had something important to say to the people of his day — and to us, as well. Haggai was a postexilic prophet; he preached to the people of Judah after their return from exile in Babylon. Judah had ceased to exist as an independent nation in 597 B.C., when the Babylonians dominated the nation and deported a large group of her citizens to Babylon. Two more deportations followed, one in 587 when Jerusalem was destroyed, and another in 582. The people of Judah remained in exile until 538. A year earlier, the Persians conquered the Babylonians, and now the Persians, having a more humane policy, gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem and even agreed to finance the rebuilding of the temple. Not only that, but they restored to the Jews the temple vessels of silver and gold that the Babylonians had plundered.
Darius I (the Great) ruled the Persian Empire from 522 to 486 B.C., strengthening and enlarging its administrative infrastructure that his more military minded predecessors, Cyrus and Cambyses, had neglected. Although the biblical references to his support for the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple may glow more than the historical reality behind them, it would not have been entirely out of character for Darius to support the restoration of the civic, religious and social institutions that gave meaning — and contentment — to the client populations of the Persian Empire. Antiquity knew Darius for having supported, for example, the reorganization of scribal schools in Egypt, which was part of his empire’s vast reach.
Soon after the decree of Cyrus, which allowed not only for the return of the Jewish exiles to their homeland, but which also ordered, according to biblical tradition, the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple (Ezra 4:3), work began under Sheshbazzar to rebuild the physical structure and restore the worship of Yahweh in it. The effort languished, however, apparently from a number of causes — natural hardships, lack of enthusiasm, active opposition from rival religious and political factions — until the prophet Haggai, as part of the second generation of returning exiles, injected new life into the endeavor.
The prophet Haggai’s ministry was a mere bump in the road from a longevity standpoint, lasting less than four months during the second year of the reign of the Persian King Darius (Haggai 1:1, 15; 2:1, 10). Darius allowed some of the exiles to return home to Judah. He even allowed some of the temple artifacts to return home. Problem was that the situation in Judah and Jerusalem was bleak economically. Jerusalem was still largely in ruins and the temple a tall pile of rubble. The existing and returning residents seemed to be more concerned with building their own homes than worrying about the possibility of rebuilding the temple (Haggai 1:4, 9).
Naturally, those Jews who chose to return to their homeland set out with some appreciation for the Persians, but they still were not free. They remained subjects of the Persian Empire. Moreover, the Jerusalem to which they returned must have been a heartbreaking sight. The city walls were down, rubble lay heaped where homes had once stood, and the temple, the heart of Judah’s religion, was in ruins.
Within the first year of coming back, the returnees made a halfhearted attempt to clear the temple foundations, but they soon lost interest and instead went to work on their own homes. Who could blame them? Things really were not going very well. The people had to struggle daily just to get enough to eat. Their economy was in shambles, and the nearby Samaritans were hassling them. Dealing with harsh realities of daily existence occupied most of their time and energy. When Haggai comes onto the scene in 520, 18 years after the return, he observes: “Consider how you have fared. 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” (Haggai 1:5-6).
Klaus Koch will say that Haggai and Zechariah usher in the post-exilic age. He disagrees with the judgment of many scholars that they are narrow-minded, political nationalists, exclusive, and focus on the absolutism of the law that leads to righteousness by works.[1] Yet, as Elizabeth Achtemeier points out, we hear a strange message here, since many prophets had been critical of worship in the temple. We do not know what to do with either prophet. The pre-exilic prophets (those who preached before the exile and while Solomon’s temple was still standing) also cherished God’s house. Nevertheless, they chided the people for relying too much on temple attendance and on the religious rituals practiced there — including animal sacrifices, tithing and festivals — while ignoring the weightier matters of justice and mercy. Jeremiah, for example, warned the people, “Amend your ways and your doings ... Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:3-4). Haggai, on the other hand, urges the people to get serious about rebuilding the temple.
