Haggai 1 commentary

162
HAGGAI 1 COMMETARY EDITED BY GLE PEASE ITRODUCTIO JOSEPH BESO, THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. ARGUMET. THE nine preceding minor prophets preached before the captivity; but the last three some time after it. Haggai was the first that was sent to the Jews, after their return to their own land. It is thought that he was born in Chaldea, and that he came from thence into Judea with Zerubbabel. He began his public work of prophesying and preaching in the sixth month of the second year of Darius Hystaspes, about seventeen years after the return of the captives. He, together with Zechariah, who, about two months after, was raised up to second him, mightily excited and encouraged the Jews to resume and proceed with the work of rebuilding the temple, which they had intermitted for fifteen or sixteen years. He remonstrated how improper it was for them to let the temple lie in ruins, while their own houses were finished and elegantly adorned; and that their neglect of God’s house and honour had provoked him to blast their outward enjoyments. To stir them up to use greater diligence in this work, he assured them from God, that, after terrible convulsions of the nations, the Messiah should appear in the flesh, should teach in the courts of this latter temple, and thereby render it more glorious than the first. It appears that all Haggai’s prophecies, that are recorded, were delivered in the second year of Darius, and within the space of four months. Zechariah, however, prophesied longer, for we have prophecies delivered by him which were dated two years after. The Jews ascribed to these two prophets the honour of being members of the great synagogue, as they call it, which was formed after the return from captivity. But it is more certain, and doubtless it was much more to their honour, that they both prophesied of Christ. Haggai spoke of him, as has just been observed, as the glory of the latter house; and Zechariah, as the man, the Branch, that should build the spiritual temple of the Lord, should bear the glory, should sit and rule upon his throne, and be a priest upon his throne. In and by these two prophets, and Malachi, who succeeded them, the light of the morning-star shone more bright than in and by the foregoing minor prophets, as they lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and saw more clearly than their predecessors had done his day approaching. The LXX. make Haggai and Zechariah to be the penmen of Psalms 128., 146., and the two following. THOMAS COKE, THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HAGGAI. HAGGAI was born, in all probability, in Babylon, whence he returned with Zerubbabel. After the death of Cambyses, Darius the son of Hystaspes coming to the empire, about 517 years before Christ, Haggai was excited by God (Ezra 5:1. &c.) to

Transcript of Haggai 1 commentary

HAGGAI 1 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

I�TRODUCTIO�

JOSEPH BE�SO�, THE BOOK OF HAGGAI.ARGUME�T.THE nine preceding minor prophets preached before the captivity; but the last three some time after it. Haggai was the first that was sent to the Jews, after their return to their own land. It is thought that he was born in Chaldea, and that he came from thence into Judea with Zerubbabel. He began his public work of prophesying and preaching in the sixth month of the second year of Darius Hystaspes, about seventeen years after the return of the captives. He, together with Zechariah, who, about two months after, was raised up to second him, mightily excited and encouraged the Jews to resume and proceed with the work of rebuilding the temple, which they had intermitted for fifteen or sixteen years. He remonstrated how improper it was for them to let the temple lie in ruins, while their own houses were finished and elegantly adorned; and that their neglect of God’s house and honour had provoked him to blast their outward enjoyments. To stir them up to use greater diligence in this work, he assured them from God, that, after terrible convulsions of the nations, the Messiah should appear in the flesh, should teach in the courts of this latter temple, and thereby render it more glorious than the first. It appears that all Haggai’s prophecies, that are recorded, were delivered in the second year of Darius, and within the space of four months. Zechariah, however, prophesied longer, for we have prophecies delivered by him which were dated two years after. The Jews ascribed to these two prophets the honour of being members of the great synagogue, as they call it, which was formed after the return from captivity. But it is more certain, and doubtless it was much more to their honour, that they both prophesied of Christ. Haggai spoke of him, as has just been observed, as the glory of the latter house; and Zechariah, as the man, the Branch, that should build the spiritual temple of the Lord, should bear the glory, should sit and rule upon his throne, and be a priest upon his throne. In and by these two prophets, and Malachi, who succeeded them, the light of the morning-star shone more bright than in and by the foregoing minor prophets, as they lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and saw more clearly than their predecessors had done his day approaching. The LXX. make Haggai and Zechariah to be the penmen of Psalms 128., 146., and the two following.

THOMAS COKE, THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HAGGAI.

HAGGAI was born, in all probability, in Babylon, whence he returned with Zerubbabel. After the death of Cambyses, Darius the son of Hystaspes coming to the empire, about 517 years before Christ, Haggai was excited by God (Ezra 5:1. &c.) to

exhort Zerubbabel and Joshua to resume the work of the temple, which had now been for a long time interrupted. The prophet reproaches them with their indolence, and tells them, that they were very careful to lodge themselves commodiously, while the house of the Lord remained a desert place, and laid buried in its own ruins. He tells them, that the calamities wherewith God had afflicted them since their return were punishments for their neglecting to carry on the work of repairing his temple. The remonstrances of Haggai had their effect; and in the second year of Darius, of the world 3484, which was the sixteenth after the return of the Jews from Babylon, they began again to proceed in this work. �o sooner had they set about it, than the Lord commanded Haggai to tell the people, chap. Zephaniah 2:3 that if any one had seen the temple built by Solomon, and did not think this to be so beautiful and magnificent a structure as that was, he ought not to be discouraged; because God would render this still more august and venerable than the first had been; not in the abundance of gold and silver which might adorn it, but by the presence of the Messiah, who was the desire of all nations, and by the glory which he would add to it.

PETER PETT, "Commentary on the Prophecy of HaggaiBy Dr Peter Pett BA BD (Hons - London) DDIntroduction.

Over a period from the mid 8th century BC onwards many Israelites had been exiled from Palestine to various countries in the Ancient �ear East, first as a result of Assyrian action (see e.g. 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 16:9; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11; 2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 11:11), and then as a consequence of Babylonian invasions which on three separate occasions resulted in hostages being taken and culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC (2 Kings 24:2; 2 Kings 24:14-15; 2 Kings 25:1-7; 2 Kings 25:11; 2 Kings 25:21. That was how Daniel found himself in Babylon. Others had also found their way to Egypt and the lands beyond (Isaiah 11:11; 2 Kings 25:26). And after the final destruction of Jerusalem large numbers were transported to Babylonia. Ezekiel tells us something about them in his prophecy.

But when Cyrus the Persian entered Babylon in triumph in 539 BC it was as someone who had a more enlightened policy. He actually encouraged exiles to return to their homelands if they wished, restored to them their religious paraphernalia (Ezra 1:7; and in the cases of other religions their stolen gods), and offered government support in the restoration of their temples (Ezra 3:7). He wanted the gods on his side.

An example of the kinds of edicts that he made is found in Ezra 1:2-4, but we must not read too much into it, for he did the same thing for peoples of many nations, in each case indicating his adherence to their gods. He was a syncretist.

The result was, as the book of Ezra demonstrates, that a good number of exiles did return from Babylonia, and one of their first actions was to build an altar in Jerusalem so that they could restore true YHWH worship (Ezra 3:2). And for the

first time for decades they were able to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. They even began to lay the foundations for a temple, but life was very much of a struggle for survival, and there was intense opposition from outsiders, and the result was that work stopped on the temple while they sought to re-establish themselves in the land (Ezra 3:8 to Ezra 4:6). The building of the Temple was something that could be taken up later. The result was that they got used to their present conditions of worship and the vision faded.

It is to this situation that Haggai and Zechariah addressed themselves in c.520 BC. They felt that it was their responsibility under God to arouse the restored exiles to a sense of what was necessary, and they were so successful that work began again on the temple and by 515 BC the temple was completed. �ow they could begin to look forward with hope to the future.

But we must not just see Haggai as a prophet who was concerned about the building of the Temple, for, as his further prophecies make clear, to him the rebuilding of the Temple was only the first stage in achieving what the previous prophets had promised, the reaching out of the Temple to all nations (Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-2), and the coming of the promised King (Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-9).

Haggai is also mentioned along with Zechariah in Ezra 5:1; Ezra 6:14 where the success of their ministry in respect of the building of the Temples is being described. Otherwise we know nothing about him or about any further ministry, although in the ancient versions his name is connected with some of the Psalms, especially Psalms 145-148.

The book has been described as poetic prose, and in order to bring out the parallels we have put much of it in ‘poetic’ form. But it is not strictly constructed as Hebrew poetry.

A Call to Build the House of the Lord

1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak,[a] the high priest:

BAR�ES, "In the second year of Darius - , i. e., Hystaspis. The very first word of prophecy after the captivity betokens that they were restored, not yet as before, yet so, as to be hereafter, more than before. The earthly type, by God’s appointment, was fading away, that the heavenly truth might dawn. The earthly king was withdrawn, to make way for the heavenly. God had said of Jeconiah Jer_22:30, “No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Israel:” and so now prophecy begins to be dated by the years of a foreign earthly ruler, as in the Baptism of the Lord Himself Luk_3:1. Yet God gives back in mercy more than He withdraws in chastisement. The earthly rule is suspended, that people might look out more longingly for the heavenly.

In the sixth month - They counted by their own months, beginning with Nisan, the first of the ecclesiastical year (which was still used for holy purposes and in sacred history), although, having no more any kings, they dated their years by those of the empire, to which they were subject (See Zec_1:7; Zec_7:1) in the sixth month, part of our July and August, their harvest was past, and the dearth, which they, doubtless ascribed (as we do) to the seasons, and which Haggai pointed out to be a judgment from God, had set in for this year also. The months being lunar, the first day of the month was the festival of the new moon, a popular feast Pro_7:20 which their forefathers had kept Isa_1:13-14, while they neglected the weightier matters of the law, and which the religious in Israel had kept, even while separated from the worship at Jerusalem (2Ki_4:23; add Amo_8:5; Hos_2:11). In its very first day, when the grief for the barren year was yet fresh, Haggai was stirred to exhort them to consider their way; a pattern for Christian preachers, to bring home to people’s souls the meaning of God’s judgments. God directs the very day to be noted, in which He called the people anew to build His temple, both to show the readiness of their obedience, and a precedent to us to keep in memory days and seasons, in which He stirs our souls to build more diligently His spiritual temple in our souls .

By the hand of Haggai - God does almost everything which He does for a person through the hands of people. He commits His words and works for people into the hands of human beings as His stewards, to dispense faithfully to His household. Luk_12:42. Hence, He speaks so often of the law, which He commanded “by the hand of Moses;” but also as to other prophets, Nathan 2Sa_12:25, Ahijal, 1Ki_12:15; 1Ki_14:16; 2Ch_10:15. Jehu 1Ki_16:7, Jonah 2Ki_14:25, Isaiah Isa_20:2, Jeremiah Jer_37:2, and the prophets generally. Hos. 7:20; 2Ch_29:25 the very prophets of God, although gifted with a Divine Spirit, still were willing and conscious instruments in speaking His words.

Unto Zerubbabel - (so called from being born in Babylon) “the son of Sheatiel.” By this genealogy Zerubbabel is known in the history of the return from the captivity in Ezra and Nehemiah Ezr_3:2, Ezr_3:8; Ezr_5:2; Neh_12:1. God does not say by Jeremiah, that Jeconiah should have no children, but that he should in his lifetime be childless, as it is said of those married to the uncle’s or brother’s widow Lev_20:20-21, “they shall die childless.” Jeremiah rather implies that he should have children, but that they should die untimely before him. For he calls Jeconiah Jer_22:30, “a man who shall not prosper in his days; for there shall not prosper a man of his seed, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Israel.” He should die (as the word means) “bared” of all, alone and desolate. The own father of Shealtiel appears to have been Neri Luk_3:27, of the line of Nathan son of David; not, of the line of the kings of Judah. Neri married, one must suppose, a daughter of Assir, son of Jeconiah 1Ch_3:17-19 whose

grandson Shealtiel was; and Zerubbabel was the own son of Pedaiah, the brother of Shealtiel, as whose son he was in the legal genealogy inscribed, according to the law as to those who die childless Deu_23:5-10, or as having been adopted by Shealtiel being himself childless, as Moses was called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh Exo_2:10. So broken was the line of the unhappy Jehoiachin, two thirds of whose own life was passed in the prison Jer_52:31, into which Nebuchadnezzar did cast him.

Governor of Judah - The foreign name betokens that the civil rule was now held from a foreign power, although Cyrus showed the Jews the kindness of placing one of themselves, of royal extraction also, as his deputy over them.

The lineage of David is still in authority, connecting the present with the past, but the earthly kingdom had faded away. Under the name “Sheshbazzar” Zerubbabel is spoken of both as the “prince” and the “governor” Ezr_5:14, of Judah. With him is joined “Joshuah the son of Josedech, the high priest,” whose father went into captivity 1Ch_6:15, when his grandfather Seraiah was slain by Nebuchadnezzar 2Ki_25:18-21. The priestly line is also preserved. Haggai addresses these two, the one of the royal, the other of the priestly, line, as jointly responsible for the negligence of the people; he addresses the people only through them. Together, they are types of Him, the true King and true priest, Christ Jesus, who by the resurrection raised again the true temple, His Body, after it had been destroyed .

CLARKE, "In the sixth month - Called Elul by the Hebrews. It was the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year, and the last of the civil year, and answered to a part of our September.

Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel -Who was son of Jeconiah, king of Judah, and of the family of David, and exercised the post of a governor among the people, but not over them, for both he and they were under the Persian government; but they were permitted to have Zerubbabel for their own governor, and Joshua for their high priest; and these regulated all matters relative to their peculiar political and ecclesiastical government. But it appears from Ezra, Ezr_5:3, that Tatnai, the governor on this side the river, had them under his cognizance. None of their own governors was absolute. The Persians permitted them to live under their own laws and civil regulations; but they always considered them as a colony, over which they had a continual superintendence.

Joshua the son of Josedech - And son of Seraiah, who was high priest in the time of Zedekiah, and was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, 1Ch_6:15. But Seraiah was slain at Riblah, by order of Nebuchadnezzar, 2Ki_25:18-21.

GILL, "In the second year of Darius the King,.... That is, of Persia; he is spoken of as if he was the only king in the world; and indeed he was the then greatest king in it; and therefore is emphatically called "the king". This was not Darius the Mede, as Genebrard; who was contemporary with Cyrus, and partner in the kingdom; nor Darius Nothus, as Scaliger, and those that follow him; since the second year of this Darius was, according to Cocceius, who follows this opinion, one hundred and thirty eight years after the first edict of Cyrus; and so Zerubbabel and Joshua must exercise their office, the one of governor, the other of high priest, such a term of years, and more, which is not credible; and some of the Jews in captivity must have lived upwards of two hundred years; even those who saw the temple in its first glory, before the captivity, and now

behold it in Haggai's time, in a very different condition, Hag_2:3. It seems therefore more probable, according to Josephus (i), and others, that this was Darius Hystaspis, who was chosen king by the nobles of Persia, upon his horse's neighing first as Herodotus (k) relates: the second year of his reign was about seventeen or eighteen years after the proclamation of Cyrus; during whose reign, he being much engaged in affairs abroad, and the reign of his successor Cambyses, the enemies of the Jews, encouraged by the latter, greatly obstructed the building of the temple, and discouraged them from going on with it; but when this king came to the throne, things took another turn, being favoured by him; for Josephus (l) relates, that, when a private person, he vowed, if ever he became king, whatever of the holy vessels were in Babylon, he would send to the temple at Jerusalem; and upon solicitations made to him, the Jews were encouraged to go on with the building of it:

in the sixth month; the month Elul, answering, to part of August, and part of September; which was the sixth, reckoning from the month Nisan:

in the first day of the month; which was the feast of the new moon:

came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet; or, "by the hand of Haggai" (m); by his means; he was the instrument by whom the Lord delivered his word; the word was not the prophet's, but the Lord's; and this is observed, to give weight and authority to it:

unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel: the same who is called Salathiel, Mat_1:12according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, he was the grandson of Salathiel; though rather Salathiel seems to be his uncle, he being the son of Pedaiah his brother, 1Ch_3:17however, he was his heir and successor in the government, and so called his son; See Gill on Mat_1:12,

governor of Judah; not king; for the country was under the dominion of the king of Persia, and Zerubbabel was a deputy governor under him; so the apocryphal Ezra calls him governor of Judea,

"And also he commanded that Sisinnes the governor of Syria and Phenice, and Sathrabuzanes, and their companions, and those which were appointed rulers in Syria and Phenice, should be careful not to meddle with the place, but suffer Zorobabel, the servant of the Lord, and governor of Judea, and the elders of the Jews, to build the house of the Lord in that place.'' (1 Esdras 6:27)

and, according to Josephus (n), he was made governor of the captive Jews, when in Babylon, being in great favour with the king of Babylon; and, with two more, were his body guards; and he was continued governor by the Persians, when the Jews returned to their land:

and to Joshua the son of Josedech the high priest; who is called Jeshua, and his father Jozadak, Ezr_3:2 his father was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar, 1Ch_6:15now, to these two principal persons in the commonwealth of Judea was the word of the Lord sent by the prophet; the one having the chief power in civil things, and the other in things ecclesiastical; and both had an influence upon the people; but very probably were dilatory in the work of building the temple; and therefore have a message sent to them, to stir them up to this service:

saying: as follows:

HE�RY, "It was the complaint of the Jews in Babylon that they saw not their signs,and there was no more prophet (Psa_74:9), which was a just judgment upon them for mocking and misusing the prophets. We read of no prophets they had in their return, as they had in their coming out of Egypt, Hos_12:13. God stirred them up immediately by his Spirit to exert themselves in that escape (Ezr_1:5); for, though God makes use of prophets, he needs them not, he can do his work without them. But the lamp of Old Testament prophecy shall yet make some bright and glorious efforts before it expire; and Haggai is the first that appears under the character of a special messenger from heaven, when the word of the Lord had been long precious (as when prophecy began, 1Sa_3:1) and there had been no open vision. In the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the third of the Persian kings, in the second year of his reign, this prophet was sent; and the word of the Lord came to him, and came by him to the leading men among the Jews, who are here named, Hag_1:1. The chief governor, 1. In the state; that was Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, of the house of David, who was commander-in-chief of the Jews, in their return out of captivity. 2. In the church; and that was Joshua the son of Josedech, who was now high priest. They were great men and good men, and yet were to be stirred up to their duty when they grew remiss. What the people also were faulty in they must be told of, that they might use their power and interest for the mending of it. The prophets, who were extraordinary messengers, did not go about to set aside the ordinary institutions of magistracy and ministry, but endeavoured to render both more effectual for the ends to which they were appointed, for both ought to be supported. Now observe,

JAMISO�, "Hag_1:1-15. Haggai calls the people to consider their ways in neglecting to build God’s house: The evil of this neglect to themselves: The honor to God of attending to it: The people’s penitent obedience under Zerubbabel followed by God’s gracious assurance.

second year of Darius— Hystaspes, the king of Medo-Persia, the second of the world empires, Babylon having been overthrown by the Persian Cyrus. The Jews having no king of their own, dated by the reign of the world kings to whom they were subject. Darius was a common name of the Persian kings, as Pharaoh of those of Egypt, and Caesar of those of Rome. The name in the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis is written Daryawus, from the root Darh, “to preserve,” the Conservator [Lassen]. Herodotus [6.98] explains it Coercer. Often opposite attributes are assigned to the same god; in which light the Persians viewed their king. Ezr_4:24 harmonizes with Haggai in making this year the date of the resumption of the building.

sixth month— of the Hebrew year, not of Darius’ reign (compare Zec_1:7; Zec_7:1, Zec_7:3; Zec_8:19). Two months later (“the eighth month,” Zec_1:1) Zechariah began to prophesy, seconding Haggai.

the Lord— Hebrew, Jehovah: God’s covenant title, implying His unchangeableness, the guarantee of His faithfulness in keeping His promises to His people.

by Haggai— Hebrew, “in the hand of Haggai”; God being the real speaker, His prophet but the instrument (compare Act_7:35; Gal_3:19).

Zerubbabel— called also Shesh-bazzar in Ezr_1:8; Ezr_5:14, Ezr_5:16, where the same work is attributed to Shesh-bazzar that in Ezr_3:8 is attributed to Zerubbabel. Shesh-bazzar is probably his Chaldean name; as Belteshazzar was that of Daniel. Zerubbabel, his Hebrew name, means “one born in Babylon.”

son of Shealtiel— or Salathiel. But 1Ch_3:17, 1Ch_3:19 makes Pedaiah his father. Probably he was adopted by his uncle Salathiel, or Shealtiel, at the death of his father (compare Mat_1:12; Luk_3:27).

governor of Judah— to which office Cyrus had appointed him. The Hebrew Pechahis akin to the original of the modern Turkish Pasha; one ruling a region of the Persian empire of less extent than that under a satrap.

Joshua— called Jeshua (Ezr_2:2); so the son of Nun in Neh_8:17.

Josedech— or Jehozadak (1Ch_6:15), one of those carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar. Haggai addresses the civil and the religious representatives of the people, so as to have them as his associates in giving God’s commands; thus priest, prophet, and ruler jointly testify in God’s name.

K&D, "In Hag_1:1 this address is introduced by a statement of the time at which it had been delivered, and the persons to whom it was addressed. The word of Jehovah was uttered through the prophet in the second year of king Darius, on the first day of the

sixth month. �ריוש answers to the name Dâryavush or Dârayavush of the arrow-headed

inscriptions; it is derived from the Zendic dar, Sanskrit dhri, contracted into dhar, and is

correctly explained by Herodotus (vi. 98) as signifying �ρξείης = coërcitor. It is written in

Greek ∆αρε#ος (Darius). The king referred to is the king of Persia (Ezr_4:5, Ezr_4:24),

the first of that name, i.e., Darius Hystaspes, who reigned from 521 to 486 b.c. That this is the king meant, and not Darius Nothus, is evident from the fact that Zerubbabel the Jewish prince, and Joshua the high priest, who had led back the exiles from Babylon to Judaea in the reign of Cyrus, in the year 536 (Ezr_1:8; Ezr_2:2), might very well be still at the head of the returned people in the second year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes, i.e., in the year 520, but could not have been still living in the reign of Darius Nothus, who did not ascend the throne till 113 years after the close of the captivity. Moreover, in Hag_2:3, Haggai presupposes that many of his contemporaries had seen the temple of Solomon. Now, as that temple had been destroyed in the year 588 or 587, there might very well be old men still living under Darius Hystaspes, in the year 520, who had seen that temple in their early days; but that could not be the case under Darius Nothus, who ascended the Persian throne in the year 423. The prophet addresses his word to the temporal and spiritual heads of the nation, to the governor Zerubbabel and the high

priest Joshua. זר'בל is written in many codd. זרובבל, and is either formed from זרוי+בבל, in

Babyloniam dispersus, or as the child, if born before the dispersion in Babylonia, would

not have received this name proleptically, probably more correctly from זרוע+'בל, in

Babylonia satus s. genitus, in which case the ע was assimilated to the ב when the two

words were joined into one, and ב received a dagesh. Zerubbabel (lxx Ζοροβάβελ) was

the son of Shealtiël. ש6ל5יאל is written in the same way in Hag_2:23; 1Ch_3:17; Ezr_3:2,

and Neh_12:1; whereas in Neh_12:12 and Neh_12:14, and Hag_2:2, it is contracted into

She'altı;'ēl, i.e., the prayer of God, or one asked of God in prayer, was, according to .של5יאל

1Ch_3:17, if we take 'assı;r as an appellative, a son of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin), or, if we take

'assı;r as a proper name, a son of Assir the son of Jeconiah, and therefore a grandson of

Jehoiachin. But, according to 1Ch_3:19, Zerubbabel was a son of Pedaiah, a brother of Shealtiel. And lastly, according to the genealogy in Luk_3:27, Shealtiel was not a son of either Assir or Jeconiah, but of Neri, a descendant of David through his son Nathan. These three divergent accounts, according to which Zerubbabel was (1) a son of Shealtiël, (2) a son of Pedaiah, the brother of Shealtiël, and a grandson of Assir or Jeconiah, (3) a son of Shealtiël and grandson of Neri, may be brought into harmony by means of the following combinations, if we bear in mind the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jer_32:30), that Jeconiah would be childless, and not be blessed with having one of his seed sitting upon the throne of David and ruling over Judah. Since this prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, according to the genealogical table given by Luke, inasmuch as Shealtiël's father there is not Assir or Jeconiah, a descendant of David in the line of Solomon, but Neri, a descendant of David's son Nathan, it follows that neither of the sons of Jeconiah mentioned in 1Ch_3:17-18 (Zedekiah and Assir) had a son, but that the latter had only a daughter, who married a man of the family of her father's tribe, according to the law of the heiresses, Num_27:8; Num_36:8-9 - namely Neri, who belonged to the tribe of Judah and family of David. From this marriage sprang Shealtiël, Malkiram, Pedaiah, and others. The eldest of these took possession of the property of his maternal grandfather, and was regarded in law as his (legitimate) son. Hence he is described in 1Ch_3:17 as the son of Assir the son of Jeconiah, whereas in Luke he is described, according to his lineal descent, as the son of Neri. But Shealtiël also appears to have died without posterity, and simply to have left a widow, which necessitated a Levirate marriage on the part of one of the brothers (Deu_25:5-10; Mat_22:24-28). Shealtiël's second brother Pedaiah appears to have performed his duty, and to have begotten Zerubbabel and Shimei by this sister-in-law (1Ch_3:19), the former of whom, Zerubbabel, was entered in the family register of the deceased uncle Shealtiël, passing as his (lawful) son and heir, and continuing his family. Koehler holds essentially the same views (see his comm. on Hag_2:23).

Zerubbabel was pechâh, a Persian governor. The real meaning of this foreign word is

still a disputed point.

(Note: Prof. Spiegel (in Koehler on Mal_1:8) objects to the combination attempted by Benfey, and transferred to the more modern lexicons, viz., with the Sanscrit

paksha, a companion or friend (see at 1Ki_10:15), on the ground that this word (1)

signifies wing in the Vedas, and only received the meaning side, party, appendix, at a later period, and (2) does not occur in the Eranian languages, from which it must

necessarily have been derived. Hence Spiegel proposes to connect it with pâvan (from

the root pâ, to defend or preserve: compare F. Justi, Hdb. der Zendsprache, p. 187),

which occurs in Sanskrit and Old Persian (cf. Khsatrapâvan = Satrap) at the end of composite words, and in the Avesta as an independent word, in the contracted form

pavan. “It is quite possible that the dialectic form pagvan (cf. the plural pachăvōth in

Neh_2:7, Neh_2:9) may have developed itself from this, like dregvat from drevat, and

hvôgva from hvôva.” Hence pechâh would signify a keeper of the government, or of

the kingdom (Khsatra).)

In addition to his Hebrew name, Zerubbabel also bore the Chaldaean name Sheshbazzar, as an officer of the Persian king, as we may see by comparing Ezr_1:8, Ezr_1:11; Ezr_5:14, Ezr_5:16, with Ezr_2:2; Ezr_3:2, Ezr_3:8, and Ezr_5:2. For the prince of Judah, Sheshbazzar, to whom Koresh directed the temple vessels brought from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to be delivered, and who brought them back from

Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezr_1:8, Ezr_1:11; Ezr_5:14), and who laid the foundation for the house of God, according to Ezr_5:16, is called Zerubbabel in Ezr_2:2, as the leader of the procession, who not only laid the foundation for the temple, along with Joshua the high priest, according to Ezr_3:2, Ezr_3:8, but also resumed the building of the temple, which had been suspended, in connection with the same Joshua during the reign of

Darius. The high priest Joshua (Yehōshuă‛, in Ezr_3:2, Ezr_3:8; Ezr_4:3, contracted into

Yēshūă‛) was a son of Jozadak, who had been carried away by the Chaldaeans to Babylon (Ezr_1:11), and a grandson of the high priest Seraiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had caused to be executed at Riblah in the year 588, after the conquest of Jerusalem (2Ki_25:18-21; Jer_52:24-27). The time given, “in the sixth month,” refers to the ordinary reckoning of the Jewish year (compare Zec_1:7 and Zec_7:1, and Neh_1:1 with Neh_2:1, where the name of the month is given as well as the number). The first day, therefore, was the new moon's day, which was kept as a feast-day not only by a special festal sacrifice (Num_28:11.), but also by the holding of a religious meeting at the sanctuary (compare Isa_1:13 and the remarks on 2Ki_4:23). On this day Haggai might expect some susceptibility on the part of the people for his admonition, inasmuch as on such a day they must have been painfully and doubly conscious that the temple of Jehovah was still lying in ruins (Hengstenberg, Koehler).

CALVI�, "The Prophet mentions here the year, the month, and the day in which he began to rouse up the people from their sloth and idleness, by the command of God; for every one studied his own domestic interest, and had no concern for building the Temple.

This happened, he says, in the second year of Darius the king. Interpreters differ as to this time; for they do not agree as to the day or year in which the Babylonian captivity began. Some date the beginning of the seventy years at the ruin which happened under Jeconiah, before the erasing of the city, and the destruction of the Temple. It is, however, probable, that a considerable time had passed before Haggai began his office as a Prophet; for Babylon was taken twenty years, or little more, before the death of king Cyrus; his son Cambyses, who reigned eight years, succeeded him. The third king was Darius, the son of Hystaspes, whom the Jews will have to be the son of Ahasuerus by Esther; but no credit is due to their fancies; for they hazard any bold notion in matters unknown, and assert anything that may come to their brains or to their mouths; and thus they deal in fables, and for the most part without any semblance of truth. It may be sufficient for us to understand, that this Darius was the son of Hystaspes, who succeeded Cambyses, (for I omit the seven months of the Magi; for as they crept in by deceit, so shortly after they were destroyed;) and it is probable that Cambyses, who was the first-born son of Cyrus, had no male heir. Hence it was that his brother being slain by the consent of the nobles, the kingdom came to Darius. He, then, as we may learn from histories, was the third king of the Persians. Daniel says, in the Daniel 5:0, that the city of Babylon had been taken by Cyrus, but that Darius the Mede reigned there.

But between writers there is some disagreement on this point; though all say that Cyrus was king, yet Xenophon says, that Cyaxares was ever the first, so that Cyrus

sustained only the character, as it were, of a regent. But Xenophon, as all who have any judgement, and are versed in history, well know, did not write a history, but fabled most boldly according to his own fancy; for he invents the tale that Cyrus was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Astyages. But it is evident enough that Astyages had been conquered in war by Cyrus. (127) He says also that Cyrus married a wife a considerable time after the taking of Babylon, and that she was presented to him by his uncle Cyaxares, but that he dared not to marry her until he returned to Persia, and his father Cambyses approved of the marriage. Here Xenophon fables, and gives range to his own invention, for it was not his purpose to write a history. He is a very fine writer, it is true; but the unlearned are much mistaken who think that he has collected all the histories of the world. Xenophon is a highly approved philosopher, but not an approved historian; for it was his designed object fictitiously to relate as real facts what seemed to him most suitable. He fables that Cyrus died in his bed, and dictated a long will, and spoke as a philosopher in his retirement; but Cyrus, we know, died in the Scythian war, and was slain by the queen, Tomyris, who revenged the death of her son; and this is well known even by children. Xenophon, however, as he wished to paint the image of a perfect prince, says that Cyrus died in his bed. We cannot then collect from the Cyropaeda, which Xenophon has written, anything that is true. But if we compare the historians together, we shall find the following things asserted almost unanimously:—That Cambyses was the son of Cyrus; that when he suspected his younger brother he gave orders to put him to death; that both died without any male issue; and that on discovering the fraud of the Magi, (128) the son of Hystaspes became the third king of the Persian. Daniel calls Darius, who reigned in Babylon, the Mede; but he is Cyaxares. This I readily admit; for he reigned by sufferance, as Cyrus willingly declined the honor. And Cyrus, though a grandson of Astyages, by his daughter Mandane, was yet born of a father not ennobled; for Astyages, having dreamt that all Asia would be covered by what proceeded from his daughter, was easily induced to marry her to a stranger. When, therefore, he gave her to Cambyses, his design was to drive her to a far country, so that no one born of her should come to so great an empire: this was the advice of the Magi. Cyrus then acquired a name and reputation, no doubt, only by his own efforts; nor did he venture at first to take the name of a king, but suffered his uncle, and at the same time his father-in-law, to reign with him; and yet he was his colleague only for two years; for Cyasares lived no longer than the taking of Babylon.

I come then now to our Prophet: he says, In the second year of Darius it was commanded to me by the Lord to reprove the sloth of the people. We may readily conclude that more than twenty years had elapsed since the people began to return to their own country. (129) Some say thirty or forty years, and others go beyond that number; but this is not probable. Some say that the Jews returned to their country in the fifty-eighth year of their captivity; but this is not true, and may be easily disproved by the words of Daniel as well as by the history of Ezra. Daniel says in the ninth chapter Daniel 9:1 that he was reminded by God of the return of the people when the time prescribed by Jeremiah was drawing nigh. And as this happened not in the first year of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, but about the end of the reign of Belshasar before Babylon was taken, it follows that the time of the exile was then

fulfilled. We have also this at the beginning of the history, ‘When seventy years were accomplished, God roused the spirit of Cyrus the king.’ We hence see that Cyrus had not allowed the free return of the people but at the time predicted by Jeremiah, and according to what Isaiah had previously taught, that Cyrus, before he was born, had been chosen for this work: and then God began openly to show how truly he had spoken before the people were driven into exile. But if we grant that the people returned in the fifty-eighth year, the truth of prophecy will not appear. They therefore speak very thoughtlessly who say that the Jews returned to their country before the seventieth year; for thus they subvert, as I have said, every notion of God’s favor.

Since then seventy years had elapsed when Babylon was taken, and Cyrus by a public edict permitted the Jews to return to their country, God at that time stretched forth his hand in behalf of the miserable exiles; but troubles did afterwards arise to them from their neighbors. Some under the guise of friendship wished to join them, in order to obliterate the name of Israel; and that they might make a sort of amalgamation of many nations. Then others openly carried on war with them; and when Cyrus was with his army in Scythia, his prefects became hostile to the Jews, and thus a delay was effected. Then followed Cambyses, a most cruel enemy to the Church of God. Hence the building of the Temple could not be proceeded with until the time of this Darius, the son of Hystaspes. But as Darius, the son of Hystaspes, favored the Jews, or at least was pacified towards them, he restrained the neighboring nations from causing any more delay as to the building of the Temple. He ordered his prefects to protect the people of Israel, so that they might live quietly in their country and finish the Temple, which had only been begun. And we may hence conclude that the Temple was built in forty-six years, according to what is said in the second chapter of John (130) (John 2:20); for the foundations were laid immediately on the return of the people, but the work was either neglected or hindered by enemies.

But as liberty to build the Temple was given to the Jews, we may gather from what our Prophet says, that they were guilty of ingratitude towards God; for private benefit was by every one almost exclusively regarded, and there was hardly any concern for the worship of God. Hence the Prophet now reproves this indifference, allied as it was with ungodliness: for what could be more base than to enjoy the country and the inheritance which God had formerly promised to Abraham, and yet to make no account of God, nor of that special favor which he wished to confer—that of dwelling among them? An habitation on mount Sion had been chosen, we know, by God, that thence might come forth the Redeemer of the world. As then this business was neglected, and each one built his own house, justly does the Prophet here reprove them with vehemence in the name and by the command of God. Thus much as to the time. And he says in the second year of Darius, for a year had now elapsed since liberty to build the Temple had been allowed them; but the Jews were negligent, because they were too much devoted to their own private advantages.

And he says, that the word was given by his hand to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech. We shall hereafter see that this

communication had a regard without distinction to the whole community; and, if a probable conjecture be entertained, neither Zerubbabel nor Joshua were at fault, because the Temple was neglected; nay, we may with certainty conclude from what Zechariah says, that Zerubbabel was a wise prince, and that Joshua faithfully discharged his office as a priest. Since then both spent their labor for God, how was it that the Prophet addressed them? and since the whole blame belonged to the people, why did he not speak to them? why did he not assemble the whole multitude? The Lord, no doubt, intended to connect Zerubbabel and Joshua with his servant as associates, that they three might go forth to the people, and deliver with one mouth what God had committed to his servant Haggai. This then is the reason why the Prophet says, that he was sent to Zerubbabel and Joshua.

Let us at the same time learn, that princes and those to whom God has committed the care of governing his Church, never so faithfully perform their office, nor discharge their duties so courageously and strenuously, but that they stand in need of being roused, and, as it were, stimulated by many goads. I have already said, that in other places Zerubbabel and Joshua are commended; yet the Lord reproved them and severely expostulated with them, because they neglected the building of the Temple. This was done, that they might confirm by their authority what the Prophet was about to say: but he also intimates, that they were not wholly free from blame, while the people were thus negligent in pursuing the work of building the Temple.

Zerubbabel is called the son of Shealtiel: some think that son is put here for grandson, and that his father’s name was passed over. But this seems not probable. They quote from the Chronicles a passage in which his father’s name is said to be Pedaiah: but we know that it was often the case among that people, that a person had two names. I therefore regard Zerubbabel to have been the son of Shealtiel. He is said to have been the governor (131) of Judah; for it was necessary that some governing power should continue in that tribe, though the royal authority was taken away, and all sovereignty and supreme power extinguished. It was yet God’s purpose that some vestiges of power should remain, according to what had been predicted by the patriarch Jacob,

‘Taken away shall not be the scepter from Judah, nor a leader from his thigh, until he shall come;’ etc. (Genesis 49:10.)

The royal scepter was indeed taken away, and the crown was removed, according to what Ezekiel had said, ‘Take away the crown, subvert, subvert, subvert it,’ (Ezekiel 21:26;) for the interruption of the government had been sufficiently long. Yet the Lord in the meantime preserved some remnants, that the Jews might know that that promise was not wholly forgotten. This then is the reason why the son of Shealtiel is said to be the governor of Judah. It now follows—

BE�SO�, "Haggai 1:1. In the second year of Darius — �amely, the son of Hystaspes, king of Persia. Blair places the second year of his reign five hundred and twenty years before Christ. In the sixth month, in the first day of the month —Therefore, about two months before Zechariah received a similar commission, for

the word of God came to him in the eighth month of the same year: see Zechariah 1:1. These two prophets were sent to the Jews chiefly, it seems, to exhort them to go on with the rebuilding the temple. And the historical book of Ezra records, chap. 5., that the rebuilding of the temple was resumed and carried on again through the exhortations and encouragements of these prophets. Unto Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel — And grandson of Jeconiah, who was carried captive to Babylon: see the margin. It is likely that Zerubbabel was regarded with as much respect by the Jews as if he had been their king, being of the royal family of David; but they did not give him the title of king, or invest him with the splendour of royal dignity, for fear of giving offence to the Persian kings, under whose protection they lived, and upon whom they were in a great measure dependant. And to Joshua the son of Josedech — Son of Seraiah, who was high-priest when Jerusalem was taken, and who was slain at Riblah: see 1 Chronicles 6:14; 2 Kings 25:18-21. Haggai seems to have addressed Zerubbabel and Joshua probably in the hearing of the people: see Haggai 1:12.

COFFMA�, "Verse 1This chapter contains the the salutation and dating of the prophecy and the first of Haggai's four messages.

Haggai 1:1

"In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the High Priest, saying:"

FIRST MESSAGE

"Darius the king ..." This was Darius the Great of Persia, also called Darius Hystaspes, after the name of his father. He reigned over the Medo-Persian Empire from 522-486 B.C.[1] He continued the benevolent policies that had characterized the reign of Cyrus who issued the original order for the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of the Jewish captives to Jerusalem.

"In the sixth month, in the first day of the month ..." This corresponds to "Elul, answering to parts of our August and September."[2]

"The word of Jehovah by Haggai ..." Twenty-six times the prophet affirmed in the space of these two short chapters that his word was not his own, but the word of the Lord. Commentators will never be able to understand prophecy until they are willing to take this into account. All of the speculation and wild guesses about what the prophet supposed, or thought, are absolutely immaterial and irrelevant. �o matter what the prophets might have thought, and we may be reasonably certain that they thought a lot of things that were not true, it was what they wrote that constitutes the Word of God; and, as an apostle has declared unto us, the prophets themselves did not always know the meaning of what they declared to be the Word

of God (See 1 Peter 1:10-12).

"Unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah ..." �ote that Zerubbabel here is a deputy of Darius the Great; and despite his being of the royal seed of David, he was in no sense a true king of Judah. The name Zerubbabel means, "Seed of Babylon," indicating that he was probably born during the Babylonian captivity. He was a friend and favorite of Darius the Great who made him governor of Judah. Zerubbabel successfully competed in a contest to determine what was the strongest thing in the world - wine, kings, women, or truth. Zerubbabel, having demonstrated that truth was the mightiest of all, was called the `king's cousin,' and was granted permission to go up to Jerusalem to build the temple."[3]

"Son of Shealtiel ..." Scholars, have long puzzled over the riddle posed by other passages which affirm that he was the son of Pedaiah (1 Chronicles 3:19). Several plausible solutions involving Levirate marriages, adoptions, etc., have been proposed, but they are of minor interest. Zerubbabel was universally known as the "son of Shealtiel" (Luke 3:27; Matthew 1:12) and is so listed in the genealogies of both Matthew and Luke. "Salathiel" is another form of the same name. In harmony with Jeremiah's prophecy that no seed of Jeconiah should sit upon David's throne, it would appear that Zerubbabel was not a blood relative of that weak and incompetent monarch. �evertheless, he was "most certainly his successor of the 3or 4th generation, and the legitimate heir to the throne of David."[4] The two �ew Testament genealogies of Matthew and Luke both list his name; and it would appear that Christ was both a literal descendant of Zerubbabel through Mary the daughter of Heli, and the legal descendent and heir of David through Zerubbabel and Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was the legal son, but not his actual son.

"And Joshua ... the High Priest ..." �ote the prominence of the Jewish high priest. �ot to the governor only, but to the High Priest likewise came the sacred message. Henceforth in Israel (Judah), the king would not be the "all in all" of former days, but the High Priest would move into a similar position of authority as the custodian of the peoples' fortunes. This was continued throughout the subsequent history of Judah until the coming of Christ, at which time the high priest, Caiaphas, appears as one of near-equal authority with the governor, or procurator, Pontius Pilate.

COKE, ". Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel— Zerubbabel was of the family of David, the grandson of Jechoniah, and the son of Shealtiel, as he is said to be here, and in Matthew 1:12 or the son of Pedaiah, and the grandson of Shealtiel, as it seems we ought to infer from 1 Chronicles 3:18 or, most probably, the son of Pedaiah by nature, and of Salathiel by adoption. He is called the governor, not the king of Judah. See 1 Kings 20:24 which is the rather to be observed, as there are some who strangely apply to Zerubbabel those prophesies wherein it is foretold that Israel should return and serve David their king; prophesies which pertain only to Messiah, the king of the Jews. Josedech was high-priest in the reign of Zedekiah, and was carried away captive by �ebuchadnezzar. See 1 Chronicles 6:15. His son succeeded him in the same dignity, when Judah returned from captivity, being confirmed in

his office by the great Sanhedrin.

TRAPP, "Haggai 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

Ver. 1. In the second year of Darius the king] �ot of Darius the Mede, as Genebrard noteth, for he was predecessor to Cyrus, Daniel 5:31, and Haggai prophesied after Cyrus and Cambyses, Ezra 4:5; Ezra 5:1, neither of Darius �othus, as Scaliger in his book, De Emend. Temporum (the doctrine whereof is almost wholly fictitious, saith one, and founded upon the confines of nothing); but of Darius son of Hystaspes, who succeeded Cambyses in the kingdom of Persia; being chosen king by the peers, upon the neighing of his horse first, as Herodotus testifieth. Whether this Darius was the husband of Queen Esther, as some affirm, or her son, as others (and was therefore so favourable to the Jews), I undertake not to determine; only take notice, that by heathen historians it is said, that the wife of this Darius was called Atossa, which sounds in part somewhat like Hadassah, that is, Esther, Esther 2:7. Hadassah was her own Hebrew name; and after she was made queen she was called Esther. He is called Darius the king, as if he were the only king on earth. His successor, Darius, in his proud embassy to Alexander, called himself the king of kings and cousin of the gods; and for Alexander, he called him his servant; but Alexander soon after became his lord: for the kingdom of Persia was lost by that Darius, as it had been restored by this to its former splendour, after the havoc made by Cambyses ( παλιν επι Dαρειου σχεδον εσωθη); who among other vile acts of his (as "wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, according to the proverb of the ancients," 1 Samuel 24:18), forbade the building of the temple, Ezra 4:22. But he who sets up princes at his pleasure, and turns their hearts whithersoever he will, Proverbs 21:1 (as the ploughman doth the watercourse with his paddle, or the gardener with his hand), turned here the heart of this great king to his people the Jews; so that he made a new decree for the advancement of the building, Ezra 5:8. God also seasonably stirred up Haggai and Zechariah to quicken the people (who were soon after their return from Babylon grown cold again and careless), and so blessed their ministry, that the house, that is, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies, was finished in four years’ time, or thereabouts, Ezra 6:14. The outward court, and so the whole temple, in three years after that, as Josephus witnesseth.

In the sixth month] In the 3484th year of the world, as Ussher computeth it, on the first of September, {confer Haggai 2:19} when the Jews were ingathering their harvest and fruits, and found a dearth toward. This the prophet makes use of, pressing it upon the people as a just hand of God upon them, for slighting and slacking the rebuilding of his house. It is good for God’s ministers to set in with him, to strike while the iron is hot, to cry, "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it," Micah 6:9; for as iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire; and as molten metals are fit for the mould; so when men are under the cross they are more easily wrought upon; they will hearken to instruction, that before laughed at it, as the wild

ass doth at the horse and his rider, Job 39:18. The wild ass, that is used to the wilderness, though she kick up her heels, and snuff up the wind at her pleasure, so that they that seek her will not weary themselves, yet there is a time when she may be taken; in her month they shall find her, Jeremiah 2:24.

In the first day of the month] Heb. In one day. One for first is ordinary in both Testaments, Genesis 1:5; �umbers 29:1; Daniel 9:1; Matthew 28:1; John 20:1; 1 Corinthians 16:2. The time of this prophecy (as of others, Isaiah 1:1, Jeremiah 1:2-3, &c.) is precisely noted, to teach us what account we should make of God’s oracles and inspirations; and how God will one day reckon with us for the helps we have had and the time we have enjoyed them. He sets down all: how much more should we, and live up to our means and mercies, propagating our thankfulness into our practice! Jeremiah prophesied forty years, but with ill success; it was his unhappiness to be physician to a dying state, Tunc etiam, docta plus valet arte malum. The Holy Ghost sets a special mark upon these forty years of his prophesying, Ezekiel 4:6, by bidding the prophet lie forty days upon his right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, a day for a year.

Came the word of the Lord] i.e. He began to prophesy, as Ezra 5:1, being sent and set to work by God, whose alone it is to make fit ministers of either Testaments, 2 Corinthians 3:5, to send, gift, and bless them, Jeremiah 23:21. Prophetarum ora sunt Dei os The mouths of the prophets are the mouth of God. (Chrysost.).

By Haggai the prophet] Heb. by the hand of Haggai, that is, by his means and ministry. {See Trapp on "Malachi 1:1"} Haggai signifieth merry and pleasant ( Festivus et laetus), as at a solemn feast; which name of his excellence suited both with the time of his prophecy, viz. after the return from captivity, see Psalms 126:1-2, and also with the matter whereof he treats and whereto he drives, Christ, the Desire of all nations, Haggai 2:7 Wilt thou be merry at any time? saith Seneca, think on Caesar: canst thou be sad and he be in health? How much more cause have we to be merry in the Lord Christ! Let us keep the feast with all solemnity; let us keep holy day ( εορταζωµεν), since Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Let this swallow up all our discontents, and crown the calendar of our lives with continual festivals; let the ransomed of the Lord return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, &c., Isaiah 35:10. The Septuagint ascribe certain of the Psalms to Haggai and Zechariah, in the titles they prefix; though some think that the Hallelujah Psalms (as they are called, because they begin and end with Hallelujah, or, Praise ye the Lord) were sung by the Jews, returning out of Babylon; those two prophets beginning the tune, or giving the verse (as they call it). And hereunto the prophet Jeremiah might have an eye, Jeremiah 31:12 "Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together, to the goodness of the Lord," &c.

Unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel] Philo saith he was also called Barachias; others Pedaiah, out of 1 Chronicles 3:19. He is called Sheshbazzar, Ezra 1:8. His name, Zerubbabel, signifieth either, Born in Babel, or, Far from confusion. A prince (of all men) should observe order, and keep the peace. By the laws of England a nobleman cannot be bound to the peace; because it is supposed that the peace is always bound to him, and that of his own accord he will be careful to keep others in good order. But what a regnum Cyclopicum was at Rome in �ero’s days, Quando poterat quisque ea quam cuperet potiri, negare licebat nemini? Turn servus cum Domina, praesente Domino suo, et gladiator cum virgine nobili inspectante patre rem habuit (Dio in Vit. �eron). Blessed be God for better times.

Governor of Judah] Or duke, captain, provincial, president. The many headed multitude hath need of a guide, who may be αθορυβος και φρονιµος, peaceable and prudent (saith Plato), to keep and care for the welfare of his subjects. Such a one was Zerubbabel, �obilis genere, nobilior sanctitate, �oble by birth, but more noble by his piety; drained from the dregs and sifted from the brans of the baser sort of people. In the seventeenth year of his age he led back part of the people from Babylon to Jerusalem, where he continued governor for the time of 58 years, saith Gryaenus. Those that make Darius in the text to be Darius �othus must needs allow him a much longer life and government; which God, say they, granteth to some because he hath something to be done by them. The change of states may here also be remarked. This people was first governed by judges, or captains; then by kings, and now by captains again. So the principality of Edom, as it began with dukes, and rose to kings, so it returned to dukes again, after the death of Hadad, in Moses’ time, 1 Chronicles 1:51, Genesis 36:43. Adeo nihil est in vita firmum aut stabile ( ασταθµητον του βιου). Truly, nothing in life is fixed and secure. So uncertain are all things.

And to Joshua the son of Josedech] A brand plucked out of the fire, Zechariah 3:2, and therefore the fitter for such a preferment, ut in alto positus non altum sapiat (Bernard). David came not to the kingdom till his soul was even as a weaned child, Psalms 131:2. Queen Elizabeth swam to her crown through a sea of sorrows. Matthias, King of Hungary, was taken from the prison to the throne. But to the business: Joshua, the high priest, was a type of Christ in regard, 1. Of his name, which signifieth a Saviour. 2. Of his office of high priesthood. 3. Of his partnership with Zerubbabel, in bringing the people home to their own country. The Lord Christ is both our Prince of life and our merciful and faithful High Priest, ever living to make request for us, Acts 2:15; Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 7:24-28

The high priest, saying] Zerubbabel and Jehoshua were the chieftains of the people; and though not themselves in fault, or, at least, nothing so much (for they were both very religious), yet they were not so forward and forth putting as they should have been in so excellent a work. Howsoever, if the task be not done, the taskmasters are beaten, Exodus 5:14. It is the misery of those that are trusted with authority that

their inferiors’ faults are beaten upon their backs. If the people gather manna on the Lord’s sabbath Moses and Aaron shall hear, "How long refuse ye to keep. my commandments?" Exodus 16:28. It is Mr Calvin’s opinion that Haggai, therefore, addressed himself to these two principal persons; to the end that they might join their forces with him, in reprehending and exciting the people to the Lord’s work. When the word and the sword go together there is great likelihood of much good to be done. Upon the sword of Charles the Great was written Utriusque tabulae custos. Guard of both tables of the law. And Queen Elizabeth riding progress once in Suffolk, said, that now she saw the reason why that county was so well governed, for she observed that all the justices coming to meet her had every one his minister next to his person.

ELLICOTT, "Verse 1(1-11) The First Utterance.—The neglect of God’s House denounced, and declared to be the cause of the prevalent dearth.

(1) Darius the king.—Scil., Darius I., son of Hystaspes, who became king of Persia in B.C. 521. The fact that there were still men living who had seen the First Temple (Haggai 2:3), which fell in B.C. 586, sufficiently disproves the absurd theory that Darius �othus is meant, who did not accede to the throne until B.C. 423-4. Prophecy is now dated by the years of a foreign ruler, for Zerubbabel, though a lineal descendant of David, was only a pechâh, or viceroy of Persian appointment, not a king in his own right.

The sixth month.—That named Elul, corresponding nearly with our September.

In the first day—i.e., on the festival of the new moon, a holy day which had always been marked not only by suspension of labour, but by special services in the Temple (Ezekiel 46:3; Isaiah 66:23). It was thus an appropriate occasion for Haggai to commence a series of exhortations so intimately connected with the Temple. Besides, it appears to have been an ancient custom that the people should resort to the prophets for religious instruction on new moons and Sabbaths. (See 2 Kings 4:23.)

Came the word . . .—Literally, there was a word of the Lord by the hand of Haggai, &c. This expression, which occurs repeatedly in this book, indicates that Jehovah was the direct source of these announcements, and Haggai only their vehicle.

The prophet.—See Habakkuk 1:1, �ote.

Son of Shealtiel.—Strictly speaking, Zerubbabel was the son of Pedaiah, who contracted a Levirate marriage with the widow of his brother Shealtiel. (See �otes on 1 Chronicles 3:17; Jeremiah 22:30; Luke 3:27.)

Governor.—Satrap, or viceroy, a term applied in the Old Testament to the provincial prefects of the Assyrian and Babylonian and Persian empires. (See �ote on 1 Kings 10:15.) Joshua, the high priest, is a prominent character in the prophecy of Zechariah. Haggai addresses Zerubbabel as the civil, Joshua as the ecclesiastical

head of the restored exiles.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 1Like Ezekiel ,, Jonah , and Zechariah , the Book of Haggai contains no formal title. Yahweh sent a message to Zerubbabel ("born in Babylon" or "seed of Babylon," an allusion to his birthplace) and Joshua ("Yahweh saves") through the prophet Haggai , though it went to all the Israelites too ( Haggai 1:2; Haggai 1:4). Zerubbabel was the political governor (overseer) of the Persian province of Judah who had led the returnees back to the land ( Ezra 2:2; et al.). He was the son of Shealtiel ("I have asked of God," Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8; Ezra 5:2; �ehemiah 12:1; et al) and the grandson of King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), one of the descendants of King David (cf. 1 Chronicles 3:17-19; Matthew 1:12).

Zerubbabel apparently had two fathers ( 1 Chronicles 3:17-19). Perhaps his other father, Pedaiah, was his uncle. If this was a levirate marriage (cf. Deuteronomy 25:5-10), Pedaiah would have married a woman and then died. Shealtiel, Pedaiah"s brother, would then have married the widow who gave birth to Zerubbabel in place of Shealtiel, Zerubbabel"s physical father. Another possibility is that Shealtiel adopted Zerubbabel after Pedaiah died. A third option is that one of these men was really a more distant ancestor of Zerubbabel, perhaps his grandfather.

Joshua was the high priest of the restoration community and a descendant of Aaron. He was the son of Jehozadak, who had gone into Babylonian captivity in586 B.C. ( 1 Chronicles 6:15; cf. Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8; �ehemiah 12:1; �ehemiah 12:8).

The Lord gave Haggai this message on the first day of the sixth month in the second year that Darius I (Hystaspes) ruled as king over Persia. This was Elul1 (August29), 520 B.C. [�ote: R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology626 B.C-A.D75 , p30 , established the equivalent modern (Julian) dates.] When the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon, they continued to follow the Babylonian calendar and began their years in the spring rather than in the fall (cf. Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22). Each new month began with a new moon, and the Israelites commonly celebrated the occasion with a new moon festival (cf. �umbers 28:11-15; Isaiah 1:14; Hosea 2:11). This first prophetic revelation that God gave in the Promised Land following the return from exile came on a day when most of the Israelites would have been in Jerusalem. The meaning of Haggai"s name (festal, or festal one) was appropriate in view of when the Lord gave this first prophecy through him. The fact that the writer spoke of Haggai in the third person does not exclude Haggai himself from being the writer since this was a common literary device in antiquity. [�ote: Taylor, p52.]

In the historical books of the Old Testament, the writers usually dated the events in reference to a king of Judah or Israel, but the Jews had no king now. They were under the control of a Gentile ruler, in "the times of the Gentiles" ( Luke 21:24; cf. Daniel 2; Zechariah 1:1). "The times of the Gentiles" are the times during which Israel lives under Gentile control. These times began when Judah lost her

sovereignty to �ebuchadnezzar in586 B.C, and they will continue until Messiah"s second coming when He will restore sovereignty to Israel.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME�TARY

Verses 1-15

1. THE CALL TO BUILD

CHAPTER 1

It was to this situation, upon an autumn day, when the colonists felt another year of beggarly effort behind them and their wretched harvest had been brought home, that the prophet Haggai addressed himself. With rare sense he confined his efforts to the practical needs of the moment. The sneers of modern writers have not been spared upon a style that is crabbed and jejune, and they have esteemed this to be a collapse of the prophetic spirit, in which Haggai ignored all the achievements of prophecy and interpreted the word of God as only a call to hew wood and lay stone upon stone. But the man felt what the moment needed, and that is the supreme mark of the prophet. Set a prophet there, and what else could a prophet have done? It would have been futile to rewaken those most splendid voices of the past, which had in part bean the reason of the people’s disappointment, and equally futile to interpret the mission of the great world powers towards God’s people. What God’s people themselves could do for themselves-that was what needed telling at the moment; and if Haggai told it with a meager and starved style, this also was in harmony with the occasion. One does not expect it otherwise when hungry men speak to each other of their duty.

�or does Haggai deserve blame that he interpreted the duty as the material building of the Temple. This was no mere ecclesiastical function. Without the Temple the continuity of Israel’s religion could not be maintained. An independent state, with the full courses of civic life, was then impossible. The ethical spirit, the regard for each other and God, could prevail over their material interests in no other way than by common devotion to the worship of the God of their fathers. In urging them to build the Temple from their own unaided resources, in abstaining from all hopes of imperial patronage, in making the business one, not of sentiment nor of comfortable assurance derived from the past promises of God, but of plain and hard duty-Haggai illustrated at once the sanity and the spiritual essence of prophecy in Israel.

Professor Robertson Smith has contrasted the central importance which Haggai attached to the Temple with the attitude of Isaiah and Jeremiah, to whom" the religion of Israel and the holiness of Jerusalem have little to do with the edifice of the Temple. The city is holy because it is the seat of Jehovah’s sovereignty on earth, exerted in His dealings with and for the state of Judah and the kingdom of David."

At the same time it ought to be pointed out that even to Isaiah the Temple was the dwelling-place of Jehovah, and if it had been lying in ruins at his feet, as it was at

Haggai’s there is little doubt he would have been as earnest as Haggai in urging its reconstruction. �or did the Second Isaiah, who has as lofty an idea of the spiritual destiny of the people as any other prophet, lay less emphasis upon the cardinal importance of the Temple to their life, and upon the certainty of its future glory.

"In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month and the first day of the month"-that is, on the feast of the new moon-"the word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, Satrap of Judah, and to Jehoshua, son of Jehosadak, the high priest"-the civil and religious heads of the community-as follows:-

"Thus hath Jehovah of Hosts spoken, saying: This people have said, �ot yet is come the time for the building of Jehovah’s House. Therefore Jehovah’s word is come by Haggai the prophet, saying: Is it a time for you-you-to be dwelling in houses ceiled with planks, while this House is waste? And now thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Lay to heart how things have gone with you. Ye sowed much but had little income, ate and were not satisfied, drank and were not full, put on clothing and there was no warmth, while he that earned wages has earned them into a bag with holes."

"Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Go up into the mountain"-the hill-country of Judah-"and bring in timber, and build the House, that I may take pleasure in it, and show My glory, saith Jehovah. Ye looked for much and it has turned out little, and what ye brought home I puffed at. On account of what?-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts-on account of My House which is waste, while ye are hurrying every man after his own house. Therefore hath heaven shut off the dew, and earth shut off her increase. And I have called drought upon the earth, both upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon what the ground brings forth, and upon man, and upon beast, and upon all the labor of the hands."

For ourselves, Haggai’s appeal to the barren seasons and poverty of the people as proof of God’s anger with their selfishness must raise questions. But we have already seen, not only that natural calamities were by the ancient world interpreted as the penal instruments of the Deity, but that all through history they have had a wonderful influence on the spirits of men, forcing them to search their own hearts and to believe that Providence is conducted for other ends than those of our physical prosperity. "Have not those who have believed as Amos believed ever been the strong spirits of our race, making the very disasters which crushed them to the earth the tokens that God has great views about them?" Haggai, therefore, takes no sordid view of Providence when he interprets the seasons, from which his countrymen had suffered, as God’s anger upon their selfishness and delay in building His House.

The straight appeal to the conscience of the Jews had an immediate effect. Within three weeks they began work on the Temple.

"And Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Jehoshua, son of Jehosadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to

the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people feared before the face of Jehovah. (And Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, in Jehovah’s mission to the people, spake, saying, I am with you-oracle of Jehovah.) And Jehovah stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, Satrap of Judah, and the spirit of Jehoshua, son of Jehosadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they went and did work in the House of Jehovah of Hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king."

�ote how the narrative emphasises that the new energy was, as it could not but be from Haggai’s unflattering words, a purely spiritual result. It was the spirit of Zerubbabel, and the spirit of Jehoshua, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, which was stirred-their conscience and radical force of character. �ot in vain had the people suffered their great disillusion under Cyrus, if now their history was to start again from sources so inward and so pure.

PETT, "Haggai 1:1

‘In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of YHWH 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 date was 520 BC. Having taken over the throne on the death of Cambyses, son of Cyrus, Darius had established his position, and by the time of his second year the only thing that awaited his attention was a rebellious Egypt that had claimed independence. He would deal with that small problem in the following year. So in this particular year nothing special was happening. He was totally oblivious of the fact that in one small part of his empire things were stirring, not politically but religiously. Things that would have a profound effect on the world, for they were beginnings which would lead to profound changes.

The dating of the prophecy in terms of Darius instead of a king of Judah was indicative of the situation in which the people found themselves. They had no king. They had no army. They were in no way a nation. Instead they were simply a small group of returned exiles struggling to survive in not very helpful conditions. It may, however, be that we are to see in this dating a sign of YHWH’s approval of the kings of Persia whom He had chosen for the purpose of re-establishing His people and His Temple (Isaiah 44:28 to Isaiah 45:1). They too were part of His new plan.

The returned exiles were finding things particularly hard at this time. Their neighbours had not been pleased to see them arrive, especially when they appeared to be religiously exclusive (Ezra 4:2-3), and were far from welcoming, and they had had a series of bad harvests. They had also probably found that the best land was already being farmed. Things were at a low ebb, and the initial confidence that they had had on first arriving from Babylonia had waned.

They were ruled over at the local level by Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of

David, and their religious affairs were in the hands of Joshua the High Priest. But Zerubbabel was not governor of a Persian province. He was simply the local governor, appointed because of his royal connection to oversee the exiles and the land allotted to them.

Joshua’s grandfather Seraiah had been High Priest when Jerusalem was taken by �ebuchadnezzar, and had been executed along with the other leading men (2 Kings 25:18-21; Jeremiah 52:24-27) because they were seen as leaders of the resistance of Jerusalem. His son Jehozadak had been spared and taken captive to Babylon (1 Chronicles 6:15). �ow his grandson Joshua had received the High Priesthood.

And it was to these two men, Zerubbabel and Joshua, that Haggai the prophet came with a message from YHWH. It is significant that he approached the leaders. Clearly they were seen as godly men who could be depended on to respond once they knew that YHWH had spoken. All they needed was a push from God.

How often that is precisely what we need as well. How easily we settle down and accept things as they are without stirring ourselves and doing something about it. If only we had a Haggai to give us a similar push.

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:1

In the second year of Darius the king. This is Darius Hystaspes, who reigned over Persia from B.C. 521 to B.C. 486. He is called in the inscriptions Daryavush, which name means "Holder," or "Supporter." Herodotus (6:98) explains it as "Coercer" ( ἑρξείης). Hitherto the prophets have dated the time of the exercise of their office from the reigns of the legitimate Hebrew monarchs; it shows a new slate of things when they place at the head of their oracles the name of a foreign and a heathen patenlate. The Jews had, indeed, now no king of their own, "the tabernacle of David had fallen" (Amos 9:11), and they were living on sufferance under an alien power. They had returned from exile by permission of Cyrus in the first year of his occupancy of the throne of Babylon sixteen years before this time, and had commenced to build the temple soon after; but the opposition of neighbours, contradictory orders from the Persian court, and their own lukewarmness had contributed to hinder the work, and it soon wholly ceased, and remained suspended to the moment when Haggai, as the seventy years of desolation drew to an end, was commissioned to arouse them from their apathy, and to urge them to use the opportunity which was afforded by the accession of the new monarch and the withdrawal of the vexatious interdict that had checked their operations in the previous reign (see Introduction, § 1; and comp. Ezra 4:24). The sixth month, according to the sacred Hebrew calendar, which reckoned from �isan to �isan. This would be Elul, answering to parts of our August and September. In the first day. This was the regular festival of the new moon (�umbers 10:10; Isaiah 1:13), and a fitting time to urge the building of the temple, without which it could not be duly celebrated. By; literally, by the hand (as in verse 3), the instrument whom God used (Exodus 9:35; Jeremiah 37:2; Hosea 12:11; Acts 7:35) Haggai the prophet (see the Introduction). Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel; Septuagint, εἰπὸν πρὸς ζοροβάβελ

τὸν τοῦ σαλαθιὴλ, "Speak to Zorobabel the son of Salathiel." The temporal head of the nation, the representative of the royal house of David, and therefore with the high priest jointly responsible, for the present state of affairs, and having power and authority to amend it. The name, as explained, and rightly, by St. Jerome, means, "Born in Babylon," and intimates the truth concerning his origin. He is called Sheshbazzar in Ezra 1:8; Ezra 5:14, which is either his name at the Persian court, or is an erroneous transliteration for a synonymous word (see Kuabenbauer, in loc.). The name is found in the cuneiform inscription, as Zir-Babilu. Shealtiel (or Salathiel) means, "Asked of God." There is a difficulty about Zerubbabel's parentage. Here and frequently in this book, and in Ezra and �ehemiah, as well as in Matthew 1:12 and Luke 3:27, he is called "son of Shealtiel;" in 1 Chronicles 3:19 he is said to be the son of Pedaiah the brother of Salathiel. The truth probably is that he was by birth the son of Pedaiah, but by adoption or the law of the levirate, the son of Salathiel. He was regarded as the grandson of Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah. Governor (pechah). A foreign word, used in 1 Kings 10:15, in Isaiah (Isaiah 36:9) and frequently in Ezra, �ehemiah, and Esther, to denote an inferior satrap or subordinate governor. Strassmaier (ap. Knabenbauer) notes that in Assyrian the word is found in the form pachu, that pichatu means "a province," pachat, "a district." It seems natural, though probably erroneous, to connect it with the Turkish pashah. But see the discussion on the word in Pusey, 'Daniel the Prophet,' p. 566, etc. Instead of "Governor of Judah," the LXX. here and verse 12 and Haggai 2:2 reads, "of the tribe of Judah." One of the house of David has the government, but the foreign title applied to him shows that he holds authority only as the deputy of an alien power. Judah was henceforward applied to the whole country. The prophecy in Genesis 49:10 still held good. Joshua. The highest spiritual officer (Ezra 3:2, Ezra 3:8; Ezra 4:3). This Joshua, Jehoshua, Jeshua, as he is variously called, was a son of Josedech who, in the time of �ebuchadnezzar, had been carried captive to Babylon (lCh Joshua 6:15), and grandson of that Seraiah who, with other princes of Judah, was slain at Riblah by the Babyloniaes (2 Kings 25:18, etc.). The parentage of Zerubbabel and Joshua is specially mentioned to show that the former was of the house of David and the latter of the family of Aaron, and that even in its depressed condition Israel retained its rightful constitution (see note on Zechariah 3:1).

BI 1-2, "Came the Word of the Lord by Haggai.

Duty revealed

The grail subject of the whole chapter is duty. Duty revealed, duty postponed, duty vindicated These two verses direct us to the revelation of duty. Here we have—

(1)The time of its revelation. Every duty has its time, every true work has its hour.

(2) The organ of its revelation. “Came the Word of the Lord by Haggai.”

(3) The order of its revelation Haggai had to deliver the message to men nearest to him, with whom he was most identified, and the men too who had the most power in influencing others.

I. Duty is the burden of divine revelation. The great purpose of Haggai’s mission was, in

the name of God, to urge his countrymen to the fulfilment of a work which was morally incumbent on them, namely, the rebuilding of the temple, What was the burden of Haggai’s mission is in truth the burden of the whole Divine revelation—duty. It contains, it is true, histories of facts, effusions of poetry, discussions of doctrine; but the grand all-pervading substance of the whole is duty; its grand voice is not merely to believe and feel, but to do; it regards faith and feeling as worthless unless taken up and embodied in the right act. It presents the rule of duty, it supplies the helps to duty, it urges the motives to duty. This fact shows two things—

1. That the Bible studies the real well-being of man. Not an assemblage of beliefs and emotions, but an assemblage of acts and habits. The fact shows—

2. That unpractised religion is spurious.

II. Duty is increased by social elevation. This is implied in the circumstance that Haggai went directly with the message from God to the most influential men in the state, to “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest.” This fact serves two purposes.

1. To supply a warning to men in great places.

2. A lesson to ministers. Let the ambassadors of heaven carry their messages first, if possible, to men in authority. (Homilist.)

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

BAR�ES, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say - Not Zerubbabel or Joshua, but “this people.” He says not, “My people,” but reproachfully “this people,” as, in acts, disowning Him, and so deserving to be disowned by Him. “The time is not come,” literally “It is not time to come, time for the house of the Lord to be built” . They might yet sit still; the time for them “to come” was not yet, for not yet was the “time for the house of the Lord to be built.” Why it was not time, they did not say. The government did not help them; the original grant by Cyrus Ezr_3:7 was exhausted; the Samaritans hindered them, because they would not own them, (amid their mishmash of worship, “worshiping,” our Lord tells them Joh_4:22, “they know not what”), as worshipers of the same God. It was a bold excuse, if they said, that the 70 years during which the temple was to lie waste, were not yet ended.

The time had long since come, when, 16 years before, Cyrus had given command that the house of God should be built. The prohibition to build, under Artaxerxes or Pseudo-Smerdis, applied directly to the city and its walls, not to the temple, except so far as the

temple itself, from its position, might be capable of being used as a fort, as it was in the last siege of, Jerusalem. Yet in itself a building of the size of the temple, apart from outer buildings, could scarcely so be used. The prohibition did not hinder the building of stately private houses, as appears from Haggai’s rebuke. The hindrances also, whatever they were, had not begun with that decree. The death of Pseudo-Smerdis had now, for a year, set them free, if had they had any zeal for the glory and service of God. Otherwise, Haggai would not blamed them. God, knowing that He would bend the heart of Darius, as He had that of Cyrus, requires the house to be built without the king’s decree. It was built in faith, that God would bring through what He had enjoined, although outward things were as adverse now as before. And what He commanded He prospered Ezra 5–6.

There was indeed a second fulfillment of 70 years, from the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar 586 b.c., to its consecration in the 6th year of Darius 516 b.c. But this was through the willfulness of man, prolonging the desolation decreed by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to the people not to the temple.

“The prophet addresses his discourse to the chiefs (in Church and state) and yet accuses directly, not their listlessness but that of the people, in order both to honor them before the people and to teach that their sins are to be blamed privately not publicly, lest their authority should be injured, and the people incited to rebel against them; and also to shew that this fault was directly that of the people, whom he reproves before their princes, that, being openly convicted before them, it might be ashamed, repent, and obey God; but that indirectly this fault touched the chiefs themselves, whose office it was to urge the people to this work of God” . “For seldom is the prince free from the guilt of his subjects, as either assenting to, or winking at them, or not coercing them, though able.”

Since also Christians are the temple of God, all this prophecy of Haggai is applicable to them . “When thou seest one who has lapsed thinking and preparing to build through chastity the temple which he had before destroyed through passion, and yet delaying day by day, say to him, ‘Truly thou also art of the people of the captivity, and sayest, The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.’ Whoso has once settled to restore the temple of God, to him every time is suited for building, and the prince, Satan, cannot hinder, nor, the enemies around. As soon as being thyself converted, thou callest upon the name of the Lord, He will say, “Behold Me” . “To him who willeth to do right, the time is always present; the good and right-minded have power to fulfill what is to the glory of God, in every time and place.”

CLARKE, "The time is not come - They thought that the seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah were not yet completed, and it would be useless to attempt to rebuild until that period had arrived. But Abp. Usher has shown that from the commencement of the last siege of Jerusalem unto this time, precisely sixty-nine years had been completed.

GILL, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,.... Of armies above and below; whom all ought to reverence, honour, and obey; who was able to support his people in building his house, and protect them from their enemies, which should have been an encouragement to them; and to punish them for their neglect of it, which might have deterred them from it. This preface is made, to show that what follow were not the words of the prophet, but of the Lord; and therefore to be the more regarded, and the truth of them not to be doubted of:

saying, This people say; repeating the words of the people of the Jews to Zerubbabel

and Joshua, that they might observe them, and the wickedness and ingratitude in them. "This people", lately brought out of the captivity of Babylon, and loaded with various blessings and benefits; and not a few of them, but the generality of them, the body of them, expressed themselves after this manner, when pressed to build the temple:

The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built; suggesting that the seventy years of Jerusalem and the temple lying in ruins, reckoning from the destruction of them in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, were not yet fulfilled; or rather intimating that it was not the time in Providence, since they had been forbid and hindered in former reigns from going on with the work; or, since it had been a time of famine and distress with them, it was not a time fit and convenient to carry on such a service; and though they did not lay aside all thoughts of it, yet they judged it right and proper to defer it to a more convenient time, when they were better settled, and in a better capacity to engage in it.

HE�RY, " What the sin of the Jews was at this time, Hag_1:2. As soon as they came up out of captivity they set up an altar for sacrifice, and within a year after laid the foundations of a temple, Ezr_3:10. They then seemed very forward in it, and it was likely enough that the work would be done suddenly; but, being served with a prohibition some time after from the Persian court, and charged not to go on with it, they not only yielded to the force, when they were actually under it, which might be excused, but afterwards, when the violence of the opposition had abated, they continued very indifferent to it, had no spirit nor courage to set about it again, but seemed glad that they had a pretence to let it stand still. Though those who are employed for God may be driven off from their work by a storm, yet they must return to it as soon as the storm is over. These Jews did not do so, but continued loitering until they were afresh reminded of their duty. And that which they suggested one to another was, The time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built; that is, 1. “Our time has not come for the doing of it, because we have not yet recovered, after our captivity; our losses are not repaired, nor have we yet got before-hand in the world. It is too great an undertaking for new beginners in the world, as we are; let us first get our own houses up, before we talk of building churches, and in the mean time let a bare altar serve us, as it did our father Abraham.” They did not say that they would not build a temple at all, but, “Not yet; it is all in good time.” Note, Many a good work is put by by being put off, as Felix put off the prosecution of his convictions to a more convenient season. They do not say that they will never repent, and reform, and be religious, but, “Not yet.” And so the great business we were sent into the world to do is not done, under pretence that it is all in good time to go about it. 2. “God's time has not come for the doing of it; for (say they) the restraint laid upon us by authority in a legal way is not broken off, and therefore we ought not to proceed, though there be a present connivance of authority.” Note, There is an aptness in us to misinterpret providential discouragements in our duty, as if they amounted to a discharge from our duty, when they are only intended for the trial and exercise of our courage and faith. It is bad to neglect our duty, but it is worse to vouch Providence for the patronising of our neglects.

JAMISO�, "the Lord of hosts— Jehovah, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth, and therefore requiring implicit obedience.

This people— “This” sluggish and selfish “people.” He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God.

The time— the proper time for building the temple. Two out of the seventy predicted

years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the temple, 558 b.c., 2Ki_25:9) were yet unexpired; this they make their plea for delay [Henderson]. The seventy years of captivity were completed long ago in the first year of Cyrus, 536 b.c. (Jer_29:10); dating from 606 b.c., Jehoiakim’s captivity (2Ch_36:6). The seventy years to the completion of the temple (Jer_25:12) were completed this very year, the second of Darius [Vatablus]. Ingenious in excuses, they pretended that the interruption in the work caused by their enemies proved it was not yet the proper time; whereas their real motive was selfish dislike of the trouble, expense, and danger from enemies. “God,” say they, “hath interposed many difficulties to punish our rash haste” [Calvin]. Smerdis’ interdict was no longer in force, now that Darius the rightful king was on the throne; therefore they had no real excuse for not beginning at once to build. Auberlen denies that by “Artaxerxes” in Ezr_4:7-22 is meant Smerdis. Whether Smerdis or Artaxerxes Longimanus be meant, the interdict referred only to the rebuilding of the city, which the Persian kings feared might, if rebuilt, cause them trouble to subdue; not to the rebuilding of the temple. But the Jews were easily turned aside from the work. Spiritually, like the Jews, men do not say they will never be religious, but, It is not time yet. So the great work of life is left undone.

K&D, "The prophet begins by charging the people with their unconcern about building the house of God. Hag_1:2. “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: This people saith, It is not

time to come, the time for the house of Jehovah to be built.” הIהעם+ה, iste populus, not my

people, or Jehovah's people, but hazzeh (this) in a contemptuous sense. Of the two

clauses, (a) “It is not time to come,” and (b) “The time of the house of Jehovah,” the

latter gives the more precise definition of the former, the א' (to come) being explained as

meaning the time to build the house of Jehovah. The meaning is simply this: the time

has not yet arrived to come and build the house of Jehovah; for לא in this connection signifies “not yet,” as in Gen_2:5; Job_22:16. A distinction is drawn between coming to the house of Jehovah and building the house, as in Hag_1:14. There is no ground, therefore, for altering the text, as Hitzig proposes, inasmuch as the defective mode of

writing the infinitive א' is by no means rare (compare, for example, Exo_2:18; Lev_

14:48; Num_32:9; 1Ki_13:28; Isa_20:1); and there is no foundation whatever for the absurd rendering of the words of the text, “It is not the time of the having arrived of the time of the house,” etc. (Hitzig).

CALVI�, "They who think that seventy years had not passed until the reign of Darius, may from this passage be easily disproved: for if the seventy years were not accomplished, an excuse would have been ready at hand,—that they had deferred the work of building the Temple; but it was certain, that the time had then elapsed, and that it was owing to their indifference that the Temple was not erected, for all the materials were appropriated to private uses. While then they were thus taking care of themselves and consulting their own interest, the building of the Temple was neglected. That the Temple was not built till the reign of Darius, this happened, as we have said, from another cause, because the prefects of king Cyrus gave much annoyance to the Jews, and Cambyses was most hostile to them. But when liberty

was restored to them, and Darius had so kindly permitted them to build the Temple, they had no excuse for delay.

It is however probable that they had then many disputes as to the time; for it may have been, that they seizing on any pretext to cover their sloth, made this objection,—that many difficulties had occurred, because they had been too precipitate, and that they had thus been punished for their haste, because they had rashly undertaken the building of the Temple: and we may also suppose that they took another view of the time as having not yet come, for easily might this objection occur to them,—“It is indeed true that the worship of God is deservedly to be preferred to all other things; but the Lord grants us this indulgence, so that we are allowed to build our own houses; and in the meantime we attend to the sacrifices. Have not our fathers lived many ages without a Temple? God was then satisfied with a sanctuary: there is now an altar erected, and there sacrifices are offered. The Lord then will forgive us if we defer the building of the Temple to a suitable time. But in the meantime every one may build his own house, so that afterwards the Temple may at leisure be built more sumptuously.” However this may have been, we find that true which I have often stated,—that the Jews were so taken up with their own domestic concerns, with their own ease, and with their own pleasures, that they made very little account of God’s worship. This is the reason why the Prophet was so greatly displeased with them.

He declares what they said, This people say, The time is not yet come to build the house of Jehovah (132) He repeats here what the Jews were wont to allege in order to disguise their sloth, after having delayed a long time, and when they could not, except through consummate effrontery, adduce anything in their own defense. We however see, that they hesitated not to promise pardon to themselves. Thus also do men indulge themselves in their sins, as though they could make an agreement with God and pacify him with some frivolous things. We see that this was the case then. But we may also see here, as in a mirror, how great is the ingratitude of men. The kindness of God had been especially worthy of being remembered, the glory of which ought to have been borne in mind to the end of time: they had been restored from exile in a manner beyond what they had ever expected. What ought they to have done, but to have devoted themselves entirely to the service of their deliverer? But they built, no, not even a tent for God, and sacrificed in the open air; and thus they wilfully trifled with God. But at the same time they dwelt at ease in houses elegantly fitted up.

And how is the case at this day? We see that through a remarkable miracle of God the gospel has shone forth in our time, and we have emerged, as it were, from the abodes below. Who does now rear up, of his own free-will, an altar to God? On the contrary, all regard what is advantageous only to themselves; and while they are occupied with their own concerns, the worship of God is cast aside; there is no care, no zeal, no concern for it; nay, what is worse, many make gain of the gospel, as though it were a lucrative business. �o wonder then, if the people have so basely disregarded their deliverance, and have almost obliterated the memory of it. �o less shameful is the example witnessed at this day among us.

But we may hence also see how kindly God has provided for his Church; for his purpose was that this reproof should continue extant, that he might at this day stimulate us, and excite our fear as well as our shame. For we also thus grow frigid in promoting the worship of God, whenever we are led to seek only our own advantages. We may also add, that as God’s temple is spiritual, our fault is the more atrocious when we become thus slothful; since God does not bid us to collect either wood, or stones, or cement, but to build a celestial temple, in which he may be truly worshipped. When therefore we become thus indifferent, as that people were thus severely reproved, doubtless our sloth is much more detestable. We now see that the Prophet not only spoke to men of his age, but was also destined, through God’s wonderful purpose, to be a preacher to us, so that his doctrine sounds at this day in our ears, and reproves our torpor and ungrateful indifference: for the building of the spiritual temple is deferred, whenever we become devoted to ourselves, and regard only what is advantageous to us individually. We shall go on with what follows tomorrow.

This people say, �ot come is the time, The time for the house of Jehovah to be built.

—Ed.

BE�SO�, "Verses 2-4Haggai 1:2-4. This people say, The time is not come, &c. — They had no just cause for saying this; but their own private concerns and conveniences (as appears from what follows) employed all their thoughts, and they preferred them to the rebuilding of the temple. Then — When the people were thus sluggish, made excuses, and delayed the work; came the word of the Lord to Haggai — To reprove them for their neglect, and excite them to their duty. Is it time for you, &c. — You think it full time to build your own houses: you judge it seasonable enough to lay out much cost on adorning them; what pretence then can you make, that it is not seasonable to build my house? Ought not that first to be set about, and the ornamenting of your own houses to be left till afterward? The reproof here given seems to allude to the different spirit with which David was actuated, Psalms 132., who vowed that he would not come into the tabernacle of his house, &c., until he found out a place for the Lord. It certainly argues a contempt of God, when men give the preference to themselves before him, or think no cost or grandeur is too much for themselves, but the meanest accommodation good enough for the service of God. It is true an humble and devout mind is the only temple which God delights to dwell in; and he dwells not in, nor regards, temples made with hands; but yet, for the public solemnization of his worship, and as an outward testimony of men’s respect toward him, it is proper that places should be erected for, and appropriated to his worship; which places ought not to be neglected, but made as decent and becoming the design of their erection as the circumstances of things will admit of.

COFFMA�, "Verse 2"Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time for us to

come, the time for Jehovah's house to be built."

The awkward rendition here is due to uncertainties in the text, which despite any flaws is nevertheless clear enough The people did not wish to rebuild the Temple, because they said, "It is not time!" What fund raiser has not heard that? "It is not a good time ..." "This is hardly the right time for it ..." etc. Other versions have rendered the clause: "The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord."[5] "This people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord" (RSV). "These people say that this is not the right time to rebuild the Temple" (Today's English Version).

"This people ..." This must be one of the most important things in the verse. �ote that God does not refer to Judah as "my people," but as "this people." In no sense, were they to be received back with all the privileges and blessings of former years. Their autonomy would never be fully restored, and the nation would suffer innumerable hardships before the coming of the Messiah.

We are not informed as to the manner of the people's conclusion that the time had not come. Instead of counting the captivity from 606 B.C., when the first captives were removed, they might have been counting from the destruction of the Temple (586 B.C.), in which latter case the full seventy prophetic years had not fully elapsed. But whatever the reason for their excuse, God did not allow it. One receives the impression that the principal thing they meant was, "It is not convenient for us, at this time, to rebuild it!"

"At root, however, the community's objection to rebuilding was not due to selfishness. They were preoccupied with personal matters to the the neglect of larger issues of importance to the whole community. In short, they had placed themselves before God."[6]

COKE, "Haggai 1:2. This people say, The time is not come— The Jews said this, not because they denied that the seventy years were completed, after which the prophets had foretold that the temple should be rebuilt,—for it was extremely easy to compute those years; but, because they feared the king of Persia, and were greater time-servers, than believers in God. See Houbigant.

TRAPP, "Verse 2Haggai 1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.

Ver. 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying] This title is oft used in these three last prophecies (eighteen different times in that eighth of Zechariah) because, being to build, they had many enemies; therefore had need of all encouragement. And Jerome, in his prologue, noteth it as an act of great courage in Haggai and Zechariah that, against the edict of King Artaxerxes (or Cambyses) and the oppositions of Sanballat, and other potent adversaries, they should stir up the people to build the temple; and as an act of heroic faith in the prince, priest, and

people, to set upon the work, and finish it, "�ot by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts," Zechariah 4:6. See more of this title. {See Trapp on "Malachi 3:17"} Doct. 1.

This people say] Words then have their weight; neither are men’s tongues their own; but there is a Lord over them, [Psalms 12:4] that will call them to a strict account of all their waste words, Matthew 12:36, and hard speeches, 1:15, and then they shal1 experiment that by their words (which they haply held but wind) they shall be justified, and by their words condemned, Matthew 12:37. How good is it, therefore, to carry a pair of balances between the lips? �escit poenitenda loqui qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini, saith Cassiodore; He that weighs his words before he utters them shall prevent an after reckoning for them.

The time is not come, the time, &c.] He repeateth their frivolous and frigid excuses in their own very words; that he may the better confute them, and the sooner bring them to a sight of their sin, Usus est µιµησει ut rei indignitatem amplificaret. Sin and shifting came into the word together, Genesis 3:12. And this is still the vile poison of our hearts, that they will needs be naught, and yet never yield, but that there is reason to be made, and great sense in sinning. These Jews, likely, had both Scripture and reason to plead for their backwardness (as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour; and the sluggard is wiser in his own eye than seven men that can render a reason, Proverbs 26:16). For Scripture: To everything there is an appointed time, a set season, such as we can neither alter nor order, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Haggai 1:3 "There is a time to break down, and a time to build up." And that this time to rebuild the temple was not yet come, some might pretend that the seventy years foretold were not yet fully expired; others (with more show of reason) that they had been too hasty in laying the foundation long since, as appears by their ill success and many adversaries; that God, who had dwelt so long in a tabernacle, and was now worshipped at his newly created altar, would bear with them, if they first built their own houses, and then be more free to build his house, which they intended to do hereafter, with great care and cost. This is still the guise of graceless procrastinators, to future and fool away their own salvation. Hereafter, say they, may be time enough, and what need such haste to build the spiritual temple? In time comes grace, God is more merciful than so; and at what time soever a sinner repents from the bottom of his heart, &c. Fools and blind men (as our Saviour calls the Pharisees, Matthew 23:17), that thus stand trifling and baffling with God and their souls, being semper victuri, as Seneca saith, always about to do that which, if not well done, they are utterly undone for ever; for upon this little point of time hangs the crown of eternity. The gales of grace are uncertain, the day of grace (which is very clear and bright) is usually a short one. �on licet in belle bis peccare, It is not permitted to error twice in wartime, said Lamachus to a soldier of his brought before him, and pleading he would do so no more: so God will not suffer men twice to neglect the day of grace, which, if once past, will never dawn again. Let none, therefore, when pressed to the present now of meeting God by repentance, answer as Antipater, King of Macedonia, did, when one presented him a book treating of

happiness, ου σχολαζω, I am not at leisure. Or as Archias, the Theban, when forewarned of a conspiracy against him, cast the letters by, with In crastinum seria, and was slain ere the morrow came. Or as these Cunctators in the text, that had often in their mouth, "The time is not come, the time," &c., lest the very next minute they be cut off by death from all further time of repentance, acceptation, and grace for ever. Men may purpose, promise, expect a time of healing and happiness, when they shall be deceived, and find a time of terror and torment, Jeremiah 14:19. Some, when a dying, would have given a world for time: as I have heard (saith a reverend man) one crying day and night, call time again; but that could not be. As in war, so here, none are permitted to err twice. Time must be taken by the forelock, as being bald behind, Posthac occasio calva.

ELLICOTT, "(2) The time is not come.—Better (unless we alter the received text), It is not yet time to come—i.e., it is not yet time to assemble and commence preparations for building. It is not stated on what grounds the people based this assumption; but probably they palliated their indifference to religion by a pretended dread of Persian hostility. Darius, however, unlike his predecessor Artaxerxes, gave the enemies of the Jews no countenance when a report was actually made to him on the subject. (See Ezra 5, 6)

CO�STABLE, "Haggai announced that his message came from Yahweh of armies, Almighty Yahweh. This title appears14times in Haggai and265 times in the Hebrew Bible. "Yahweh" occurs34times in the38 verses of Haggai. The Lord told Zerubbabel and Joshua that the Israelites were saying that the time was not right to rebuild the temple. By referring to them as "these people" rather than "my people," the Lord was distancing Himself from them. Construction on the temple had begun16 years earlier but had ceased due to opposition from the Israelites" neighbors who were mostly Samaritans ( Ezra 3:8-13; Ezra 4:1-5; Ezra 4:24). When the Jews considered resuming construction, most of them said it was not yet the right time. Contrast David"s great desire to build a house for the Lord ( 2 Samuel 7:2). Their decision may have rested on the continuing threat from their neighbors. Or perhaps they felt that to finish the temple then would violate Jeremiah"s prediction of a70-year captivity ( Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10). Another possibility is that they thought God Himself would finish it ( Ezekiel 40-48). [�ote: See R. G. Hamerton-Kelly, "The Temple and the Origins of Jewish Apocalyptic," Vetus Testamentum20 (1976):12.]

"To refuse to build the [Lord"s] house was at best saying that it did not matter whether the Lord was present with them. At worst it was presuming on divine grace, that the Lord would live with his people even though they willfully refused to fulfill the condition of his indwelling that he had laid down." [�ote: Motyer, p974.]

"The need to rebuild is urgent, because temples in their world are the center for administering the political, economic, judicial, social, and religious life of the nation. In other words, rebuilding I AM"s temple would symbolize his rule over the life of his people and his prophesied rule of the world (cf. Zechariah 1:14-17)." [�ote: Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology, p846.]

Today many Christians do not do God"s will because they feel the time is not precisely right.

"Too often we make excuses when we ought to be making confessions and obeying the Lord. We say, "It"s not time for an evangelistic crusade," "It"s not time for the Spirit to bring revival," "It"s not time to expand the ministry." We act as though we fully understand "the times and the seasons" that God has ordained for His people, but we don"t understand them ( Acts 1:6-7)." [�ote: Warren W. Wiersbe, " Haggai ," in The Bible Exposition Commentary/Prophets, p441.]

PARKER, ""Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people—" ( Haggai 1:2).