The intellectual world of Haggai depends on the priestly dichotomy between a holy world and an unclean world. They encouraged the people to rebuild the temple, concluding that project in 515 BC. Political realities had changed so that they could do this, but they make no mention of this, for their focus is on the authority of the Lord. In the opinion of some, they do so out of their desire to restore the symbol of their national pride. However, this accomplishment did not have the result these prophets had hoped. Rogers N. Carstensen (Interpreter’s Bible) notes that the people experienced hardship because of disease in crops. The prophets suggested this would continue as long as there was no visible symbol of the presence of God. Their messages culminate in the approaching coming of the Lord and the imminent establishment of the reign of God that they closely connect to the rebuilding of the temple. The point was that while the temple is in ruins, the people lived in their own homes. The message is close to saying that with Zerubbabel as a world-wide ruler and Joshua as high priest, all they need to do is rebuild the temple, and they would set in motion end-time events. In other words, Haggai and Zechariah name the coming anointed one. He would defeat the powers of the world through the spirit of the Lord rather than military might. Of course, Zerubbabel did not become the worldwide king that they expected. Von Rad suggests the establishment of the kingdom must await the rebuilding of the Temple.[2] Koch will say that in viewing essential eschatological saving figures as people they know, they go beyond all previous prophecy. Of course, one could say that 500 years later, some Jewish people would proclaim another person, Jesus of Nazareth, as that figure. Haggai rejects Samarian help in rebuilding the Temple. He also envisions an imminent time when all nations shall worship the Lord. The time of the Messiah would be a time of universal religion. He designates Zerubbabel, a descendent of David, to be the anointed one, the grandson of Jehoiachin. The reality was that he never came to the throne.
The people build the temple — finally! Haggai has the word of the Lord, and he tells the people they have their priorities wrong. Speaking of the temple, he says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house [i.e., the temple] lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4). No, he says, they should first rebuild the temple, take care of God’s house and then turn to their own comforts. The people responded, and within five years, the work on the temple was complete. This second temple was not as grand as the original one Solomon built, but at least the people had a house of worship, and they greatly rejoiced.
Haggai raises the question of who can worship in the temple and suggests that they must not throw open the doors of the sanctuary to anyone felt drawn to it. Rather, they must offer worthy sacrifices. He did this, recognizing the prophecy of Isaiah and the warning against foreign alliances. Given the historical reality that whatever Israel experienced at this time occurred in Jerusalem, it is little wonder that the Zion tradition was especially meaningful for these prophets. They are part of a long Zion tradition that looked forward to a time when the nations would come to Jerusalem and worship Yahweh.
The way Zechariah puts it, the reign of God will come when they rebuild the temple. The rebuilding of the temple is the dawn of salvation. He records eight visions, a different medium than most prophets. God does not speak directly to him. Rather, God has intermediaries, angels in particular, who will talk with the prophet. We might speculate that if the remoteness of God became a theme, they developed a way for representatives of God to communicate. He has a brief appearance of Satan in 3:1-2.
Haggai 1:15b-2:9, a segment that extends to verse 23, are oracles of encouragement.
In the second year of King Darius, 1 in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month (September 21, 520, the last ordinary day of the Feast of Booths), the novel word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai. This third-person reference is the favored formula in the Hebrew Bible for announcing prophetic speech or activity (cf. Genesis 15:1; I Samuel 15:10; II Samuel 7:4; 24:11; I Kings 6:11; 21:28; Isaiah 38:4; Jeremiah 43:8; Ezekiel 1:3; and many others). The reference indicates that third parties, such as disciples or communities of followers, collected the writings of the prophets. There are first-person exceptions to this stock formula, especially in the book of Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 1:4, 11, 13; 2:1, etc.), but the preponderant form is the third-person reference, as here. The innovative word of the Lord came, saying: 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel (“Born/sown in Babylon” or “Seed of Babylon,”). He is an enigmatic figure in the narratives of post-exilic Israel, with messianic language applied to him in the books of both Haggai (2:23) and Zechariah (4:6-10). He was one of the principal leaders of the second wave of exiles returning to Judah from Babylon. Haggai identifies him as son of Shealtiel. His patronymic puts him in the royal house of David, as Shealtiel is in I Chronicles 3:16-19 one of the seven sons of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), the Judean king who received royal favor during the Babylonian captivity (II Kings 25:27-30). This