That is not like the Lord of hosts. "This people"—as if the speaker were pointing, with at least suggestion of contempt, to some motley, nameless, reputeless crowd. In other prophets he has said, even when he was about to rebuke the Church, "My people." Oh, this contempt of God! "This people"—not a personal pronoun, but a demonstrative adjective pronoun, an indicative impersonal: "This people," this crowd, this herd of ingrates. Language ought to be moral. The Lord"s language is always deeply steeped in morality. The Lord does not speak anything by way of mere eulogy or panegyric; the Lord is critical in his judgment: behold the goodness and the severity of God. What do these people say? "The time is not come." They might have lived to-day. We have not advanced one inch from this position. It is a position of excuse, evasion, self-protection. Here is no denial of the divine right, not one word is spoken against the house of the Lord, but it is not "time"—to repair the roof, to clean the window, and let the morning light come in; it is not time to throng into God"s sanctuary, and to make it thrill and throb with the music of thankfulness: as who should say under the sluggard"s blankets, By-and-by we will come: tomorrow, or the day following, you will hear our voices; in a short space we will arise and repair the house, or rebuild the house, or do anything that the house may require to have done to it: in the meantime a little more sleep, a little more slumber, and a folding of the arms and hands together. When is the time coming for you to be a man? When is the time coming for you to do your first noble deed? Do not dream that you are going to do something in a few summers" time: when all the children are off your hands, when business anxieties have abated a little, when the rush and competition of life have somewhat subsided, then the Church shall hear your music in song and prayer, and see your sacrifice in labour and in gift. The devil is deceitful; he does not say to a Prayer of Manasseh , Deny God, pronounce his name as if you hated it. Sometimes he says, There is no need for you positively to deny the existence of God, nor is there any need for you to sneer or show contempt when religious ordinances are referred to; but you can take up a very strong position if you will say, "The time is not come": that will be decent, that will be civil; it will be impossible for the keenest criticism to fasten upon an assertion of that kind, and under cover of that base protestation you can serve hell. Why spend time in metaphysical reasoning with people about these excuses? Such excuses are not to be metaphysically destroyed; they are to be burnt out of a man with the fire of heaven.

Is the Lord content with the speech? Does he say, This is carefully considered: here are prudent persons, they are watching for opportunities, and when opportunities occur they will be faithful; their activity may be relied upon; they have not denied the obligation, nor have they wantonly postponed its payment; they are simply waiting for the right time? Does the Lord speak so?—

PETT, "Verses 2-11YHWH’s Grievance With His People (Haggai 1:2-11).

In a series of consecutive prophecies YHWH’s grievance with His people is established, and the call comes to build the Temple. For YHWH knows that until the Temple is built they will not feel themselves to be one people, and the exiles far from home will see no reason to return.

Haggai 1:2

‘Thus speaks YHWH of hosts, saying, “This people say,It is not the time to come,The time for YHWH’s house to be built.His message was simple. The people were simply saying that the time had not yet come to build the house of YHWH. Initial work had ceased on it twenty years before, and as far as they were concerned it would have to wait its time. Life was at present too hard. But he is saying that it was time that they thought again, for they were not behaving like true people of God. That indeed is why He refers to them indirectly as ‘this people’ rather than ‘His people’.

It would appear that what God was trying to do through him was to arouse the people from their apathy and listlessness, and from their grinding toil and give them something to aim at. He was seeking to refocus their attention on the future that He had promised them if only they were faithful to Him. But it was a future hope that had clearly been lost along the way. For we must remember that from their knowledge of their past history these men should have known the importance of having a spiritual sanctuary around which to gather. Its aim would be to serve as a focal point for bringing back the distant exiles, and thus re-establishing the people of God. But they had lost their vision.

�otice the continual emphasis on the �ame of YHWH and His words in these first few verses. The name is found once in Haggai 1:1, twice in Haggai 1:2, once in Haggai 1:3, once in Haggai 1:5, once in Haggai 1:7, once in Haggai 1:8 and once in Haggai 1:9. And on four of these occasions it is as ‘YHWH of hosts’, the One Who has authority over the hosts of Heaven and earth and all that is in them. It was important that they should recognise Who it was Who was there, ready to act, and Who it was Who was speaking to them.

SIMEO�, "CO�SIDERATIO� OF OUR WAYS E�FORCED

Haggai 1:2-5; Haggai 1:12. Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? �ow therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Consider your ways.. …Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high-priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.

ALL the preceding prophets prophesied either before or during the Babylonish captivity: but Haggai, and the two who follow him prophesied after the return of the Jews from Babylon. What space of time Haggai continued to prophesy, we know not: but all his prophecies which are come down to us were delivered in the short space of two months. His principal office, in which he was soon joined by the Prophet Zechariah, seems to have been to stir up the Jews to rebuild their temple, and to assure them, that, however inferior to the former temple it might be in their eyes, it should in reality far surpass that in glory. In reference to their neglect, he reproves them with just severity; and shews them, that already had God inflicted his judgments on them on account of it; but assures them at the same time, that, if they will recommence and prosecute the work with diligence, his blessing shall be visibly poured out upon them [�ote: Haggai 2:15-19.].

In discoursing on this subject, we will notice,

I. The conduct reproved—

They had begun to build the temple about sixteen years before; but having been stopped by an edict from Artaxerxes, they had desisted, and had attended only to their own personal accommodations. But the Persian monarch was now dead; and they ought therefore to have availed themselves of that circumstance, and to have proceeded with the work. A whole year had elapsed, and they had not even thought of resuming the pious labour: they were even well pleased with the obstacle that had been put in their way; and satisfied their consciences with saying, that “the Lord’s time for rebuilding the temple was not yet come.” They did not say that they would never execute that work; but they justified their present neglect of it by this vain excuse.

�ow this is precisely what we ourselves are prone to do,

1. In reference to God’s temple which is to be erected in the world—

[The Church is his temple, “the habitation of God through the Spirit;” and on the whole face of the globe is it one day to be erected. But when we call on persons to arise and work, they answer, “The Lord’s time is not come.” They see many difficulties to be surmounted; and, instead of regarding them as occasions only for calling forth their zeal, they consider them as indications that God does not require the work itself to be performed; thus making the dispensations of his providence a

cloak for their own supineness. In reference to the conversion of the Jews in particular, this excuse is offered by many; and offered with as much confidence, as if they were acquainted with all the counsels of the Deity, and knew exactly all the times and the seasons which the Father has reserved in his own power. But this excuse of theirs is nothing more nor less than a plea for inactivity, and an acknowledgment, that they are altogether indisposed for the exertions which they are called to make in this sacred cause.]

2. In reference to the temple which is to be erected in our own hearts—

[Believers are “temples of the Holy Ghost:” Christ dwells in their hearts by faith: “the Father too dwelleth in them, and they in him:” and such temples all of us are called to be. But when persons of every description are urged to consecrate themselves entirely to the service of their God, they reply, as with one consent, “The time is not come.” They will not say, ‘�o; God never shall dwell in me;’ but, acknowledging it to be their duty to surrender up themselves to him, they think themselves excused from it by some providential impediment: one is too young to engage in such holy services as yet: another is too much immersed in business to afford the time: another is for the present afraid of offending some earthly superior: and thus, like the persons invited to the wedding in the Gospel, they all, on some frivolous pretext or other, unite in saying, “I pray thee have me excused.”]

But how vain such excuses are, may be seen by,

II. The reproof administered—

This consists of two parts; an expostulatory appeal, and a solemn admonition: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? �ow therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways.”

We then in like manner make our appeal to you—

[Have you time for yourselves, and not for God? for your bodies, and not for your souls? for the affairs of this short transitory life, and not for those of eternity? Is it thus that ye have been taught of God; to “seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness last?” and to “mind your own things only, and not the things of Jesus Christ [�ote: Philippians 2:21.]?”Was this a just return from those who had been delivered from their captivity in Babylon? and, if not from them, is it from you, who have been redeemed by the blood of God’s only dear Son from a bondage infinitely more tremendous, a bondage to sin and Satan, death and hell? Judge ye, whether it becomes you to be seeking your own carnal ease, interest, and pleasure; and to be neglecting the work of God, and the welfare of your immortal souls? Only let conscience deliver an unbiassed testimony, and we consent that you shall be judges in your own cause.]

To you also we offer this salutary admonition—

[“Consider your ways.” Twice is this repeated by the prophet [�ote: ver. 5, 7.]: and repeatedly should it be urged on all who are guilty of the conduct before described.

“Consider your ways,”in order to your humiliation. Look back, and see, how highly criminal they have been. The more fully you call them to remembrance, and the more distinctly you view them with all their several aggravations, the more you will see cause to humble yourselves before God in dust and ashes — — —

“Consider your ways,” in order that you may see what indignation they have already excited in the bosom of an avenging God. The Jews were referred to the judgments which God in his providence had inflicted on account of their sin, as proofs of his heavy displeasure [�ote: ver. 9–11.]: and, if we could with equal certainty be informed of the reasons of those chastisements which God from time to time has inflicted on us, either publicly in common with the whole land, or privately in our several persons and families, there can be no doubt but that we should find our sins to have been the root and ground of all. But without such infallible information from above, we should not presume to interpret the dispensations of Providence in this way, except in our own particular case; and even then we should do it with great caution and diffidence. �evertheless in many instances we may clearly read our sin in our punishment. We have preferred the cares and pleasures of the world; and we have been given over to a worldly mind: we have been impenitent; and have been delivered up to hardness of heart: we have disregarded the gracious visits of our God; and he has withdrawn himself from us altogether: he has left us to “be filled with our own devices, and to eat of the fruit of our own ways.”

Once more; Consider your ways, in order to the amending of them in future. To this the Jews were called [�ote: Haggai 2:4.]; and to this we also are called: and without this, all consideration of our ways would be to no purpose — — — Determine then, with David, “not to give sleep to your eyes, or slumber to your eye-lids, till your hearts are become a temple for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob [�ote: Psalms 132:4-5.].”]

Happy the prophet who executed his office with such fidelity! and happy the people who were favoured with such a monitor! may our testimony also correspond with his in,

III. The effect produced—

Great and instantaneous was the change wrought on their minds—

[“The remnant of the people,” from the highest to the lowest, all obeyed the voice of the Lord, and of the prophet whom he had sent unto them. They all began to “fear the Lord,” and in little more than three weeks actually commenced the work to which they were called [�ote: ver. 14.]. O that such a change also might be wrought in us! O that our governors also, both in Church and State, might obey the call; and that all classes of the community would begin, as with one heart and one mind, to

serve the Lord; first, to get their whole souls sanctified unto the Lord; and then, to promote his glory through-out the world! — — —]

Great also was the encouragement instantly afforded them by God himself—

[�o sooner did they evince a desire to comply with God’s command, than God commissioned his prophet to say to them, “I am with you, saith the Lord [�ote: ver. 13.].” And no sooner did they set about the work, than God called them to notice the very day, and pledged himself from that hour to bless them [�ote: Haggai 2:15-19.]. Yea, even the very day of their change did God himself register, not only in the book of his remembrance in heaven, but in the written records of his prophet on earth: “In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king [�ote: ver. 15.].” O that this present year of our king might be so marked! yea, that this very day might be so registered, as the season of a remarkable conversion of our souls to God! Be assured, that, if only one amongst us should now begin to obey his call, and to turn from earthly vanities to the Lord our God, it should not be overlooked, nor should it be forgotten in the eternal world. The very angels in the presence of God would shout for joy: and if they would notice it with such delight, we may be well assured that our God and Saviour, at whose call we turn, will not he regardless of so blessed an event.]

Conclusion—

[The time will come when you will deeply regret that you have wasted the present hours in frivolous pursuits. Your past ease, and pleasure, and vanities, of whatever kind they have been, where are they? What fruit of them all have you at this time? Compare them with one single hour that has ever been spent in penitential sorrow: Is there any comparison as to the satisfaction they have left behind them?

Again: For what end is your time now allotted you by God? Is it for no higher purpose than to advance your temporal interests? Is there no work that you have to do for him, and none for your own souls? — — —

Again: Will it not be a bitter subject of regret to yon in a dying hour, that the day in which you might have worked is passed away; and that the night is arrived when no man can work?

To all then, I say, in the name of the Most High God, “Consider your ways.” Consider the evil of them, that you may see your guilt; consider the fruit of them, that you may bewail your folly; consider the commands of God relating to them, that you may amend them henceforth, and obtain from God the blessings reserved for you in the eternal world.]

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:2

The Lord of hosts. Haggai, as the other prophets, always uses this formula in enunciating his messages (see note on Amos 9:5). Trochon justly remarks that this

expression is not found in the earlier books of the Bible—the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges. If these books were contemporary with the prophets, the phrase would certainly occur in them (see a valuable note in the Appendix to Archdeacon Perowne's Commentary on Haggai, in 'The Canibridge Bible for Schools'). This people; populus iste (Vulgate), with some contempt, as if they were no longer worthy to be called the Lord's people (Haggai 2:14). It looks as if they had often before been admonished to proceed with the work, and had this answer ready. The time is not come; literally, it is not time to come (comp. Genesis 2:5), which is explained by the new clause, the time that the Lord's house should be built. The versions shorten the sentence, rendering," the time for building the Lord's house has not come." The excuse for their inaction may have had various grounds. They may have said, reckoning from the final destruction of Jerusalem, that the seventy years' captivity was not complete; that there was still danger from the neighbouring population; that the Persians were adverse to the undertaking; that the unfruitful season rendered them unable to engage in such a great work; and that the very fact of these difficulties existing showed that God did not favour the design.

3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:

BAR�ES, "And the word of the Lord came - o “Before, he prophesied nothing, but only recited the saying of the people; now he refutes it in his prophecy, and repeats, again and again, that he says this not of himself, but from the mind and mouth of God.” It is characteristic of Haggai to inculcate thus frequently, that his words are not his own, but the words of God. Yet “the prophets, both in their threats and prophecies, repeat again and again, “Thus saith the Lord,” teaching us, how we should prize the word of God, hang upon it, have it ever in our mouth, reverence, ruminate on, utter, praise it, make it our continual delight.”

GILL, "Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet,.... This is a second prophecy, distinct from the former; that was delivered to the two governors, setting forth the sentiments and language of the people concerning the building of the temple, which was left with them to consider how just it was; but this is sent to the people themselves, expostulating with them about the folly and ingratitude of it:

saying; as follows:

K&D 3-4, "The word of Jehovah is opposed in Hag_1:4 to this speech of the people; and in order to give greater prominence to the antithesis, the introductory formula, “The

word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet thus,” is repeated in Hag_1:3. In order to appeal to the conscience of the people, God meets them with the question in Hag_1:4 : “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your houses wainscoted, whilst this house lies

waste?” The +ה before עת is not the article, but ה interr. 56ם is added to strengthen the

pronoun (cf. Ges. §121, 3). Sephūnı;m without the article is connected with the noun, in the form of an apposition: in your houses, they being wainscoted, i.e., with the inside walls covered or inlaid with costly wood-work. Such were the houses of the rich and of the more distinguished men (cf. Jer_22:14; 1Ki_7:7). Living in such houses was

therefore a sing of luxury and comfort. וה'ית+וגו is a circumstantial clause, which we

should express by “whilst this house,” etc. With this question the prophet cuts off all excuse, on the ground that the circumstances of the times, and the oppression under which they suffered, did not permit of the rebuilding of the temple. If they themselves lived comfortably in wainscoted houses, their civil and political condition could not be so oppressive, that they could find in that a sufficient excuse for neglecting to build the temple. Even if the building of the temple had been prohibited by an edict of Pseudo-Smerdes, as many commentators infer from Ezra 4:8-24, the reign of this usurper only lasted a few months; and with his overthrow, and the ascent of the throne by Darius Hystaspes, a change had taken place in the principles of government, which might have induced the heads of Judah, if the building of the house of God had rested upon their hearts as it did upon the heart of king David (2Sa_7:2; Psa_132:2-5), to take steps under the new king to secure the revocation of this edict, and the renewal of the command issued by Cyrus.

COFFMA�, "Verse 3"Then came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?"

"Then came the word of Jehovah ..." Through his repetition of this formal affirmation that it was God's Word, not his own, that Haggai was delivering, he dramatically confronted the people with the fact of their disobeying the will of God.

"To dwell in your ceiled houses ..." There are a number of other possible renditions of "ceiled," including "paneled" and "roofed,"[7] also "wainscoted."[8] The supposition that none of the exiles who had returned were able to build expensive houses is groundless. We have already noted that the Jews prospered during their captivity and that many of them were very wealthy. Haggai's words here surely carry the impression the the returnees were living in excellent houses. What he condemned was the fact of their lavishing wealth upon themselves and neglecting to rebuild the Temple.

TRAPP, "Verse 3

Haggai 1:3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Ver. 3. Then came the word of the Lord, &c.] "Then," after a short silence, as it

were, profertur Domini quasi cogitata responsio, follows the Lord’s elaborate and deliberate answer, not without some touch of holy tartness at their ingratitude; for, of all things, God can least endure to be slighted where he hath better deserved. He looks upon such with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts, Mark 3:5. He complains of such with a sigh; "Ah, sinful nation," Isaiah 1:4; he is ready to rid his stomach of them, Isaiah 1:24 "Ah, I will ease me," &c.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 3-4Haggai then spoke to the people for the Lord, in this disputation speech, not just their leaders ( Haggai 1:2). He rhetorically asked if it was proper for them to build their own houses but not rebuild His. They should have put the glory of their God ahead of their own comfort (cf. 2 Samuel 7:2; Philippians 2:21). Their priorities were upside down.

"Their problem was not lack of goods but of good." [�ote: Motyer, p977.]

"Paneled houses" apparently describes quite luxurious homes, though the Hebrew word sapan ("paneled") can mean simply houses with roofs. Wooden paneling or plaster that covered the walls and possibly the ceilings seems to be in view.

King Cyrus had provided the Jews with money to buy hardwood timber to rebuild the temple ( Ezra 3:7; 1 Esdras 4:48; 1 Esdras 5:54). It appears that the restoration Jews had used this superior wood to build their own homes rather than to rebuild the temple.

"Many Christians are like those ancient Hebrews , somehow convincing themselves that economy in constructing church buildings [or financing God"s work] is all-important while at the same time sparing no expense in acquiring their personal luxuries." [�ote: Alden, p581.]

"Whereas the house of God today is no longer material but spiritual, the material is still a very real symbol of the spiritual. When the Church of God in any place in any locality is careless about the material place of assembly, the place of its worship and its work, it is a sign and evidence that its life is at a low ebb." [�ote: G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit, 8:315.]

PARKER, ""Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying" ( Haggai 1:3).

How did the word of the Lord come to Haggai and through Haggai? The prophet himself tells us in his brief epistle, for an epistle it may be called, seeing that it was delivered so swiftly and directly and overpoweringly to the parties who were addressed by it. Haggai came into the prophetic office late in life. How wonderful is the development of human power! Sometimes there are boy preachers, whom we must always look upon with a kind of gracious distrust. I do not know what the world wants with boy-preachers, but if the Lord chooses to call them and honour

them, who are we that we should criticise the way of God? Some are not called to the ministry or the prophetic office until they are well on in life. God has not been rebuking the men, he has been educating them, chastening and training them, so that although their office be but temporary, of a short duration, yet sympathetically and suggestively it stretches over the whole space of unborn time. You do not know what you may be yet. You are a long time in beginning, but when you do begin who knows how wise will be your ministry, how rich your experience, how tender your spirit? Do not give up all hope, do not count your years; remember the reign and dominion of him who is master and Lord, and constantly say to him, Lord, at thy time, not at mine: if thou dost want me to preach I am ready when thou art ready; if it be better for me not to preach until I am an old Prayer of Manasseh , mighty as Haggai was in grey hairs, so be it: thy will, not mine, be done.

Haggai was only a minister for four months. We are very critical about the duration of ministries now; unless a man has been in his place five years or ten, or two tens, we have unkind remarks to make about the possibility of his not lasting much longer. There are always plenty of malign critics: the world has never been poor in downright wickedness; if wickedness had been wealth all the other stars would have been paupers compared with this earth-millionaire. Four months: what can be done in a little space of time when the whole man works—head, heart, hand, every power, faculty, element of his being, all consecrated with tremendous intensity towards the prosecution and culmination of one sublime and beneficent object! Some men say more in a sentence than others can say in a lifetime. Haggai may have done more in four months than some other man would have done in four centuries. Yet criticism is very foolish, vain, self-magnifying; for the later criticism, sometimes called the "higher criticism," has found out that the prophecy of Haggai is very tamely written. Criticism cannot come home at night after a whole day"s work and bring nothing with it, it would be ashamed to come back again. There be bold fishermen who go out in the morning with nothing but rod and creel, and come back at night just as empty-handed; but they have had fresh air, enjoyment, and they are ready for refreshment and rest; there is bloom upon the cheek, there is music in the tone. But criticism must bring something back, and criticism has brought back the report that Haggai has lost much of the old prophetic inspiration, that Haggai , because he began as an old Prayer of Manasseh , has shown an old man"s senility in all the writing which he wrote. It is a blessed thing that the prophecy itself is actually before us, so that we can test for ourselves the base insinuation that in Haggai the prophetic torch was almost extinct.

The prophecy of Haggai extends only over some forty verses; it might be committed to memory. In those forty verses you have little poems that could be elaborated into marvellous epics and idyls. We shall find words in Haggai we can find nowhere else. Every prophet brings his own special offering. Haggai has flowers that no other hand culled, fairer than any that the noblest prophets ever discovered in the garden of God; but criticism—pale-faced, blear-eyed criticism, with only two sharp teeth in its empty gums—has appeared to tell us that Haggai has lost inspiration, and has nothing to say unique and distinctive. Some witnesses are liars.

PARKER, ""Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste" ( Haggai 1:3-4).

When did man say, It is not time to make money, it is not time to look after my own interests. It is not time for me to pay the slightest attention to personal wants, or personal comforts: all these things can wait? �ever do we house ourselves under gilded roofs without the Lord knowing where we are Has he not counted every inch of decoration? Has he not read the estimate of every luxury with which our home is adorned? Does he not read the garden-bill, the larder-bill, the artist"s account? And do we tell him who has just laid the invoices down that it is not time to attend to the greater house, the larger love, the wider, nobler sacrifice? Tell it to men who are blind, and deaf, and dumb, and dead, but do not tell it to him who searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men. He knows the exact condition of his house. Is this unreasonable? Is it unreasonable for the husbandman to come to his own field, or garden, or vineyard, and ask concerning the fruit thereof? Is it unreasonable for the householder to look into the condition of his house? And the Church is God"s house, the temple is the dwelling-place of the Most High; and if we will not attend to his house, how can he attend to our house? And will he not presently, after giving us time enough to feel our security, blow the roof off our dwelling-place, and send upon us the storms of an angry heaven? This is the argument of this prophet—this prophet who is supposed to have lost the prophetic fire.

PETT, "Haggai 1:3-4

‘Then came the word of YHWH by Haggai the prophet, saying,“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your roofed (panelled) houses,While this house lies waste?”Haggai again comes with a message from YHWH. This time the emphasis is on the fact that each of them has his own roofed house, while YHWH’s worship is conducted out in the open, and there is nowhere to satisfactorily store the religious vessels, because His house lies waste. It is just an empty ruin. �o doubt they were stored in tents or sheds et up around the altar.

Some translate as ‘panelled’ and see them as living in some kind of luxury, which would contrast with how they were treating YHWH, but others point to the evidences of poverty and struggle and translate simply as ‘roofed’. Even the simplest house had to have a roof. (The word itself means ‘a covering’).

It was, of course, true that they had returned with a good amount of silver and gold (Ezra 1:6), but that may well have been spent on the preparations for the Temple which had come to nothing (Ezra 3:7). Perhaps on the other hand they had used the cedar from Lebanon to panel their houses. Either way what follows dose not depict them as living in luxury.

BI, "This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.

Church extension

The people said this, because they thought the undertaking too great, too arduous, too expensive for a nation circumstanced as they were. These returned captives were but a small remnant of the population of the land. They had not yet fully established themselves in their own habitations. They had formidable enemies around them, bent upon impeding their work. They were labouring at present under extraordinary distress, from the failure of their vintage and their crops; and therefore, though they admitted that the work was one needful to be done, they said, “Not yet; not in these days.” How many good works are put by by being put off! How much of the business we are sent into the world to do is not done, under pretence that it is too soon to set about it. But the prophet shows this people that their present poverty and distress were sent by God as a chastisement for their past negligence, and a warning as to their future course. The poverty which they thought to prevent by not building the temple, God brought upon them for not building it. Having thus opened to them the nature of God’s dealings with them, he calls upon them to reflect upon them.

“Consider your ways.” Then he urges upon them the immediate duty of amending their ways—“Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house”; and adds also the promise of encouragement—“And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.” The message and exhortation of the prophet were not in vain. The message was given on the first day of the sixth month, and on the four-and-twentieth day of the month the people were at work. When the Jews were led, on account of feebleness and poverty, to neglect their duty in the restoration of the temple, God visited and chastised them with the increase of that very distress which was the excuse for their sloth; and though they misunderstood the lesson, He withdrew not His hand till, under the teaching of the prophet, they had learnt its meaning. Has no similar working of Almighty wisdom developed itself in our case? When we have been led to forgetfulness of our duty to God, not by distress, but by the full-fed arrogance of worldly prosperity, has not He drawn for us lessons of chastisement out of that which has been the very cause of our sin? Our great manufacturing and commercial towns are the offspring, the development, the very characteristic embodiment of the sort of prosperity which God has permitted a careless nation to work out for itself. And if such prosperity he a blessing, may we not well question whether the Almighty have not brought upon us the last and worst denunciation of prophetic word, and “cursed our blessings because we have departed from His ways” Now at length the conviction seems to he slowly forcing itself upon us that our disabilities are so great because in building up our social fabric we have omitted the temple of God. These are the providential chastisements with which God corrects a nation, which has allowed a population to grow up estranged from Him—untaught in His Divine law. And as yet we seem to be in the state of the Jews when God first visited them with dearth and poverty for their forgetfulness of Him and His temple. We are making the consequences of our sinful neglect reason for its continuance. We need all of us to have our spirits stirred within us to do the work of God, yea, even those who may think that they are already awakened to a sense of their duties. When the foundation of the second temple was laid amid general joy and congratulation, “the elders, who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice.”—They were afflicted at the thought of the humbled state of the Church of God. But if man in his niggardliness now builds meanly, God can give to His temple a splendour of its own. The glory of the latter house may be

greater than the glory of the former. Into the second temple came the glory of the incarnate Son of God. And into our temple now may come that spiritual presence which will give it even greater glory. Then be strong in that which your duty calls you to do, and strong in that self-denying devotion by which alone it can be done. And doubt not that God will prosper and bless the work so taken in hand. (Bishop E. Denison, D. D.)

Objections to religious work

For about four months Haggai was employed in delivering prophetic sermons to encourage the people to rebuild the second temple. The people were disheartened. They prepared their own houses, they were ceiled, and painted, and decorated, but the Lord’s house was permitted to lie waste. This neglect arose from a principle prevalent in the human heart, which leads men to fancy that an exclusive attention to their own selfish concerns is the only way to promote their interests it does not enter into their narrow calculation that the first interest of man is to glorify God. Indifference to the cause of God has brought many a multiplied sorrow to the person, or community, who have manifested such a spirit; nor has it ever been known that zeal for God and love to His cause have passed unnoticed or unregarded by Him Every effort . . . of whatever kind it be, for the welfare of the souls of men, will be liable to objection. If we wait until all such objections are satisfied, we shall act like the fool, who stood by the side of the stream, waiting till all the water was gone by, that he might pass over. Objections arise from three classes of persons. The profane man is disgusted at the enthusiasm and madness of such attempts. Interested persons, whose narrow souls are incapable of a large grasp, have some certain line of action, but are alarmed at every new, magnificent, and extensive undertaking. Good and intelligent men sometimes suffer their minds to be prejudiced against particular forms of work. Illustration may be taken from objections to the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews.”

1. The first objection made to the attempts of this society is this—That, considering the present state of the Jews, the work of their conversion appears to be very arduous, that success can scarcely be hoped for. We admit the difficulty, because our aim is not merely to produce a change of sentiment concerning the Messiah, but to do an internal and spiritual work in souls. But as this is the work of God, we cannot and must not despair. The power belongeth unto God, and He has promised to work by His servants.

2. Another objection is this,—The time for the conversion of the Jews is not yet come, because the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet brought in. But Christ has said it is not for us to know times and seasons. If I do not know the time, how can I say that it has not come? We are to be guided, not by what God has delivered as a prediction, but by what He has enjoined as a duty.

3. Others are ready to say, Is there anything in the state of the Christian Church at present that flatters us with peculiar hopes of success respecting the Jews? While Christianity continued pure and unsophisticated, there were many of the Jews converted. By what power were they converted? It was by that instrument which God always employs in the conversion of souls, the pure testimony of Jesus. When the Gospel lost its purity and simplicity, the power of preaching was lost also. The inquisition compelled many Jews to become Christians in name. True, when the Church was reformed, little was done for the Lord’s ancient people. Little could be done, because party spirit, sectarian bigotry, narrowness of mind crippled and

enfeebled all their efforts.

4. It is said a difficulty arises because the Jews find we want to convert them to some particular sect.

5. It is said that the present state of the Jewish nation is specially unfavourable to the reception of Christianity. But these difficulties are not likely to vanish of themselves, if we take no pains to lessen them.

6. It is also said that the plans of this Society are utopian, for where are their means?

7. It is said, There is no door open; wait till God opens a door in His providence, and then go forward. The way to get further opportunity is to seize and use the present.

8. It is said, What right have you to interfere with the religion of the Jews? If we have a better, we must share it with others. Other objections are that this Society is actuated by interested motives; that the Jews have to be bribed to make a Christian profession; that none but poor Jews are turned from their ancient faith; that all Jews are impostors; and that this Society uses unjustifiable means. (E. J. Jones.)

Procrastination

The Lord was displeased with this people for their demur. They should have obeyed the command given them at once and earnestly. The prophet expostulated, and his expostulation was not in vain.

I. A rejoinder with which many of you are familiar. Such and such things are presented for your consideration, and they are presented kindly and intelligently. And you admit the importance of the things. For example, you listen respectfully when the necessity is set before you for sorrow for your personal sin. Yet, when you have admitted this necessity, you quietly say, “But I must be excused at present—not now—the time is not come.” Again, you give heed when the minister points out the necessity for the abandonment of sin. But, many and many a time, when the effort has been made to urge the actual relinquishment of bad habits—the immediate, continuous, and permanent abandonment of them, you have said, “What a ease that is!” Well, what then? “Ah! but you must be excused at present. Not now. The time is not yet!” Again, how respectfully you listen when the minister points out the necessity for the forgiveness of sin. It is shown you that however deep may be the sorrow, and however complete and entire may be the abandonment of sin, there is the sin after all; there is the sin, with its pollution, on your conscience; and there is the sin, with its guilt, waiting settlement in the book of God’s remembrance. That guilt is to be cancelled; that pollution is to be cleansed. But what was the upshot in this case of pleading? “We must be excused for the present. Not now. The time is not yet.” Again, how respectfully you have listened when the effort has been made to show the necessity for co-operation in counteracting sire Yet this has been met by the same procrastinating response.

II. Certain reasons whereby your rejoinder is justified. “The time is not yet.” Why not?

1. The answer from some of you is that your situations are especially unfavourable to a religious life.

2. Others say they are so entirely absorbed with secular avocations and with worldly care.

3. Others say, Oh, my passions and predilections are so entirely beyond my control.

4. Others say, I have never yet been visited by any overpowering communication from on high. And all the time you admit that sin shall be confessed and abandoned, that forgiveness shall be solicited, and that you should take your place amongst those who, m God’s name, are attempting to counteract sin.

III. How utterly unwarrantable, and how utterly unsound your justification is. If there is a commandment in this book that is imperative, it is the commandment to be sorry for sin. If there is a duty incumbent, it is the duty of abandoning sin. If there is an obligation paramount, it is the obligation to seek, through Christ, the forgiveness of sin. If there is a responsibility brought to bear upon human intelligence by the Divine authority at all, it is the responsibility to take your place on the Lord’s side. Your reasons are indefensible, untenable. I pray you to mark the untenableness, and to have done with them. (William Brock, D. D.)

Not yet

The cause of God, in all ages, suffers more from its professed friends than from its open foes. It was the selfishness, sloth, carelessness, and apathy of the Jews which caused the work to cease, after the foundation had been laid. So it is now. If I had a Church of two hundred communicants, all of whom were constantly meeting every claim which they constantly acknowledge, and if I had grace to do the same, I should not be afraid that any opposition would be able to break our moral power over this community. It was not the Samaritan intrigue but the Jewish apathy, which permitted the temple to lie so long unfinished. The apathy, not the opposition. The address of the prophet is to those who admitted the claim, but answered, “Not yet.” The work was to be done at some time, but “not yet.” This describes the temper of thousands who crowd our Churches in this day. Orthodox but inactive. Your inactivity produces disastrous results, from which your orthodoxy cannot save you. Correctness of opinion and ruinousness of conduct may co-exist in the history of the same individual. A postponement of action, in things that are imperative at the present moment, is a denial by the conduct of that which the intellect affirms and urges. It sets the whole life on a contradiction, which weakens the powers and breaks the influence.

1. There is the subject of attention to one’s personal salvation. There can be no controversy as to that. No serious attendant on Christian worship will deny that it is a man’s duty to give serious attention to his soul. Yet how many are wholly neglecting the culture of their soul. They intend to concern themselves about this matter, but not yet.

2. “The time is not come,” causes also the postponement of honest self-examination. Every reasonable man admits that it is of the utmost importance that every man know all about himself. Self-deception does no good. It is senseless to prefer a brief enjoyment of false security. But a strictly honest self-examination is painful. It is always a revelation of defects, often of deformities. Self-searching would lead to repentance, and faith, and a Christian life.

3. This same plea leads to a postponement of a public confession of Jesus. Christ naturally expects a public acknowledgment of my friendship for Him. It is His due. It is my duty.

4. Lastly, we come inside the Church. Professing Christians all unite in acknowledging that the greatest things should be done for Jesus. Why are not those things done by us. Because we are the people who say, “The time is not come, the

time that the Lord’s house should be built.” There are three influences producing in us this injurious spirit of procrastination.

(1) We exaggerate the difficulties.

(2) Our covetousness.

(3) A disposition to wait until all things are ready.

No experience seems able to cure men of this propensity. There provably never was an undertaking of any magnitude for which all things were completely ready. If all the great improvements of the age had been held back until an things were ready, they never would have been brought forward. They have had to fight their way. How many evils come of procrastination, especially to those who admit that what they put off must certainly be done. How it deadens the conscience by blinding the senses, and blunting the sensibilities! This spirit of procrastination sets us in opposition to God’s plan, which must be the best plan. God’s time is now. There never will be a time for coming to Jesus better than this time. Do not put it off. Let not selfishness, covetousness, or sloth, make you postpone. Your return to God, your acknowledgment of Jesus, your new life must begin in some now; oh, for the sake of your peace, and growth, and everlasting happiness, let it be this “now.” (Charles F. Deems, D. D.)

Waiting for the right time

1. It is a fearful though usual sin in the Church, when that which is the principal fruit and end of all their deliverances, and a chief means of their happiness, and which they seemed to esteem most when they wanted it, is most neglected when they are delivered, and have occasion to testify their affection and thankfulness: such was the building of the temple to this people, and yet this “house lies waste.”

2. It is a most dangerous way of sinning, when the sinner pretends affection to God, when he wrongs Him and His matters most, and when he thinks himself able, by fair pretences, to excuse, if not to justify his way: So did this people sin, alleging no disaffection, but that “the time is not come,” etc.

3. As the Lord may permit very great obstructions to be laid in the way of a work which yet He will carry on; so a people, who do not openly disaffect the work, may sinfully concur in obstructing of it. This they do—

(1) When they are not sensible of obstructions in the way, but are soon hindered.

(2) When they neglect or pass from a known duty upon any pretence of providence, or God’s secret will.

(3) When they are hindered from their duty in advancing the work of God by any hazard whatsoever.

(4) When they look for times wherein there shall be no difficulties, but all advantages for doing God’s work in, and in expectation of such times do lie from present duty.

(5) When the true cause of men’s negligence, which layeth many a lion in the way, is their love to their own things and private interests.

4. Men’s own consciences, when they speak impartially, will convince them of heinous sin, when they, study to promote their own interest, to the neglect of God’s

affairs.

5. A people’s sinful negligence in God’s matters, though times were never so perilous, renders them contemptible, whatever their privileges be, and provokes God to bring them down to know themselves better. (George Hutcheson.)

Duty adjourned

“The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” They do not question the desirableness or the obligation of the work. During the captivity, we are told elsewhere, that they hanged their “harps upon the willows,” and wept when they “remembered Zion.” Often, perhaps, in those circumstances did they resolve, should they ever be restored, to rebuild that temple which was the glory of their land; but now that they are there on the spot, and the ruins lying before them, their ardour is cooled, and they say, “The time is not come.”

I. Cowardice. They did not say, “We will not build the temple, we will leave it to remain in ruins,” they were too cowardly for that. Their consciences rendered them incapable of making such a decision. Men who neglect duty are too cowardly to say, “We will never attend to it, we will never study the Scriptures, worship God.”

1. Sin is cowardice.

2. Sin is cowardice because conscience, the truly heroic element, is ever against it.

II. Selfishness. They set to work for their own private interests.

1. Selfishness is a perversion of self-love.

2. Selfishness is fatal to self-interest.

III. Presumption. “The time is not come.” How did they know that? Were they judges of times and seasons? Are they imperious enough to plead providence as a patron of their disobedience? “Go to, now, ye that say to-day and to-morrow.”

1. Such presumption is always guilty. It implies that we know better than our Maker about times and seasons.

2. Such presumption is always perilous. It treads upon an awful precipice. (Homilist.)

Excuses for neglecting religious duty

While the people were taking care of themselves, and consulting their own interest, the building of the temple was neglected. That the temple was not built till the reign of Darius, was occasioned by the fact that the prefects of Cyrus gave much annoyance to the Jews, and Cambyses was most hostile to them. But when liberty was restored to them, and Darius had so kindly permitted them to build the temple, they had no excuse for delay. It is however probable that they had then many disputes as to the time; for it may have been, that they, seizing on any pretext to cover their sloth, made this objection,—that many difficulties had occurred, because they were too precipitate, and they had been thus punished for their haste, because they had rashly undertaken the building of the temple. And we may also suppose that they took another view of the time as having not yet come, for easily might this objection occur to them: “It is indeed true that the

worship of God is to be preferred to all other things; but the Lord grants us this indulgence, so that we are allowed to build our own houses; and in the meantime we attend to the sacrifices. Have not our fathers lived many ages without a temple? God was then satisfied with a sanctuary; there is now an altar erected, and there sacrifices are offered. The Lord then will forgive us if we defer the building of the temple to a suitable time. But in the meantime, every one may build his own house, so that afterwards the temple may at leisure be built more sumptuously.” However this may have been, we find it true, that the Jews were so taken up with their domestic concerns, with their own ease, and with their own pleasures, that they made very little account of God’s worship. This is the reason why the prophet was so greatly displeased with them. He declares that they said, “The time is not yet come to build the house of Jehovah.” He repeats here what the Jews were wont to allege in order to disguise their sloth, after having delayed a long time, and when they could not, except through consummate effrontery, adduce anything in their own defence. We however see that they hesitated not to promise pardon to themselves. Thus also do men indulge in their sins, as though they could make an agreement with God, and pacify Him with some frivolous things. We see that this was the case then. But we may also see here, as in a mirror, how great is the ingratitude of men. And how is the case at this day? We see that through a remarkable miracle of God, the Gospel has shone forth in our time, and we have emerged, as it were, from the abodes below. Who does rear up, of his own free will, an altar to God? On the contrary, all regard what is advantageous only to themselves; and while they are occupied with their own concerns, the worship of God is cast aside; there is no care, no zeal, no concern for it; nay, what is worse, many make gain of the Gospel, as though it were a lucrative business. No wonder, then, if the people have so basely disregarded their deliverance, and have almost obliterated the memory of it. As God’s temple is spiritual, our fault is the more atrocious when we become thus slothful; since God does not bid us to collect either wood or stones or cement, but to build a celestial temple, in which He may be truly worshipped. When therefore we become thus indifferent, as that people were thus severely reproved, doubtless our sloth is much more detestable. The building of the spiritual temple is deferred, whenever we become devoted to ourselves, and regard only what is advantageous to us individually. (John Calvin.)

The duty of building the Lord’s house

These people were glad to have an excuse for turning away from building the Lord’s house to build houses for themselves. Though they found plenty of time and means for adorning their own houses in a costly manner, the Lord’s house was left to lie waste. Are they the only people who have ever acted after this fashion? Have we not been equally slack in doing the Lord’s work? We may not be called to build up the Lord’s house of stone and mortar; but there is another work requisite, even soul work; and from that neither we nor any other Christians can be spared. Every Christian is called to bear his part in building up the Church of the Lord spiritually, by prayer and thanksgiving, by faith and righteousness, by holiness and love; for this is the Lord’s true Church. The New Testament Church is the congregation of believers. But any hindrance, however petty, is now deemed insurmountable—any excuse, however trifling, is held to be perfectly valid—if it is only to keep a person away from Church. Even when we come to Church, are we all diligently employed in building the house of the Lord? It is not of the bodies of men, but of their hearts, and souls, and minds, that the Lord’s house is built. When we come to Church, as members of Christ’s congregation, we come, or at least we ought to come to Christ. Moreover, every Christian ought himself to be a temple of God. He is so

already, as St. Paul tells the Corinthians; and he ought to become so more and more entirely. This should be the great work of his life, to build himself up as such, with the help of God’s Spirit dwelling in him. This is our work—a long and laborious work—to fit all our thoughts and feelings for being built up into the house of God, by purging them from the untempered mortar of this world. When so purged, how are we to cement them together? By good works; by works of holiness and love. It behoves us, one and all, to make it the great work of our lives to build up the Lord’s house, both in our own hearts and souls and minds, and in the congregation of His people. We must be careful to carry on both works together; for neither will prosper without the other. (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)

The waste house

One of the most palpable effects of the Fall is that it has led man to live for himself. Sin is essentially selfish, and one of the first effects of redemption is to make man live for others. Real Christianity always takes a man out of himself. Yet the Christian carries about with him a sinful body, which is always craving for indulgence. The Christian’s constant danger is lest his Saviour’s glory should cease to be paramount to every other consideration. Christ must be first, or the soul will find a want in everything. Observe the name God takes here—“Lord of hosts.” When God is about to ask His people for anything, or to supply His people with anything, this is the name by which He generally addresses them in the Old Testament. Observe the sin of the people here. “The time is not come that the Lord’s house should be built.” It was not a denial of God’s claim upon them, it was a putting God off. Is not this the sin of the present day?, God asks for His place in the heart of the sinner, and the answer is, “Not yet.” The sin of all, converted and unconverted, is that of putting God off. We have not the courage, the straightforwardness, to disallow His claim altogether. We add mockery to our sin by acknowledging the justice of a claim which we have inwardly determined shall never be met. While we are dwelling in our ceiled houses, and the Lord’s house is lying in ruins, what is the consequence even in this life? The end of everything they did, these people missed. Christ is the end, the satisfying thing in all. Toil without Him must end in vanity, it God, reminds them of their disappointment in everything, and the cause of Because of Mine house that is waste.” What is this breath wherewith the Lord blows upon everything? The breath of His Spirit withering everything we do, because His house is in ruins. What is the Divine remedy? “Consider your ways.” Pass in review your heart, your life, your daily history. Set about the duty of the hour, and put your heart into the doing of it. (F. Whitfield, M. A.)

The judgment on neglecting to build the Lord’s house

God is never content with confounding His enemies. He does not confound to destroy; He confounds in order that He may save. The courses by which He brings this purpose to pass are various. One of the commonest is the one set before us in the text. Seeing that the motive why we forsake His service is that we may give ourselves up to our own service,—seeing that self is the mask which Satan puts on, to lure us away from God, and that the baits with which he tempts us are the pleasures of sin and the charms of self-indulgence, God mercifully shows us the vanity of those pleasures, the misery and deceitfulness of that self-indulgence. He sends some heavy affliction to humble our pride, to prove to us that, in leaning on earthly things, we lean on a broken reed. Then, at

the height of our distresses, He sends His messengers to explain their meaning and purpose. He sharpens the stings of conscience; He brings out the letters of the law, like the letters which the hand wrote on the wall of the palace of King Belteshazzar. These people regarded the earth as their servant, spread out beneath their feet for no other purpose than to do their bidding, to feed their wants, and to pamper their lusts. Wherefore God vouchsafed to show them that the earth was not their servant, but His; that it was not spread out beneath their wings to do their bidding, but His. If the sun and rain were locked up in heaven, the earth would yield no increase, notwithstanding all that man could do to make it. God’s prophet bids the people “consider their ways,” and that all God’s dealings were designed to prove to them how, in the ways in which they were walking, although they were to sow much, they would reap little,—although they ate, they would not have enough,—although they drank, they would not be filled with drink,—that they might clothe themselves, but none would be warm,—and that the wages which they earned would be put into a bag with holes. All this God did, not in order to leave them in their confusion, but in order to raise them out of it. If they will arise and work, and build the house of the Lord, He will still take pleasure in it, and will be glorified in the house they shall build for Him. This message is also sent to us. It is a message of misery; but it is also a message full of warnings, a message of mercy following upon warnings, to the end that the warnings may not be misunderstood, but may be seen in their true light, and may produce the effect they were intended to produce. But the message is not merely sent to nations, it is sent also to individuals. No one ever gave himself up to the work of building the Lord’s house, without allowing his heart to be distracted by the desire to build some house or other for himself. The message applies to us in all its parts. We, like them, have been delivered out of captivity. We have been called to the work of building up the house of the Lord who delivered us,—of building it up outwardly, whenever an occasion for doing so comes across us,—of building it up continually by joining with our neighbours in His worship,—and of building it up daily in our own souls. As we are like the Israelites in having this duty, so we are like them in neglecting it. Instead of doing the Lord’s work, we do what we regard as our own work. But if self is the lord of the house we build, whatever the materials may seem to be, when the gilding is rubbed off, they are found to be cares, and jealousies, and disquietudes. Every house in which self is set up as master, is a house of death. It may seem full of life; but it is the house of death, of moral death, which is the first death, and always brings the other in its train. This must be the condition of those who neglect their duty of building up the house of the Lord. Whatever they do will be empty and unprofitable. Those who build up the house of the Lord always have enough. (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)

National religion

Great as any man’s duties are which he is called to discharge, or great as his sins may be on account of their past neglect, he is not left either without the hope of forgiveness or the promise of succour. This passage was intended as a rebuke for the neglect of a duty seen and acknowledged. That duty was a pious and holy regard for the temple and service of the Lord. The neglect was that, while they were anxious about the splendour and comfort of their own dwellings, they suffered the Lord’s house to lie waste. The fault lay not with the people only, but also with their princes and rulers. Taking all the circumstances of this case into due account, the following propositions are offered for our due consideration—

1. That rulers and heads of nations, being the servants of God, and bound to conform

to His will, and to seek above all things to promote His glory, are as responsible to God for all their ways and works, both individually, officially, and supremely, as any other person whatsoever. But we live in strange times. Principles of the most dangerous character, and utterly subversive of all holy feeling and good government, are openly broached and boldly patronised in the grand assemblies of the nation. A double duty is therefore incumbent upon all who wish well for the nation’s good, and for the true welfare of their fellow-beings. The mutual responsibilities of each, the governing and the governed, must be plainly and practically enforced, on the ground of the Divine Word, which is their proper authority.

(1) We maintain that all men, everywhere, are account able to God. All souls are in the hand of God. Man cannot be divested of this responsibility, wherever he may be placed, or however he may be circumstanced.

(2) This obligation and responsibility rest with a far greater weight upon some. Where more is given, more will be required.

(3) Rulers and heads of nations are as responsible in their individual capacity as others, and in their official capacity even more than others.

(4) They are the positive servants of God. Not in the saving sense of the word, but in the responsible sense of the term.

(5) Therefore rulers and heads of nations are under the positive, unvariable, and unchanging obligation of seeking above all things to promote the Divine honour and glory. Nothing can release them from these demands; nothing can lessen or alienate these claims.

(6) They are as responsible to God for all their ways and works in their ruling or official, as they and others are accountable to God for all their doings in their merely personal or individual capacity. It is often said that the ruling power is above law, and therefore accountable to none. But this is a most dangerous doctrine, and calculated to lead to the most lawless licentiousness.

2. That they are bound, by every motive and consideration, both of alarm and encouragement, seriously to lay this to heart; to consider how the matter stands with them; and to inquire what may be its probable termination, both with themselves and others; whether in judgment or mercy; whether in the gracious approbations, or the heavy wrath of Almighty God.

(1) Can any man with safety neglect the duties which God requires at his hands?

(2) Must it not be a fearful thing to incur the displeasure of Almighty God? His wrath is like a consuming fire.

(3) Will not God, in the final day of account, deal as impartially and justly with the mighty and great as with the humble and mean?

(4) Can any man set aside the Divine authority, or nullify the creature’s responsibility?

(5) Will the Lord ever leave any man, who sincerely aims to do His will, without His help and blessing?

(6) What blessings might not the exercise of such an authority, in such a manner, be the means of diffusing! Reflections—

1. How needful is it that princes and rulers should be clearly informed of what God

requires at their hands.

2. How careful they should be not to abuse the power with which they are charged!

3. How great must be the guilt of all who attempt to hinder such princes and rulers in the conscientious discharge of their duties.

4. How very far are we yet from that state of things which ought to exist. (R. Shittler.)

Temporal consequences of sin

In God’s dealings with His ancient people, we find the principles of His government in all ages of the world. God took no greater interest in the history of the world then than He does now. He did not interfere more constantly in the affairs of men then than He does now. The only difference is, men used to see the hand of God where we find no trace of it at all. In all the calamities and blessings of life they heard the voice of God. And God still speaks to us in all the events of life. We can find many philosophical reasons for them, but who ever hears the name of God in connection with them? This persistent denial of the government of God is one of the saddest phases of public life amongst us. The prophet tells the people that their poverty and distress are due directly to their selfish care for themselves, and their neglect of God’s house. The underlying principle may be thus stated—neglect of the laws and claims of God, either in this world or the next, never results in any good . . . In the particular direction which God gave concerning this temple, we may find the principles which should guide us in the erection of all houses for His glory and worship. We find a severe condemnation of that specially modern custom of lavishing wealth in increasing the luxuries and beauties of our private dwellings and public buildings, whilst we are content that the Lord should dwell in a house scarcely equal to our granaries or our stables How easy it is to find intimations of providence against a work for which we are little disposed. Indolence, selfishness, a fear of the trouble and expense, were the real causes of the delay in building the Lord’s house in Haggai’s time. What unbounded faith people have in providence when providence seems to speak on the side of their own inclinations: but how deaf men are to the voice of providence when it contradicts their own desires! God says to these people, “Consider your ways.” What have you gained by your neglect of My house? You thought by so doing to escape poverty, yet poverty has come. Have your selfishness and niggardliness produced the results you expected? God says nothing about the insult offered to Himself in this neglect. This is the final argument against sin, and the one which perhaps touches men most. Sin is a violation of God’s law; but men care little for that. It is the basest ingratitude; but men care little for that. More still—it is the most consummate folly. The man who does wrong is not only a sinner, he is a fool. Consider,—what has sin done for you? Does sin answer your purpose? The laws of God are for this life as well as the next. The most sure way of securing prosperity and happiness is to acknowledge them. The most certain way to bring upon ourselves adversity and misery is to live in defiance of them. God’s laws vindicate themselves now. Prosperity and happiness here are as much dependent on our acknowledgment of God’s laws as prosperity and happiness in the world to come. What did this people’s neglect of God’s house imply, and how would this affect their material prosperity?

1. It implied the fear of a little expense. But niggardliness never pays.

2. It exhibited great selfishness. In time of disaster, who has the selfish man to fall back upon? Selfishness won’t do in the world nowadays. In three different ways God

may destroy our prosperity.

(1) He may make our labour unproductive.

(2) He may take away the power to enjoy what we have gained.

(3) Our earnings may slip away as quickly as they come.

Let me ask you again, What do we gain by neglecting God? What prosperity can we secure or enjoy without His blessing? Of what happiness have we such a firm grasp that He cannot take it away from us? What is our strength if we provoke the Lord to fight against us? Is it wise to forget God? God says, “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” (B. G. Wilkinson.)

Indolence

Indolence in the Lord’s work is a great sin. Many a Christian crying out” Oh, my leanness!” had better be honest and cry Oh, my laziness. So much of an anomaly is an indolent Christian that Dr. Dwight gives the following testimony:—“Among all those who, within my knowledge, have appeared to become sincerely penitent and reformed, I recollect only one lazy man. And this man became industrious from the moment of his conversion.” (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)

Idle Church members

In a former charge, one Sabbath, I took into the pulpit the Church records, and I laid them on the pulpit and opened them, and said: “Brethren, here are the Church records. I find a great many of you whose names are down here are off duty.” Some were afraid I would read the names, for at that time some of them were deep in the worst kind of oil stocks, and were idle as to Christian work. But if the ministers of Christ in Brooklyn, and New York, and in all the cities, to-day, should bring the Church records into the pulpit and read, oh, what a flutter there would be! (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Shirking the burden

Thomas Highat lay dying. He was a foreman in a large ship building yard in Greenock. There was a long heavy log of wood to be lifted, and he had taken his place along with the men under him to assist in the carrying. As the procession was moving on, one mean fellow who liked to scamp his work, dropped his shoulder and the load came down with sudden force upon the shoulder of Thomas Highat, who was not so tall. There was serious injury done, the doctor pronounced it fatal. As he lay on his death-bed, he said to his minister, the Rev. A. Davidson, “I ought not to be here just yet. It was because so and-so didn’t stand up to his burden.” It is in many Churches as in that shipyard, that some are made to suffer seriously and needlessly, because the heavy end of the work is left to them—because certain of their comrades don’t stand up to their burden.

Irreligious delay

1. Men are always prone to put religion off with scraps and leavings, and serve God with what costs them nothing. In the outward things of religion, they are much more disposed to work for themselves than for God; and if they have time that cannot be

otherwise used, or funds that are not very current, to give them to the treasury of the Lord, and if any larger expenditure of either is urged, to plead that “the time has not come” to do this work. In the inward things of religion the same spirit is shown. The young, the middle-aged, and the old, all alike procrastinate the great work, on the plea that “the time is not come,” the convenient season that, like the horizon, recedes as we advance (Hag_1:2).

2. Our expenditures on ourselves, whilst we pretend to have nothing for God, will bear emphatic and fearful testimony against us. The carved ceilings and costly ornaments will have a tongue in the day of judgment (Hag_1:4).

3. No man ever gains anything by trying to cheat God. He makes a fool’s bargain, bartering a real good for a perishing bauble, and losing at last even what he gained (Hag_1:6).

4. A careful pondering of God’s dealings with us will often indicate to us God’s will regarding us. The events of life are the hieroglyphics in which God records His feelings toward us, the key to which is found in the Bible (Hag_1:6).

5. Obedience to God is an advancement of His glory (Hag_1:8).

6. Disobedience to God will often, even in this life, issue in disappointment and disaster (Hag_1:9-10).

7. God has not abandoned the universe to the sightless action of general laws, but is so related to that universe as to be able to direct its laws to the fulfilment of His purposes, whether in rewarding the good, punishing the evil, or answering prayer, without deranging or destroying the normal action of those laws themselves (Hag_1:11).

8. True religion manifests itself in fearing the Lord, and in obeying the voice of His servant (Hag_1:12).

9. The presence of God with a man is the best blessing he can receive, for it includes everything else (Hag_1:13).

10. God is waiting to be gracious, and will meet the returning wanderer, even before his hand has begun the actual work of His service (Hag_1:13).

11. Every good impulse, or reviving of religion in the hearts of men, is produced by the direct power of God, through the Holy Spirit (Hag_1:14).

12. Obedience to the commands of God will always end in a blessing, whilst disobedience will always end in a curse, if not in time, surely in eternity. (T. F. Moore, D. D.)

Haggai 1:3-4

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?

Church building

The decree of Artaxerxes prohibited the building both of temple and city, but it seems that the people had persisted, spite of the decree, in building dwellings for themselves, though no progress had been made with the temple. The mission of Haggai and

Zechariah was to rouse the people to the long-neglected work, to reprove the indolent, and encourage the desponding. The excuses of the people, like those commonly of men who defer religious duties to more convenient seasons, were but marks of a secret resolve to escape, if possible, altogether from a labour which must interfere with more congenial pursuits. Our text contains the prophet’s expostulation, meeting the excuse that the time was not come for building the Lord’s house. The temple may not be indispensable in spiritual Christianity, but it is certainly valuable. There may be privileges attached to it which we have no right to expect, elsewhere. We need not confound our case with that of the Jews, though we address to Christians the expostulation of the text, as if the change in dispensation had made no difference in its pertinence and force. Christianity, unlike Judaism, is not tied to places; its ordinances may be everywhere celebrated. Then what necessity is there, under this new and better covenant, for structures devoted to sacred uses, or what loss is it to us if “this house lie waste”? It is contrary to the established order of providence that miracles should be employed where the: result might be accomplished through ordinary means. The propagation of Divine truth has been entrusted to the Church. The public ordinances are therefore indispensable; and suitable places for such ordinances must be provided. We can safely contend for the indispensableness, under the existing dispensation, of sanctuaries, or Churches, maintaining that cities without these sacred edifices would be cities that must ere long be wholly sunk in irreligion, and occupied by a population with no fear of God. We can no better spare our Churches than the Jews could their temple. In proportion as we allow any city, or any portion of our population to be destitute of the public means of grace, we fasten On that city or population something of the same religious incapacity as was fastened on Jerusalem, whilst its temple lay in ruins. The Jews are not blamed for having built their own houses, but for not having, at the same time, built the house of God. Wherever there is a community, there ought to be a house devoted to God. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Diligence in the work of God

I propose to excite you to greater diligence, and to a more fervent zeal in the work and cause of God.

I. An existing depression in the cause of God. There is a painful imperfection in the work of God as it exists in the present day. The cause of God is by no means in the state that Christians desire. What are the scenes presented to our view in lands where Christianity is professed? In our own land, what do we see? What in other Christian and heathen lands? We are compelled to confess that the temple of God lieth waste. We are too apt to triumph: we are prone to forget the present state of things. We despair not; but we do not feel enough.

II. Temporal gratification may be pursued to the neglect of those exertions which God so justly demands. These people were dwelling in ceiled houses, while the temple of God was in ruins. We see now wealth, talents, genius, property, fully used for self-interests, and estranged from the cause of God. Especially may be noticed neglect of claims of Christian missions. Viewing our efforts in connection with the claims of God and of men, we must surely confess that there are many claims not answered, many duties not fulfilled. Regard the text.

III. As challenging the employment of our various talents, and urging the claims of God.

1. Consider the nature of those obligations under which you are placed by God, with

regard to the services you are called to render.

2. Consider the peculiar nature of the system of the Gospel you have embraced. Is there not a sentence pronounced on all those who are ungrateful and disobedient?

3. Consider that, while there is not this energy in the cause of God, there is an amount, an awful amount of misery resting on your fellow-men.

4. Consider the prospect of success. Let then the vast importance of the work, and the consideration of the past neglect of it, urge you to exertion. (James Parsons.)

4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

BAR�ES, "Is it time for you - You, being what you are, the creatures of God, “to dwell in your ceiled houses,” more emphatically, in your houses, and those “ceiled,” probably with costly woods, such as cedar . But where then was the excuse of want of means? They imitated, in their alleged poverty, what is spoken of as magnificent in their

old kings, Solomon and Shallum, but not having, as Solomon first did (1Ki_6:9, ויספן), “covered the house of God with beams and rows of cedar” . “Will ye dwell in houses artificially adorned, not so much for use as for delight, and shall My dwelling-place, wherein was the Holy of holies, and the cherubim, and the table of showbread, be bestreamed with rains, desolated in solitude, scorched by the sun?” “With these words carnal Christians are reproved, who have no glow of zeal for God,

but are full of self-love, and so make no effort to repair, build, or strengthen the material temples of Christ, and houses assigned to His worship, when aged, ruinous, decaying or destroyed, but build for themselves curious, voluptuous, superfluous dwellings. In these the love of Christ gloweth not; these Isaiah threateneth, Isa_5:8, Isa_5:12. “Woe to you who join house to house and field to field, and regard not the work of the Lord!”

To David and Solomon the building of God’s temple was their heart’s desire; to early Christian Emperors, to the ages of faith, the building of Churches; now mostly, owners of lands build houses for this world’s profit, and leave it to the few to build in view of eternity, and for the glory of God.

CLARKE, "Is it time for you - If the time be not come to rebuild the temple, it cannot be come for you to build yourselves comfortable houses: but ye are rebuilding your houses; why then do ye not rebuild the house of the Lord? The foundation of the

temple had been laid fourteen years before, and some considerable progress made in the building; and it had been lying waste in that unfinished state to the present time.

GILL, "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses,.... They could not only find time, leisure, and convenience to build houses to dwell in; but to wainscot them, and line them with boards of cedar, as the Targum; as bad as the times were complained of; and could sit in them, indulging themselves in luxury, ease, and sloth; and why then was it not a fit and convenient time as well to build the house of the Lord in?

and this house lie waste? or, "and shall this house lie waste?" or, "when this house lies waste?" (o) not indeed in its rubbish and ruins, as it was demolished by the Chaldeans, and left; but with a bare foundation, laid some years ago; and ever since neglected; the superstructure not carried on, and much less built up to be fit for service; and therefore might be said with propriety to lie waste and desolate, being unfinished, unfit for use, and no regard had unto it. David was of another mind, 2Sa_7:2 and truly religious persons will be more concerned for the house of God than for their own houses.

HE�RY, "The reproof which the prophet gives them for their neglect of the temple-work (Hag_1:4): “Is it time for you, O you! to dwell in your ceiled houses, to have them beautified and adorned, and your families settled in them?” They were not content with walls and roofs for necessity, but they must have for gaiety and fancy. “It is high time,” says one, “that my house were wainscoted.” “It is high time,” says another, “that mine were painted.” And God's house, all this time, lies waste, and nothing is done at it. “What!” says the prophet, “is it time that you should have your humour pleased, and not time you should have your God pleased?” How much was their disposition the reverse of David's, who could not be easy in his house of cedar while the ark of God was in curtains(2Sa_7:2), and of Solomon's, who built the temple of God before he built a palace for himself. Note, Those are very much strangers to their own interest who prefer the conveniences and ornaments of the temporal life before the absolute necessities of the spiritual life, who are full of care to enrich their own houses, while God's temple in their hearts lies waste, and nothing is done for it or in it.

JAMISO�, "Is it time— It is not time (Hag_1:2), ye say, to build Jehovah’s house; yet how is it that ye make it a fit time not only to build, but to “dwell” at ease in your own houses?

you, O ye— rather, for “you, you”; the repetition marking the shameful contrast between their concern for themselves, and their unconcern for God [Maurer]. Compare a similar repetition in 1Sa_25:24; Zec_7:5.

ceiled— rather, “wainscoted,” or “paneled,” referring to the walls as well as the ceilings; furnished not only with comfort but luxury, in sad contrast to God’s house not merely unadorned, but the very walls not raised above the foundations. How different David’s feelings (2Sa_7:2)!

COKE, "Haggai 1:4. Is it time for you, &c.— Is the time come for you to inhabit your ceiled houses, while that house lieth desolate? This is in answer to Haggai 1:2. "You complain of the times; yet they have not been so difficult but you have found means and opportunity to build fine houses for yourselves, though you are content

to let the house of the Most High continue in ruins."

TRAPP, "Verse 4Haggai 1:4 [Is it] time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house [lie] waste?

Ver. 4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, &c.] �ot covered only, but ceiled with cedar (as the Chaldee here hath it), arched and garnished, as the Greek, carved and trimmed, as Ambrose rendereth it (Lib. 3. epist. 12). Sure, either your beds are very soft or your hearts very hard, that you can not only come into the tabernacles of your houses, but give sleep to your eyes, or slumber to your eyelids, before ye have found "a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob," Psalms 132:4-5. Good David could not find in his heart to dwell in a house of cedar when the ark of God dwelt within curtains, 2 Samuel 7:2. Valiant Uriah deemed it altogether unfit and unreasonable that when the ark, and Israel, and Judah, abode in tents, he should go to his house to eat and drink, and to take his ease and pleasure, 2 Samuel 11:11. Solomon first built a house for God, and then for himself. The Christian emperors, Constantine, Theodosius, Honorius, &c., exceeded in building churches, which, from their stateliness, were styled Basilicae, or places for a king. The very Turks to this day, though content to dwell in mean and homely houses, yet their Mosques or meeting houses are very sumptuously built and set forth. It is a principle in nature, that the things of God are older and more to be respected than the things of men ( τα του Yεου πρεσβυτερα η τα των ανθρωπων. Herodot.). A professor of the Turks’ laws proclaims, before they attempt anything, that nothing be done against religion. This is better than that which was written over the gate of the senate house in Rome (which yet is not to be disliked, in its place and order), �e quid detrimenti Resp. capiat. Let nothing be done to the harm of the republic. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s: but with all, and above all, Give unto God the things that are God’s. The Greek article is twice repeated by our Saviour, when he speaketh for God, more than when for Caesar ( τα του θεου τω θεω, Matthew 22:21); to show that our special care should be to give God his due, to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and then all other things shall seek us. Caetera aut aderunt, aut caetera non oberunt The rest either will happen or the rest will not harm. (Cicero). But most people are so busied about their own houses, their cottages of clay, 2 Corinthians 5:1, the body, that God’s house, the soul, lies waste and neglected; the lean kine eat up the fat; the strength of the ground is spent in nourishing weeds. Earthly mindedness sucketh the sap of grace from the heart, as the ivy doth from the oak, and maketh it unfruitful. Men are so taken up about the world, that they think not of God’s kingdom: as the Duke of Alva told the French king, who asked him whether he had observed the recent great eclipse? �o, said he, I have so much to do upon earth, that I have no leisure to look toward heaven. But is not one thing necessary, and all others but side businesses? And have we not in our daily prayer five petitions for spirituals and but one for temporals? Are we not taught to make it our first request, that God’s name may be hallowed, though our turn should not be served? Is not Esau stigmatized for selling his birthright for a mess of broth? Hebrews 12:16. And is not Shimei chronicled for

a fool, who, by seeking after his servants, lost his life? Pope Sixtus for a madman, that sold his soul to the devil, to enjoy the Popedom for seven years? "What shall it profit a man to win the world and lose his own soul?" to win Venice, and then be hanged at the gates thereof, as the Italian proverb hath it? Surely such a man’s loss will be, 1. Incomparable, 2. Irreparable; for "What shall a man give in exchange of his soul?" Matthew 16:26. It was no evil counsel that was given to John III, King of Portugal, to meditate every day a quarter of an hour on that Divine sentence. It would be time well spent to ponder as often and as long together on this text, "Is it time for you, O ye," that are so sharp set upon the world, so wholly taken up about your private profits, your pleasures and preferments, to sit in your ceiled houses, as Ahab once did in his ivory palace, or �ebuchadnezzar in his house of the kingdom (as he vain gloriously calleth it, Daniel 4:30), and God’s house lie waste, and his service neglected, to whom we ourselves owe, 1 Corinthians 6:19, our lives, Matthew 16:25, our parents, children, friends, means, Matthew 19:29, our gifts and abilities, 1 Corinthians 4:7, our honours and offices, Psalms 2:10-12, all that we are and have? How justly may God curse our blessings (as he threateneth these self-seeking, God neglecting Jews both here and Malachi 2:2), scatter brimstone upon our houses, dry up our roots beneath, and above cut off our branches, drive us from light into darkness, and chase us out of the world with his terrors, Job 16:15-21. Surely such are the (ceiled) dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God, that inverteth the order appointed of him, by coveting, not the best gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:21, but an evil covetousness, Habakkuk 2:9, by setting his affections, not on things above, but on things on the earth, by seeking their own things, every man, and not the things of Jesus Christ, Colossians 3:2, Philippians 2:21.

ELLICOTT, "(4) Is it time for you . . .—Literally, Is it time for you to dwell in your houses, and those ceiled?—i.e., probably with cedar and other costly woods. A crushing retort. If the adverse decree of Artaxerxes, which disallowed the building of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:21), had not hindered them from erecting magnificent residences for themselves, how could it reasonably excuse an utter neglect of God’s House?

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:4

For you, O ye; for you, yourselves; such as ye are (see Zechariah 7:5). He appeals to their consciences. You can make yourselves comfortable; you have time and means and industry to expend on your own private interests, and can you look with indifference on the house of God lying waste? Your cieled houses; your houses, and those cieled—wainscoted and roofed with costly woods (1 Kings 7:3, 1 Kings 7:7; Jeremiah 22:14), perhaps with the very cedar provided for the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 3:7). Septuagint, ἐν οἴκοις ὑµῶν κοιλοστάθµοις, "your vaulted houses," or, as St. Cyril explains, "houses whose doorposts were elaborately adorned with emblems and devices." They had naught of the feeling of David (2 Samuel 7:2), "I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains."

5 �ow this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.

BAR�ES, "And now, thus saith the Lord of hosts; “Consider,” (literally “set your heart upon) your ways,” what they had been doing, what they were doing, and what those doings had led to, and would lead to. This is ever present to the mind of the prophets, as speaking God’s words, that our acts are not only “ways” in which we go, each day of life being a continuance of the day before; but that they are ways which lead, somewhere in God’s Providence and His justice; to some end of the “way,” good or bad. So God says by Jeremiah Jer_21:8. “I set before you the way of life and the way of death;” and David Psa_16:11, “Thou wilt show me the path of life,” where it follows, “In Thy presence is the fullness of joy and at Thy Right Hand there are pleasures forevermore;” and Solomon Pro_6:23, “Reproofs of instruction are the way of life;” and, he is in Pro_10:17, “the way of life who keepeth instruction; and he who forsaketh rebuke, erreth;” and Pro_15:24, “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath;” and of the adulterous woman, Pro_7:27. “Her house are the ways of hell, going down to the chambers of death” and Pro_5:5-6, “her feet go down unto death; her steps take hold on hell; lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life.” Again, Pro_14:12; Pro_16:25. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death;” and contrariwise Pro_4:18, “The path of the righteous is a shining light, shining more and more until the mid-day” Pro_2:13. “The ways of darkness” are the ways which end in darkness; and when Isaiah says Isa_59:8, “The way of peace hast thou not known,” he adds, “whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.” They who choose not peace for their way, shall not find peace in and for their end.

On these your ways, Haggai says, “set your hearts,” not thinking of them lightly, nor giving a passing thought to them, but fixing your minds upon them; as God says to Satan Job_1:8, “Hast thou set thy heart on My servant Job?” and God is said to set His eye or His face upon man for good Jer_24:6; or for evil Jer_21:10, He speaks also, not of setting the mind, applying the understanding, giving the thoughts, but of “setting the heart,” as the seat of the affections. It is not a dry weighing of the temporal results of their ways, but a loving dwelling upon them, for repentance without love is but the gnawing of remorse.

Set your heart on your ways; - i. e., your affections, thoughts, works, so as to be circumspect in all things; as the apostle Paul says 1Ti_5:21, “Do nothing without forethought,” i. e., without previous judgment of reason; and Solomon Pro_4:25, “Let

thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee;” and the son of Sirach, “Son, do nothing without counsel and when thou hast done it thou wilt not repent.” For since, according to a probable proposition, nothing in human acts is indifferent, i. e., involving neither good nor ill deserts, they who do not thus set their hearts upon their ways, do they not daily incur almost countless sins, in thought, word, desire, deed, yea and by omission of duties? Such are all fearless persons who heed not to fulfill what is written Pro_4:23, ‘Keep your heart with all watchfulness. ‘“

“He “sows much” to his own heart, but “brings in little,” who by reading and hearing knows much of the heavenly commands, but by negligence in deeds bears little fruit. “He eats and is not satisfied,” who, hearing the words of God, coveteth the gains or glory of the world. Well is he said not to be “satisfied,” who eateth one thing, hungereth after another. He drinks and is not inebriated, who inclineth his ear to the voice of preaching, but changeth not his mind. For through inebriation the mind of those who drink is changed. He then who is devoted to the knowledge of God’s word, yet still desireth to gain the things of the world, drinks and is not inebriated. For were he inebriated, no doubt he would have changed his mind and no longer seek earthly things, or love the vain and passing things which he had loved. For the Psalmist says of the elect Psa_36:8, “they shall be inebriated with the richness of Thy house,” because they shall be filled with such love of Almighty God, that, their mind being changed, they seem to be strangers to themselves, fulfilling what is written Mat_16:24, ‘If any will come after Me, let him deny himself. ‘“

CLARKE, "Consider your ways - Is it fit that you should be building yourselves elegant houses, and neglect a place for the worship of that God who has restored you from captivity?

GILL, "Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... The Lord God omniscient and omnipotent, that saw all their actions, and could punish for them; since they were so careful of their own houses, and adorning them, and so careless of his house; he would have them now sit down, and seriously think of these things, and of what he should further observe unto them:

Consider your ways; their sinful ways, and repent of them, and forsake them, particularly their ingratitude before observed; and their civil ways, their common ways of life; their labour, work, and business, they were continually employed in; and observe the event of them; what success they had, what these issued in; whether there were not some visible tokens of the divine displeasure on them, which rendered all their attempts to support and enrich themselves and families vain, and of no effect: and they would do well to consider to what all this was to be imputed; whether it was not chiefly owing to this, their neglect of the house of God; and this he would have considered, not in a slight cursory way; but with great earnestness, diligence, and application of mind: "put", or "set your hearts upon your ways" (p); so it may be literally rendered.

JAMISO�, "Consider your ways— literally, “Set your heart” on your ways. The plural implies, Consider both what ye have done (actively, Lam_3:40) and what ye have suffered (passively) [Jerome]. Ponder earnestly whether ye have gained by seeking self at the sacrifice of God.

K&D 5-6, "After rebutting the untenable grounds of excuse, Haggai calls attention in vv. 5, 6 to the curse with which God has punished, and is still punishing, the neglect of His house. Hag_1:5. “And now, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Set your heart upon your ways. Hag_1:6. Ye have sowed much, and brought in little: ye eat, and not for satisfaction; drink, and not to be filled with drink: ye clothe yourselves, and it does not serve for warming; and the labourer for wages works for wages into a purse pierced

with holes.” _a favourite formula with Haggai (cf. v. 7 and Hag_2:15, Hag ,שימו+לבבכם

2:18). To set the heart upon one's ways, i.e., to consider one's conduct, and lay it to heart. The ways are the conduct, with its results. J. H. Michaelis has given it correctly, “To your designs and actions, and their consequences.” In their ways, hitherto, they have

reaped no blessing: they have sowed much, but brought only a little into their barns. הבא, inf. abs., to bring in what has been reaped, or bring it home. What is here stated must not be restricted to the last two harvests which they had had under the reign of Darius, as Koehler supposes, but applies, according to Hag_2:15-17, to the harvests of many years, which had turned out very badly. The inf. abs., which is used in the place of the

finite verb and determined by it, is continued in the clauses which follow, כולW, etc. The meaning of these clauses is, not that the small harvest was not sufficient to feed and clothe the people thoroughly, so that they had to “cut their coat according to their cloth,” as Maurer and Hitzig suppose, but that even in their use of the little that had been reaped, the blessing of God was wanting, as is not only evident from the words themselves, but placed beyond the possibility of doubt by Hag_1:9.

(Note: Calvin and Osiander see a double curse in Hag_1:6. The former says, “We know that God punishes men in both ways, both by withdrawing His blessing, so that the earth is parched, and the heaven gives no rain, and also, even when there is a good supply of the fruits of the earth, by preventing their satisfying, so that there is no real enjoyment of them. It often happens that men collect what would be quite a sufficient quantity for food, but for all that, are still always hungry. This kind of curse is seen the more plainly when God deprives the bread and wine of their true virtue, so that eating and drinking fail to support the strength.”)

What they ate and drank did not suffice to satisfy them; the clothes which they procured yielded no warmth; and the ages which the day-labourer earned vanished just as rapidly

as if it had been placed in a bag full of holes (cf. Lev_26:26; Hos_4:10; Mic_6:14). לו

after לחם refers to the individual who clothes himself, and is to be explained from the

phrase חם+לי, “I am warm” (1Ki_1:1-2, etc.).

CALVI�, "Here the Prophet deals with the refractory people according to what their character required; for as to those who are teachable and obedient, a word is enough for them; but they who are perversely addicted to their sins must be more sharply urged, as the Prophet does here; for he brings before the Jews the punishments by which they had been already visited. It is commonly said, that experience is the teacher of fools; and the Prophet has this in view in these words, apply your hearts to your ways; (135) that is, “If the authority of God or a regard for him is of no importance among you, at least consider how God deals with you.

How comes it that ye are famished, that both heaven and earth deny food to you? Besides, though ye consume much food, it yet does not satisfy you. In a word, how is it that all things fade away and vanish in your hands? How is this? Ye cannot otherwise account for it, but that God is displeased with you. If then ye will not of your own accord obey God’s word, let these judgements at least induce you to repent.” It was to apply the heart to their ways, when they acknowledged that they were thus famished, not by chance, but that the curse of God urged them, or was suspended over their heads. He therefore bids them to receive instruction from the events themselves, or from what they were experiencing; and by these words the Prophet more sharply teaches them; as though he had said, that they profited nothing by instruction and warning, and that it remained as the last thing, that they were to be drawn by force while the Lord was chastising them.

BE�SO�, "Verse 5-6Haggai 1:5-6. Therefore consider your ways — Reflect seriously upon this affair, whether it is consistent with the reason of things, or whether you have even promoted your own happiness by it as you thought to do. Ye have sown much, and bring in little — �amely, into your barns. Ye eat, but ye have not enough — To satisfy your hunger; ye drink, but ye are not filled — Ye have not wine enough for your support. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm — Ye have not been able to get sufficient clothing to keep yourselves warm. And he that earneth wages, &c. — And whatever you gain by your labour, it is very quickly required for your necessary expenses, every thing being at a very dear rate. This has been the case with you, and this has arisen from your neglect of rebuilding God’s temple; for as you have neglected him, so hath he withdrawn his blessing from you; the consequence of which has been, that nothing has prospered with you.

COFFMA�, "Verse 5"�ow therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."

The picture that emerges here is one of general want and frustration, which seems to conflict with the paneled homes just mentioned; but such a conflict evaporates when we discern that Haggai may have been using this language to depict the spiritual poverty of the people. The basic spiritual lesson of the whole Bible is "that man shall not live by bread alone"; and that was true when Haggai wrote as well as at the present day. How many are there in our society now who eat, drink, and clothe themselves, live in substantial houses, and yet, in the spiritual sense, are hungry, thirsty, poor, and naked?

Most of the scholars we have consulted reject that possible interpretation of what Haggai wrote, and apply the words as a description of the economic hardship and near-destitution of the returnees. Certainly, this could be the correct view, supported by the sheer impact of the literal words, "ye bring in little ... ye have not enough ... ye are not filled with drink ... there is none warm ... a bag with holes !"

Feinberg viewed the poverty here as real:

"There is no contradiction between the description of poverty here, and the description of the expensive, ceiled houses in Haggai 1:4. As in other societies, the wealthy were found along with the poor. That age, as every age in man's history, proved the truth of Matthew 6:33. When God is forgotten, all labor is without profit."[9]Jamieson summarized the teaching of Haggai 1:6 - "�othing has prospered with you while you neglected your duty to God."[10]

TRAPP, "Haggai 1:5 �ow therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Ver. 5. �ow therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts] Haggai was but a young man, saith Epiphanius: now, therefore, lest any one that heard him should despise his youth, and slight his doctrine, he shows his authority, he comes to them cum privilegio, he delivers not the conceptions of his own brain, but the word and mind of God. For as Chrysostom saith of St Paul, so may we say of all the rest of the penmen of the Holy Scripture, Cor Pauli est cor Christi, The mind of Paul is the mind of Christ, their heart is Christ’s own heart; and their words are to be received, reverenced, and ruminated, not as the words of mortal men, but (as they are indeed) the words of the ever living God, 1 Thessalonians 2:13. Excellently spake he who called the Scripture cor et animam Dei, the heart and soul of God. It is, every whit of it, divinely inspired, or breathed by God, saith the apostle, and is profitable both for reproof and for instruction in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16. See an instance hereof in this text, together with the prophet’s rhetorical artifice in first chiding, and now directing them: to reprove, and not withal to instruct, is to snuff the lamp, but not pour in oil that may feed it.

Consider your ways] Heb. set your hearts upon them, diligently recogitate and recognize your evil doings; and so shall ye soon find out the cause of your calamity. Judge yourselves, so shall ye not be judged of the Lord: accept the punishment of your iniquity, so iniquity shall not be your ruin; your ruth (repentance), but not your ruin, 1 Corinthians 11:30, Leviticus 26:41, Ezekiel 18:32. Capite consilium ex rebus ipsis, vel experimentis, Learn at least by the things ye have suffered: let experience, the mistress of fools, reduce you to a right mind. Lay to heart your manifold miseries, those διδασκαλοι αµισθοι, as one calleth them, free school masters, cursed enough and crabbed, but such as whereby God openeth men’s ears to discipline, and eyes to observation of his works and their own ways, Job 36:8-10; according to that of Ezekiel 40:4 "Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thy heart upon all that I shall show thee," &c.: the senses must be exercised that the heart may be affected with the word and works of God; according to that, "mine eye affecteth my heart," Lamentations 3:51; and Solomon got much of his wisdom by observation, as appeareth by his Ecclesiastes, which some have not unfitly called Solomon’s soliloquy. It is but little that can be learned in this life without due and deep consideration; which is nothing else but an act of the practical

understanding, whereby it reflects and stays upon its own intentions; and, comparing them with the rule, it proceeds to lay a command upon the will and affections to put them in execution. Thus David considered his ways, and, finding all out of order he turned his feet to God’s testimonies, Psalms 119:59. And, to still God’s enemies, Psalms 4:4, he bids them commune with their own hearts and be still, or, make a pause, viz. till they have brought their consideration to some good upshot and conclusion. For when consideration hath soundly enlightened a man’s mind, informed his judgment according to that light (that candle held to his mind), and determined his will according to that judgment, it must needs bring forth sound resolutions purposes, and practices; as it did in the �inevites, Ephraim, Jeremiah 31:19, Josiah, 2 Chronicles 34:27, the prodigal, Luke 15:17-19, the Church in Hosea, Hosea 2:6-7. She considered she was crossed, and hedged in with afflictions, and resolved to return to her first husband. The contrary inconsiderateness is complained about as a public mischief, Jeremiah 6:8; Jeremiah 8:6; Jeremiah 12:11. They have laid it waste, and being waste it mourneth unto me; the whole land lieth waste, because no man layeth it to heart, that is, considereth deeply of the cause of its desolation. Without this, though a man had all possible knowledge locked up in his brain and breast, it would be but as rain in the middle region, where it doth no good; as the horn in the unicorn’s head, where it helps no disease; or as a fire in a flintstone, insensible and unprofitable till beaten out by sound consideration; this makes knowledge to become experimental, as Psalms 116:6, Romans 8:1-2; this is to "follow on to know the Lord," Hosea 6:3, as without this men’s knowledge is but a flash, and may end in ignorance and profaneness; because never formed and seated in their hearts, never digested by due meditation and application to their own consciences.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 5-6The Lord called "the people" to evaluate what they were doing in the light of their present situation (cf. Haggai 1:7; Haggai 2:15; Haggai 2:18 [twice]). They were not experiencing God"s blessings very greatly. They sowed much seed but harvested only modest crops (cf. Haggai 1:10-11; Haggai 2:15-17; Haggai 2:19). The food and drink that they grew only met their minimal needs. They had so little fiber from which to make clothing that their clothes were very thin and did not keep them warm. Their purses seemed to have holes in them in the sense that the money they put in them disappeared before they could pay all their bills. This may be the first reference to coined money in the Bible. The Lydians in Asia Minor were the first to coin money, in the sixth century B.C, and there is archaeological evidence that there were coins in Palestine when Haggai wrote. [�ote: See Ephraim Stern, Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period538-332 B.C, pp215 , 236; and idem, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. Vol. II: The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, 732-332BCE, pp558-59.] This was divine chastening for disobedience (cf. Leviticus 26:18-20; Deuteronomy 28:41). They should have put the Lord first.

"An affluent generation of Christians that is wasting God"s generous gifts on trivia and toys will have much to answer for when the Lord returns." [�ote: Wiersbe, p445.]

�ISBET, "THE CALL TO THE CHURCH‘Consider your ways.’Haggai 1:5Haggai was the first prophet who rose up in the midst of the congregation of Judah, after his return from Babylon, to declare to it the will and saving purposes of its God. Between him and Zephaniah lay the seventy years of the exile. The Jewish people had learned something in captivity; they would not risk again the wrath of Jehovah by the temptation to promote His glory by working with a mixed people. The refusal provoked a bitter opposition, and the hands of the people were made idle by continued threats of war, and by hired counsellors employed to misrepresent the true object of the religious zeal of the Jewish nation. The work at the House of God at Jerusalem ceased during the rest of the reign of Cyrus, and yet these outward hindrances were not the only or the chief cause of the delay in rebuilding the House of God. The builders were frightened, they were misrepresented, but the people themselves had lost the true vision of that which really constituted their glory and their strength. They were taken up with their material prosperity; they were looking too low—at mere earthly greatness. Great lukewarmness had been shown from the very first at their return. The indifference was even remarkable among those most connected with the altar; of the twenty-four orders of priests four only returned; of the Levites only seventy-four individuals. Even the more religious wept because they saw that the outward splendour of their new Temple would be less than that of the former. They were faint-hearted, their zeal had cooled down, they turned their thoughts to ease and personal prosperity. They ceiled their houses, and let the Temple of the Lord lie waste. For fifteen years or more the work of the building had ceased, and the people were content to say: ‘The time is not come, the time that the House of the Lord should be built.’

It was in such a time of outward ruin and inward depression that the prophet Haggai, now a man far advanced in years, had the courage to stand forth alone, first with the word of reproof, ‘Consider your ways; is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house to lie waste?’ and then, on their repentance, with words of bold encouragement, ‘Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work; for I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.’

I. The Church’s hope.—‘Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning: that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.’ Few periods of the sacred narrative are more fitted to fulfil this gracious purpose than the history of the Captivity and the Restoration. In it we see the Chosen People of God triumphed over by the powers of the world, the place which God had chosen to put His name there desecrated, His Temple destroyed, His Church overthrown, scattered—for the moment apparently stamped out; yet, in the

vision of the prophet, we can see how all these opposing forces were but the instruments of discipline in the hand of the Most High. �ot an arrow could be shot if the Lord forbade. The kings of the conquering armies were but the servants and shepherds of the Lord, Whose flock for a time they were allowed to scatter. The city of Jerusalem might be taken, its walls might fall, yet the real cause of destruction was made known when the prophet Amos saw in his vision the Lord Himself standing on the wall of Jerusalem, with the plumb-line in His hand; true, it was on this occasion the symbol of destruction, but it was the same as the symbol of construction: it represented order, and plan, and purpose, and it was held in the hand of the Lord; it was intended to teach the faithful, through the prophet, that He Who had built up was now taking down, and that He could rebuild again; it was a faint image of that most perfect example of the Church’s confidence and hope, in the presence of the opposing world, which said: ‘Thou couldst have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above.’

II. God is in the midst of her.—And yet this is not the whole nor the greater part of the comfort and hope which this Scripture brings us. God not only controlled the forces which opposed the Church at Jerusalem, but He was with her even when she seemed most subdued. His Spirit was with Ezekiel and the captives by the river of Chebar, and the dry bones were commanded to live, and to Daniel, though in captivity, He revealed the rise and fall of dynasty after dynasty, bringing them up before his prophetic vision as easily as summer clouds. His church was in captivity, but His arm was not shortened; in His hand were still the corners of the earth. And thus, when the hour for the return arrived, the all-sufficient word was speedily given to the prophet Haggai, ‘I am with you, My Spirit remaineth with you: fear ye not.’

Bishop Edward King.

PETT, "Haggai 1:5-6

‘�ow therefore thus says YHWH of hosts:“Consider your ways.”“You have sown much, and bring in little,You eat, but you do note have enough,You drink, but you are not filled with drink,You clothe yourselves, but there is none warm,And he who earns wages, earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.”So now YHWH calls on them to consider what has been their experience in the last few years. They have sown much seed, but it has brought little reward, they have eaten but never had enough, wine was sparse with not enough to satisfy, water was short and not easily available, their threadbare clothing was insufficient to keep them warm, and any wages that they earned disappeared as quickly as if they had put it into a bag full of holes (a first indication of the use of actual money in the Old Testament). The very descriptions bring out the destitution that they were experiencing. Life was unquestionably very hard.

BI, "Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.

Preparation for self-amendment

The design of this prophecy is to persuade the Jews off from that slothful security in the neglect of their duty which had already exposed them to the displeasure of God. They had outward difficulties of circumstance, but their chief hindrance was their own neglect and dulness, their want of respect for God and holy things. It was this state of insensibility that God sent His prophet to bring them out of. His words here primarily import no more than that it was time for that rebellious people to observe and consider diligently of all their labour and pains, and the works of their hands, and see what it all came to. This, however, is not the only design. They were to consider with a view to amending their lives, and getting free of those sins which were causing God’s displeasure. How much our case is like that of the Jews in Haggai’s time. The temple we are now to build up, is the Church and body of Christ; not with stones and wood from the mountains, but with living materials, Christ being the foundation and chief corner-stone. The building up this holy temple consists in advancing the credit and honour of religion among men, and in discountenancing, in the course of our lives, and the whole tendency of our discourse, all vice and profaneness, and everything that is inconsistent with religion; and this, it is too certain, we have not had the courage and the constancy to do. We of this nation, too generally, have not been advancing the public interest, and the Protestant cause, as we ought to have done. The prophet’s words are therefore applicable to us.

I. The person speaking. It is that Being who has furnished you with all the blessings you have enjoyed; who has been your continual safety and protection. He can never lay any commands on us but what are necessary for us, and highly tending to our own interest. He is infinitely wise, and so knows perfectly well what will conduce most to our interest and happiness. Other arguments there are, perhaps of more force than these. In the text He is called by that awful title, “The Lord of hosts,” importing that He has a right to us and all our actions, because He created us and all things.

II. The advice or command which is given. “Consider your ways.” A very plain and easy command. The original is, “Set your heart upon your ways.” Observe, attend to, watch over all your actions.

1. Show the mischiefs of inconsideration.

(1) We give ourselves up by it to the most stupid and insuperable ignorance imaginable.

(2) We lay ourselves open entirely to the power of our lusts.

(3) It subjects us to the tyranny and insults of our great spiritual enemy.

2. Some of the advantages and necessity of consideration. The blessed advantages of consideration can never be enumerated. It gives us strength and vigour in the performance of all our duties. It is the only means to furnish us with suitable arguments and victorious resolutions against every temptation and artifice of the devil. And as it suffers us to omit no duty, it effectually destroys and conquers every beloved lust and inclination.

3. Answer some objections by the devil raised in our minds against consideration.

(1) It is exceeding difficult and trouble some to be always upon the guard, and watching against ourselves. But the question for us concerns not the difficulty

but the necessity and the duty.

(2) To be always filled with notions of the power, justice, and vengeance of God, must needs make us very melancholy. But enter into religion aright, and you will soon find that, instead of melancholy, your souls will be filled with the truest and most satisfactory joy and life and vigour. (John Gale, D. D.)

The great importance in life of frequent reflection and self-examination

The faculty of reviewing our past lives carries with it an evident obligation upon all men to exercise it constantly and uprightly. It is a principle that implies in its very nature an authority over the whole of our conduct; and we every one feel ourselves most intimately bound to obey its dictates. God our Maker saith to each one of us continually, by the inward voice of our own breasts, “Consider your ways.” In the midst of so many passions and appetites as compose our frame; so many disorders in it as we are born with; such powerful temptations as surround us on every side, we cannot hope that the carefullest attention to ourselves will keep us entirely free from faults. By a little neglect of culture, a soil so fruitful of ill weeds will soon be covered with them. The best inclinations of the best minds, if left to themselves, will run wild and degenerate. A duty thus plain and necessary, God will doubtless expect us to perform very faithfully. What the Almighty commands, we shall find it our interest to do, never to omit. The cowardice of not searching our wounds will inevitably make them fatal. Possibly we are not convinced that our behaviour is of such infinite and eternal importance. It is important to examine, whether it be or not. Perhaps we have inquired, and think there is reason to doubt of what we are commonly taught concerning these matters. But when did we begin to think so? And what do we doubt of? Not surely of all the articles of faith, and all the obligations of life. Have we considered well what the undoubted ones are, and how far they ought to influence our conduct? We find it but too easy, if we will, to judge very favourably of almost the worst actions we have ever done. But God sees everything in its true light and magnitude, and surely then it is our concern to see it so too. Have we then examined, as in His presence, our lives and hearts? By what standard have we tried their innocence or guilt? The practice of others can no more justify us than ours can them. Have we done our utmost to divest our examination of self-partiality, to enlighten it by the instruction of pious and judicious friends and books, and above all, to direct it by the unerring Word of God? Our business is so to examine ourselves now, as to live more Christianly than ever. And whence can we better begin than from what we owe to Him that made us? We owe Him worship, faith in what He teaches, obedience to what He commands. How fully soever we own the authority of religion, do we practise it? Do we live to any unworthy passion? If we are clear both of worldliness and vanity, still what can we answer with respect to pleasure? In regard to other indulgences, have we acted as becomes rational natures, designed to prepare ourselves, by the discipline of this life, for spiritual happiness in a better? Another very material head of examination is our resentments. Do we bear ill-will to no one? Again, what is the tendency of our common discourse and conversation? Is it favourable to religion, to probity, to decency, to goodwill among men, or the contrary? Our behaviour must be regulated, not only towards our fellow creatures in general, but with a closer view to the more general relations of life. Are we careful what sort of example we set others to copy after? Nor should we stop at considering what our faults have been; that alone would be a speculation of little use: we should proceed to think what must follow from them. Are we deeply sensible that, in all we have done amiss, we have provoked a most holy God; and have no claim to pardon, much less to happiness hereafter, but through the mercy

procured by our blessed Redeemer? (T. Secker.)