dynastic identification repeats in the NT, where Zerubbabel is in the genealogies of Jesus (Matthew 1:12-13; Luke 3:27), which had the intent of establishing Jesus’ Davidic lineage. He is also governor (pechah, an Assyrian loan word that occurs in the latest strata of biblical literature) of Judah, the secular leader. Haggai further delivers his unfamiliar word from the Lord to Joshua (the Aramaic spelling of whose name, “Jeshua,” is more common), unknown outside the narratives in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah that describe the rebuilding of the temple and the restoration of its worship order and life. Haggai further identifies this principal leader of the second wave of exiles returning to Judah from Babylon him as son of Jehozadak, the high priest. He is the first priest in the Hebrew Bible designated as “high priest.” Although biblical tradition traces the roots of the Aaronic high priesthood back to Sinaitic revelation (Numbers 25:10-13), it is unlikely, based on the reforms of worship life detailed in the book of Ezekiel, that the actual position of high priest existed prior to the exile. The combination of the rise of the family of Zadok under Babylonian patronage and the concomitant decline of the Davidic rulers in Judah in the post-exilic period allowed for the emergence of a high priest into the resulting leadership vacuum. In addition, Haggai addresses the novel word of the Lord to the remnant of the people. Although found in pre-exilic writings, the phrase rose to prominence as an ordering idea of Israel’s theological identity following the exile (e.g., II Chronicles 30:6; Ezra 9:8, 13, 14, 15; Isaiah 10:20, 21, 22; Jeremiah 23:3). The idea (if not the exact phrase) of the “righteous remnant” played a significant part in the burgeoning conflict between those who had remained in the land of Judah during the exile and those who had returned. In the chaotic mixture of parties and politics of occupied Judea, this division helped to fuel the exotic dualism of emergent apocalypticism, at the core of which is the struggle between the righteous remnant and the unrighteous multitude. As the visionary plans of those like Haggai and Zechariah foundered on the indifference, competing visions and outright antipathy of their compatriots, their religious zeal curdled into the bitterness that lies at the heart of the apocalyptic imagination. Haggai is to say, 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Anyone who could respond positively to this question would have been 73 years old. Not many could have survived to that age under the conditions of destruction, deportation, exile and return. The elders must have spoken nostalgically about that. The verse may refer not just to the physical structure but also to the political realities of a Judean kingdom vs. the little province of Judah. 4 Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, as over against political and religious leaders, says the Lord. Haggai is encouraging a delicate balance of power between political and religious leaders. That fragile compromise would not last. With the completion of the Second Temple in 5/15/6 B.C. (Ezra 6:15), the power of the royal line of David eclipsed irrevocably in favor of the high priest, who gradually assumed the authority to define Judaism as no other figure could. The Lord encourages them to work, for I am with you, providing the basis and reason for them to take courage, says the Lord of hosts, using an epithet for Israel’s god that occurs with almost monotonous regularity in the book of Haggai. The “hosts” refers to the heavenly armies of divine beings, of which Yahweh is commander, making his assurance of presence no empty platitude. The epithet hearkens back to the earliest strata of Israelite thinking about its God, who was understood to be the leader of both terrestrial and celestial armies (Israel’s warriors as well as the military wing of the “host of heaven”). The term is also royal, as far as the king was the leader of a royal retinue (the nonmilitary wing of the “host of heaven”) as well as the army. The term appears most frequently in prophetic literature, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, but not at all in the Pentateuch. As its variant use in I and II Samuel indicates, the designation dates from the earliest layers of biblical literature. Its frequent use in Haggai (1:2, 5, 7, 9, 14; 2:4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 23) is a deliberate anchoring of the prophet’s contemporary message in Israel’s most traditional theological language. The promise that the Lord is with them is 5 according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. The bottom line for a place of worship was not about how it they constructed it or how it looked, but who was there. Strength comes from the presence of the Lord. The promise to be with the people in their earlier struggle for liberation from bondage in Egypt (see, e.g., Exodus 3:12; 33:14, 16) forms the basis for Haggai’s assurance in the present situation. The exodus from Egypt (rather than, for example, the call of Abraham) functions here, as it does throughout the OT, as the template of divine favor, power, and relationship. The prophet knows this, for the Lord promised that when the Lord brought them out of Egypt, the Lord would be with them. Therefore, the key architectural criterion for sacred space is that it is a place where My spirit (denotes divine presence and power) abides among you; do not fear. Spirit refers both to the animating force as well as the identity of a thing, understood here to be a gift from God. In the current context, the implication is that God’s spirit will be the source of empowerment that will allow the work of rebuilding the temple to be undertaken and completed, much in the sense of God’s spirit allowing certain people in other contexts to perform special service (e.g., Judges 3:10). And although the term should be neither spiritualized nor atomized — classical Hebrew literature was unitary and concrete in its conceptualizations — its empowering function here is directed against a particular psychological and emotional threat: fear. In the absence of external hostile forces, it is the debilitating power of the returnees’ own fear that needs divine overcoming. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7 and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The manifestation of that divine power will be the convulsions of nature and culture. Such are typical reactions to the march of the divine warrior that is rooted in the earliest layers of Israel’s religious imagery. What natural or military catastrophe the prophet envisions is uncertain, as is the nature of the deity’s ownership of the silver and gold. The prophet may be stating simply that everything in the world belongs to the Lord (as Psalm 50:10 indicates), or he may be referring to the silver and gold stripped from the original temple that was peculiar to the Lord. Whatever its source, the silver and gold worthy of adorning the deity’s dwelling was clearly beyond the reach of the struggling returnees, which is why the deity himself promises to be their provider. 9 The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity (shalom), says the Lord of hosts. The result of that divine intervention is that vast foreign wealth will flow to the rebuilding effort, yielding a temple surpassing Solomon’s for splendor. The Lord will give them prosperity, the word here being shalom, the blessing of the Messianic age. That the eventual product fell far short of the prophetic vision is unremarkable in the long interplay between prophetic vision and historical reality in the Old Testament. The Lord owns all wealth. This temple — completed about 516 B.C. — stood 600 years, with a significant upgrade and expansion under Herod the Great. It was not until A.D. 70 that the Romans destroyed it while putting down a Jewish rebellion. This will be the extent of what Jewish historians will refer to as the Second Temple period.
This passage invites a consideration of the relationship between the need for a religious community to have a physical space and the wealth needed to build that space. I begin with a rarely studied phenomena. Religious institutions and industries in America contribute about $1.2 trillion a year to the U.S. economy and society. In terms of wealth, that’s more than the value of Apple, Amazon and Google combined. That figure includes church-run hospitals, church-related colleges, and other institutions birthed by churches and other religious groups. But it also includes local parishes of all sizes across our country, even some that are in the process of closing their doors.[3]
Let us pause for a moment to reflect upon time and space. Time and space are so much a part of our lives that we hardly give them a second thought. Precisely because they are so commonplace for us, we also need to see the sacredness of this time and this space. It all belongs to God. A prophet may receive messages from the Lord over several decades, or over only four months. In either case, this time becomes sacred, and we need to respond to what the Lord has said. Sukkoth, or the Feast of Booths, is a time for the Jewish people to remember a time when they had no Temple. Yet, the Lord was with them. The prophet Haggai spoke the word of the Lord at this Feast, focusing his message upon the new Temple.
Haggai could look to the past and remind people that their new Temple did not have the glory of the Temple Solomon built. Yet, that Temple was primarily a chapel for the royal family. This new Temple, built after the Jewish exile, would be for all the people. This space has become sacred because the Spirit of the Lord is in their midst. It will be appropriate to what they need now.
What makes a church holy is not the building. Time and space are important because people live them. They condition what we experience as human beings. Thus, what makes a church holy is the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in this time and in this place. We can have trust now because the wealth of the world belongs to the Lord. The Lord will provide what the people of God need at this time and this place.
The Chinese bamboo tree does absolutely nothing, or so it seems, for the first four years. Then suddenly, sometime during the fifty year, it shoots up ninety feet in sixty days. Now, would you say that bamboo tree grew in six weeks, or five years? Life is a lot like that. You can put forth all kinds of effort and nothing seems to happen. But if you do the right things long enough, eventually the growth which had been going on all along will become obvious.
[1] The Prophets Volume II, 159-175.
[2] Theology of the Old Testament.
[3] Grim, Brian J. and Grim, Melissa E. “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Volume 12, 2016, Article 3, www.religjournal.com. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
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