The use and benefit of Divine meditation

Two things remarkable in the text. The repetition and enforcing of it again (Hag_1:7). The benefit that came by it; it brought them to repentance. Doctrine—Serious meditation of our sins by the Word is a special means to make men repent. Meditation is a settled exercise of the mind for a further inquiry of the truth. Four things in meditation—

1. An exercise of the mind.

2. A settled exercise. Not a sudden flash of man’s conceit, but it dwells upon a truth.

3. It is to make a further inquiry. It would fain know more of those truths that are subject to it. Meditation pulls the latch of the truth, and looks into every closet, and every cupboard, and every angle of it.

4. It labours to affect the heart. Meditation musters up all weapons, and gathers all forces of arguments for to press our sins, and lay them heavy upon the heart. Meditation, having bundled up all items against the soul, and brought in all hills of account, fastens sin upon the soul, makes the soul feel it, so that it must needs be convinced without any evasion. It is with the Word as it is with a salve. II a man have ever so good a salve, it will not heal if it be constantly taken on and off. Only if it be let lie on will the salve heal the wound. What shall we think of them who are loth to practise this duty of meditation, but keen enough to meditate on their own worldly affairs? The poor man thinks he has no time for this tedious duty; the rich man thinks he needs it not; the wicked dare not do it; so no man will. The lets or hindrances of serious meditation are—

1. Vain company.

2. Multitude of worldly company. He that over-employs himself, his meditations of heaven are dreaming meditations; his thoughts dreaming thoughts, he can never seriously meditate on the good of his soul. A good meditating mind no man came to surfeited wire employments.

3. Ignorance. A man cannot meditate of a thing he knows not, nor thou of thy sins, if thou be not skilful in God’s catalogue of thy sins.

4. Averseness of the heart; which consists in three things—

(1) In the carelessness of the heart.

(2) In runnings of it. The heart is like a vagrant rogue, he would rather be hanged than tied to his parish.

(3) In the wearisomeness of the heart. This may serve for terror unto all those who, for all this that has been spoken, dare sit down without it. If thou wouldest meditate aright, separate yourself for other things. Observe the times of privacy: morning, evening, when the heart is touched at sermon or sacrament. Rub up thyself and thy memory. Rouse up thy heart. Use meditation for reprehension; for men usually make slight account of their sins. But you will say, How shall I come to feel my burden? Three things are here to be discovered.

1. The ground upon which our meditation must be raised.

(1) Meditate on the goodness, patience, and mercy of God, that hath been abused by any of your sins.

(2) Meditate on the justice of God; for He is just as well as merciful.

(3) Meditate on the wrath of God.

(4) Meditate on the constancy of God.

2. The manner how to follow meditation home to the heart.

(1) Weigh and ponder all these things in thy heart.

(2) Strip sin, and look upon it stark naked; for sin has a way of covering and disguising itself with pleasure, profit, ease.

(3) Dive into thy own soul and heart. There is a tough brawn over thy heart, that it feels not its sins.

(4) Anticipate and prevent thine own heart. Meditate what thy heart will one day wish, if it be not humbled; and tell thy soul as much.

3. How to put life and power into meditation.

(1) Let meditation haunt the heart, dog thee with the hellish looks of thy sins, and follow it with the dreadful vengeance of God.

(2) Let meditation trace thy heart, as it should haunt thee, so let it trace thee in the same steps. Because the heart is most cunning, and hardest to be tracked by its scent, when the heart hath taken up with abundance of good duties, and attained unto sundry graces. These good duties and common graces drown the scent of the heart’s wickedness.

(3) Hale thy heart before God, and let meditation bring it before His throne. Make complaint to God; and thy complaint must be full of sorrow. It must be a full complaint of all thy sins, and of all thy lusts. It must be with the aggravation of all the circumstances of thy sins, which may show them to be odious. It must be a self-condemning complaint. Let meditation, when it hath haled thy heart before God, there cast thee down before Him. Motives—

1. It is a folly not to meditate.

2. Thou wouldst be loth to have the brand of a reprobate.

3. Thou wouldst be loth to rob God of His honour.

4. Or that all the worship thou givest to God should be abominable; but so it will be without meditation, before it, and after it. (W. Fenner, B. D.)

Consider your ways

Nearly twenty years had passed away since a remnant of God’s people had returned captivity. Dung the whole of that time nothing had done to restore the temple. Yet the people had thought of their own comfort they dwelt “in ceiled houses.” Haggai arose to point out their mistake. He cries, “Consider your ways” So they would discover—

1. The reason of their misfortunes—Which was” that they had thought of themselves and had forgotten God. It is the explanation of all unhappiness. If you wish to be miserable—be selfish. Selfishness looks not at what it has, but at what it has not;

casts covetous eyes on what others have. The selfish man thinks more of what he has than what he is, and disregards the needs of others. All these are so many doors to unhappiness. He that will save his life shall lose it.

2. The secret of blessedness. “Render to God the things that are God’s.” “Build the temple,” said Haggai. Put yourselves in harmony with God and His purposes. Philosophers have discovered that happiness is not found when it is sought directly. Seek it obliquely. “Live for others.” But the doctrine fails because men are sinful. To join them is to join them in their sin, and sin is the gate of all wretchedness. Happiness can only come by living for another, when that other is sinless. Live for God, and the secret of all blessedness is discovered. This is the true” Imitation of Christ,” whose “meat and drink” it was to do His Father’s will. (Herbert Windross.)

Lenten thoughts

Lent is the season which our forefathers have appointed for us to consider and amend our ways, and to return, year by year, heart and soul to that Lord and Heavenly Father from whom we are daily wandering. We need a particular time in which we may sit down deliberately and look our own souls steadily in the face, and cast up our accounts with God, and be thoroughly ashamed and terrified at those accounts, when we find, as we shall, that we cannot answer God one thing in a thousand. The hurry and hustle of business is daily putting repentance and self-examination out of our heads. Much for which a man ought to pray, he forgets to pray for. Many sins and failings of which he ought to repent slip past him out of sight in the hurry of life. Much good that might be done is put off and laid by, often till it is too late. It may be said that the bustle will go on just as much in Lent as ever. “How can we give up more time to religion then than at other times?” There is a sound and true answer to this. It is not too much more time which you are asked to give up, as it is more heart. The time will come when you will see yourselves in a true light; when your soul will not seem a mere hanger-on to your body, but you will find that you are your soul. Then there will be no forgetting that you have souls, and thrusting them into the background, to be fed at odd minutes, or left to starve,—no more talk of giving up time to the care of your souls; your souls will take the time for themselves then—and the eternity too; they will be all in all to you then, perhaps when it is too late! Then try, for this brief Lenten season: the plan which the Lord of heaven and earth advises, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. You need not be idle a moment more in Lent than at any other time. You can get ten minutes more in the morning, and tea at night. When there is a will there is a way. Then make up your minds that there shall be a will. Examine yourself and your doings. Ask yourself, “Am I going forward or back?” Can we not all find time this Lent to throw over these sins of ours,—to confess them with shame and sorrow,—and to try like men to shake them off? (C. Kingsley, M. A.)

Of consideration and meditation attended with resolution

I. The nature of this religious exercise. Meditation seems to be of a higher nature than consideration. This latter is an operation of the mind in order to conversion and reformation of life; but the former is the continued work of those that are already changed in their hearts and lives, and have attained to some improvements in religion and godliness. Meditation includes in it consideration, but it is something more, yea, much more. They agree in this, that they are both of them a serious reflecting and

animadverting on those matters relating to religion that axe set before us, to the end that we may receive advantage by fixing our thoughts on them, and thereby become more pious and holy. Consider the proper objects of meditation. These are ourselves; God; His Word; His works; men’s actions; those solemn entertainments of our thoughts, which are commonly called the “four last things.”

II. The worth and excellency, the vast usefulness and advantage of meditation.

1. It is the proper employment of rational minds.

2. This exercise well ordered, will banish idleness and vain diversions.

3. It mightily improves the faculties of the soul. Knowledge, reason, judgment, and a right apprehension of things, with composedness and consistency of mind, are the fruits of it.

4. It wonderfully promotes all the parts of devotion and religion.

(1) It fixes the mind, and thereby is useful to preserve in us a constant sense of God in our souls, and to keep up a steady disposition in our minds towards goodness and holiness.

(2) It begets heavenly-mindedness.

(3) It promotes prayer, which is the very key of devotion, and the chief office of our religion.

(4) It helps all the duties of religion and the exertment of all the graces of the Holy Spirit, by seasoning the heart with savoury and pious thoughts.

(5) It not only promotes religion, but also the comforts and solaces which attend it.

III. The mischief of inconsideration; or the neglect of this excellent duty of meditation. This is the fault of Christian men, and that by which they generally miscarry,—they will not reflect on their ways. The complaint is, “My people doth not consider.” Men seldom sin out of ignorance. Want of consideration is the great spring of all their disasters.

IV. Directions for the right managing of our meditations.

1. You are not to give yourselves up to immoderation in this exercise, but to use prudence and discretion.

2. When we meditate on Divine things we should keep ourselves within due bounds. Many are too inquisitive and curious in their contemplations. They would be “wise above that which is written.”

3. Some fit place for meditation should be chosen: some retreat from the noise and bustle of the world.

4. When thus alone, you must be very busy; for privacy and solitude are not commendable unless well employed.

5. Some appropriate time must be set apart. The close of the day is very suitable. The Lord’s day is arranged to provide opportunity. After reading or hearing God’s Word a time of meditation is useful. At the Lord’s Supper. In time of trouble or distress. And in times of great mercy and deliverance. The proper qualifications of this duty are the following. Prayer must always accompany meditation. It must be accompanied with the affections, or else it is a very dry and useless exercise. And resolution should follow meditation. Meditation must not only produce resolution, but also action.

Devout thoughts minister to religious endeavours and enterprise. (John Edwards.)

On the duty of considering our ways

“Lay them to heart.” Ponder them, meditate upon them, maturely weigh them. It is the want of this reflection and consideration that now brings difficulties and distress upon us, and will soon bring severer judgments. To the warning voice of Haggai the people prudently listened. To us, however, the words would convey a meaning not precisely the same with that which the Jews would collect from them. To us the command would enjoin the scrutiny of our lives and conduct, but it would bid us compare them with the precepts of a new and more perfect law, the covenant of grace. But how few do consider their ways! How seldom is it possible, even by alarm, to bring to life those that are dead in trespasses and sins! Without considering your ways, without practical reflection, your state is one of imminent danger. To the young, more especially, this advice is most necessary. (A. B. Evans, D. D.)

Self-examination

At the encouraging voice of their Divine Protector, through the prophet, the spirit of the Jews revives, their zeal is inflamed, and their hands are joyfully given anew to do the work of the Lord. We may learn that the Almighty knows and observes all human actions, and will sooner or later in this life, and certainly in the next, punish the negligence of those who disobey His commands. The text contains “instruction in righteousness.” The power of reflection is one of those characteristics by which our nature is adorned. The other animals enjoy or suffer only for the present. The exalted spirit of man, made in the image of supreme intelligence, subjects to his view the future and the past. As this power distinguishes us from all other animals, it is most becoming in us to employ it. We should strive to be acquainted with our spiritual state, that we may know, when at a throne of grace, what we have to confess, what to ask to be forgiven, wherein to pray to be encouraged and strengthened. The negligent and careless worshipper cannot be acceptable unto God. This self-examination is a matter of some difficulty.

I. Illustrate the nature of the duty. For the regulation of our conduct we have the power of judging between right and wrong: the knowledge of God and His perfections: a revelation of the Divine will, and promised assistance of God’s Spirit: and the certainty of a future state of retribution. All these means for regulating our ways point out the same line of conduct. Christians should consider their ways in reference to each of these different means of direction, and they will enable them to ascertain their state with regard to knowledge, faith, love, repentance, and new obedience.

1. Consider your ways by the power of knowing right from wrong. Though we be called into the “marvellous light of the Son of God,” this original power of our minds is not extinguished, neither is its exercise superseded. In many cases it must be our sole guide, because Divine revelation does not descend to minute particulars. This power is often biassed and weakened by prejudice and passion.

2. Consider your ways in reference to God. Consider in what light your actions must appear to this all-seeing God: whether they have been such as He had a right to expect, and it became you to perform. Compare your conduct with the rectitude of

the Divine nature, and with the obligations under which you lie.

3. Consider your ways in reference to the revealed will of God. As our judgments are often defective, it is expedient that we examine ourselves by that clearer rule which is given us in the Scriptures, in which are distinctly unfolded the duties which we owe to God, to society, to individuals, and to ourselves.

4. Consider your ways with reference to immortality, and a state of retribution. This life is of uncertain continuance.

II. Man shuns the performance of the duty of considering his ways. He is unwilling to weigh his actions, because he knows that, in so doing, most unpleasant feelings are prepared for him. But is this conduct rational or judicious! From considering our ways there arises perseverance in holiness. A man must examine himself that he may reform. There can be no apology for setting aside this work. It is difficult, indeed, but it is commanded by our God, on whom our fate depends. It is necessary for promoting that holiness on which our happiness must be founded. Shall we be deterred by this difficulty from taking those salutary measures which are essential to our everlasting peace? (L. Adamson.)

6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

BAR�ES, "Ye have sown much - The prophet expresses the habitualness of these visitations by a vivid present. He marks no time and so expresses the more vividly that it was at all times. It is one continually present evil. “Ye have sown much and there is a bringing in little; there is eating and not to satisfy; there is drinking and not to exhilarate; there is clothing and not to be warm It is not for the one or the other years, as, since the first year of Darius Hystaspis; it is one continued visitation, coordinate with one continued negligence. As long as the sin lasted, so long the punishment. The visitation itself was twofold; impoverished harvests, so as to supply less sustenance; and various indisposition of the frame, so that what would, by God’s appointment in nature,

satisfy, gladden, warm, failed of its effect. “And he that laboreth for hire, gaineth himself hire into a bag full of holes” (literally “perforated.”) The labor pictured is not only fruitless, but wearisome and vexing. There is a seeming result of all the labor, something to allure hopes; but immediately it is gone. The pagan assigned a like baffling of hope as one of the punishments of hell , “Better and wiser to seek to be blessed by God, Who bestoweth on us all things. And this will readily come to those who choose to be of the same mind with Him and prefer what is for His glory to their own. For so saith the Saviour Himself to us Mat_6:33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

“He loses good deeds by evil acts, who takes account of his good works, which he hits before his eyes, and forgets the faults which creep in between; or who, after what is good, returns to what is vain and evil” . “Money is seen in the pierced bag, when it is cast in, but when it is lost, it is not seen. They then who look how much they give, but do not weigh how much they gain wrongly, cast their rewards into a pierced bag. Looking to the Hope of their confidence they bring them together; not looking, they lose them.”

“They lose the fruit of their labor, by not persevering to the end, or by seeking human praise, or by vain glory within, not keeping spiritual riches under the guardianship of humility. Such are vain and unprofitable men, of whom the Saviour saith, Mat_6:2. ‘Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. ‘“

CLARKE, "Ye have sown much - God will not bless you in any labor of your hands, unless you rebuild his temple and restore his worship. This verse contains a series of proverbs, no less than five in the compass of a few lines.

GILL, "Ye have sown much, and bring in little,.... Contrary to what is usually done; the seed that is sown is but little, in, comparison of what springs up, is reaped, and gathered into the barn; which commonly affords seed again to the sower, and bread to the eater; but here much land was tilled, and a great deal of seed was sown in it; but a thin crop was produced, little was gathered into the barn; a blessing being withheld from the earth, and from their labours, because of their sins, which they would do well to think of, and the cause of it:

ye eat, but ye have not enough; what the earth did yield, and which they gathered in, they made food of, and ate of it; yet it was not sufficient to satisfy their hunger; or it was not blessed for their nourishment; or they had a canine appetite in judgment given them, so that they were never satisfied: or, it was "not for fulness" (q); they were not filled with it to satisfaction, but still craved more; and yet, it may be, durst not eat more, if they had it, lest they should want the next day:

ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; or, "not to inebriation" (r); it was not sufficient to quench their thirst, much less to make them merry and; cheerful: the vines produced such a small quantity of grapes, and those so little wine, that they had not enough to drink, at least could not drink freely, but sparingly, lest it should be all spent before another vintage came:

ye clothe you, but there is none warm; or, "but" it is "not for heat to him" (s); to anyone; so rigorous the season, so extreme the cold, that his clothes will not keep him

warm, even though the climate was, naturally and usually hot:

and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes; or, "pierced through" (t); if a man is hired as a labourer, and gets much wages, and brings it home, and lays it up; or if he trades and merchandises, and has great gains by it, and thinks to amass great riches; yet, what through losses, and the dreariness of provisions, and the many ways he has for the spending of his money, it is as if he put it into a bag full of holes, and it ran through as fast as put into it; signifying hereby that all his pains and labour were in vain.

HE�RY 6-11, " What the judgments of God were by which they were punished for this neglect, Hag_1:6, Hag_1:9-11. They neglected the building of God's house, and put that off, that they might have time and money for their secular affairs. They desired to be excused from such an expensive piece of work under this pretence, that they must provide for their families; their children must have meat and portions too, and, until they have got before-hand in the world, they cannot think of rebuilding the temple. Now, that the punishment might answer to the sin, God by his providence kept them still behind-hand, and that poverty which they thought to prevent by not building the temple God brought upon them for not building it. They were sensible of the smart of the judgment, and every one complained of the unseasonable weather, the great losses they sustained in their corn and cattle, and the decay of trade; but they were not sensible of the cause of the judgment, and the ground of God's controversy with them. They did not, or would not, see and own that it was for their putting off the building of the temple that they lay under these manifest tokens of God's displeasure; and therefore God here gives them notice that this is that for which he contended with them. Note, We need the help of God's prophets and ministers to expound to us, not only the judgments of God's mouth, but the judgments of his hands, that we may understand his mind and meaning in his rod as well as in his word, to discover to us not only wherein we have offended God, but wherein God shows himself offended at us. Let us observe,

1. How God contended with them. He did not send them into captivity again, nor bring a foreign enemy upon them, as they deserved, but took the correcting of them into his own hands; for his mercies are great. (1.) He that gives seed to the sower denied his blessing upon the seed sown, and then it never prospered; they had nothing, or next to nothing, from it. They sowed much (Hag_1:6), kept a great deal of ground in tillage, which, they might expect, would turn to a better advantage than usual, because their land had long lain fallow and had enjoyed its sabbaths. Having sown much, they looked for much from it, enough to spend and enough to spare too; but they were disappointed: They bring in little, very little (Hag_1:6); when they have made the utmost of it, it comes to little (Hag_1:9); it did not yield as they expected. Isa_5:10, The seed of a homer shall yield an ephah, a bushel's sowing shall yield a peck. Note, Our expectations from the creature are often most frustrated when they are most raised; and then, when we look for much, it comes to little, that our expectation may be from God only, in whom it will be outdone. We are here told how they came to be disappointed (Hag_1:10): The heaven over you is stayed from dew; he that has the key of the clouds in his hands shut them up, and withheld the rain when the ground called for it, the former or the latter rain, and then of course the earth is stayed from her fruit; for, if the heaven be as brass, the earth is as iron. The corn perhaps came up very well, and promised a very plentiful crop, but, for want of the dews at earing-time, it never filled, but was parched with the heat of the sun and withered away. The restored captives, who had long been kept bare in Babylon, thought they should never want when they had got their own land in possession again and had that at command. But what the better are they for it, unless they had the clouds

at command too? God will make us sensible of our necessary and constant dependence upon him, throughout all the links in the chain of second causes, from first to last; so that we can at no time say, “Now we have no further occasion for God and his providence.” See Hos_2:21. But God not only withheld the cooling rains, but he appointed the scorching heats (Hag_1:11): I called for a drought upon the land, ordered the weather to be extremely hot, and then the fruits of the earth were burnt up. See how every creature is that to us which God makes it to be, either comfortable or afflictive, serving us or incommoding us. Nothing among the inferior creatures is so necessary and beneficial to the world as the heat of the sun; it is that which puts life into the plants and renews the face of the earth at spring. And yet, if that go into an extreme, it undoes all again. Our Creator is our best friend; but, if we make him our enemy, we make the best friends we have among the creatures our enemies too. This drought God called for, and it came at the call; as the winds and the waves, so the rays of the sun, obey him. It was universal, and the ill effects of it were general; it was a drought upon the mountains,which, lying high, were first affected with it. The mountains were their pasture-grounds, and used to be covered over with flocks, but now there was no grass for them. It was upon the corn, the new wine, and the oil; all failed through the extremity of the hot weather, even all that the ground brought forth; it all withered. Nay, it had a bad influence upon men; the hot weather enfeebled some, and made them weary and faint, and spent their spirits; it inflamed others, and put them into fevers. It should seem, it brought diseases upon cattle too. In short, it spoiled all the labour of their hands, which they hoped to eat of and maintain their families by. Note, Meat for the belly is meat that perishes, and, if we labour for that only, we are in danger of losing our labour; but we are sure our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord if we labour for the meat which endures to eternal life. For the hand of the diligent, in the business of religion, will infallibly make rich, whereas, in the business of this life, the most solicitous and the most industrious often lose the labour of their hands. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. (2.) He that gives bread to the eater denied his blessing upon the bread they ate, and then that did not nourish them. The cause of the withering and failing of the corn in the field was visible - it was for want of rain; but, besides that, there was a secret blast and curse attending that which they brought home. [1.] When they had it in the barn they were not sure of it: I did blow upon it, saith the Lord of hosts (Hag_1:9), and that withered it, as buds are sometimes blasted in the spring by a nipping frost, which we see the effects of, but know not the way of. I did blow it away; so the margin reads it. When men have heaped wealth together God can scatter it with the breath of his mouth as easily as we can blow away a feather. Note, We can never be sure of any thing in this world; it is exposed, not only when it is in the field, but when it is housed; for there moth and rust corrupt, Mat_6:19. And, if we would have the comfort and continuance of our temporal enjoyments, we must make God our friend; for, if he bless them to us, they are blessings indeed, but if he blow upon them we can expect no good from them: they make themselves wings and fly away. [2.] When they had it upon the board it was not that to them that they expected: “You eat, but you have not enough,either because the meat is washy, and not satisfying, or because the stomach is greedy, and not satisfied. You eat, but you have no good digestion, and so are not nourished by it, nor does it answer the end, or you have not enough because you are not content, nor think it enough. You drink, but are not cooled and refreshed by it; you are not filled with drink; you are stinted, and have not enough to quench your thirst. The new wine is cut off from your mouth (Joe_1:5), nay, and you drink your water too by measure and with astonishment; you have no comfort of it, because you have no plenty of it, but are still in fear of falling short.” [3.] That which they had upon their backs did them no good there: “You clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; your clothes soon wear out, and wax

old, and grow thin, because God blows upon them,” contrary to what Israel's did in the wilderness when God blessed them. It is God that makes our garments warm upon us, when he quiets the earth, Job_37:17. [4.] That which they had in their bags, which was not laid out, but laid up, they were not sure of: “He that earns wages by hard labour, and has it paid him in ready current money, puts it into a bag with holes; it drops through, and wastes away insensibly. Every thing is so scarce and dear that they spend their money as fast as they get it.” Those that lay up their treasure on earth put it into a bag with holes; they lose it as they go along, and those that come after them pick it up. But, if we lay up our treasure in heaven, we provide for ourselves bags that wax not old,Luk_12:33.

2. Observe wherefore God thus contended with them, and stopped the current of the favours promised them at their return (Joe_2:24); they provoked him to do it: It is because of my house that is waste. This is the quarrel God has with them. The foundation of the temple is laid, but the building does not go on. “Every man runs to his own house, to finish that, and to make that convenient and fine, and no care is taken about the Lord's house; and therefore it is that God crosses you thus in all your affairs, to testify his displeasure against you for that neglect, and to bring you to a sense of your sin and folly.” Note, As those who seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof shall not only find them, but are most likely to have other things added to them, so those who neglect and postpone those things will not only lose them, but will justly have other things taken away from them. And if God cross us in our temporal affairs, and we meet with trouble and disappointment, we shall find this is the cause of it, the work we have to do for God and our own souls is left undone, and we seek our own things more than the things of Jesus Christ, Phi_2:21.

JAMISO�, "Nothing has prospered with you while you neglected your duty to God. The punishment corresponds to the sin. They thought to escape poverty by not building, but keeping their money to themselves; God brought it on them for not building (Pro_13:7; Pro_11:24; Mat_6:33). Instead of cheating God, they had been only cheating themselves.

ye clothe ... but ... none warm— through insufficiency of clothing; as ye are unable through poverty from failure of your crops to purchase sufficient clothing. The verbs are infinitive, implying a continued state: “Ye have sown, and been bringing in but little; ye have been eating, but not to being satisfied; ye have been drinking, but not to being filled; ye have been putting on clothes, but not to being warmed” [Moore]. Careful consideration of God’s dealings with us will indicate God’s will regarding us. The events of life are the hieroglyphics in which God records His feelings towards us, the key to which is found in the Bible [Moore].

wages ... put ... into a bag with holes— proverbial for labor and money spent profitlessly (Zec_8:10; compare Isa_55:2; Jer_2:13). Contrast, spiritually, the “bags that wax not old, the treasure in heaven that faileth not” (Luk_12:33). Through the high cost of necessaries, those who wrought for a day’s wages parted with them at once, as if they had put them into a bag with holes.

CALVI�, "He says that they had sown much, and that small was the produce. They who render the clause in the future tense, wrest the meaning of the Prophet: for why did he say, apply your heart to your ways, if he only denounced a future punishment? But, as I have already stated, he intimates, that they very thoughtlessly

champed the bridle, for they perceived not that all their evils were inflicted by God’s hand, nor did they regard his judgement as righteous. Hence he says, that they had sowed much, and that the harvest had been small; and then, that they ate and were not satisfied; that they drank and had not their thirst quenched; that they clothed themselves and were not warmed. How much soever they applied those things which seemed necessary for the support of life, they yet availed them nothing. And God, we know, does punish men in these two ways either by withdrawing his blessings, by rendering the earth and and the heavens dry; or by making the abundant produce unsatisfying and even useless. It often happens that men gather what is sufficient for support, and yet they are always hungry. It is a kind of curse, which appears very evident when God takes away their nourishing power from bread and wine, so that they supply no support to man. When therefore fruit, and whatever the earth produces for the necessities of man, give no support, God proves, as it were by an outstretched arm, that he is an avenger. But the other curse is more frequent; that is, when God smites the earth with drought, so that it produces nothing. But our Prophet refers to both these kinds of evils. Behold, he says, Ye have sown much and ye gather little; and then he says, Though ye are supplied with the produce of wine and corn, yet with eating and drinking ye cannot satisfy yourselves; nay, your very clothes do not make you warm. They might have had a sure hope of the greatest abundance, had they not broken off the stream of God’s favor by their sins. Were they not then extremely blind this experience must have awakened them, according to what is said in the Joel 1:0.

He says at the end of the verse, He who gains wages, gains then for a perforated bag. By these words he reminds them, that the vengeance of God could not only be seen in the sterility of the earth, and in the very hunger of men, who by eating were not satisfied; but also in their work, for they wearied themselves much without any profit, as even the money cast into the bag disappeared. Hence he says, even your work is in vain. It was indeed a most manifest proof of God’s wrath, when their money, though laid up, yet vanished away. (136)

We now see what the Prophet means: As his doctrine appeared frigid to the Jews and his warnings were despised, he treats them according to the perverseness of their disposition. Hence he shows, that though they disregarded God and his Prophets, they were yet sufficiently taught by his judgements, and that still they remained indifferent. He therefore goads them, as though they were asses, that they might at length acknowledge that God was justly displeased with them, and that his wrath was conspicuous in the sterility of the land, as well as in everything connected with their life; for whether they did eat or abstained from food, they were hungry; and when they diligently labored and gathered wages, their wages vanished, as though they had cast them into a perforated bag. It follows—

Ye have sown much, but the coming in is little; There is eating, but not to satisfaction; They drink, but not to fullness; There is clothing, but there is no warmth in it; And earn does the earner for a perforated bag.

This change in the mode of construction takes away the monotony which would have otherwise appeared. The word [ אכול[ , ]הבא ], and [ לבוש ], are not infinitives, as some suppose, but participles used as nouns; which is often the case in Hebrew, as well as in Welsh, and often too in English, such as teaching, drinking, clothing, etc.—Ed.

COKE, "Haggai 1:6. Ye have sown much, and bring in little— "Consider both your ingratitude in neglecting to restore my house and worship; and what you have acquired by your dealings: while devoid of my blessing and protection, none of your undertakings thrive; nor do you enjoy the fruits of your labour: the reason of this is evident." See Haggai 1:9.

TRAPP, "Verse 6Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages [to put it] into a bag with holes.

Ver. 6. Ye have sown much and bring in little] This was visible to them; and they are called upon to consider it. The philosopher affirms that man is therefore the wisest of creatures, because he alone can compute and consider. And yet how little doth man respect this privilege, without which he were to be sorted with beasts or madmen! "God hearkened and heard, but no man spake advisedly, no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?" Jeremiah 8:6; no man humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, though God thrust him down, as it were, with a thump upon the back. Most men’s minds are as ill set as their eyes are; neither of them look inwards. "Lord," saith the prophet, "when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see," &c., Isaiah 26:11. So, when God’s rod call for reformation they will not hear it and who hath appointed it, but they shall hear, Job 33:15. Conscience, their domestic chaplain, shall ring this peal in their ears, "Consider your ways: Ye have sowed much but brought in little," &c. Omnia fuistis et nihil profuit, you have tried all ways to live, and it will not be, laboured all night, and taken nothing, "laboured in the very fire, and wearied yourselves for your vanity," Habakkuk 2:13; as those that seek after the philosopher’s stone, the most they can look for is their labour for their pains. Either vanity or violence hath exhausted you, as Zechariah 8:10, and God’s vengeance is visible enough in those secret issues and drains of expense at which your estates run out, because he puts not his holy finger on the hole in the bottom of the bag. For it is his blessing alone that maketh rich, Proverbs 10:22 "and except he build the house, they labour in vain that build it," Psalms 127:1. There is a curse upon unlawful practices, though men be never so industrious, as in Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 22:13-19 And all their policies, without dependence upon him for direction and success, are but arena sine calce, sand without lime; they will not hold together when we have most need of them, but fall asunder, like untempered mortar. Hence the Psalmist assureth us that "promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south," where the warm sunshine is, "but from the Lord: he putteth down one, and setteth up another," Psalms 75:6. So Hannah: "The Lord," saith she, "maketh poor, and

maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up," 1 Samuel 2:7. And albeit no man knows either love or hatred by all that is before them, because all things come alike to all, Ecclesiastes 9:1-2 (God maketh a scatter, as it were, of these outward commodities: good men gather them, bad men scramble for them), yet if he blow upon a man’s estate, and by losses and crosses so beat him down with his own bare hand (as here in the text) that either he hath not to eat, or dare not eat his fill for fear of wanting another day, or if he do eat, yet the staff of bread being broken, and for want of God’s concurrence, he eats and is not satisfied, &c., he hath but prisoners’ pittance, which will neither keep him alive nor yet suffer him to die; he is to be very sensible of it, to consider his ways, and looking upon his penury (as a piece of the curse for neglect of God’s service, Leviticus 26:14-20), to deprecate that last and worst of miseries, the judgment of pining away in their iniquities, Leviticus 26:39. This is worse than any scarcity, than any bulimy or doggish appetite, a disease common in times of famine. "The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want," Proverbs 14:25. As his belly prepareth deceit, Job 15:35, so it suffers deceit; imposturam faciunt et patiuntur, as the emperor said of them that sold glass for pearls. Fumos vendidit, fumo pereat, he that sells vapours let him pass away as a vapour. as another. Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little, as it followeth, Haggai 1:9; and why? but because they thought every little too much for God, and all well saved that was kept from him, Malachi 3:9-11. {See Trapp on "Malachi 3:9"} {See Trapp on "Malachi 3:10"} {See Trapp on "Malachi 3:11"} The Popish commentators upon this text call upon the people (if ever they mean to thrive) to keep holy days, to, hear masses, &c.; yea, some priests in Gerson’s time publicly preached to the people that whosoever would hear a mass he should not fall blind on that day, nor be taken away by sudden death, nor want sufficient sustenance, �on erit caecus, nec subito morietur, nec carebit sufficienti sustentatione. This was more than they had good warrant to promise; and yet they are believed. Shall not we learn to live by faith, to trust "in the Lord and do good? so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed," Psalms 37:3. The wicked in the fulness of their sufficiency are in straits, Job 20:22. Contrarily, the godly, in the fulness of their straits are in a sufficiency; and this is the gain of godliness, 1 Timothy 6:6. Piety is never without a well-contenting sufficiency, it hath treasure that faileth not, bags that wax not old, Luke 12:33; and shall have hereafter riches without rust, wealth without want, store without sore, beauty without blemish, mirth without mixture.

ELLICOTT, "(6) Ye have sown much . . .—Literally, Ye have been sowing much and bringing in little; eating, and it was not to satisfaction; drinking, and it was not to fulness; clothing yourselves, and it was not for any one’s being warm, &c. This description of course merely implies that, notwithstanding all their labours, there was not much to eat, drink, or put on. Compare the use of the phrase “ye shall eat and not be satisfied,” in Leviticus 26:26.

To put it into a bag with holes.—The last clause expresses in a bold metaphor the general prevalence of poverty. Scarcity necessitated high prices, so that money “ran away” as fast as it was earned.

PARKER, ""Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes" ( Haggai 1:6).

How is this? What fools you are! Here you have a process going on under your very eyes: you ought to look into it, and inquire about it, and settle the moral principles of the case: how is it? This might be a report of our own life to-day. We sow much, we take out whole bags filled with seed, and throw the seed right and left, from morning till night, and lo, in the harvest what is there but disappointment? Men should ask themselves questions about these things. Of course, there is a high and haughty and noble science that says, These things have nothing whatever to do with Providence. Who says so? Who are these men that talk thus? What have they done for the world? Where are their sacrifices, where are their heroisms, where are their convictions? Where are those elements of life that can compare for one moment with the heroic history of a man like the Apostle Paul? You cannot at the same time have the Bible and deny it Christians, make your minds upon this point. If you could get rid of the Bible you would have a much freer hand in all controversies—it is the Bible that binds you. For God"s sake do not wriggle out of it: shut it up and throw it into the river, then we can understand your action; but do not propose to yourselves both to have the Bible and to disbelieve it; to honour it, and disobey it; and do not pretend to get over the rugged, hard parts evasively, shirkingly: face these parts, for in them is the very test of discipline. The Bible contends that the actions of men are followed by consequences; and it does not scruple to lay down the solemn doctrine that if we dishonour God he will make us feel the result of that dishonour. We cannot scorn his spirit, and steal his harvests. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. �otwithstanding incidental circumstances that appear to go against this doctrine, this is the teaching of God regarding the great trend of history, regarding the marvellous development and purpose of providence. Thus God calls our attention to physical circumstances, that we may awaken our minds to moral considerations.

"Ye have sown much, and bring in little" ( Haggai 1:6).

What is the meaning of that empty hand? What? "Ye eat, but ye have not enough." How comes it that what you eat goes to nothingness, instead of repeating itself in purer blood, firmer flesh, and thus rising up and flaming into poetry, and thought, and philosophy? How comes it that you stuff the skin that withers under the burden you impose upon it? Why? "Ye clothe you, but there is none warm." Clothing cannot get near your skin; it is so stiff, so hard, it does but create passages for cruel draughts. How is this? You have weight, but no warmth; an abundance of things to cover you with, and yet the flesh shivers in the cold. All the Lord asks of us is to think about it, consider it, test this matter in regard to conscience and behaviour. Yet this is the prophet who was supposed to have lost the prophetic fire!

What will the Lord have done? He will create a space for repentance:—

MACLARE�, "VAI� TOIL

Haggai 1:6.A large emigration had taken place from the land of captivity to Jerusalem. The great purpose which the returning exiles had in view was the rebuilding of the Temple, as the centre-point of the restored nation. With true heroism, and much noble and unselfish enthusiasm, they began the work, postponing to it all considerations of personal convenience. But the usual fate of all great national enthusiasms attended this. Political difficulties, hard practical realities, came in the way, and the task was suspended for a time. A handful remained true to the original ideas; the rest fell away. Personal comfort, love of ease, the claims of domestic life, the greed of gain, all the ignoble motives which, like gravitation and friction, check such movements after the first impulse is exhausted, came into play. Like every great cause, this one was launched amidst high hopes and honest zeal: but by degrees the hopes faded and became nothing better than ‘godly imaginations.’ The exiles took to building their own ceiled houses, and let the House of God lie waste. They began to think more of settling on the land than of building the Temple. �o doubt they said all the things with which men are wont to hide their selfishness under the mask of duty:-Men must live; we must take care of ourselves; it is mad enthusiasm to build a temple when we have not homes; we mean to build it some time, but we are practical men and must provide for our wants first.’

This wisdom of theirs turned out folly, as it generally does. There came, as we learn from this prophet, a season of distress, in which the harvest, for which they had sacrificed their duties and their calling, failed: and in spite of their prudent diligence, or rather, just because of their misplaced and selfish attention to their worldly well-being, they were poor and hungry. ‘The heaven over them was stayed from dew, and the earth from her fruit.’ Haggai was sent by God to interpret the calamity, and to urge to the fulfilment of their earlier purposes.His words apply to a supernatural condition of things with which he is dealing, but they contain truths illustrated by it and true for ever. For us all, as truly as for those Jews, the first thing, the primary, all-embracing duty, is to serve God, to obey, love, and live with Him. The same selfish and worldly excuses have force with us: ‘We have business to look after; men must live; we have no time to think about religion; I have built a new mill that occupies my thoughts; I have found a new plaything, and I must try it; I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So God and His claims, Christ and His love, are hustled into a corner to be attended to when opportunity serves, but to be neglected in the meantime. And the same result follows, not by miracle, but by natural necessity. Haggai puts these results in our text with bitter, indignant amplification. His words are all the working out of one idea-the unprofitableness, on the whole and in the long-run, of a godless life. He illustrates this in the clauses of our text in various forms, and my purpose now is simply to apply each of these to the realities of a godless life.I. It is a life of fruitless toil.The Prophet pictures the sowing, the abundant seed thrown broadcast, the long waiting, and then, finally, a wretched harvest-a few prematurely yellow ears and short stalks. I remember a friend telling me that when he was a boy he went out reaping with his father in one of our years of great drought; and after a day’s work threshed out all that he had cut, and carried it home with him in his handkerchief.

That is what Haggai saw realised in fact, because the sowing had been without God. It is what we may see in others and feel in ourselves. It is the very law and curse of godless toil with its unproductive harvest. The builders set out to build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven, and they never get higher than a story or two. There is nothing more tragic than the contrast between what a man actually accomplishes in his life and what he planned when he began it. Many and many of our lives are like the half-built houses in Pompeii, where the stones are lying that had been all squared and polished, and have never been lifted to their place in the unfinished walls. Much of the seed never comes up at all; and what we gather is always less than what we expected. The prize gleams before us; when we get it, is it as good as it looked when it hung tempting at the unreached goal? A fox-brush is scarcely sufficient payment for riding over half a county. Ah! but you say, there is the enthusiasm and stir of the pursuit. Well, yes; it is something if it is training you for something, and if you can say that faculties worth the cultivating are developed in that way: and whether that is so depends on what you think a man is made for, and on whether these are faculties which will last and find their scope as long as you last. Consider what you are, what you seek; and then say whether the most fruitful harvest from which God and His love are left out is not little.This fruitlessness of toil is inevitable unless it springs from a motive which in itself is sufficient, pursues a purpose which will surely be accomplished, and is done in hope of the world where ‘our works do follow us.’ If we are allied to Christ, then whether our work be great or small, apparently successful or frustrated, it will be all right. Though we do not see our fruit, we know that He will bless the springing thereof, and that no least deed done for Him but shall in the harvest-day be found waving a nodding head of multiplied results. ‘God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him’; and ‘he that goeth forth weeping shall doubtless return, bringing his sheaves with him.’ ‘Your labour is not in vain to the Lord.’II. A godless life is one of unsatisfied hunger and thirst.The poor results of the exiles’ toil did not avail to stay gnawing hunger nor slake burning thirst, and the same result applies only too sadly to lives lived apart from God. There are a multitude of desires proper to the human soul besides those which belong to the bodily frame, and these have their proper objects. Is it true that the objects are sufficient to satisfy the desires? Does any one of the things for which we toil feed us full when we have it? Do we not always want just a little more? And is not that want accompanied with a real and sharp sense of hunger? Is it not true the appetite GROWS with what it feeds on? And even if a man schools himself to something like content, it comes not because the desire is satisfied, but because it is somehow bridled. Cerberus often breaks his chain, in spite of honied cakes that have been tossed into the wide mouths of his tripled heads. What do wealth and ambition do for their votaries? And even he who thirsts for nobler occupations and lives for higher aims is often obliged to admit, in weariness, that ‘this also is vanity.’But even when the desire is satisfied, the man desiring is not. To feed their bodies men starve their souls. How many longings are crushed or neglected by him who pushes eagerly after any one longing! We have either to race from one course to another, splitting life into intolerable distractions, or we have to circumscribe and limit ourselves in order to devote all our power to securing one; and if we secure it, then a hundred others will bark like a kennel of hounds.

And if you say, ‘I know nothing about all this; I have my aims, and on the whole I secure a tolerable satisfaction for them,’ do you not know a nameless unrest? If you do not, then you are so much the poorer and the lower, and you have murdered part of yourself. Some one single tyrannous desire sits solitary in your heart. He has slain all his brethren that he may rule, as sultans used to do in Constantinople. One big fish in the aquarium has eaten up all the others.God only satisfies the soul. It is only the ‘bread which came down from Heaven,’ of which if we eat our souls shall live, and be filled as with marrow and fatness. That One is all-sufficient in His Oneness. Possessing Him, we know no satiety; possessing Him, we do not need to maim any part of our nature; possessing Him, we shall not covet divers multifarious objects. The loftiest powers of the soul find in Him their adequate, inexhaustible, eternal object. The lowest desires may, like the beasts of the forest, seek their meat from God. If we take Him for our own and live on Him by faith, our blessed experience will be, ‘I am full: I have all and abound.’III. The godless life is one of futile defences.‘Ye clothe you, but there is none warm.’ The clothing was to guard against the nipping air that blew shrewdly on their hills, and it failed to keep them from the weather. We may be indulging in fancy in this application of our text, but still raiment is as needful as food, and its failure to answer its purpose points to a real sorrow and insufficiency of a life lived without God. In it there is no real defence against the manifold evils which storm upon all of us. When the bitter, biting weather comes, what have you to shelter you from the cold blast? Some rags of stoical resignation or proverbial commonplaces? ‘What is done cannot be helped’; ‘What cannot be cured must be endured’; ‘It is a long lane that has no turning,’ and the like. But what are these? You may have other occupations to interest you, but these will not heal, though they may divert your attention from, your gaping wounds. You have friends, and the like, but though you have all these and much beside, these will not avail. ‘The covering is shorter than that a man can wrap himself in it.’ �aked and shivering, exposed to the pelting and the pitiless storm, with rags soaked through, and chilled to the bone, what is there but death before the man in the wild weather on some trackless moor? And what is there for us if we have to bear the storms and cold of life without God? �o doubt most of us struggle through somehow. Time heals much; work does a great deal; to live is so much, that no living being can be wholly miserable. Other cares and other occupations blossom and grow, and the brown mounds get covered with sweet springing grass. But how many lie down and die? How many for the rest of their lives go crushed and broken-spirited? How many carry about with them, deep in their hearts, a sleepless sorrow? How many have to bear passionate paroxysms of agony and bursts of angry grief, all of which might have been softened and soothed and made to gleam with the mellow light of hope as from a hidden sun, if only, instead of defiantly and weakly fronting the world alone, they had found in the man Christ the refuge from the storm and the covert from the tempest. How can a man face all the awful possibilities and the solemn certainties of life without God and not go mad? It is impossible to work without Him; it is impossible to rejoice without Him; but more impossible still, if that could be, is it to endure without Him. It is in union with Jesus Christ, and with Him alone, that we shall receive ‘the pure linen, clean and white,’ which is a surer defence than the warrior’s mail, and ‘being clothed we shall not be

found naked.’IV. A godless life is one of fleeting riches.In Haggai’s strong metaphor, the poor day-labourer earns his small wage and puts it into a ragged bag, or as we should say, a pocket with a hole in it; and when he comes to look for it, it is gone, and all his toil is for nothing. What a picture this is of the very experience that befalls all men who work for less wages than God’s ‘Well done.’ Take an instance or two: here is a man who works hard for a long time, and puts his money into some bank, and one morning he gets a letter to tell him the bank’s doors are closed, and his savings gone-a bag with holes. Here is a man who climbs by slow degrees to the head of his profession and lives in popular admiration, and some day he sees a younger competitor shooting ahead of him, and all is lost-a bag with holes. Here is a man who has, by some great discovery, established his fame or his fortune, and a new man, standing on his shoulders, makes a greater, and his fame dwarfs and his trade runs into other channels-a bag with holes. Here is a man who has conquered a world, and dies on the rock of St. Helena, with his pompous titles stripped off him, and instead of kingdoms a rood or two of garden, and instead of his legions, half a dozen soldiers, a doctor, and a jailer-a bag with holes. Here is a man who, having amassed his riches and kept them without loss all his life, is dying. They cannot go with him. That would not matter; but unfortunately he has to live yonder, and he will have ‘nothing of all his labour that he can carry away in his hands’-a bag with holes.Such loss and final separation befall us all; but he who loves God loses none of his real treasure when he parts from earthly treasures. Fortune may turn her wheel as she pleases, his wealth cannot be taken from him. His riches are laid up in a sure storehouse, ‘where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.’ We each live for ever. Should we not have for our object in life that which is eternal as ourselves? Why should we fix our hopes on that which is not abiding-on things that can perish, on things that we must lose? Let us not run this awful risk. Do not impoverish or darken life here; do not condemn yourselves to unfruitful toil, to unsatisfied desires, to unguarded calamities, to unstable possessions; but come, as sinful men ought to come, to Jesus Christ for pardon and for life. Then, in due season, you will reap if you faint not; and the harvest will not be little, but ‘some sixty-fold and some an hundred-fold’; then you will ‘hunger no more, neither thirst any more,’ but ‘He that hath mercy on you will lead you to living fountains of water’; then you will not have to draw your poor rags round you for warmth, but shall be clothed with the robe of righteousness and the garment of praise; then you will never need to fear the loss of your riches, but bear with you whilst you live your treasures beyond the reach of change, and will find them multiplied a thousand-fold when you die and go to God, your portion and your joy for ever.

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:6

Their labours for years past had lacked the Divine blessing. Though they had fine houses to dwell in, they had been visited with scanty harvests and weak bodily health. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; but to bring in little (Hebrew). And this infinitive absolute is continued in the following clauses, giving remarkable force to the words, and expressing an habitual result. We see from Haggai 2:15-17 that

these unfruitful seasons had visited them during all the continuance of their negligence (Deuteronomy 28:38). But ye have not enough. The food which they ate did not satisfy them; their bodies were sickly and derived no strength from the food which they took (Le 26:26; Hosea 4:10) or from the wine which they drank (see note on Micah 6:14). But there is none warm. Perhaps the winters were unusually rigorous, or their infirm health made their usual clothing insufficient to maintain their bodily heat. To put it into a bag with holes. A proverbial saying. The money gained by the hired labourer vanished as if he had never had it, and left no trace of benefit. Comp. Plaut.,'Pseudol.' 1, 3, 150—

BI, "He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

The bag with holes

The prophet lifted his warning voice, and entreated his sinful brethren to “consider their ways,” to solve for themselves the curious and alarming fact, that while toiling for their temporal gratification, and sowing broadcast with liberal hand, the return for such labours was so meagre and unsatisfactory, even as if one had been shortsighted enough to deposit his hard-earned wages in a bag with holes. The history of nations, like that of individuals, is ever repeating itself.

1. Those persons come under this description who pride them, selves on the accumulation and possession, of wealth.

2. That man is dropping his money into a “bag with holes,” who is spending any large proportion of it in things which minister chiefly to pride and vain glory. Ruskin says, “A tenth part of the expense which is sacrificed in domestic vanities, if not absolutely and meaningly lost in domestic comforts and incumbrances would, if wisely employed, build a marble church for every town in England.

3. Those persons are putting their wealth “into a bag with holes,” who are robbing God’s Church of her lawful tithes, that they may have the more to leave to their children. Inherited wealth is as often a curse as a blessing. Idleness is a source of misery, and there is no deadlier bane of character. The wise father will give his son the education which will fit him for the trade or the profession which he may prefer, and then allow him the privilege of pushing his own fortune in the world. Bishop Doane said of the men who should “make a State,” that “they are made by self-denial.” Instead of the selfish question of the votary of the world, How much can I get out of this life in the way of dress, high-living, envy, admiration, amusement?” may our endeavour be this, “How much shall this life of mine (so short and so uncertain) get out of me in loving devoted service to my Lord?” (John N. Norton, D. D.)

A bag with holes

(a talk with children):—In olden times folk kept their money in bags, and still people keep it in little bags which we call purses. “What is the good of a money-bag if it is full of holes?” Yet the prophet says that the people of his day put their money into suck bags. He means that they tried to keep something far more precious than money in this reckless fashion. He speaks of their “wages.” We are always sorry to lose anything valuable. Yet the way to lose anything is to put it in a bag with holes. What disappointment therefore is expressed here by the prophet! The feeling of loss is all the

keener when we lose something that we have earned. There are some people who have what we call windfalls. Such a” windfall” has generally, like fallen apples, a bruise about it. It is not half so good as when we earn it ourselves. Now these people in the text had earned what they lost. The word here used for “wages” denotes hard earnings. I hope you children will learn in life to earn wages of your own, The best thing in life is to work for what we get. They are few who know how to use money without first knowing how to earn it. These people knew how to earn money, but they did not know how to take care of it. Half the battle of life is to earn; and the other half is to know where to place and how to use what we earn. But I have seen people who worked very hard, and yet at the close of life entered eternity as paupers. They took care of what we call money: they did not put their wealth into a bag with holes. But they never remembered that the money of this world does not pass current in the next. There is another kind of coin necessary for the next world. To die rich in the things of the world very often means to die poor with regard to the world to come. (David Davies.)

The worst foe of labour

The most persistent, most overpowering enemy of the working-classes is intoxicating liquor. It is to labour a worse foe than monopoly, and worse than associated capital It annually swindles industry out of a large percentage of its earnings. I proclaim s strike universal against strong drink, which, if kept up, will be the relief of the working-classes and the salvation of the nation. When you deplete a workman’s physical energy, you deplete his capital. The stimulated workman gives out before the unstimulated workman. When an army goes out to the battle, the soldier who has water or coffee in his canteen marches easier and fights better than the soldier who has whisky in his canteen. God only knows what the drunkard suffers, in his body, in his home, and above all, in the loss of his soul. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

National improvidence

Objection may be urged against introducing social and political questions into Christian pulpits. Objection cannot, however, fairly be made against the pulpit treatment of that branch of social politics national improvidence. Here, in Haggai’s time, the means of life were abundant, and yet men were dissatisfied. The national improvidence of the Jews was a punishment of their neglect of God, while our national improvidence is a hindrance to our true approach to Him as a nation. See the enormous waste of means and comfort caused by our national self-indulgence, and the absolute want, and almost starvation, resulting thence to millions of our fellow-men; or, when we think of the growing passion for destructive drink, must we not see a wonderful description of our present state in this other thing which God tells us to consider, “Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but are not satisfied with drink.” It is a common but mistaken notion that Bible teaching generally is opposed to worldly notions of prudence. Men quote our Saviour’s words, “Take no thought for the morrow,” without our Saviour’s context. His object was to prevent their letting care for providing earthly things cause them to neglect providing heavenly things. The possession of competence is not a crime. Our Saviour shows waste to be wicked, and wilful destitution a sin, not merely as being an offence and trouble to social politics, but as an iniquity against the honour of God, who, in ordaining that man should eat bread at the sweat of his brow, has laid on every man the duty of self-provision. The apostles point to the sin of improvidence in no measured

terms. They never contemplate a state of things in which men shall expect fellow men in every case of need to supply all their necessities. They teach, as our Saviour did, dependence on God, but not on man. Consider the prevalence of this sin of improvidence. National improvidence exists in England without a parallel in all creation. (W. L. Blackley, M. A.)

A bad investment

I. With respect to much of the money men gain we may say it is put into a bag with holes. Look at one man who is a type of those who put earnings into a bag with holes. He works hard. With the dawn he arises. He eats the bread of carefulness. He is ever on the watch for the “main chance,” that is, for increasing the accumulations of No.

1. He does not trouble always as to the methods by which he gains. He cares only to see his balance increase. He is never known to be taken with a fit of generosity. He stints himself, and it may be his family, of all pleasures that he may increase his savings. Thus grubbing and grasping, puffing and lying, he makes the mickle into muckle. He finds the pennies become pounds, the tens grow to hundreds, and the hundreds to thousands. He gets respect, is favoured with applications for help. But he has been putting his gain into a bag with holes, if he has wrongly gained his wealth, and if he has bowed down to that, worshipping it alone. Remember that he cannot take it with him at death. It were useless if he could. There are many who, even without gaining much, make themselves slaves to their particular line of work. They give no thought to the higher concerns of life. But all their Life they toil without content; they have murmured and fretted, envied others, even misrepresented them. Into a “bag with holes” they have placed all they have so hardly gained. Then there are many who really could earn and do earn much, but they waste it. They know not where the money has gone, and if they knew where it has gone they would not confess it to themselves or to others.

II. With respect to many of the pleasures men seek, the truth of the text is manifested. We say “many,” because all pleasure is not sinful, and seeking it at times may be a strong duty. Alas! some spoil lawful and sufficient recreation by taking unlawful pleasure. They are certainly putting their efforts into a “bag with holes.” Thus also with stolen, secret pleasures. Souls yield to the desires of the heart, the lusts of the flesh, and because the thing is hidden up they rub their hands and say I have done no wrong. In no sinful indulgence can we find a gratification that shall be enduring. That deed, the memory of which causes the face to crimson, has no quality in it that can be really satisfactory.

III. With respect to our unaided efforts at reform of life, the truth of the text applies. We find out that the devil is a bad master, that the wages of sin is death. We begin to see that this life has been wasted, that we have lived for self. We then begin to struggle, in our own strength, to improve character and conquer sins. Perhaps we do make some little progress for a time. Soon we discover that it has been only for a time, and that the root of sin is still in our soul. Then the fact begins to stare us in the face, that if we could avoid all sin in the future, if we could conquer all tendency to sin in our hearts, we have yet a great account of sin which is unforgiven. Law must not be violated and dishonoured. Hence He takes up, in the Person of Christ, our sins and bears them. “He magnifies the law.” He then freely forgives us for Christ’s sake. The whole past can be as though it had not been. All sin can be fully expunged. God in Christ has provided a way of dealing with sin such as we cannot understand, but which we can accept. Confucius

said, “A blemish may be taken out of a diamond by carefully polishing it, but if your words have the least blemish there is no way to efface them.” This is true of the sinful dispositions of the soul. Only Christ can efface them. Our self-righteousness, which is effort to atone in our own strength, is like wages put into a bag with holes.

IV. With respect to attempts of many to gain various kinds of knowledge we may assert the principle of the text. There are those who are incessantly inquiring, reading, and yet who know but very little. They go about, but although seeing much, they retain little. Many hear abundance of lectures, of sermons, but seem to know little more. They read their Bibles, but they increase little in knowledge of it. Now, just look back and see how much you have read and heard and known. What has been the effect on the character, the heart, the life? Has it not been put into a bag with holes T How often have you heard of the sacrifice of Christ and the infinite love of God. Has it had any effect? Has there been any effect on the life? Bitter was the wail of the mother who after ten years of care of an imbecile child said to me, “After all my love she never seems to notice me more readily than she would a stranger.” Ah! that is just what Jesus has to say of us. His love has been thrown away upon us, it has been put in a “bag with holes.” (Homiletic Magazine.)

The bag with holes

To apply this figure of the prophet’s to our own times-and circumstances, in a word to ourselves, let us see what is “the bag with the holes” into which honest earnings are too often put.

I. extravagance is such a bag. I mean the spending more on a thing than our income justifies. Bishop Patrick begins a chapter with a notable warning, “Consider thine own sufficiency.” Weigh well what you are equal to, and this may as well apply to our income as anything else. If we allow ourselves in any instance an expenditure, no matter what be the subject of it, which is unsuitable to our circumstances and inconsistent with our means, there is no other name for this that I know of than extravagance; i.e (to trace the word to its derivation) a wandering beyond the just limits within which our course should lie. There is a certain suitableness between our position and circumstances on the one hand, and our expenses on the other, which good taste will discern instinctively; any squandering in one direction must involve poverty in the other: I do not say a “bag with holes,” but a bag with one hole will let out all the money, that which is for necessary wants, as well as that which is spent upon the luxury. Is not extravagance the fault of the age? Do not men of all classes live so near to their income that it is hardly possible to avoid going beyond it? There are but two ways of meeting that difficulty: we must earn more or spend less.

II. There is another bag with holes—waste. This, though it resembles extravagance in some respects, is a different thing, for extravagance is in superfluities; waste may be of things necessary. I fear this is an increasing fault. I see it wherever I go: waste of fuel and of food, waste of money, waste of land, waste of its produce. Yet He who, by a miracle twice repeated, made bread enough and to spare for thousands in the wilderness, had an eye to what was over; and left us a memorable lesson: “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” Young people hardly know how much can be done simply by wasting nothing. I have an honest shepherd near me who once offered me a loan of £200. I know another who has saved enough to buy him a little farm. What was their secret? They wasted nothing. They have had enough for livelihood, enough for health, for comfort, and this to spare when the day of feebleness and dearth shall come. Their

bag was not one with holes.

III. Akin to extravagance and waste is excess. This does, indeed, partake of the character of the other two; but it has this element in addition, that it is extravagance and it is waste, both employed on self, and both to the detriment of self. If you will just call to mind some of the calculations which are now familiar to us all you will see what a bag with holes this is for the earnings of the nation at large. More than 100 millions are spent in the kingdom every year on drink! This is the great bag with holes into which skilful earnings, hard earnings, costly earnings, are too apt to be put. That dreadful, that pitiable habit of intemperance is a solvent which will melt down a fortune however great, and a man however strong. No matter what is put into the bag, through that one hole it disappears, and leaves the owner of it like the tattered bag itself. (A. C. Bishop, M. A.)

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. What they have been; what has been the consequence of them; and to what the above things are to be ascribed. This exhortation is repeated, to impress it the more upon their minds; and to denote the importance of it, and the necessity of such a conduct; See Gill on Hag_1:5.

HENRY 7-8, " The good counsel which the prophet gives to those who thus despised God, and whom God was therefore justly displeased with. 1. He would have them reflect: Now therefore consider your ways, Hag_1:5 and again Hag_1:7. “Be sensible of the hand of God gone out against you, and enquire into the reason; think what you have done that has provoked God thus to break in upon your comforts; and think what you will do to testify your repentance, that God may return in mercy to you.” Note, It is the great concern of every one of us to consider our ways, to set our hearts to our ways (so the word is), to think on our ways (Psa_119:59), to search and try them (Lam_3:40), to ponder the path of our feet (Pro_4:26), to apply our minds with all seriousness to the great and necessary duty of self-examination, and communing with our own hearts concerning our spiritual state, our sins that are past, and our duty for the future; for sin is what we must answer for, duty is what we must do; about these therefore we must be inquisitive, rather than about events, which we must leave to God. Many are quick-sighted to pry into other people's ways who are very careless of their own; whereas our concern is to prove every one his own work, Gal_6:4. 2. He would have them reform (Hag_1:8): “Go up to the mountain, to Lebanon, and bring wood, and other materials that are wanting, and build the house with all speed; put it off no longer, but set to it in good earnest.” Note, Our considering our ways must issue in the amending of whatever

we find amiss in them. If any duty has been long neglected, that is not a reason why it should still be so, but why now at length it should be revived; better late than never. For their encouragement to apply in good earnest to this work, he assures them, (1.) That they should be accepted of him in it: Build the house, and I will take pleasure in it; and that was encouragement enough for them to apply to it with alacrity and resolution, and to go through with it, whatever it cost them. Note, Whatever God will take pleasure in, when it is done, we ought to take pleasure in the doing of, and to reckon that inducement enough to set about it, and go on with it in good earnest; for what greater satisfaction can we have in our own bosoms than in contributing any thing towards that which God will take pleasure in? It ought to be the top of our ambition to be accepted of the Lord,2Co_5:9. Though they had foolishly neglected the house of God, yet, if at length they will resume the care of it, God will not remember against them their former neglects, but will take pleasure in the work of their hands. Those who have long deferred their return to God, if at length they return with all their heart, must not despair of his favour. (2.) That he would be honoured by them in it: I will be glorified, saith the Lord. He will be served and worshipped in the temple when it is built, and sanctified in those that come nigh to him. It is worth while to bestow all possible care, and pains, and cost, upon that by which God may be glorified.

K&D7-8, "After this allusion to the visitation of God, the prophet repeats the summons in Hag_1:7, Hag_1:8, to lay to heart their previous conduct, and choose the way that is well-pleasing to God. Hag_1:7. “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Direct your heart upon your ways. Hag_1:8. Go up to the mountains and fetch wood and build the house, and I

will take pleasure therein and glorify myself, saith Jehovah.” Hâhâr (the mountain) is

not any particular mountain, say the temple mountain (Grotius, Maurer, Ros.), or

Lebanon (Cocceius, Ewald, etc.); but the article is used generically, and hâhâr is simply

the mountain regarded as the locality in which wood chiefly grows (cf. Neh_8:15). Fetching wood for building is an individualizing expression for providing building materials; so that there is no ground for the inference drawn by Hitzig and many of the Rabbins, that the walls of the temple had been left standing when it was destroyed, so that all that had to be done was to renew the wood-work, - an inference at variance not only with the reference made to the laying of the foundation of the temple in Hag_2:18and Ezr_3:10, but also to the express statement in the account sent by the provincial governor to king Darius in Ezr_5:8, viz., that the house of the great God was built with

square stones, and that timber was laid in the walls. וארצה־'ו, so will I take pleasure in it

(the house); whereas so long as it lay in ruins, God was displeased with it. וא[בד, and I will glorify myself, sc. upon the people, by causing my blessing to flow to it again. The

keri is an unnecessary emendation, inasmuch as, although the voluntative might וא[בדה

be used (cf. Ewald, §350, a), it is not required, and has not been employed, both because

it is wanting in ארצה, for the simple reason that the verbs לה do not easily admit of this

form (Ewald, §228, a), and also because it is not used in other instances, where the same circumstances do not prevail (e.g., Zec_1:3).

(Note: The later Talmudists, indeed, have taken the omission of the ה, which stands for 5 when used as a numeral, as an indication that there were five things wanting in the second temple: (1) the ark of the covenant, with the atoning lid and

the cherubim; (2) the sacred fire; (3) the shechinah; (4) the Holy Spirit; (5) the Urim and Thummim (compare the Babylonian tract Joma 21b, and Sal. ben Melech, Miclal Jophi on Hag_1:8).)

Ewald and Hitzig adopt this rendering, “that I may feel myself honoured,” whilst Maurer and Rückert translate it as a passive, “that I may be honoured.” But both of these views are much less in harmony with the context, since what is there spoken of is the fact that God will then turn His good pleasure to the people once more, and along with that His blessing. How thoroughly this thought predominates, is evident from the more elaborate description, which follows in Hag_1:9-11, of the visitation from God, viz., the failure of crops and drought.

CALVI�, "The Prophet now adds, that since the Jews were thus taught by their evils, nothing else remained for them but to prepare themselves without delay for the work of building the Temple; for they were not to defer the time, inasmuch as they were made to know, that God had come forth with an armed hand to vindicate his own right: for the sterility of which he had spoken, and also the famine and other signs of a curse, were like a drawn sword in the hand of God; by which it was evident, that he intended to punish the negligence of the people. As God then had been robbed of his right, he not only exhorted the people by his Prophets, but also executed his vengeance on this contempt.

This is the reason why the Prophet now says, Apply your heart, and then adds, Go up to the mountain, bring wood, etc. And this passage strikingly sets forth why God punished their sins, in order that they might not only perceive that they had sinned, but that they might also seek to amend that which displeased God. We may also, in the second place, learn from what is said, how we are to proceed rightly in the course of true repentance. The beginning is, that our sins should become displeasing to us; but if any of us proceed no farther, it will be only an evanescent feeling: it is therefore necessary to advance to the second step; an amendment for the better ought to follow. The Prophet expresses both here: He says first, Lay your heart on your ways; that is, “Consider whence comes this famine to you, and then how it is that by laboring much ye gain nothing, except that God is angry with you.” �ow this was what wisdom required. But he again repeats the same thing, Lay your heart on your ways, that is, “�ot only that sin may be hated by you, but also that this sloth, which has hitherto offended God and provoked his wrath, may be changed into strenuous activity.” Hence he says, Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and let the house be built

If any one is at a loss to know why the Prophet insists so much on building the Temple, the ready answer is this: that it was God’s design to exercise in this way his ancient people in the duties of religion. Though then the Temple itself was of no great importance before God, yet the end was to be regarded; for the people were preserved by the visible Temple in the hope of the future Christ; and then it behaved them always to bear in mind the heavenly pattern, that they might worship God spiritually under the external symbols. It was not then without reason that God was offended with their neglect of the temple; for it hence clearly appeared, that

there was no care nor zeal for religion among the Jews. It often was the case that they were more sedulous than necessary in external worship, and God scorned their assiduity, when not connected with a right inward feeling; but the gross contempt of God in disregarding even the external building, is what is reprehended here by the Prophet.

He afterwards adds, And I will be propitious in it, or, I will take pleasure in it. Some read, It will please me; and they depart not from the real meaning of the verb: for retse —is to be acceptable. But more correct, in my view, is the opinion of those ,רצהwho think that the Prophet alludes to the promise of God; for he had said, that he would on this condition dwell among the Jews, that he might hear their prayers, and be propitious to them. As, then, the Jews came to the Temple to expiate their sins, that they might return to God’s favor, it is not without reason that God here declares that he would be propitious in that house.

‘If any one sin,’ said Solomon, ‘and entering this house, shall humbly pray, do thou also hear from thy heavenly habitation.’ (1 Kings 8:30.)

We further know that the covering of the ark was called the propitiatory, because God there received the suppliant into favor. This meaning, then, seems the most suitable—that the Prophet says, that if the Temple was built, God would be there propitious. But it was a proof of extreme impiety to think that they could prosper while God was adverse to them: for whence could they hope for happiness, except from the only fountain of all blessings, that is, when God favored them and was propitious to them? And how could his favor be sought, except they came to his sanctuary, and thence raise up their minds by faith to heaven? When, therefore, there was no care for the Temple, it was easy to conclude that God himself was neglected, and regarded almost with scorn. We then see how emphatically this was added, I will be propitious there, that is, in the Temple; as though he had said, “Your infirmity ought to have reminded you that you have need of this help, even of worshipping me in the sanctuary. But as I gave you, as it were, a visible mirror of my presence among you, when I ordered a Temple to be built for me on mount Sion, when ye despise the Temple, is it not the same as though I was rejected by you?”

He then adds, And I shall be glorified, saith Jehovah. He seems to express the reason why he should be propitious; for he would then see that his glory was regarded by the Jews. At the same time, this reason may be taken by itself, and this is what I prefer. (137) The Prophet then employs two goads to awaken the Jews: When the Temple was built, God would bless them; for they would have him pacified, and whenever they found him displeased, they might come as suppliants to seek pardon; this was one reason why it behaved them strenuously to undertake the building of the Temple. The second reason was, that God would be glorified. �ow, what could have been more inconsistent than to disregard God their deliverer, and so late a deliverer too? But how God was glorified by the Temple I have already briefly explained; not that it added anything to God; but such ordinances of religion were then necessary, as the Jews were as yet like children. It now follows—

Ascend the mountains, for ye have brought wood; And build the house, that I may delight in it, That I may be glorified, saith Jehovah.

The [ ו ], vau, here in two instances may have the meaning of ut , that; but before a verb in the perfect tense, it must be rendered “for,” or, “as;” and the ,[ הבאתם ]clause seems to be a parenthesis. The [ ו ], vau, is not conversive when preceded by a verb in the imperative mood, as it appears from the end of the verse. The mount was not Libanus, as many have supposed, but Sion, where wood had been previously brought, but was not used. See Ezra 3:7. As to the verb [ רצה ], followed by [ ב ], it means to approve, to be pleased with, or to take pleasure or delight in, a thing. See 2 Chronicles 29:3; Psalms 147:10; Micah 6:7. Probably the best rendering of the two last lines is the following—

And build the house, and I shall delight in it And render it glorious, saith Jehovah.

To take the last verb in a causative sense is more consistent with the tenor of the passage. This is the meaning given by the Targum, and is adopted by Dathius. —Ed.

COFFMA�, "Verse 7"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider your house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith Jehovah."

Haggai 1:7, except for the words "now, therefore" is identical with Haggai 1:5. The order which the prophet here gave the people was to go at once to the mountains and cut timber that would be needed in rebuilding the Temple, and to get on with the job! �othing is indicated by this regarding the stone which was also required, because the rubble ruins of the devastated city and Temple provided all they needed.

"I will take pleasure ... I will be glorified ..." God always takes pleasure and is glorified when his people obey his word; and the reconstruction of the ruined Temple was clearly a project included in the will of God. It was God's spirit that stirred up Cyrus to command it; and it was the same which launched the burning words of Haggai against the indifferent laziness of the returned exiles. How could that rude pile of stone and timber glorify God? It was God's promise that the ancient covenant with Abraham still existed, despite the chosen people's having broken it and having been repudiated by their God and removed from many of their ancient privileges. It was the visible promise of God Himself that, in time, the Messiah would appear. It meant that Judah, unlike the northern Israel, would never disappear until God's purpose relative to their Messiah was accomplished. Such indeed did glorify the God of heaven and earth.

TRAPP, "Verse 7Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Ver. 7. Consider your ways] See Haggai 1:5. Do it early and earnestly. Excutite vos, iterumque excutite, as Tremellius rendereth that in Zephaniah 2:1 "Search you, search you, O nation not worthy to be beloved." So Lamentations 3:40 "Let us search and try our ways." �ot search only, but try, and, as it were, sift them to the bran. So 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves," as it were, with redoubled diligence, in a most needful but much neglected duty, of dealing with your own hearts. But if ye will not, see that flaming place, Ezekiel 16:43. If men will not judge themselves, God will; as, though scholars will not scan their verses, their masters will. Men are as loth to review their actions, and read the blurred writings of their own hearts, as schoolboys are to parse their lessons and false Latins they have made. But as he who will not cast up his books, his books will cast up him at length; so those that will not consider their ways, and take themselves to task, shall find that sparing a little pains at first will double it in the end; and that the best that can come of this forlorn negligence is the bitter pangs of repentance. Oh, therefore, that, with Solomon’s wise man, we had our eyes in our heads, and not in the corners of the earth! Ecclesiastes 2:14. And that our eyes were, like the windows in Solomon’s temple, broad inward, that we might see our sins to confession, so should we never see them to our confusion, 1 Kings 6:4. The Israelites confessed their murmuring and stubbornness when God sent evil angels among them, that is, some messengers of his wrath and displeasure. The prophet Haggai here would have their posterity consider, and better consider, since the hand of God was so heavy upon them, and that he came against them, as it were, with a drawn sword, how they might disarm his just indignation by a speedy reformation. To which purpose he addeth,

CO�STABLE, "Verse 7-8Again the Lord called the people to reflect thoughtfully on what they were doing (cf. Haggai 1:5). He urged them to go to the mountains where trees grew abundantly, to cut them down, and to continue rebuilding the temple (cf. Ezra 3:7). The completed temple would please and glorify Him.

"The important thing is not the size or magnificence of the house, but the existence of it-that they want the indwelling God among them." [�ote: Motyer, p977.]

"The hills of Judah were well wooded in Old Testament times, and from �ehemiah 8:15 we know that olive, myrtle and palm were available. It was customary to set layers of wood in stone walls to minimize earthquake damage (cf. Ezra 5:8); this wood, and heavy timber, long enough to stretch from wall to wall of the Temple to support the roof, would probably have to be imported ( Ezra 3:7)." [�ote: Baldwin, p41.]

"When work is gladly done in order to please God it also brings Him glory." [�ote: Ibid.]

PETT, "Haggai 1:7-8

‘Thus says YHWH of hosts,“Consider your ways.Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house;And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says YHWH.�ote the repetition of the command to consider their ways. But this time it was in order to tell them to think about their ways positively (contrast Haggai 1:5), and to go up to the hill forests, and collect wood with which they can build His house. Then, He promises, however meagre the product, He will take pleasure in it and will be glorified by it, for it will be a house built at cost to themselves, and as a confirmation of the covenant, and will turn many eyes towards Him. Alternately the point might be that He will be glorified, if they are obedient, by the coming of the Messiah. In other words this was a first step towards their messianic expectations.

We need no such house, for our focus is fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the underlying demand is the same, that we are willing to engage in building up His body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:10-16), by our personally costly and sacrificial efforts (Romans 12:1-2).

BI, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.

The call of God

I. The person who issues this command. Note the Divine character of the speaker. The “Lord of hosts.” This name, containing in it every perfection, commands our regard and challenges our awe. Omnipotence, omniscience, and unlimited authority unite their beams in one blaze of glory in this truly august character, “The Lord of hosts.”

II. The command itself. “Consider your ways.” Fix your thoughts upon them with diligence, earnestness, and heart application. Be honest with yourselves, serious and particular in the inquiry into your real character in the sight of God. The command implies that—

1. God has given to us a revelation of His will as the rule of our duty, and the standard by which we are to examine our conduct. The Scriptures form the directory and rule by which we are to try our ways, and which God has in mercy given to us by His own revelation for this purpose.

2. God hath endowed us with the powers of recollection and reflection. By these we can bring the transactions of our whole lives into present view, and arrange the several actions of them in their proper order and colours. It is our wisdom to converse with our departed hours, that we may learn to redeem the time.

3. As God has given both the rule and capacity for the exercising of this duty, so the discharge of it is necessary and advantageous.

(1) The frequent and impartial consideration of our ways has a tendency to humble us before the footstool of the all-glorious Jehovah, and to convince us of our weakness, unworthiness, meanness, and insignificancy.

(2) The diligent and frequent consideration of our ways will be accompanied with this further advantage, of leading us to a cordial, entire dependence upon God, both for direction and assistance in every duty.

(3) Compliance with that required in our text will lead us to see and own that the

salvation of a sinner is, and must be, all of grace and mercy. We shall then no longer boast of our good hearts, the integrity of our conduct, or our regular duties. We shall cry for mercy. If you would be humble Christians, dependent upon and sensible of your obligations to the free grace of God, be frequent and impartial in the consideration of your ways.

III. Appeal to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

1. Address the careless unconcerned part of the hearers.

2. Those who have experienced only some slight convictions of sin, and but a transient concern about their salvation.

3. Those who are backsliders. Invite them to serious thought about their present state and danger.

4. Those who are real believers. How crooked even their ways will appear in the review! How slow their progress in the path of duty and obedience. On the whole, as the consideration of our ways is a great duty, so it requires our present and most serious attention. The present now is the season that demands dispatch. Today we must hear God’s voice, before disease incapacitate, or death prevent us. (J. King, B. A.)

An address to servants

It should be the great concern of every one of us to “consider our ways”; to think over them; to search and try them. Applied to servants, we treat—

I. Their duties.

1. Your first duty is to God. You must turn unto Him as real penitents, seek forgiveness through the merits of Jesus Christ, wash in His precious blood, and believe the promises which He has given in His Gospel.

2. Earnest prayer is a duty which servants too often neglect. Weariness at night, and late rising in the morning, are the causes.

3. The diligent reading of the Scriptures. The busiest may find or make time for this spiritual improvement.

4. Attending constantly at the house of God. Whenever, that is, you can secure an opportunity. “Faith cometh by hearing.”

5. Consider your duty towards your employers. Such as the duty of fidelity or faithfulness; a strict regard for truth; obedience; keeping your temper. It is helpful and wise to make a friend, as we call it, of your master and mistress.

6. Consider your duty to your fellow-servants. You ought to show great care, tenderness, and affection for the welfare of each other. Endeavour to lead your fellow-servants into the paths of peace, by recommending, both by precept and example, religious habits. Aid them according to the ability which God giveth you, when they are in any distress.

II. Their trials and temptations.

1. Your early removal from your friends. Service is not like home, however comfortably you may be located. Home is home, however homely.

2. If a Christian servant, the irreligious habits of the families with whom you dwell is another trial.

3. The worldliness of your fellow-servants. These trials bring temptations. And there are special moral temptations for female servants.

III. Their privileges.

1. Wants supplied without involving personal anxiety.

2. Opportunity for receiving the Lord’s Supper.

3. Power to assist in the Lord’s work. (James R. Starey, M. A.)

Whither art thou going?

Every work, with every secret thing, shall reappear at the judgment-seat of Christ, whether good or whether evil. A journey ends somewhere; each step of it is somewhither. Whither, then, are we each going? Of some changes you must be aware, in some you have doubtless rejoiced. But what as to your souls? In what way have they changed? Are they fitter for their end, for that for which God created them? If you have not used God’s grace in the last year, you are, humanly speaking, less in the way to use it this next. Would you prepare for anything, which you care about in this life, as you prepare for eternity? You would not so prepare for any race in this life. God has divided our lives into lesser portions. But each resting-place should give us pause, and force us into ourselves, and make us think, for a time at ]east, whether we have made ever so little progress in the way, or have sat down in the way, or have turned altogether aside out of the way. “Consider your ways.” Consider what you have been doing, what you are doing, and whither those doings are tending. “Set your heart upon them,” your heart, the seat of your affections. How, if you have not done it, are you to set about this considering your ways? How would you do if you suspected that you were out of your way on this earth? You would, if you could see it, look back to your starting-point, and see how, little by little, you had swerved from the right path. Then look back to earliest days, see by what lesser or greater steps thou first departedst from the narrow way; look how evil habits strengthen by repetition. “Sift thyself through and through,” says the prophet, “and so sift on.” Then shalt thou make progress, not if thou findest not what to blame, but if thou blame what thou findest. When thou didst not set thy heart upon thy ways, thou didst incur daily, well-nigh countless sin, in thought, word, desire, deed, yea, and in omission of duty. Then judge thyself, that thou be not judged of the Lord. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.

BAR�ES, "Go up into the mountain - Not Mount Lebanon, from where the cedars had been brought for the first temple; from where also Zerubbabel and Joshua had procured some out of Cyrus’ grant Ezr_3:7, at the first return from the captivity. They were not required to buy, expend, but simply to give their own labor. They were themselves to “go up to the mountain,” i. e., the mountainous country where the trees grew, “and bring” them. So, in order to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, Ezra made a proclamation Neh_8:15 “in all their cities and in Jerusalem, go ye up to the mountain and bring leafy branches of vines, olives, myrtles, palms.” The palms, anyhow, were timber. God required not goodly stones, such as had been already used, and such as hereafter, in the temple which was built, were the admiration even of disciples of Jesus Mat_24:1, but which were, for the wickedness of those who rejected their Saviour, “not to be left, one stone upon another.” He required not costly gifts, but the heart. The neglect to build the temple was neglect of Himself, who ought to be worshiped there. His worship sanctified the offering; offerings were acceptable, only if made with a free heart.

And I will have pleasure in it - God, who has declared that He has no Mic_6:7“pleasure in thousands of rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil,” had delight in Psa_147:11“them that feared Him,” that are “upright in their way,” Pro_11:20 that “deal truly” Pro_12:22 in the “prayer” of the “upright” Pro_15:8, and so in the temple too, when it should be built to His glory.

And will be glorified - o God is glorified in man, when man serves Him; in Himself, when He manifests aught of His greatness; in His great doings to His people Isa_26:15; Isa_44:23; Isa_60:21; Isa_61:3, as also in the chastisement of those who disobey Him Exo_14:4; Eze_28:22. God allows that glory, which shines ineffably throughout His creation, to be obscured here through man’s disobedience, to shine forth anew on his renewed obedience. The glory of God, as it is the end of the creation, so is it His creature’s supreme bliss. When God is really glorified, then can He show forth His glory, by His grace and acceptance. (Augustine, Serm. 380, n. 6.) “The glory of God is our glory. The more sweetly God is glorified, the more it profits us:” yet not our profit, but the glory of God is itself our end; so the prophet closes in that which is our end, “God will be glorified.”

“Good then and well-pleasing to God is zeal in fulfilling whatever may appear necessary for the good condition of the Church and its building-up, collecting the most useful materials, the spiritual principles in inspired Scripture, whereby he may secure and ground the conception of God, and may shew that the way of the Incarnation was well-ordered, and may collect what pertains to accurate knowledge of spiritual erudition and moral goodness. Nay, each of us may be thought of, as the temple and house of God. For Christ “dwelleth in us” by the Spirit, and we are “temples of the living God,” according to the Scripture 2Co_6:16. Let each then build up his own heart by right faith, having the Saviour as the “precious foundation.” And let him add thereto other materials, obedience, readiness for anything, courage, endurance, continence. “So being framed together by that which every joint supplieth, shall we become a holy temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit” Eph_4:16; Eph_2:21-22. But those who are slow to faith, or who believe but are sluggish in shaking off passions and sins and worldly

pleasure, thereby cry out in a manner, The time is not come to build the house of the Lord.”

CLARKE, "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood - Go to Lebanon, and get timber. In the second year of the return from the captivity, they had procured cedar trees from Lebanon, and brought them to Joppa, and had hired masons and carpenters from the Tyrians and Sidonians; but that labor had been nearly lost by the long suspension of the building. Ezr_3:7.

GILL, "Go up to the mountain,.... Or, "that mountain" (u); pointing either to Lebanon, to cut down cedars, and bring them from thence for the building of the temple; or Mount Moriah, on which the temple was to be built; and thither carry the wood they fetched from Lebanon, or were brought from thence by the Tyrians:

and bring wood; or, "that ye may bring wood"; from Lebanon, or any other mountain on which wood grew, to Mount Moriah:

and build the house; the temple, whose foundation was already laid, but the superstructure was neglected: now the Lord would have them go on with it immediately, out of hand, with the utmost diligence, alacrity, and vigour; and not desist till the whole building was completed:

and I will take pleasure in it; as a type of Christ, for whose sake he was so desirous of having it built; into which he was to come, and there appear as the promised Saviour. It signifies, moreover, that the Lord would not only take pleasure in the temple built, but in their work in building it; which would be acceptable to him, being according to his mind and will; and that he would take pleasure in, and accept of them, being worshippers therein, when they worshipped him in spirit and in truth in it; and in their services, sacrifices, prayers, and praises, being rightly offered; and that he would forgive their sins, and be propitious to them for his Son's sake, the antitype of the temple:

and I will be glorified, saith the Lord; by his people here, and by the worship and service they should perform: or, "I will show myself glorious" (w); that is, show his glory, causing his Shechinah to dwell here in glory, as the Targum is. The Jews observe, that

the letter ה is wanting in the word here used, which numerically signifies "five"; hence

they gather that five things were wanting in the second temple, the ark, the Urim and Thummim, the fire from heaven, the Shechinah, or the divine Majesty, and the Holy Ghost.

JAMISO�, "Go up to the mountain— Moriah [Rosenmuller]; Lebanon [Henderson]. Rather, generally, the mountains around, now covered with wood, the growth of the long period of the captivity. So Neh_8:15, “Go forth unto the mount,” that is, the neighboring hills [Maurer].

wood— Haggai specifies this as being the first necessary; not to the exclusion of other materials. Stones also were doubtless needed. That the old walls were not standing, as the Hebrew interpreters quoted by Jerome state, or the new walls partly built, appears

from Hag_2:18, where express mention is made of laying the foundations.

I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified— I will be propitious to suppliants in it (1Ki_8:30), and shall receive the honor due to Me which has been withheld. In neglecting the temple, which is the mirror of My presence, ye dishonor Me [Calvin]; in its being built, ye shall glorify Me.

BE�SO�, "Verses 8-11Haggai 1:8-11. Go up to the mountain — Go to any of the forests upon the mountains: see �ehemiah 2:8 : and cut down timber to carry on the building; or go to the mountain of Moriah, which I have chosen to build my temple upon it; and I will take pleasure in it — I will accept your offerings, and hear your prayers. And I will be glorified — Will show my majesty, and account myself glorified by you also. Ye looked for much and lo, it came to little — It did not answer the expectation you had formed. When ye brought it home, I did blow upon it — I blasted it; or, blowed it away: when you brought your gains home, I caused them to be soon scattered again, or expended. The dearth with which God punished them for their neglect of rebuilding the temple, made all the necessaries of life so dear, that whatever gains they got were quickly expended. Why? saith the Lord, &c. — For what reason have ye been visited with this calamity? Because of my house that is waste — All this evil is come upon you for your ungodly neglect of my house, leaving it waste. And ye run every man to his own house — You with eagerness carry on your own particular buildings, and mind only your own private affairs, and you take no manner of care about those things which concern my worship. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew — I have punished you with great drought, wherein the dew itself has ceased to fall: see 1 Kings 17:1. And the earth is stayed from her fruit — From bringing forth those fruits which otherwise it would have produced. And I called for a drought — I caused a dearth of every thing in the land, or a general barrenness to take place. And upon the mountains — Upon the hills, where your cattle and flocks used to feed, and to find sufficient nourishment; upon the new wine, and upon the oil —

Upon your vineyards and olive-yards; and upon men, and upon cattle — I made both men and cattle unfruitful. Or the meaning is, their very constitutions were changed, and many diseases afflicted them.

TRAPP, "Verse 8Haggai 1:8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

Ver. 8. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, &c.] Set upon the work, and be serious; build the temple with like zeal as Baruch repaired the wall, �ehemiah 3:20, accendit seipsum, he burst out into a heat, being angry with his own and others’ sloth; and so finished his task in a short time. It must be an earnest, upright, and constant endeavour of reformation that must follow upon our sense of sin and fear of wrath; or else all will be but motus aliquis evanidus (as Calvin on the text hath it), a very flash; it will be but as prints made on water; as soon as finger is off all is out.

It was certainly, therefore, an excellent saying of Luther (though condemned for heretical by Pope Leo X), Optima et aptissima poenitentia est nova vita. Amendment of life is the best repentance; neither is there any wiser way to break off our sins than to practise the contrary duties. He that repents with a contradiction (saith Tertullian), God will pardon him with a contradiction. Thou repentest and yet continuest in thy sin. God will pardon thee and yet send thee to hell. Those that will have God to take pleasure in them, as in his temple, to love them and come unto them, and make his abode with them, John 14:23, to dwell in them, and walk in them, 2 Corinthians 6:16 (as they did in Solomon’s porch, and other walks and galleries about the temple, Zechariah 3:7), to be glorified in them (accounting himself to receive, as it were, a new being, by those inward conceptions of his glory, and those outward honours we do to his name), they must go up to the mountain, not of Lebanon (though that was a pleasant and plentiful place, Deuteronomy 3:25), but of heaven, that hill from whence comes their help, and bring wood (growing wood, Song of Solomon 1:17, living stones, 1 Peter 2:5), and build the house, 1 Corinthians 3:9, Ephesians 2:22, laying faith for a foundation, love for a covering, having hope for a pinnacle, humility for a pavement, washing it with tears, sweeping it by repentance, beautifying it with holiness, perfuming it with prayers, hanging it with sincerity. So shall Christ the King be held in the galleries, Song of Solomon 7:5, he shall covet their beauty, Psalms 45:12, and be held fast bound to them in the bands of pure affection and spiritual wedlock. He will take pleasure in them, as he did in those that prayed in or toward the temple, Deuteronomy 12:11, 1 Kings 8:29, as he did in Daniel, that man of desires, Daniel 9:23, in David, God’s corculum, or darling, 1 Samuel 13:14, in his Hephzibah, or sweetheart, the Church, Isaiah 62:4, called elsewhere the beloved of his soul, or his beloved soul: and he will be glorified in them by their spiritual sacrifices, 1 Peter 2:5, reasonable services, Romans 12:1, performed in spirit and in truth, John 4:24, by some one of which God is more glorified than by all the actions of unreasonable or unregenerate creatures.

PARKER, ""Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house" ( Haggai 1:8).

Get the work done, then the blessing will come. There are some of us who want the blessing without the work, and we cannot have it. You cannot have the harvest without having first the seedtime, and that seedtime may be very cold and harsh, and you may have to face many a morning that is all keenness and coldness. But there is a law—a law of service, a law of action, a law of sequence. The Lord will not allow us to live an irregular life, inventing philosophies for ourselves; we may blow bubbles from the pipe of invention from morning until night, but the earth will not allow one of these bubbles, sun-gilded and beautiful for a moment, to influence its solemn, regular, inexorable, and irresistible action. You must sow the seed when the earth tells you, when the sun tells you; not when you please, but when �ature says, "�ow is the accepted time." And shall we be barriered and caged by law in all these matters, and yet be allowed to lead a fool"s life in relation to things that lay hold upon eternity, and are of the nature of the quality of God?

What will the Lord do when we build the house?

"I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it [Literally: I did blow it away.] Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste" ( Haggai 1:8-9).

"Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The Saviour said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father"s house?" In the Authorised Version it Isaiah , "about my Father"s business"; but literally it should be, "about my Father"s house." There must be some test of obedience, some test of loyalty, and worship, and character; and if the Lord has appointed this test, it is not for us to vary the scale by which our moral action shall be measured, or the standard by which our moral work shall be estimated. Why was the heaven stayed from, and the earth stayed from her fruit? Why was there a drought upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the earth bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands? Why? The answer is given in plain words: "Because of mine house that is waste." There are those who tell us that potato disease, cattle plague, bad harvest, all natural disappointments have nothing to do with moral spirit, moral discipline, moral behaviour; the only thing we can reply is this, that we have given ourselves a book called the Bible, which distinctly declares the contrary, and we cannot keep both the book and the doctrine that opposes it. Without saying which is right, here is the eternal verity; ye cannot have a Bible and no Bible, a God and no God, a Cross and no sacrifice.

�ote

"In his first message to the people the prophet denounced the listlessness of the Jews, who dwelt in their "panelled houses," while the temple of the Lord was roofless and desolate. The displeasure of God was manifest in the failure of all their efforts for their own gratification. The heavens were "stayed from dew," and the earth was "stayed from her fruit." They had neglected that which should have been their first care, and reaped the due wages of their selfishness (i4-11). The words of the prophet sank deep into the hearts of the people and their leaders. They acknowledged the voice of God speaking by his servant, and obeyed the command. Their obedience was rewarded with the assurance of God"s presence (i13), and twenty-four days after the building was resumed. A month had scarcely elapsed when the work seems to have slackened, and the enthusiasm of the people abated. The prophet, ever ready to rekindle their zeal, encouraged the flagging spirits of the chiefs with the renewed assurance of God"s presence, and the fresh promise that, stately and magnificent as was the temple of their wisest king, the glory of the latter house should be greater than the glory of the former (ii3-91). Yet the people were still inactive, and two months afterwards we find him again censuring their sluggishness, which rendered worthless all their ceremonial observances. But the rebuke was accompanied by a repetition of the promise (ii10-19)."—Smith"s Dictionary of the Bible.

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:8

Go up to the mountain. The hill country in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, whence by their own personal exertions they might procure material for the building. The temple mount is certainly not meant, as if they were to bring wood from it. �or can Lebanon be intended, as in Ezra 3:7; for the injunction looks to an immediate actual result, and in their depressed circumstances they were scarcely likely to interest the Sidonians and Tyrians to provide cedar for them. There was abundance of wood close at hand, and the "kings forest" (�ehemiah 2:8) was in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem. There is no mention of stone, probably because the foundations had long been laid, and the ruins of the old temple supplied material for the new one; and, indeed, stone was to be had in abundance everywhere; or it may be that the prophet names merely one opening for their renewed activity, as a specimen of the work required from them. �ot costly offerings were desired, but a willing mind. I will be glorified; I will glorify myself by showering blessings on the house and the people, so that the Hebrews themselves and their neighbours may own that I am among them (comp. Exodus 14:4; Le Exodus 10:3; Isaiah 66:5).

BI, "Bring wood, and build the house.

The building rising

I. An important operation engaged in. “Building the house.”

1. Its actual nature. The building of the temple of God on Mount Zion. Solomon’s temple had been dismantled and razed to the ground. The first act of the restored captives was to rebuild the temple, so that they might once more perform Divine worship. The spiritual import of it was the formation and the gradual perfecting through successive generations of time, of the spiritual Church of God, under the dispensation of the Gospel of His Son, which in Scripture is known by the similitude of a house or a temple.

2. Its attendant difficulties. External adversaries around them. Powerful obstacles arose from the Jews themselves. Their numbers were scanty, and their resources were feeble; some were depressed and fearful, and some were indifferent and apathetic. Subtle objections against undertaking the work just then were started. Difficulties which common agency and common exertion might well despair of removing. These facts suggest the circumstances attendant on the erection of the spiritual temple of Divine grace, under the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work has to progress amidst immense difficulty and opposition. External enmity has abounded, arising from the radical depravity and alienation of the human heart against God, and employing against His truth all the weapons of tact and force: heathen imposture, antichristian superstition, Mohammedan fanaticism, infidel impiety, worldly contempt and neglect. And the professed friends of the Gospel have themselves interposed serious difficulties in the path of progress and success. What injuries have come through the corruptions of the Church; by the divisions of the Church; and by the indolence of the Church. The inertness of some among us has been a most serious injury to the progress of truth and righteousness. It has contracted the resources of the Church; it has given to the Church a false aspect, and a false reputation in the eyes of the world. It has damped the zeal and paralysed the energies of pious, active, and devoted men; and it has prevented the announcement

of saving principles to multitudes, who thus have lived in ignorance, have died in darkness, and have gone down in despair.

II. An agency in connection with which this operation is to be conducted.

1. It is instrumental and secondary. The personal exertions of the Jews themselves were demanded, and were enlisted under the guidance of certain men who had been specially appointed by God for that purpose. The instrumental and secondary agency, appointed for the purpose of promoting the designs of Divine mercy, under the Gospel of our Redeemer, consists in the devoted labours of men who have been themselves redeemed. When the Saviour had completed His own personal mission among the sons of men, He consigned the instrumentality we have noticed, mainly to those whom He had constituted His ministers: some amongst them to labour in temporary offices, and others again to be raised up in long succession, and in such succession to labour until the end of time.

2. It is an agency efficient and supreme. The Divine agency, connected with the instrumentality of men, was to direct them in their counsels, and to give efficiency and success to their movements. It is the agency of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the agency of the Holy Spirit. Zechariah presents Christ as the foundation-stone of the building, and as the architect of the building. The Spirit is presented under the figure of the “seven eyes.” Obstacles would remain undiminished, the “great mountain” would always frown upon us in equal and unmitigated power, were it not for the agency asserted and vindicated here. The best instrumentality devised and employed by man, and operating with whatever of industry and skill, would not advance one solitary step, were it not for the agency asserted and vindicated here.

III. A result, in which this operation, so conducted, shall terminate. The operation shall be triumphantly completed. The head-stone of the temple was brought on. And we can securely anticipate the certain and appointed consummation of the efforts, which in the cause of God we are now, although inadequately, assisting to promote. There is to be the completion of the structure of Divine grace. Nothing can injure the progress and the advancement of our religion. And being triumphantly completed, it will eminently redound to the Divine glory. And the final triumph will be hailed with ecstasy and rapture by all holy created beings. Application—

1. What encouragement to those already engaged and labouring for God!

2. What rebuke to those, professing the religion of Jesus, who are yet indolent and inactive!

3. What warning to those who are avowedly hostile to God and to His truth! (James Parsons.)

The sanctuary built

It is vain to contend that there exists an exact correspondence between the Jewish and the Christian Church. Yet, as they were constituted and ruled by the same authority, and for the same great ends, the history of the former cannot be otherwise than pregnant with instructions suited to the condition and wants of the latter. The principles of truth and righteousness are immutable. These remarks are applicable to the present portion of Jewish history. The returned captives let the house of God lie waste until they had made ample provision for themselves and their families. With this course God was displeased, and He punished them in a manner exactly corresponding with the offence. They wanted

to accumulate more of the world for themselves and families. But God rendered abortive every labour of their hands. By drought and famine He dried up the sources of their gains, and withered their hopes. There is nothing to render this case inapplicable to the Christian Church. The great law of God’s providence, in this respect, is maintained even down to the present day.

1. God has, from the beginning, been worshipped in temples made With hands. While the Jews were passing through the wilderness, they built a portable tabernacle for God’s worship. When their migrations were ended, they built a costly and magnificent temple to the honour of Jehovah. Thus it has been in all time where Jehovah has been known. Even heathen nations have everywhere had public edifices devoted to the rites of their idolatrous worship. There never was a community that did not consecrate to the object of its worship some structure,

2. As respects the true religion, these edifices have been built by command of God. See injunctions given to Moses and to Solomon. History records not one instance of the pervading and sanctifying power of religion in any community where the regular and stated convocations of the people for the worship of God had been abolished.

3. A house of worship, where the people may convene to make a public recognition of God, and offer to Him their homage, is indispensably necessary to a diffusion of the blessings of religion, and a perpetuation of its institutions. The advantages resulting from a convocation of the people at stated periods for religious instruction are perfectly obvious. Let the house of God go to decay, let the sanctuary be demolished, and the strongest bonds of the social state will be dissolved, and all combinations of effort or sympathy to sustain the ordinances, or propagate the doctrines of religion, come to an end. Religion could, under these circumstances, have no organised existence. The solemn convocations of the Church of Christ constitute the heart, whose pulsations send the vital fluid through all the ramifications of the system. Let its Sabbath assemblies be given up, and its existence would speedily come to an end.

4. The ministrations of the house of God have a powerful influence upon the intelligence and good order of the community. There are susceptibilities to religious influence which belong to man’s nature. They must either be developed and trained under scriptural instruction, or they must take on a character from some superstitious and inadequate culture. The objects presented before the mind in the sanctuary, by an able and scriptural ministry, are of the most exalted and commanding character. How is it possible that the constant exhibition of themes like these should fail of producing an elevation and expansion of intellect through all the grades of society that no other agency is capable of producing? How great must be the moral power of the pulpit. The principles of the Gospel are all holy. Whence come the perpetrators of crimes? I have no recollection of even one individual who was an habitual worshipper in the sanctuary being convicted of a States’ prison offence. There are still higher interests to be secured by this agency—the interests of the soul. In the house of prayer there are peculiar manifestations of the Divine glory. Here souls are trained for heaven.

5. The building destined to this high purpose should, in some sense, correspond to the great design of its erection.

(1) It should be a true exponent of the estimation in which the people hold the institutions of religion.

(2) It ought to be rendered as attractive, by its architectural beauty without, and

by its well-appointed arrangements within, as is consistent with the sacred and holy purposes which it is designed to subserve.

(3) When it becomes necessary to erect a house for the worship of God, the people should well consider the character of the Being to whom it is to be consecrated, and take care that the structure be such a one as they will not be ashamed to present to Him as an expression of their gratitude and love. Closing remarks—

1. We owe primarily to the sanctuary the intelligence, refinement, good order which prevail in Christian communities, and the security of life and property which we enjoy.

2. We do not recommend extravagant expenditures in building a house for the worship of our God. We would have everything simple and chaste, but, if the ability of the people permitted, rich and commodious.

3. To accomplish a work of such magnitude, the utmost harmony is demanded; a perfect union of views and efforts. Divided counsels always tend to weakness and ruin.

4. Nothing but the spirit of an enlightened and enlarged liberality will be equal to the demands of such an emergency, as the erection of a house to be consecrated to the worship of Jehovah.

5. The condescension of God, in recording His name in temples made with hands, and in permitting Himself there to be sought and worshipped by His sinful creatures, ought to excite our highest wonder, and gratitude, and love for ever. (J. W. Adams, D. D.)

The encouragement to build the Lord’s house

In the Word of God warnings and threats are always accompanied with exhortations and promises. Were it not so, the threats would profit us little. It is true that only in the Gospel is the love of God made manifest in its fulness. Only in the Gospel do the promises prevail mightily over the threatenings. As God bids the Jews go up to the mountain and fetch the wood to build His house, so does He command us likewise to go up to the mountain for the same purpose. To what mountain? To the mountain of faith; to the mountain of duty. Faith is a hard mountain to climb for all, above all for those who have been living in unbelief. Duty too is a hard mountain to climb for all, above all for those who have been living in self-indulgence. This is the reward He promises us, if we will climb the steep mountain of faith and duty to seek the graces with which we are to build God’s house. He assures us He will take pleasure in that house, and will be glorified in it. What a mighty motive is this! It ought to have great sway over every one of us. If God takes pleasure in our work, that work must be blessed upon ourselves also. God is infinitely more merciful and bountiful than man can believe or conceive. He sees the very first stirrings of an obedient spirit in the heart; and when He sees them, He blesses them, and strengthens them, and helps them forward. No sooner had Zerubbabel and the remnant of the people begun to obey the voice of the Lord, than the prophet Haggai was sent to say, “I am with you, saith the Lord.” He had been with them long before. He had shown forth His wonderful loving-kindness in a number of ways. Yet He sent them this comforting assurance. Nor is He less kind, less gracious, less bountiful, less merciful to us who have become His children in Christ Jesus. He comes to us from

the very first by His Spirit. He has been with us, as our Guide, Teacher, and Director, during the whole of our journey through the wilderness of the world, from our childhood upward. It is through Him that we have been brought, whenever we have been brought, into the assembly of His people upon His holy hill of Zion. He has ever and anon sent His prophets to Us. Yet when we do begin to turn our hearts towards Him, as soon as we earnestly desire to obey Him, and serve Him, He comes to us more plainly, more openly, more manifestly, and sends us a message to cheer us with the assurance that He is and will be with us. This blessed assurance is vouchsafed to all who sincerely desire and strive to obey God. They feel that they have a wisdom above their own to guide them, that they have a strength beyond their own to support them. May we all be brought to that state in which God will take pleasure and be glorified in us! (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)

God glorified in the building of Churches.

“What are the walls which we raise, unless God take pleasure in them? Just what a body is without a soul, hopeless, spiritless, unprofitable. Will God indeed he glorified of men? There is one thing more strange, it is that God should be so little glorified of men. It would be profane and impious to speak of those as glorifying God, who live with no “fear of God before their eyes.” When is God glorified?

1. When any are converted to Him who, heretofore, either in accordance with bad principles, or in contradiction to better principles, have been alienated from Him, or transgressing against Him.

2. When men accept the way of salvation which He has prepared. When the Gospel offer is accepted, and men thank God for His unspeakable gift, God is glorified.

3. When they who have repented do “works meet for repentance,” live “righteously, soberly, and godly,” and wait for His heavenly kingdom. God is dishonoured when any who profess to take His yoke upon them walk unworthily “of the vocation wherewith they are called”; when any, who pretend to be His friends, are really enemies of the Cross of Christ.

4. When men are saved. This is the crown of all; and truly is it the glory of God. Whoever is made meet for the heavenly inheritance, will ascribe it to God alone. “He that glorieth will glory in the Lord”; will acknowledge that His Spirit influenced him, His wisdom guided him, His goodness converted him, His power defended him, and that with anything less than that all-sufficient hand, he must have sunk under the dangers with which he was assailed. (T. B. Summer, D. D.)

The duty of building the spiritual house of God

God’s material temple at Jerusalem was typical of the spiritual temple to be erected in the hearts of the people. The words of text are applicable—

I. To the spiritual house to be raised in every individual’s heart. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, “Ye are the temple of God; and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” Yet what minister can look over his congregation and not see manifest proof that in the case of too many this temple is altogether in ruins. Even where there is good reason to believe that the rubbish of sinful habits has been cleared away, the foundation been rightly laid, and the building is making progress, will not most allow that’ the lets and hindrances perpetually occurring, render the exhortations of the prophets both salutary and

expedient? Some may say, What can we do in this matter? Is not the building of this spiritual house the work of God? Yes, it is. But because God’s material temple was to be raised, not by human power, but by God’s Spirit, therefore the people were urged to persevere and fear no obstacle: and it is because God worketh in us both to will and do, therefore we are exhorted to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Man can do nothing in spiritual things without God, and God seldom acts without being pleased to use the co-operation of man. We are to be active in the carrying on of t-hies spiritual building, that the Lord may take pleasure in it, and that He may be glorified thereby.

II. To the Church of Christ in our own land. But there are many living in our land without Christian ordinances, and in a state of heathenism. Then there is a call to “build this house.”

III. To the Church of Christ throughout the world. Our charity should indeed begin at home, but it should not stay there. Missionary exertion has a reflex effect. If ever there was a Church, or nation, to which God, by His providential dispensations, might be supposed in an especial manner to say, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel,” that Church and that nation is our own. (T. Grantham, B. D.)

9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.

BAR�ES, "Ye looked - , literally “a looking;” as though he said, it has all been one looking, “for much,” for increase, the result of all sowing, in the way of nature: “and behold it came to little,” i. e., less than was sown; as Isaiah denounced to them of old by God’s word, Isa_5:10. “the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah,” i. e., one tenth of what was sown. “And ye brought it home, and I blew upon it,” so as to disperse it, as, not the wheat, but the chaff is blown before the wind. This, in whatever way it came to pass, was a further chastisement of God. The little seed which they brought in lessened through decay or waste. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. God asks by his prophet, what He asks in

the awakened conscience Psa_39:11. “God with rebukes chastens man for sin.” Conscience, when alive, confesses for “what” sin; or it asks itself, if memory does not supply the special sin. Unawakened, it complains about the excess of rain, the drought, the blight, the mildew, and asks, not itself, why, in God’s Providence, these inflictions came in these years? They felt doubtless the sterility in contrast with the exceeding prolificalness of Babylonia, as they contrasted the “light bread,” Num_21:5. the manna, with Num_11:5. the plenteousness of Egypt. They ascribed probably their meagre crops (as we mostly do) to mere natural causes, perhaps to the long neglect of the land during the captivity. God forces the question upon their consciences, in that Haggai asks it in His Name, in whose hands all powers stand, “saith the Lord of host.” They have not to talk it over among themselves, but to answer Almighty God, “why?” That “why?” strikes into the inmost depths of conscience!

Because of My house which is waste, and ye run - literally, “are running,” all the while, “each to his own house” They were absorbed in their material interests, and had no time for those of God. When the question was of God’s house, they stir not from the spot; when it is of their own concerns, they run. Our Lord says, Mat_6:33. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Man reverses this, seeks his own things first, and God withholds His blessing.

“This comes true of those who prefer their own conveniences to God’s honor, who do not thoroughly uproot self-love, whose penitence and devotion are shewn to be unstable, for on a slight temptation they are overcome. Such are they who are bold, self-pleasing, wise and great in their own eyes, who do not ground their conversation on true and solid humility.”

(Cyr.) “To those who are slow to fulfill what is for the glory of God, and the things whereby His house, the Church, is firmly stayed, neither the heavenly dew cometh, which enricheth hearts and minds, nor the fruitfulness of the earth; i. e., right action; not food nor wine nor use of oil. But they will be ever strengthless and joyless, unenriched by spiritual oil, and remain without taste or participation of the blessing through Christ.”

CLARKE, "Ye looked for much - Ye made great pretensions at first; but they are come to nothing. Ye did a little in the beginning; but so scantily and unwillingly that I could not but reject it.

Ye run every man unto his own house - To rebuild and adorn it; and God’s house is neglected!

GILL, "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little,.... They looked for a large harvest, and very promising it was for a while; but in the end it came to little; it was a very small crop, very little was reaped and gathered in: or, "in looking", ye looked "to increase" (x); your substance; had raised expectations of making themselves and families by their agriculture, and by their plantations of vines and olives, and by their trade and merchandise; and it dwindled away, and came to little or nothing; their riches, instead of being increased, were diminished:

and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it; when they brought into their barns or houses the produce of their land, labour, and merchandise, which was but little, the Lord blew a blast upon that little, and brought rottenness and worms into it, as

Jarchi; so that it was not a blessing to them, but a curse. So the Targum interprets it,

"behold, I sent a curse upon it:''

or, "I blew it away" (y); as any light thing, straw or stubble, or thistle down, are blown away with a wind; so easily can the Lord, and sometimes he does, strip men of that little substance they have; riches by his orders make themselves wings, and flee away; or he, by one providence or another, blows them away like chaff before the wind:

Why? saith the Lord of hosts; what was the cause and reason of this? which question is put, not on his own account, who full well knew it; but for their sakes, to whom he speaks, that they might be made sensible of it; and in order to that to introduce what follows, which is an answer to the question:

because of mine house that is waste; which they suffered to lie waste, and did not concern themselves about the rebuilding of it: this the Lord resented, and for this reason blasted all their labours:

and ye run every man unto his own house; were very eager, earnest, and diligent, in building, beautifying, and adorning their own houses; taking care of their own domestic affairs; sparing no cost nor pains to promote their own secular interest; running in all haste to do any thing and everything to increase their worldly substance; but sat still, were idle and slothful, careless and negligent, about the house of God and the affairs of it.

JAMISO�, "Ye looked for much— literally, “looked” so as to turn your eyes “to much.” The Hebrew infinitive here expresses continued looking. Ye hoped to have your store made “much” by neglecting the temple. The greater was your greediness, the more bitter your disappointment in being poorer than ever.

when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it— even the little crop brought into your barns I dissipated. “I did blow upon,” that is, I scattered and caused to perish with My mere breath, as scattered and blighted corn.

mine house ... his own house— in emphatic antithesis.

ye run— expressing the keenness of everyone of them in pursuing their own selfish interests. Compare “run,” Psa_119:32; Pro_1:16, contrasted with their apathy about God’s house.

K&D 9-11, "“Ye looked out for much, and behold (it came) to little; and ye brought it home, and I blew into it. Why? is the saying of Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house, that it lies waste, whereas ye run every man for his house. Hag_1:10. Therefore the heaven has withheld its dew on your account, that no dew fell, and the earth has withheld her produce. Hag_1:11. And I called drought upon the earth, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon everything that the ground produces, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.” The meaning of Hag_1:9 is evident from the context. The inf. abs.

pânōh stands in an address full of emotion in the place of the perfect, and, as the

following clause shows, for the second person plural. Ye have turned yourselves, fixed

your eye upon much, i.e., upon a rich harvest, וה_ה־למעט, and behold the desired much

turned to little. Ye brought into the house, ye fetched home what was reaped, and I blew into it, i.e., I caused it to fly away, like chaff before the wind, so that there was soon none of it left. Here is a double curse, therefore, as in Hag_1:6 : instead of much, but little was reaped, and the little that was brought home melted away without doing any good. To

this exposition of the curse the prophet appends the question יען+מה, why, sc. has this taken place? that he may impress the cause with the greater emphasis upon their hardened minds. For the same reason he inserts once more, between the question and the answer, the words “is the saying of Jehovah of hosts,” that the answer may not be mistaken for a subjective view, but laid to heart as a declaration of the God who rules the

world. The choice of the form מה for מה was probably occasioned by the guttural ע in the

על־מה instead of על־מה which is closely connected with it, just as the analogous use of ,יעןin Isa_1:5; Psa_10:13, and Jer_16:10, where it is not followed by a word commencing

with ע as in Deu_29:23; 1Ki_9:8; Jer_22:8. The former have not been taken into

account at all by Ewald in his elaborate Lehrbuch (cf. §182, b). In the answer given by

God, “because of my house” (ya‛an+bēthı;) is placed first for the sake of emphasis, and the

more precise explanation follows. אשר+הוא, “because it,” not “that which.” ו56ם+וגו is a

circumstantial clause. רצים ... לביתו, not “every one runs to his house,” but “runs for his

house,” +ל denoting the object of the running, as in Isa_59:7 and Pro_1:16. “When the

house of Jehovah was in question, they did not move from the spot; but if it concerned their own house, they ran” (Koehler). In Hag_1:10 and Hag_1:11, the curse with which God punished the neglect of His house is still further depicted, with an evident play upon the punishment with which transgressors are threatened in the law (Lev_26:19-

20; Deu_11:17 and Deu_28:23-24). עליכם is not a dat. incomm. (Hitzig), which is never

expressed by על; but על is used either in a causal sense, “on your account” (Chald.), or in

a local sense, “over you,” after the analogy of Deu_28:23, +שמיך+אשר+על+ראשך, in the sense of “the heaven over you will withold” (Ros., Koehl.). It is impossible to decide with certainty between these two. The objection to the first, that “on your account” would be

superfluous after על־[ן, has no more force than that raised by Hitzig against the second,

viz., that super would be מעל. There is no tautology in the first explanation, but the עליכם, written emphatically at the commencement, gives greater intensity to the threat: “on account of you,” you who only care for your own houses, the heaven witholds the dew.

And with the other explanation, מעל would only be required in case עליכם were regarded

as the object, upon which the dew ought to fall down from above. לא], not “to shut itself up,” but in a transitive sense, with the derivative meaning to withhold or keep back; and

mittâl, not partitively “of the dew,” equivalent to “a portion of it,” but min in a privative

sense, “away from,” i.e., so that no dew falls; for it is inadmissible to take mittâl as the object, “to hold back along with the dew,” after the analogy of Num_24:11 (Hitzig),

inasmuch as the accusative of the person is wanting, and in the parallel clause לא] is

construed with the accus. rei. in Hag_1:11 ואקרא is still dependent upon על־[ן. The word

chōrebh, in the sense of drought, applies strictly speaking only to the land and the fruits

of the ground, but it is also transferred to men and beasts, inasmuch as drought, when it comes upon all vegetation, affects men and beasts as well; and in this clause it may be taken in the general sense of devastation. The word is carefully chosen, to express the

idea of the lex talionis. Because the Jews left the house of God chârēbh, they were

punished with chōrebh. The last words are comprehensive: “all the labour of the hands”

had reference to the cultivation of the soil and the preparation of the necessities of life.

CALVI�, "Here the Prophet relates again, that the Jews were deprived of support, and that they in a manner pined away in their distress, because they robbed God of the worship due to him. He first repeats the fact, Ye have looked for much, but behold little (138) It may happen that one is contented with a very slender portion, because much is not expected. They who are satisfied with their own penury are not anxious though their portion of food is but scanty, though they are constrained to feed on acorns. Those who are become hardened in enduring evils, do not seek much; but they who desire much, are more touched and vexed by their penury. This is the reason why the Prophet says, Ye have looked for much, and, behold, there was but little; that is, “Ye are not like the peasants, who satisfy themselves with any sort of food, and are not troubled on account of their straitened circumstances; but your desire has led you to seek abundance. Hence ye seek and greedily lay hold on things on every side; but, behold, it comes to little.”

In the second place he adds, Ye have brought it home. He farther mentions another kind of evil—that when they gathered wine, and corn, and money, all these things immediately vanished. Ye have brought it home, and I have blown upon it. By saying that they brought it home, he intimates that what they had acquired was laid up, that it might be preserved safely; for they who had filled their storehouses, and wine-cellars, and bags, thought that they had no more to do with God. Hence it was that profane men securely indulged themselves; they thought that they were beyond the reach of danger, when their houses were well filled. God, on the contrary, shows that their houses became empty, when filled with treasures and provisions. But he speaks still more distinctly—that he had blown upon them, that is, that he had dissipated them by his breath: for the Prophet did not deem it enough historically to narrate what the Jews had experienced; but his purpose also was to point out the cause, as it were, by the finger. He therefore teaches us, that what they laid in store in their houses did not without a cause vanish away; but that this happened through the blowing of God, even because he cursed their blessing, according to what we shall hereafter see in the Prophet Malachi.

He then adds, Why is this? saith Jehovah of hosts. God here asks, not because he had any doubts on the subject, but that he might by this sort of goading rouse the Jews from their lethargy,—“Think of the cause, and know that my hand is not guided by a blind impulse when it strikes you. You ought, then, to consider the reason why all things thus decay and perish.” Here again is sharply reproved the stupidity of the people, because they attended not to the cause of their evils; for they ought to have known this of themselves.

But God gives the answer, because he saw that they remained stupefied—On account of my house, he says, because it is waste (139) God here assigns the cause; he shows that though no one of them considered why they were so famished, the judgement of his curse was yet sufficiently manifest, on account of the Temple remaining a waste. And you, he says, run, every one to his own house. Some read, You take delight, every one in his own house; for it is the verb רצה, retse, which we have lately noticed; and it means either to take pleasure in a thing, or to run. Every one, then, runs to his house, or, Every one delights in his house. But it is more suitable to the context to give this rendering, Every one runs to his house. For the Prophet here reminds the Jews that they were slow and slothful in the work of building the Temple, because they hastened to their private houses. He then reproves here their ardor in being intent on building their own houses, so that they had no leisure to build the Temple. This is the hastening which the Prophet blames and condemns in the Jews.

We may hence learn again, that they had long delayed to build the sanctuary after the time had arrived: for, as we have mentioned yesterday, they who think the Jews returned in the fifty-eighth year, and that they had not then undergone the punishment denounced by Jeremiah, are very deluded; for they thus obscure the favor of God; nay, they wholly subvert the truth of the promises, as though they had returned contrary to God’s will, through the permission of Cyrus, when yet Isaiah says, that Cyrus would be the instrument of their promised redemption. (Isaiah 45:1.) Surely, then, Cyrus must have been dead before the time was fulfilled! and in that case God could not have been the redeemer of his people. Therefore Eusebius, and those who agree with him, did thus most absurdly confound the order of time. It now follows—

Looking for much, and behold little! And you brought it home, and I blew upon it; On what account this, saith Jehovah of hosts? On account of my house, because it is waste, And ye are running, each to his own house.

The first line is put in an absolute form, as is sometimes the case in Hebrew; “There has been,” or some such words being understood. Both the Targum and the Septuagint read [ היה ] instead of [ הנה ], which would be more suitable to the word which follows, which has [ ל ] before it. The line would then be—

There has been looking for much, but it came to little.

The “blowing” seems to be a metaphor taken from scorching wind, blowing on vegetation, and causing it to wither. The last line may be thus rendered—

And ye are delighted, each with his own house.

—Ed.

COFFMA�, "Verse 9"Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why; saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste, while ye run every man to his own house."

"When ye brought it home, I did blow upon it ..." In his youth, this writer knew a man who reaped an abundant harvest of wheat and built a large new granary to store it, whereupon a tornado touched down and scattered wheat all over Callahan County! His first name was �ewt; and, shortly afterward, while reading this passage, he accepted the disaster as a personal judgment against himself and promptly became a Christian. Of course, we cannot believe that God provides an individual determination and judgment upon every man by any such events during this whole dispensation. �evertheless, the judgments are general and abundant enough to allow any perceptive soul to get the message, whether the judgment falls upon him individually, or upon another. The judgments are clearly of God, being a part of the primeval curse (Genesis 3:17-22), and they are very much in the world until this very hour.

The great impact from this verse is the truth that God simply will not bless a people determined not to do his will. The returnees were having a very hard time; the message of the Lord was simply this: "If you would have better times, turn to your God." The message is perpetual and eternal.

"Doubtless, as Dr. Pusey observes, they ascribed the meagerness of their crops to natural causes, and would not see the judicial nature of the infliction; but Haggai brings the stern truth home to their conscience by the stern question, `Why?'"[11]Modern man has a great deal to learn in the context that appears in these verses. �o matter what kind of disaster may descend upon mankind today, it is usually ascribed to "natural causes," which more and more tend to be written off as things which men know all about. Well, do they? Do men know all about the vicissitudes that plague our existence upon earth? Alas, the answer is negative, whether men are willing to have it so, or not. These passages emphatically declare:

Back of the loaf is the flour,

And back of the flour the mill;

And back of the mill is the wheat

That waveth on yonder hill.

And back of the hill is the sun

And the rain and the Father's will.

TRAPP, "Verse 9

Haggai 1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, [it came] to little; and when ye brought [it] home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that [is] waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Ver. 9. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little] Spes in oculis, luctus in manibus, as Jerome here. The hope of unjust men perisheth, Proverbs 11:7, etiam spes valentissima, his likeliest hope, as some render it; he thinks himself sure, as Esau did of the blessing, but he only thinks so; God cuts off the meat from his mouth, Joel 1:16, takes away his corn in the time thereof, Hosea 2:9, confutes him in his confidences, which prove like the brooks of Tema, Job 6:17, and serve him as Absalom’s mule did her master; his high hopes hop headless, as one phraseth it. It happens with him as with those perverse Israelites in the wilderness, made to tack about forty-two times after that they thought themselves sure of the promised land.

I did blow upon it] i.e. I dispersed it with ease. By a like phrase (for sense) God is said, Isaiah 25:11, to spread forth his hands in the midst of his enemies, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and to bring down their pride, together with the spoils of their hands, with greatest facility. The motion in swimming is easy, not strong; for strong violent strokes in the water would rather sink than support. In like sort God blasted their treasure or blew their hoards hither and thither, he consumed their substance and cursed their blessings, as Malachi 2:2. {See Trapp on "Malachi 2:2"}

Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, &c.] Their sin of preferring their own private interests and self-respects before God’s work and service is here repeated, and exaggerated, as the ground and cause of all their calamities: and all little enough to bring them to a sound and serious sight and hatred of their sins. Such a deep kind of drowsiness hath surprised us, for the most part, that whereas every judgment of God should be a warning peal to repent, we be like the smith’s dog, who the harder the anvil is beaten on lieth by and sleepeth the sounder; or like the silly hen, which loseth her chickens one by one by the devouring kite, and yet, as altogether insensible of her loss, continues to pick up what lieth before her. This is to swelter and pine away in iniquity, as if nothing could awaken men, Leviticus 26:39, and it is threatened last of all, as worse than all their losses, captivities, &c. A lethargy is no less deadly than the most tormenting disease. Let ministers, therefore, by such forcible and quick questions as this in the text and otherwise, arouse their hearers (as they once did here their dear friends in the sweating sickness, who, if suffered to sleep, died certainly), that they may awake, and recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, &c. It is well observed by one that the devil’s particular sin is not once mentioned in Genesis, because he was not to be restored by repentance; but the sin of man is enlarged in all the circumstances. And why this? but that he might be sensible, ashamed, and penitent for his sin. They say in philosophy that the foundation of natural life is feeling; no feeling, no life; and that the more quick and nimble the sense of feeling is in a man the better is his constitution. Think the same of life spiritual, and of that hidden man of the heart, as

St Peter calls him.

And ye run every man unto his own house] Or, ye take pleasure every man in his own house, q.d. Ye are all self-seekers, privatespirited persons, ye are all for your own interests; like the snail, that seldom stirs abroad, and never without his house upon his back; or like the eagle, which, when he flies highest, hath still an eye downward to the prey, that he minds to seize. In parabola oves capras suas quaerunt. In the parabole of the sheep, he seeks his sheep. They serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, Romans 16:18; or if they serve Christ, it is for gain, as children will not say their prayers unless we promise them their breakfasts. In serving him they do but serve themselves upon him; as those carnal Capernaites did, John 6:26. Well might the apostle complain, as Philippians 2:21, and another since, that it is his pleasures, his profit, and his preferment that is the natural man’s trinity; and his carnal self that is these in unity. May he be but warm in his own feathers, he little regards the dangers of the house. He is totus in se, wholly drawn up into himself, and insensible of either the public good or common danger: though the waterpot and spear be taken from the bolster, yet he stirs not. Far enough from St Paul’s frame of spirit or speech, Who is offended, and I burn not? far enough from his care and cumber, anxiety and solicitude for the house of God ( επισυστασις µεριµνα) and prosperity of his people, 2 Corinthians 11:28. �othing like they are to Ambrose, who was more troubled for the state of the Church than for his own dangers. �othing like Melancthon, of whom it is said, that the ruins of God’s house and the miseries of his people made him almost neglect the death of his most beloved children. True goodness is public spirited, though to private disadvantage; as nature will venture its own particular good for the general, so will grace much more. Heavy things will ascend to keep out vacuity and preserve the universe. A stone will fall down to come to its own place, though it break itself in twenty pieces. It is the ingenuity of saints, in all their desires and designs, to study God’s ends more than their own; to build God’s house with neglect of their own, as Solomon did; to drown all self-respects in his glory and the public good, as �ehemiah did; of whom it might be more truly said than the heathen historian (Dio) did of Cato, that he did υπεραγαπαν το κοινον, overly loved the commonwealth, and that he did - toti genitum se credere mundo, believe himself born for the benefit of mankind (Lucan).

CO�STABLE, "Verse 9The Israelites had looked for much blessing from the Lord, but they had found very little. When they brought their grain home, the Lord blew it away. Apparently their grain was so light and small that much of it blew away with the chaff when they threshed it. The reason was clear. They had neglected the temple and had given all their time and energy to providing for themselves by building their own houses.

There are six occurrences of the phrase "declares the LORD of hosts" in Haggai ( Haggai 1:9; Haggai 2:4; Haggai 2:8-9; Haggai 2:23 [twice]) and six occurrences of the shorter phrase "declares the LORD" ( Haggai 1:13; Haggai 2:4 [twice], 14 , 17 , 23). This is unusual for a book as short as Haggai. Obviously the writer wanted to

emphasize the divine origin of his message to the people. [�ote: Ibid, pp44-45 , wrote an extended note on the name "the Lord of Hosts."]

PETT, "Haggai 1:9-11

“You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little;And when you brought it home, I blew on it.Why?” says YHWH of hosts.“Because of my house which lies waste,While you run every man to his own house.Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew,And the earth withholds its fruit.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 that which the ground brings forth,And on men, and on cattle,And on all the labour of the hands.”God now repeats in more depth what He has already said, that their sad condition is partly due to the fact that they have neglected Him and His house. They had looked hopefully for much, but all that they had received had been little. And even that had been ravaged by high winds. Or the ‘blowing’ might simply refer to some other activity of God which affected their stored goods. And why had He done it? ‘Because of My house which lies waste while you run every man to his own house.’

This was why the rain and dew had not come, this was why the earth had not been fruitful, this was why everything was affected by drought. Thus there had been a shortage of food, wine, oil and water. And all had suffered, both man and beast.

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:9

He shows the real cause of the calamities that had befallen them. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little. Emphatic infinitive, as in Haggai 1:6. "To look for much, and behold! little." They fixed their expectations upon a rich harvest, and they reaped less than they had sown (Isaiah 5:10). And when they had stored this miserable crop in their barns, I did blow upon it; or, did blow it away, dissipated it as if it were mere chaff, so that it perished. Doubtless, as Dr Pusey observes, they ascribed the meagreness of their crops to natural causes, and would not see the judicial nature of the infliction. The prophet brings the truth home to their conscience by the stern question, Why? And he answers the question for them, speaking with God's authority. Because of mine house that is waste. The reason already given in Haggai 1:4, etc; is repeated and enforced. And (while) ye run. Ye are indifferent to the miserable condition of the house of God, while ye haste with all diligence to your own houses for business or pleasure, being entirely absorbed in worldly interests, or eager only to adorn and beautify your own habitations. Or, your zeal is all expended on your own private dwellings.

10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.

BAR�ES, "Therefore, for you, - on your account; (As in Ps. 44:43.) for your sins, (Jon.) He points out the moral cause of the drought, whereas men think of this or that cause of the variations of the seasons, and we, e. g., take into our mouths Scriptural words, as “murrain of cattle,” and the like, and think of nothing less than why it was sent, or who sent it. Haggai directs the mind to the higher Cause, that as they withheld their service from God, so, on their account and by His will, His creatures withheld their service from them.

CLARKE, "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew - It appears from the following verse that God had sent a drought upon the land, which threatened them with scarcity and famine.

GILL, "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew,.... Or, "therefore over", or "upon you" (a); where should be a stop; that is, because, of your neglect of the house of God; therefore upon you, and upon you only, and not upon other nations, the heaven is restrained from letting down the dew: or, "therefore I am against you" (b); for the above reason, and which the following things show; and sad it is to have God to be an enemy, and against a people! or, "for your sake"; so the Syriac version, to which sense is the Targum,

"therefore for your sins;''

and so Jarchi, "the heaven is stayed from dew"; none descends from it; the Lord, who has the ordering of it, will not suffer it: to have the dew fall upon the earth in the night season is a great blessing; it makes the earth fruitful, revives the corn, plants, and herbs, and causes them to flourish and increase; and to have it restrained is a judgment:

and the earth is stayed from her fruit; from bringing forth its increase, which is the consequence of the dew being withheld.

JAMISO�, "heaven ... is stayed from dew— literally, “stays itself.” Thus heaven or the sky is personified; implying that inanimate nature obeys Jehovah’s will; and,

shocked at His people’s disobedience, withholds its goods from them (compare Jer_2:12, Jer_2:13).

CALVI�, "He confirms what the last verse contains—that God had made it evident that he was displeased with the people because their zeal for religion had become cold, and, especially, because they were all strangely devoted to their own interest and manifested no concern for building the Temple. Hence, he says, therefore the heavens are shut up and withhold the dew; that is, they distil no dew on the earth; and he adds, that the earth was closed that it produced no fruit; it yielded no increase, and disappointed its cultivators. As to the particle כן-על , ol-can, we must bear in mind what I have stated, that God did not regard the external and visible Temple, but rather the end for which it was designed; for it was his will then that he should be worshipped under the ceremonies of the law. When, therefore, the Jews offered mutilated, lame, or diseased sacrifices, they manifested impiety and contempt of God. It is yet true, that it was the same thing as to God; but he had not commanded sacrifices to be offered to him for his own sake, but that by such services they might foster true religion. When, therefore, he says now, that he punished their neglect of the Temple, we ought ever to regard that as a pattern of heavenly things, so that we may understand that the coldness and indifference of the Jews were reproved; because it hence evidently appeared that they had no care for the worship of God.

With respect to the withholding of dew and of produce, we know that the Prophets took from the law what served to teach the people, and accommodated it to their own purposes. The curses of the law are general. (Deuteronomy 11:17.) It is therefore the same thing as though the Prophet had said, that what God had threatened by Moses was really fulfilled. It ought not to have been to them a new thing, that whenever heaven denied its dew and rain it was a sign of God’s wrath. But as, at this day, during wars, or famine, or pestilence, men do not regard this general truth, it is necessary to make the application: and godly teachers ought wisely to attend to this point, that is, to remind men, according to what the state of things and circumstances may require, that God proves by facts what he has testified in his word. This is what is done by our Prophet now, withheld have the heavens the dew and the earth its produce (140)

In a word, God intimates, that the heavens leave no care to provide for us, and to distil dew so that the earth may bring forth fruit, and that the earth also, though called the mother of men, does not of itself open its bowels, but that the heavens as well as the earth bear a sure testimony to his paternal love, and also to the care which he exercises over us. God then shows, both by the heavens and the earth, that he provides for us; for when the heavens and the earth administer and supply us with the blessings of God, they thus declare his love towards us. So also, when the heaven is, as it were, iron, and when the earth with closed bowels refuses us food, we ought to know that they are commissioned to execute on us the vengeance of God. For they are not only the instruments of his bounty, but, when it is necessary, God employs them for the purpose of punishing us. This is briefly the meaning.

Therefore, on your account, withheld have the heavens from dew, And the earth has withheld its produce.

The verb [ כלא ], to restrain, to keep back, to withhold, is used here twice, and in the first line in an intransitive sense, and in the second in a transitive sense, as it is often the case in other languages, when the same verb is both neuter and active.

The 11th verse is passed by without any particular remarks. The word [ חרב ] is rendered “Siccitas —drought,” as Jerome does, and also our version, as well as �ewcome and Henderson; but Grotius and also Marckius very justly observe, that it means here “waste,” or “desolation,” it being the same word as is applied to God’s house in verse 9. They left his house a waste; by a just retribution he had brought or called for a waste on the land, etc. The contrast is so evident that it cannot be denied. The ideal meanings of the word is to be waste or desolate: it is then applied to various things which produce desolation, the sword, drought, pestilence, etc.; but it is used here in its primary sense, and the contrast is very striking: “My house has been left waste; I have caused a waste to come upon every thing else.” The verse may be thus rendered—

And I have called for a waste On the land and on the mountains, And on the corn and on the wine and on the oil, And on whatever the ground produces, And on man and on the cattle, And on all the labor of the hands.

—Ed.

COFFMA�, "Verse 10"Therefore for your sake the heavens withold the dew, and the earth witholdeth its fruit."

"For your sake ..." These are most significant words, and they point squarely to the following passage from Genesis: "Cursed is the ground FOR THY SAKE!" (Genesis 3:17). The teaching of the Bible reveals emphatically that providential intervention is continual, and a constant possibility in all of the affairs of men. God often called for drought upon Israel, and sent prophets to announce it in advance; nor are such episodes confined to the Old Testament. Agabus prophesied a four-year famine under Claudius Caesar (Acts 11:28). That was in this current dispensation; and the same God who can foretell a great drought can as easily send or withhold it! All such impediments to man's ease and prosperity are intended as guideposts to point him to the Father in heaven. "For Adam's sake" (Genesis 3:17) ... "For your sake" ... (Haggai 1:10).

TRAPP, "Verse 10Haggai 1:10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed [from] her fruit.

Ver. 10. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from rain, &c.] It is never well with man (whose life is ever in fuga, in flight, as the philosopher hath it, and must be maintained by meat, as the fire is by fuel) till God "hear the heaven, and the heaven hear the earth, and the earth hear the corn, the wine, and the oil, and these hear Jezreel," Hosea 2:21-22, where we may see the genealogy of these good creatures resolved into God. The earth, though a kind mother, cannot open her bowels, and yield "seed to the sower, and bread to the eater," if not watered from above. The heaven, though the storehouse of God’s good treasure, which he openeth to our profit and nourishment, Deuteronomy 28:12, cannot drop down fatness upon the earth if God close it up, and withhold the seasonable showers. This the very heathens acknowledged in their fictions of Jupiter and Juno; and the Metapontines, having had a good harvest, consecrated χρυσουν θερος, a harvest cut in gold, to their god, in the temple at Delphi. �ow, when a rabble of rebels shall conspire against God, and fight against him with his own weapons, as Jehu did against Jehoram with his own men, what can he do less than cut them short? that make them know the worth of his benefits by the want of them?

CO�STABLE, "Verse 10-11The hot weather and poor harvests that the returned exiles were enduring were due to their selfish behavior (cf. Leviticus 26:19-20; Deuteronomy 28:22-24). Dew was the only form of moisture that plants enjoyed during the hot summer months, beside artificial irrigation, but even that was unavailable. The Lord had decreed drought that affected all their essential products and all aspects of their lives (cf. Deuteronomy 28:38).

"Those who plan to give to God "once they have enough for themselves" will never have enough for themselves!" [�ote: Dyer, p816.]

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:10

Over you. This would be a reference to Deuteronomy 28:23. But the preposition is probably not local, but means rather, "on your account," i.e. on account of your sin, as Psalms 44:22. This is not tautological after the preceding "therefore," but more closely defines and explains the illative. Is stayed from dew; hath stayed itself from dew; withholds not only rain, but even dew (comp. Zechariah 8:12). On the importance of dew in the climate of Palestine, see note on Micah 5:7. The dews generally are remarkably heavy, and in the summer months take the place of rain. Dr. Thomson speaks of the dew rolling in the morning off his tent like rain. The earth is stayed from her fruit; hath stayed her fruit; according to the threat (Deuteronomy 11:17).

BI, "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

Nature penalties

With respect to the withholding of dew and of produce, we know that the prophets took

from the law what served to teach the people, and accommodated it to their own purposes. The curses of the law are general (Deu_11:17). It is therefore the same thing as though the prophet had said that what God had threatened by Moses was really fulfilled. It ought not to have been to them a new thing, that whenever heaven denied its dew and rain, it was a sign of God’s wrath. But as, at this day, during wars, or famine, or pestilence, men do not regard this general truth, it is necessary to make the application: and godly teachers ought wisely to attend to this point, that is, to remind men, according to what the state of things and circumstances may require, that God proves by facts what He has testified in His Word. God intimates that the heavens have no care to provide for us, and to distil dew so that the earth may bring forth fruit, and that the earth also, though called the mother of men, does not of itself open its bowels, but that the heavens as well as the earth bear a sure testimony to His paternal love, and also to the care which He exercises over us. God then shows, both by the heavens and the earth, that He provides for us; for when the heavens and the earth administer and supply us with the blessings of God, they thus declare His love towards us. So also, when the heaven is, as it were, iron, and when the earth with closed bowels refuses us food, we ought to know that they are commissioned to execute on us the vengeance of God. For they are not only the instruments of His bounty, but, when it is necessary, God employs them for the purpose of punishing us. (John Calvin.)

11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

BAR�ES, "And I called for a drought upon the land - God called to the people and they would not hear. It is His ever-repeated complaint to them. “I called unto you, and ye would not hear.” He called to His inanimate creatures to punish them, and “they” obeyed. So Elisha tells the woman, whose son he had restored to life, 2Ki_8:1. “The Lord hath called to the famine, and it shall also come to the land seven years.”

And upon men, - in that the drought was oppressive to man. The prophet may also allude to the other meaning of the word, “waste,” “desolation.” They had left the house of the Lord “waste,” therefore God called for waste, desolation, upon them.

GILL, "And I called for a drought upon the land,.... Upon the whole land of

Judea; as he withheld the dew and rain from falling on it to moisten it, refresh it, and make it fruitful; so he ordered a vehement heat to dry and parch it; and directed the rays of the sun to strike with great force upon it, and cause the fruits of it to wither; and which is done by a word of his; when he calls, every creature obeys. There is an elegant play on words, which shows the justness of such a proceeding, that it was according to

the law of retaliation; they suffered the house of God to lie חרב, "waste", and therefore he

calls for חרב, a "wasting" drought, to come upon their land:

and upon the mountains; where herbage grew, and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were fed; but now the grass through the drought was withered away, and so no pasturage for them, and in course must perish:

and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil; that is, upon the grain fields, and upon the vines and olive trees; so that they produced but very little grain, wine, and oil, and that not very good, and which was not satisfying and refreshing; at least there were not enough for their support and comfort: now these three things were the principal necessaries of life in the country of Judea, and therefore a scarcity of them was very distressing:

and upon that which the ground bringeth forth; whatever else not mentioned the earth produced, as figs, pomegranates, and other fruit:

and upon men, and upon cattle; who not only suffered in this drought, by the above said things it came upon; but by diseases it produced upon them, as the pestilence and fever among men, and murrain upon the cattle:

and upon all the labour of the hands: of men; whatsoever fields and gardens, trees and plants of every kind, that were set and cultivated by them. Of this drought, and the famine that came upon it, we nowhere else read; but there is no doubt to be made of it.

JAMISO�, "I called— what the “heaven” and “earth,” the second causes, were said to do (Hag_1:10), being the visible instruments, Jehovah, in this verse, the invisible first cause, declares to be His doing. He “calls for” famine, etc., as instruments of His wrath (2Ki_8:1; Psa_105:16). The contrast is striking between the prompt obedience of these material agencies, and the slothful disobedience of living men, His people.

drought— Hebrew, Choreb, like in sound to Chareeb, “waste” (Hag_1:4, Hag_1:9), said of God’s house; implying the correspondence between the sin and its punishment. Ye have let My house be waste, and I will send on all that is yours a wasting drought.This would affect not merely the “corn,” etc., but also “men” and “cattle,” who must perish in the absence of the “corn,” etc., lost by the drought.

labour of the hands— all the fruits of lands, gardens, and vineyards, obtained by labor of the hands (Deu_28:33; Psa_78:46).

COFFMA�, "Verse 11"And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands."

Here is an elaboration of the truth that all productivity of every conceivable kind depends, in the last analysis, upon the will of God. Such an uncontrollable and unpredictable thing as a shift in the jet stream that roars through the earth's atmosphere at vast altitudes could wipe out a whole civilization. A sudden increase of the earth's temperature in the south polar region could increase the depths of the oceans by more than a hundred feet, wiping out most of the cities of the whole world. The chairman of the Rockefeller Medical Foundation once said that over four thousand viruses, capable of bringing death to multiplied millions, are already identified and awaiting only some propitious moment to spread death and devastation all over the earth. One such unpredictable outbreak in the 14th century destroyed the majority of mankind! "Oh, it cannot happen now!" The wisest men on earth know it can happen now and have not failed to warn us. If men would continue to enjoy the blessings of God, may they never neglect to honor the God of all blessing and to obey his will.

"Men simply have not learned the lesson that God's Temple comes first (the church, in our age). They do not believe that Jesus spoke the truth for our times, when he said, `Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33)."[12]

TRAPP, "Verse 11Haggai 1:11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon [that] which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Ver. 11. than call for a drought &c.] and so for a dearth (which inevitably followed in those hot countries), and consequently for pestilence and sword, the usual concomitants? The Septuagint for drought here (by a mistake of points) translate a sword Pro chorebb legunt cherib. And in the original there is an elegance alliteration past the ability to translate. Because my house is chareb, that is, waste, therefore I have called for a choreb, drought, or for a chereb, a sword, which shall in like sort lay your land waste and make your houses desolate; according to that which is threatened, Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Matthew 23:38. And in the very next chapter Matthew 24:7, Christ telleth his apostles that those refractory Jews, and others, that rejected him, the true temple, in "whom the Godhead dwelt bodily," Colossians 2:9, that is, essentially (and not in clouds and ceremonies, as once between the cherubims, which they used to call Shechinah), because they loathed the heavenly manna, therefore they should be pined with famine. They that would have none of the gospel of peace should taste deeply of the miseries of war. They that despised the only medicine of their souls should be visited with pestilence. The black horse is ever at the heels of the red; and the pale of the black Revelation 6:4. As there hath been a conjuncture of offences, so there will be of miseries; a conflux of them abideth the neglecters of God’s house, the contemners of his gospel. Ursine tells us, that those that fled from England for religion in Queen Mary’s days,

acknowledged that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them, for their unprofitableness under the means of grace, which they had enjoyed in King Edward’s days. Zanchy likewise tells us, that when he first came to be pastor at Clavenna there happened a grievous pestilence in that town, so that in seven months’ time there died twelve hundred persons. Their former pastor, Mainardus, that man of God, as he calleth him, had often foretold such a calamity, for their profaneness and Popery; but he could never be believed till the plague had proved him a true prophet; and then they remembered his words, and wished they had been warned by him (Zanch. Miscel. ep. ad Lantgrav.). Let us also fear, lest for our many and bony sins (as the prophet’s expression is, Amos 5:12, Peccata ossea, bony sins i.e. fortia) strong, but especially for our hateful and horrible contempt of his servants and services (never the, like known), we pull upon our land Amos’s famine, not of bread, but (which is a thousandfold worse) of hearing the words of the Lord, Amos 8:11; a famine long since foretold and feared by our martyrs and confessors; and now, if ever (if God forefend not), in procinctu, in readiness of battle to fall upon us, as the most unworthy and unthankful people that ever the sun of heaven beheld or the sun of Christ’s gospel shone upon so fair and so long together. The best way of prevention is prevision and reformation; beginning at our own, as Gideon did at his father’s household, 6:27. And the best almanack we can rely upon for seasonable weather and the lengthening of our tranquillity is our obedience to God, love to our neighbours, care of ourselves.

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:11

I called for a drought. So Elisha says (2 Kings 8:1) that "the Lord hath called for a famine." There is a play of words in the Hebrew: as they had let the Lord's house lie" waste" (thatch) (Haggai 1:4,Haggai 1:9), so the Lord punished them with "drought" (choreb). The Septuagint and Syriac, pointing differently, translate this last word "sword," but this is not suitable for the context, which speaks of the sterility of the land only. The land, in contradistinction to the mountains, is the plain country. �othing anywhere was spared. All the labour of the hands (Psalms 128:2, etc.). All that they had effected by long and wearisome toil in the cornfield, the vineyard, etc. (comp. Hosea 2:9; Joel 1:10).

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet

Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

BAR�ES, "Then Zerubbabel, and all the remnant of the people - , not, “the rest of people” but “the remnant,” those who remained over from the captivity, the fragment of the two tribes, which returned to their own land, “hearkened unto the voice of the Lord.” This was the beginning of a conversion. In this one thing they began to do, what, all along, in their history, and most in their decay before the captivity they refused to do - obey God’s word. So God sums up their history, by Jeremiah, Jer_22:21. “I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, thou saidst, I will not hear. This is thy way from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto My voice.” Zep_3:2 still more briefly , “she hearkened not unto (any) voice.” Now in reference, it seems, to that account of their disobedience, Haggai says, using the self-same formula , “they hearkened unto the voice of the Lord, “according to the words of Haggai.” They obeyed, not vaguely, or partly, but exactly, “according to the words” which the messenger of God spake.

And they feared the Lord - o “Certainly the presence of the Divine Majesty is to be teared with great reverence.” “The fear of punishment at times transports the mind to what is better, and the infliction of sorrows harmonizes the mind to the fear of God; and that of the Proverbs comes true, Pro_13:13. “He that feareth the Lord shall be recompensed,” and Pro_19:23 “the fear of the Lord tendeth to life;” and Wisdom (Ecclesiasticus 1:11). “The fear of the Lord is honor and glory, and Pro_19:12 the fear of the Lord shall rejoice the heart, and giveth joy and gladness and a long life.” See how gently and beseemingly God smites us.”

“See how the lovingkindness of God immediately goes along with all changes for the better. For Almighty God changes along with those who will to repent, and promises that He will be with them; which what can equal? For when God is with us, all harm will depart from us, all good come in to us.”

CLARKE, "Then Zerubbabel - The threatening of Haggai had its proper effect. -The civil governor, the high priest, and the whole of the people, united together to do the work. When the authority of God is acknowledged, his words will be carefully obeyed.

GILL, "Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech the high priest,.... Here follows an account of the success of Haggai's prophecy; with what power and efficacy the word of the Lord by him was attended; how it at once reached and affected the hearts of princes and people, and brought them to obedience to the will of God. The governor and high priest are mentioned first, as being the principal persons, and who very probably first declared their sense of their former neglect, and their readiness to do as they were directed; which was setting a good

example to the people, and doubtless had some influence upon them:

with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God; not the two leading men in church and state only; but all the people that came out of the Babylonish captivity, who were but a remnant; a few that were left through various calamities they had been exposed unto; these, one and all, signified how willing and ready they were to do the work of the Lord enjoined them: or, "they heard the voice of the Lord" (c); by the prophet, very attentively and seriously; and received and regarded it, not as the word of men, but as the word of God; and determined to act according to it:

and the words of Haggai the prophet; or, "and for the words of Haggai the prophet" (d); because of them, considering them as coming from the Lord himself:

as the Lord their God had sent him; regarding him as having a mission and commission from the Lord to deliver them to them:

and the people did fear before the Lord; perceiving that he was displeased with them for the neglect of his house; and that this drought upon them was a chastisement and correction for this sin; and fearing lest his wrath should continue, and they should be more severely dealt with, on account of their transgressions.

HE�RY 12-15, "As an ear-ring of gold (says Solomon), and an ornament of fine gold, so amiable, so acceptable, in the sight of God and man, is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear, Pro_25:12. The prophet here was a wise but faithful reprover, in God's name, and he met with an obedient ear. The foregoing sermon met with the desired success among the people, and their obedience met with due encouragement from God. Observe,

I. How the people returned to God in a way of duty. All those to whom that sermon was preached received the word in the love of it, and were wrought upon by it. Zerubbabel, the chief governor, did not think himself above the check and command of God's word. He was a man that had been eminently useful in his day, and serviceable to the interest of the church, yet did not plead his former merits in answer to this reproof for his present remissness, but submitted to it. Joshua's business, as high priest, was to teach, and yet he was willing himself to be taught, and willingly received admonition and instruction. The remnant of the people (and the whole body of them was but a remnant, a very few of the many thousands of Israel) also were very pliable; they all obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and bowed their neck to the yoke of his commands, and it is here recorded to their honour that they did so, Hag_1:12. Their father said, Sons, go work today in my vineyard, in my temple; and they not only said, We go, sir, but they went immediately. 1. They looked upon the prophet to be the Lord's messenger, and the word he delivered to be the Lord's message to them; and therefore received it not as the word of man, but as the word of Almighty God; they obeyed his words, as the Lord their God had sent him, Hag_1:12. Note, In attending to God's ministers we must have an eye to him that sent them, and receive them for his sake, while they act according to their commission. 2. They did fear before the Lord. Prophecy was a new thing with them; they had had no special messenger from heaven for a great while, and therefore now that they had one, and but one, they paid an extraordinary regard to him; whereas their fathers, who had many prophets, mocked and misused them. It is sometimes so; when good preaching is most scarce it does most good, whereas the manna that is rained in plenty is loathed as light bread. And, because they so readily received this prophet, God, within a

month or two after, raised them up another, Zec_1:1. They feared before the Lord; they had a great regard to the divine authority and a great dread of the divine wrath, and were of those that trembled at God's word. The judgments of God which they had been under, though very severe, had not prevailed to make them fear before the Lord, until the word of God was sent to expound his providences, and then they feared. Note, A holy fear of God will have a great influence upon our obedience to him. Serve the Lord with fear; if we fear him not, we shall not serve him. 3. The Lord stirred up their spirits, Hag_1:14. (1.) He excited them to their duty, and put it into their hearts to go about it. Note, Then the word of God has its success when God by his grace stirs up our spirits to comply with it; and without that grace we should remain stupid and utterly averse to every thing that is good. It is in the day of a divine power that we are made willing. (2.) He encouraged them in their duty, and with those encouragements enlarged their hearts, Psa_119:32. When they heard the word they feared; but, lest they should sink under the weight of that fear, God stirred them up, and made them cheerful and bold to encounter the difficulties they might meet with. Note, When God has work to do, he will either find or make men fit to do it, and stir them up to it. 4. They applied to their work with all possible vigour: They came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God.Every one, according as his capacity or ability was, lent a hand, some way or other, to further that good work; and this they did with an eye to God as the Lord of hosts, and as their God, the God of Israel. The consideration of God's sovereign dominion in the world by his providence, and his covenant-relation to his people by his grace, should stir up our spirits to act for him, and for the advancement of the interest of his kingdom among men, to the utmost of our power. 5. They did this speedily; it was but on the first day of the sixth month that Haggai preached them this sermon, and by the twenty-fourth of the same month, little more than three weeks after, they were all busy working in the house of the Lord their God, Hag_1:15. To show that they were ashamed of their delays hitherto, now that they were convinced and called they were resolved to delay no longer, but to strike while the iron was hot, and to set about the work while they were under convictions. Note, Those that have lost time have need to redeem time; and the longer we have loitered in that which is good the more haste we should make when we are convinced of our folly.

II. How God met them in a way of mercy. The same prophet that brought them the reproof brought them a very comforting encouraging word (Hag_1:13): Then spoke Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message, in his name, and as from him, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. That is all he has to say, and that is enough; as that word of Christ to his disciples is (Mat_28:20), “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. I am with you, that is, I will forgive your neglects hitherto, and they shall not be remembered against you; I will remove the judgments you have been under for those neglects, and will appear for you, as I have in them appeared against you. I am with you to protect you against your enemies that bear ill-will to your work, and to prosper you, and to give you success in it - with you to strengthen your hands, and bless the work of them, without which blessing those labour in vain that build.” Note, Those that work for God have God with them; and, if he be for us, who can be against us? If he be with us, what difficulty can stand before us?

JAMISO�, "remnant of the people— all those who have returned from the exile (Zec_8:6).

as ... God sent him— according to all that Jehovah had enjoined him to speak. But as it is not till Hag_1:14 after Haggai’s second message (Hag_1:13) that the people

actually obeyed, Maurer translates here, “hearkened to the voice of the Lord,” and instead of “as,” “because the Lord had sent him.” However, English Version rightly represents their purpose of obedience as obedience in God’s eyes already, though not carried into effect till Hag_1:14.

K&D, "The result of this reproof. - Hag_1:12. “Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the whole of the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and according to the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people feared before Jehovah.” “All the remnant of the people” does not mean the rest of the nation besides Zerubbabel and Joshua, in support of which Koehler refers to Jer_39:3 and 1Ch_12:38, either here or in Hag_1:14 and Hag_2:2, inasmuch as Zerubbabel as the governor and prince of Judah, and Joshua as the high priest, are not

embraced under the idea of the “people” (‛âm), as in the case in the passages quoted,

where those who are described as the she'ērı;th, or remnant, are members or portions of

the whole in question. The “remnant of the people,” as in Zec_8:6, is that portion of the nation which had returned from exile as a small gleaning of the nation, which had once

been much larger. שמע+'קול, to hearken to the voice, i.e., to lay to heart, so as to obey what

was heard. קול+יי' is still more minutely defined by ועל־�ברי+וגו: “and (indeed) according to the words of Haggai, in accordance with the fact that Jehovah had sent him.” This last

clause refers to �ברי, which he had to speak according to the command of God (Hitzig);

cf. Mic_3:4. The first fruit of the hearing was, that the people feared before Jehovah; the second is mentioned in Hag_1:14, namely, that they resumed the neglected building of the temple. Their fearing before Jehovah presupposes that they saw their sin against God, and discerned in the drought a judgment from God.

CALVI�, "The Prophet here declares that his message had not been without fruit, for shortly after the whole people prepared themselves for the work. And he names both Zerubbabel and Joshua; for it behaved them to lead the way, and, as it were, to extend a hand to others. For, had there been no leaders, no one of the common people would have pointed out the way to the rest. We know what usually happens when a word is addressed indiscriminately to all the people: they wait for one another. But when Joshua and Zerubbabel attended to the commands of the Prophet, the others followed them: for they were dominant, not only in power, but also in authority, so that they induced the people willingly to do their duty. One was the governor of the people, the other was the high priest; but the honesty and faithfulness of both were well known, so that the people spontaneously followed their example.

And this passage teaches us that though God invites all to his service, yet as any one excels in honor or in other respects, so the more promptly he ought to undertake what is proposed by the authority of God. Our Prophet, no doubt, meant to point out this due order of things, by saying, that he was heard first by Zerubbabel and Joshua, and then by the whole people.

But as all had not returned from exile, but a small portion, compared with that great number, which, we know, had not availed themselves of the kindness allowed them—this is the reason why the Prophet does not simply name the people, but the remnant of the people, שארית העם, sharit eom. As also the gift of prophecy had been for a long time more rare, and few appeared among the people who had any decided evidence of their call, such as Samuel, Isaiah, David, and others possessed, the Prophet, for this reason, does here more carefully commend and honor his own office: he says that the people attended to the voice of Jehovah —How? By attending, he says, to the words of Haggai the Prophet, inasmuch as Jehovah their God had sent him. He might have said more shortly that his labor had not been without fruit; but he used this circuitous mode of speaking, that he might confirm his own call; and he did this designedly, because the people had for a long time been without the opportunity of hearing God’s Prophets, for there were none among them.

But Haggai says nothing here but what belongs in common to all teachers in the Church: for we know that men are not sent by divine authority to speak that God himself may be silent. As then the ministers of the word derogate nothing from the authority of God, it follows that none except the only true God ought to be heard. It is not then a peculiar expression, which is to be restricted to one man, when God is said to have spoken by the mouth of Haggai; for he thus declared that he was God’s true and authorised Prophet. We may therefore gather from these words, that the Church is not to be ruled by the outward preaching of the word, as though God had substituted men in his own place, and thus divested himself of his own office, but that he only speaks by their mouth. And this is the import of these words, The people attended to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the Prophet. For the word of God is not distinguished from the words of the Prophet, as though the Prophet had added anything of his own. Haggai then ascribed these words to himself, not that he devised anything himself, so as to corrupt the pure doctrine which had been delivered to him by God, but that he only distinguished between God, the author of the doctrine, and his minister, as when it is said,

"The sword of God and of Gideon,” (Jude 7:20,)

and also,

“The people believed God and Moses his servant.” (Exodus 14:31.)

nothing is ascribed to Moses or to Gideon apart from God; but God himself is placed in the highest honor, and then Moses and Gideon are joined to him. In the same sense do the Apostles write, when they say, that “it had pleased the Holy spirit” and themselves. (Acts 15:22.)

And hence it is evident how foolish and ridiculous are the Papists, who hence conclude that it is lawful for men to add their own inventions to the word of God. For the Apostles, they say, not only alleged the authority of the Holy Spirit, but also

say, that it seemed good to themselves. God then does not so claim, they say, all things for himself, as not to leave some things to the decision of his Church, as though indeed the Apostles meant something different from what our Prophet means here; that is, that they truly and faithfully delivered what their had received from the spirit of God.

It is therefore a mode of speaking which ought to be carefully marked, when we hear, that the voice of God and the words of Haggai were reverently attended to by the people.—Why? Inasmuch, he says, as God had sent him; as though he had said, that God was heard when he spoke by the mouth of man. And this is also worthy of being noticed, because many fanatics boast, that they allow regard to the word of the Lord, but are unwilling to give credit to men, as that would be even preposterous; and they pretend, that in this way what belongs to the only true God is transferred to creatures. But the Holy Spirit most easily reconciles these two things—that the voice of God is heard when the people embrace what they hear from the mouth of a Prophet. Why so? because it pleases God thus to try the obedience of our faith, while he commits to man this office. For if the Lord was pleased to speak himself, then justly might men be neglected: but as he has chosen this mode, whosoever reject God’s Prophets, clearly show that they despise God himself. There is no need of inquiring here, why it is that we ought to obey the word preached or the external voice of men, rather than revelations; it is enough for us to know that this is the will of God. When therefore he sends Prophets to us, we ought unquestionably to receive what they bring.

And Haggai says also expressly, that he was sent by the God of Israel; as though he had said, that the people had testified their true piety when they acknowledged God’s Prophet in his legitimate vocation. For he who clamorously objects, and says that he knows not whether it pleases God or not to send forth men to announce his word, shows himself to be wholly alienated from God: for it ought to be sufficiently evident to us that this is one of our first principles.

He afterwards adds, that the people feared before Jehovah (141) Haggai confirms here the same truth—that the people received not what they heard from the mouth of mortal man, otherwise than if the majesty of God had openly appeared. For there was no ocular view of God given; but the message of the Prophet obtained as much power as though God had descended from heaven, and had given manifest tokens of his presence. We may then conclude from these words, that the glory of God so shines in his word, that we ought to be so much affected by it, whenever he speaks by his servants, as though he were nigh to us, face to face, as the Scripture says in another place. It now follows—

And fear him did the people on account of Jehovah.

This comports better with the previous clause, that Jehovah had sent him. The [ ו ] affixed to “fear” is a pronoun, otherwise the verb is plural; and “people” seldom, if ever, has a verb in the plural number. To fear sometimes means to respect, to reverence: the people honored him as God’s servant, by obeying his message.—Ed.

BE�SO�, "Verse 12-13Haggai 1:12-13. Then Zerubbabel, &c., obeyed the voice of the Lord — Compare Ezra 5:1-2; where see the notes. Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger — Or prophet; in the Lord’s message — That is, who spake what follows, not in his own name, but in the name of God, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord — To afford you all the help you need, and to give success to your undertaking.

COFFMA�, "Verse 12"Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the High Priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people did fear before Jehovah."

"With all the remnant of the people ..." is a reference to the balance of the returnees, all of them who had returned from Babylon. They constituted the remnant.

The double reference in this verse to the "word of Jehovah" and "the word of Haggai the prophet" is for the purpose of showing that, "The voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai the prophet are identical. This is true prophecy."[13] The people recognized this and acknowledged the authority of God's Word as binding upon themselves and responded in fear of God and obedience of his word. What a blessing would be poured out upon our beloved country this day if any great proportion of the people responded in a similar way to the word of the Lord!

"Joshua the son of Jehozadak ..." Strangely, the name of the great High Priest who accompanied the returnees to Babylon was the same as that of the great leader who brought the children of Israel into Canaan. The name "Joshua" means "Salvation,"[14] and is identical with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus being the Greek form of Joshua. Just as the Joshua who entered Canaan was in some ways typical of Jesus Christ, there likewise seems to be some important typical aspects of the life of this Joshua. Two visions of him are in the prophecy of Zechariah, that of the attack of Satan against Joshua (Zechariah 3:1-10), and that of the Crown (Zechariah 6:9-15). These will be discussed in the notes on Zechariah. "His father was among the captives at the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.), and also his grandfather Seraiah, who was put to death at Riblah (2 Kings 25:18ff, 1 Chronicles 6:15)."[15]

TRAPP, "Verse 12Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Ver. 12. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, &c.] So mighty in operation, so

quick and powerful, is the good word of God in the mouths of his faithful ministers, when seconded and set on by his Holy Spirit. See for this Isaiah 55:10-11, Jeremiah 23:28-29, Acts 19:20, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, Hebrews 4:12. See that scala coeli, ladder of heaven, as one calleth it, Romans 10:14-15, and consider how mightily the word of God grew and prevailed in those primitive times. It spread through the world like a sunbeam, saith Eusebius; it was carried about into all places as on eagles’, or, rather, as on angels’ wings. Athanasius of old and Luther of late, were strangely upheld and prospered against a world of opposers to the truth they preached. Farellus gained five large cities with their territories to Christ. How admirably and effectually King Edward VI was wrought upon by a sermon of Bishop Ridley’s, touching works of charity, see his Life, written by Sir John Heywood. It is the Spirit that quickeneth the seed of the word, and maketh it prolific and generative. And as in the body there are veins to carry the blood, and arteries to carry the spirits that quicken the blood; so is it with the word and spirit in the soul. If God’s Spirit open not man’s heart, the word cannot enter. If he enlighten not both organ and object, Christ, though never so powerfully preached, is both unkent and unkist, as the northern proverb hath it. The word heard profited them not, because not mixed with faith in them that heard it, Hebrews 4:2. They heard it only with the hearing of the ear, with that gristle that grew on the outside of the head; whereas they should have drawn up the inward ear to the outward, that one and the same sound might have pierced both. But this all that hear cannot do, because all are not of God, John 8:47, and so have not his earmark, spiritual senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil, Hebrews 5:14; they have a heavy ear, which is a singular judgment, Isaiah 6:10.

With all the remnant of the people] i.e. The generality of the returned captives followed their leaders. A remnant they are called, because but few in comparison of those many hedge rogues, Mr Dyke calleth them, potters they are called, 1 Chronicles 4:23, men of base and low spirits, that dwelt still in Babylon among plants and hedges; being the base brood of those degenerated Israelites, who, when liberty was proclaimed for their return to Jerusalem, chose rather to get their living by making pots for the King of Babylon. These are ancient, or rather obsolete things, as Junius rendereth it, worn out and forgotten; and indeed they deserve to be utterly forgotten, and not written or reckoned among the living in Jerusalem, Isaiah 4:4.

Obeyed the voice of the Lord their God] With the obedience of faith; and this they did by the good example of their rulers. Thus, when Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed, many of the Corinthians believed also, Acts 18:8, When the kings of Judah were good or evil the people were so likewise. Great men are the lookingglasses of their country; according to which most men dress themselves. Qualis Rex, talis grex. How excellent a king, such a great company. "Why compellest thou the Gentiles," said Paul to Peter, so, by thine example, to Judaize? Galatians 2:14.

And the words of Haggai the prophet] Whose mouth God was pleased to make use of. And this is added for a confirmation of the prophet’s calling to the work; because of long time before there had been no prophet among the people, nor any to tell how long, as the Church complaineth, Psalms 74:9.

As the Lord their God had sent him] Heb. according as the Lord their God had sent him, after the same manner they heard, and obeyed the prophet, as the Lord had sent him; they did not wrest his words to a wrong sense; nor did they question his commission; but receiving it as the word, not of man, but of God, they set forthwith upon the work, yielding as prompt and present obedience, as if God with his own mouth had immediately spoken to them from heaven.

And the people did fear before the Lord] As if he himself bad been visibly present in his own person. So St Peter’s hearers, Acts 10:33, �ow, therefore, say they, we are all here present before God, to hear all things commanded thee of God. If young Samuel had known that it was the Lord that called him once and again he would not have returned to his bed to sleep. If men were well persuaded that the God of heaven bespeaks them by his faithful ministers they would not give way to wilful wanderings, but hear as for life, and fear to do anything unworthy of such a presence; they would work out their salvation with fear and trembling, yea, work hard at it, as afraid to be taken with their task undone. "They that fear the Lord will keep his covenant," saith David, Psalms 103:13 "Fear God, and keep his commandments," saith Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12:14 "And, in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him," saith Peter, Acts 10:35.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 12Haggai"s preaching moved Zerubbabel, Joshua , and the remnant of Israelites who had returned from captivity to obey the Lord. This demonstrated reverence for Him.

"Haggai referred to the people as a remnant (here and also in Haggai 1:14 and in Haggai 2:2), not merely because they were survivors of the Babylonian Exile but also because they were becoming what the remnant of God"s people should always be-those who are obedient within their covenant relationship to the Lord (cf. Isaiah 10:21)." [�ote: F. Duane Lindsey, " Haggai ," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p1540.]

This term probably refers to the entire Judean population, consisting of both those who had returned from Babylon and those who had remained in the Promised Land (cf. Jeremiah 8:3; Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 9:8; Ezekiel 11:13). [�ote: See Taylor, p139.]

"When times are prosperous, it may be easier to dismiss a word of prophetic rebuke; but hard times often expose raw nerves of the spiritual life that has grown

insensitive to God"s spirit. Frequently it is in the midst of exceptional human difficulty that God"s word finds its greatest success." [�ote: Ibid, p137.]

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." [�ote: C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p81.]

PETT, "Verses 12-15The Leaders And People Make Their Response (Haggai 1:12-15).

The result of Haggai’s persistence was that the leaders and people responded to his urgings, and to the word of YHWH, and began again on the work of building the Temple. �ote again the great emphasis on the use of YHWH’s name. It appears three times in Haggai 1:12, three times in Haggai 1:13 and twice in Haggai 1:14. The emphasis is on the fact that this is YHWH’s doing and YHWH’s activity.

Thus they obeyed the voice of YHWH their God, through the word of the prophet whom YHWH had sent, because they feared YHWH. For YHWH’s messenger had brought YHWH’s message saying that YHWH was with them. And it was because YHWH had stirred the spirits of the leaders and people that work was being done on the house of YHWH. So in the end it was all YHWH’s doing.

Haggai 1:12

‘Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of YHWH their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as YHWH their God had sent him, and the people did fear before YHWH.Thus with one accord Zerubbabel, Joshua and ‘the remnant of the people’ obeyed YHWH’s voice and the words of the one whom YHWH had sent, and demonstrated thereby their genuine and holy fear and their love for YHWH. It was a crisis point for the new Israel and they responded and ‘obeyed’. It was like a renewal of the covenant, a new beginning. Obedience was ever the sign the His people were in a right relationship with Him. ‘�ow therefore if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be a special treasure to Me among all nations’ (Exodus 19:5; Exodus 19:8; contrast Jeremiah 22:21). And they obeyed, and that obedience resulted in and from a new awareness of ‘fear before YHWH’. ‘Fear before YHWH’ was not simply the same as ‘the fear of YHWH’ which is the beginning of wisdom. It arose from a genuine sense that they had previously displeased YHWH and had come under His judgment. They knew ‘the terror of the Lord’. Compare the same use of the phrase in Deuteronomy 5:5. It was a whole new spiritual experience.

�ote the use of the term ‘remnant’. These were the few from whom the many would be established. Tens of thousands had had the opportunity to return from all parts of the empire, but only these had done so. But this remnant represented the true Israel. So often the Lord’s work has to be done by a remnant. They no doubt also

included faithful Jews who had remained in the land without being tainted by the syncretistic religion around them. But the idea of the ‘remnant’ as representing those who are faithful to YHWH is a regular one in Scripture (compare Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:20-22; Isaiah 37:32; Jeremiah 23:3; Micah 4:7; Zechariah 8:6).

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:12

All the remnant of the people (Haggai 2:2); i.e. the people who had returned from the Captivity, who are technically named "the remnant" is being only a small portion of all Israel (Isaiah 10:21, Isaiah 10:22; Zechariah 8:6; Micah 2:12). Others, not so suitably, understand by the expression, all the people beside the chiefs (Haggai 1:14). Obeyed; rather, listened unto. The active obedience is narrated in Haggai 1:14. And the words. The prophet's words are the voice of the Lord; and the people heeded the message which the Lord had commissioned him to give. Did fear. They should that true religion which the Bible calls "the fear of the Lord." They saw their faults, perhaps dreaded some new chastisement, and hastened to obey the prophet's injunction (Ezra 5:1, Ezra 5:2).

BI, "Obeyed the voice of the Lord their God.

The voice of the Lord

1. The Word of God in the mouth of His servants will not take effect till His authority be seen and acknowledged in it, and His servants looked on as coming in His name. They look on this message as “the voice of the Lord, and the words of Haggai.”

2. It will be a notable means to make the Word effectual, when beside the absolute authority of God, speaking in His Word, His interest in His people is considered and believed by them, and that He who speaks, reproves, and directs, is their confederate God, whom they should be loth to offend or disobey, so much the rather as His relation stands, notwithstanding their faults; for thus is the Lord named here, “The Lord their God.”

3. When God is seen speaking in His Word as a party to the sinner, and when His love is believed for all that, even in His reproving it will make the guilty and smitten sinner to stand in much awe, will both break and melt him, and will make him look on his former ways, wherein he hath lain secure, with much affrightment and horror; for the fruit of the former is, “And the people feared before the Lord.”

4. When the awe of God, speaking in His Word, in His majesty and goodness, hath had place in the heart, it will put men to give obedience in some measure to what is commanded; for the people, in this temper, “obeyed the voice of the Lord.”

5. It is a sweet and blessed like case, when men in power are patterns and encouragements unto others, in submitting to the Word of the Lord in the mouth of His servants, and when a people’s affliction doth not hinder their respect to the commandments, as is here marked.

6. It may encourage the servants of God to go on with their work, when they consider what a great blessing God can, and sometimes doth give to their endeavours beyond all probability; for here, by one sermon, all the people are set about a long-neglected work, in the midst of many difficulties. (George Hutcheson.)

Duty followed

I. Duty followed is obedience to the Divine voice. “The people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God,” etc. God has a voice to men.

1. His voice is revealed. He speaks to them in nature, history, the Bible; in these last days, specially, by His Son. The Divine voice is ascertainable. It can be distinguished from all other voices that fall on the ear of the human soul.

2. His voice is authoritative. Obedience to this voice is right, wise, urgent.

II. Duty followed secures the divine favour. “Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.” This promise means more than presence. He is with all; He fills the universe; He is with the evil and the good. It means to bless, to enlighten, guide, support, dignify, and make happy. God is always on the side of the dutiful.

III. Duty followed implies divine assistance What prompted these men who had so long neglected duty to set now in earnest about it? “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel,” etc. Men will never give themselves to duty unless the Lord stirs them up. This He is constantly doing. By—

1. The admonitions of providence.

2. The dictates of conscience.

3. The preaching of the Gospel.

4. The strivings of the Spirit. (Homilist.)

13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord.

BAR�ES, "And Haggai, the Lord’s messenger -Malachi, whose own name was framed to express that he was “the Lord’s messenger,” and Haggai alone use the title, as the title of a prophet; perhaps as forerunners of the great prophet whom Malachi announced. Malachi also speaks of the priest, as Mal_2:7 “the messenger of the Lord of

hosts,” and prophesies of John Baptist as Mal_3:1 “the messenger” of the Lord, who should go before His face. Haggai, as he throughout repeats that his words were God’s words, frames a new word to express, in the language of the New Testament; 2Co_5:20that he had an embassy from God; “in the Lord’s message.”

I am with you - All the needs and longings of the creature are summed up in those two words, “I with you.” “Who art Thou and who am I? Thou, He Who Is; I, he who am not;” nothing, yea worse than nothing. Yet “if Rom_8:31, God be for us,” Paul asks, “who can be against us?” Our blessed Lord’s parting promise to the Apostles, and in them to the Church, was, Mat_28:20. “Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.” The all-containing assurance goes beyond any particular promise of aid, as , “I will help you, and will protect you, so that your building shall have its completion.” This is one fruit of it , “since I am in the midst of you, no one shall be able to hinder your building.” But, more widely, the words bespeak “His” presence in love, who knows all our needs, and is Almighty to support and save us in all. So David says Psa_23:4, “when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me:” and God says by another Psa_91:15, I will be “with him in trouble,” and by Isaiah Isa_43:2, “When thou passest through the waters,” I will be “with thee.”

CLARKE, "Then spake Haggai - He was the Lord’s messenger, and he came with

the Lord’s message, and consequently he came with authority. He is called מלאך+יהוה

malach+Yehovah, the angel of Jehovah, just as the pastors of the seven Asiatic churches are called Angels of the Churches, Rev_1:2.

I am with you, saith the Lord - Here was high encouragement. What may not a man do when God is his helper?

GILL, "Then spoke Haggai the Lord's messenger,.... Which some render "angel"; hence sprung that notion, imbibed by some, that he was not a man, but an angel; whereas this only respects his office, being sent of God as an ambassador in his name with a message to his people: he now observing what effect his prophecy had upon the people; they being convinced of their sin, and terrified with the judgments of God upon them, and fearing that worse still would attend them; in order to revive their spirits and comfort them, spake the words unto them which follow: and this he did

in the Lord's message unto the people; not of his own head, nor out of the pity of his own heart merely; but as a prophet of the Lord, having a fresh message from him to carry a promise to them for their comfort and encouragement:

saying, I am with you, saith the Lord; to pardon their sins; to accept their persons; to remove his rod from them; to assist them in the work of building the temple, they were now willing to engage in; to protect them from their enemies, and to strengthen them to go on with the work till they had finished it; a short promise, but a very full one: it was saying much in a little, and enough to remove all their fears, to scatter all their doubts, and to bear them up, and through all discouragements.

JAMISO�, "the Lord’s messenger— so the priests (Mal_2:7) are called (compare Gal_4:14; 2Pe_1:21).

in the Lord’s message— by the Lord’s authority and commission: on the Lord’s embassage.

I am with you— (Mat_28:20). On the people showing the mere disposition to obey, even before they actually set to work, God passes at once from the reproving tone to that of tenderness. He hastens as it were to forget their former unfaithfulness, and to assure them, when obedient, that He both is and will be with them: Hebrew, “I with you!” God’s presence is the best of blessings, for it includes all others. This is the sure guarantee of their success no matter how many their foes might be (Rom_8:31). Nothing more inspirits men and rouses them from torpor, than, when relying on the promises of divine aid, they have a sure hope of a successful issue [Calvin].

K&D 13-15, "This penitential state of mind on the part of the people and their rulers was met by the Lord with the promise of His assistance, in order to elevate this disposition into determination and deed. Hag_1:13. “Then spake Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, in the message of Jehovah to the people, thus: I am with you, is the saying of Jehovah. Hag_1:14. And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, and the spirit of Joshua, and the spirit of all the remnant of the nation; and they came and did work at

the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God.” The prophet is called +ךWמל in Hag_1:13, i.e., messenger (not “angel,” as many in the time of the fathers misunderstood the word as meaning), as being sent by Jehovah to the people, to make known to them His will (compare Mal_2:7, where the same epithet is applied to the priest). As the messenger of Jehovah, he speaks by command of Jehovah, and not in his own name or by his own

impulse. אני+א5כם, I am with you, will help you, and will remove all the obstacles that

stand in the way of your building (cf. Hag_2:4). This promise Jehovah fulfilled, first of all by giving to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the people, a willingness to carry out the work.

to awaken the spirit of any man, i.e., to make him willing and glad to carry out ,העיר+רוח+

His resolutions (compare 1Ch_5:26; 2Ch_21:16; Ezr_1:1, Ezr_1:5). Thus filled with joyfulness, courage, and strength, they began the work on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of king Darius (Hag_1:15), that is to say, twenty-three days after Haggai had first addressed his challenge to them. The interval had been spent in deliberation and counsel, and in preparations for carrying out the work. In several editions and some few mss in Kennicott, in Tischendorf's edition of the lxx, in the Itala and in the Vulgate, Hag_1:15 is joined to the next chapter. But this is proved to be incorrect by the fact that the chronological statements in Hag_1:15 and Hag_2:1 are irreconcilable with one another. Hag_1:15 is really so closely connected with Hag_1:14, that it is rather to be regarded as the last clause of that verse.

CALVI�, "The Prophet tells us here, that he had again roused the leaders as well as the common people; for except God frequently repeats his exhortations, our alacrity relaxes. Though then they had all attended to God’s command, it was yet necessary that they should be strengthened by a new promise: for men can be encouraged, and their indifference can be corrected, by no other means, to such a degree, as when God offers and promises his help. This, then, was the way in which they were now encouraged, I am with you. And experience sufficiently shows, that we never really and from the heart obey, except when we rely on his promises and hope for a happy success. For were God only to call us to our work, and were our hope doubtful, all

our zeal would doubtless die away. We cannot then devote our services to God, except he supports and encourages us by promises. We also see, that it is not enough that God should speak once, and that we should once receive his word, but there is need that he should rouse us again and again; for the greatest ardor grows cold when no goads are applied.

And the Prophet makes known again his vocation, for he says, that he spake in the message of Jehovah, for he was his messenger. The word מלאך, malak, means a messenger; and as angels are called מלאכים, melakim, some foolish men have thought that Haggai was one of the celestial angels, clothed with the form of man: but this is a most frivolous conjecture; for priests, we know, are honored with this title in the second chapter of Malachi, Malachi 2:1, and God in many other places calls his Prophets messengers or ambassadors. There is, therefore, no doubt but that Haggai meant simply to testify, that he brought forward nothing presumptuously, but was a faithful dispenser of the word; for he knew that he was sent by God; and that he might attain attention, he was able justly to testify that his message came from heaven.

Hence he says, that he spake as a messenger of Jehovah in the message of Jehovah; that is, he spoke according to his calling, and not as a private individual, but as one who derived his authority from heaven, and could call to order the whole people; for he was to give way neither to the chief priest nor to Zerubbabel the ruler of the people, inasmuch as he was superior to them on this account, because he had a message which had been committed to him by God. (142) We now then understand the design of the Prophet.

And we hence learn that there is no dignity which exempts us from obedience common to all, when God’s word is addressed to us. Doubtless Joshua the high priest was superior to all the rest in matters of religion, and he was the chief angel or messenger of the God of hosts; and yet he refused not to submit himself to God’s Prophet, for he understood that he was in a special manner appointed by God to this office. Zerubbabel, the governor of the people, followed also his example. Let us, then, know that God’s word is proclaimed under this condition, that no eminence, either in honor or in dignity, exempts us, as it were, by a sort of privilege, from the obligation of receiving it.

The Prophet at length adds, that the people hastened quickly to the work, because God had given encouragement to them all. He had lately spoken of the fruit of his doctrine; but he now declares that his voice had not so penetrated into the hearts of all, as though it had been of itself efficacious, but that it had been connected with the hidden influence of the Spirit.

And this passage is remarkable; for the Prophet includes both these things—that God allows not his word to be useless or unfruitful—and yet that this proceeds not from the diligence of men, but from the hidden power of the Spirit. The Prophet, then, did not fail in his efforts; for his labor was not in vain, but brought forth fruit. At the same time, that that saying might remain true,

‘He who plants and he who waters is nothing,’ (1 Corinthians 3:7,)

he says, that the Israelites were ready for the work, because the Lord roused them; Jehovah, he says, stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the spirit of Joshua, and of the whole people. It is not right to restrict the influence of the Spirit to one thing only, as some do, who imagine that the Israelites were confirmed in their good resolution, as they say, having before spontaneously obeyed the word of God. These separate, without reason, what ought to be read in the Prophet as connected together. For God roused the spirit of Zerubbabel and of the whole people; and hence it was that they received the message of the Prophet, and were attentive to his words. Foolishly, then, do they imagine that the Israelites were led by their own free-will to obey the word of God, and then that some aid of the Holy Spirit followed, to make them firmly to persevere in their course. But the Prophet declared, in the first place, that his message was respectfully received by the people; and now he explains how it was, even because God had touched the hearts of the whole people. (143)

And we ought to notice the expression, when it is said that the spirit of Zerubbabel and of all the people was stirred up. For much sloth, we know, prevailed, especially among the multitude. But as to Zerubbabel and Joshua, they were, as we have said, already willing, but delayed until the coldness under which they labored was reproved. But the Prophet here simply means, that they became thus obedient through the hidden impulse of God, and also that they were made firm in their purpose. God does not form new souls in us, when he draws us to his service; but changes what is wrong in us: for we should never be attentive to his word, were he not to open our ears; and there would be no inclination to obey, were he not to turn our hearts; in a word, both will and effort would immediately fail in us, were he not to add his gift of perseverance. Let us, then, know that Haggai’s labors produced fruits, because the Lord effectually touched the hearts of the people; for we indeed know that it is his special gift, that the elect are made disciples, according to that declaration,

‘�o one comes to me, except my Father draw him.’ (John 6:24.)

It is therefore said that they came and did the work in the house of Jehovah

We may also hence learn, that no one is fit to offer sacrifices to God, or to do any other service, but he who has been moulded by the hidden operation of the Spirit. Willingly, indeed, we offer ourselves and our all to God, and build his temple; but whence is this voluntary action, except that the Lord subdues us, and thus renders us teachable and obedient? It is afterwards added—

Then said Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah in the message of Jehovah to the people, saying,I am with you, saith Jehovah.

The word for “messages” is in the plural number, preceded by the preposition [ ב ]. Why commentators have generally rendered it in the singular number, does not appear. Haggai is expressly said to be God’s messenger in, or with regard to, the messages or communications he made to the people. To connect the word, as some do, with “said,” hardly gives a meaning, except the clause be rendered, as it is done by �ewcome, “by the message of Jehovah,” that is, by his command; but then a plural word is made singular.—Ed.

COFFMA�, "Verse 13"Then spake Haggai Jehovah's messenger in Jehovah's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith Jehovah."

"Even before they actually set to work, God passes at once from the reproving tone to that of tenderness. He hastens as it were to forget their former unfaithfulness, and to assure them that, when obedient, that he both is and will be with them."[16]"Jehovah's messenger ..." This title is applied to himself by Haggai alone, among all the prophets. Deane assures us that, by implication, it is also applied to Moses, Malachi, John the Baptist, and to our Lord Jesus Christ.[17] Malachi referred to Christ as "the messenger of the covenant" (Malachi 3:1).

COKE, "Verse 13Haggai 1:13. Then spake Haggai— Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent for the work of the Lord, spoke to the people, saying, &c. The work of the Lord, means the work of the house of the Lord mentioned in the last clause of the next verse; which should be rendered, And applied themselves to the work of the house of the Lord, &c.

REFLECTIO�S.—1st, The date of this prophesy is in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, the first day of the month; not Darius the Mede, but probably Darius Hystaspes, who came to the throne about fifteen years after the proclamation of Cyrus. The word of the Lord which was sent to Haggai, he is commanded to deliver to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and to Joshua the son of Josedech the high-priest, these being the chief persons in ecclesiastical and civil matters, on whom it was especially incumbent to stir up the people to their duty.

1. The Jews are charged with great negligence and remissness in the work of God. This people, who have so lately enjoyed such distinguished favours from God, say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built; they had begun the foundations immediately on their return from Babylon, but the building had been interrupted through the misrepresentations of their enemies at the Persian court; and though for a season they had liberty to proceed, they seem to have been too indifferent about it, and were ready to suggest arguments to encourage themselves in their negligence; either they were too poor as yet to proceed in it, or were afraid of the Persians, or the late unseasonable years were interpreted as a providential intimation that it was not yet proper to carry on the work; and therefore they deferred it to a more convenient season. So often are we ready to put

off what is present duty to some future time, and in excuse to pretend a providential interposition, when in truth we only follow our own inclinations.

2. For this lukewarmness and carelessness God's displeasure had already appeared against them. The wants of which they complained had hence their origin; nor would they be relieved till this matter was rectified. Their land was under a curse, and though they sowed much, they reaped little; they had neither meat, drink, nor clothes sufficient to support and keep them warm; or what they had, God permitted them to have no comfort in; and the money they gained was quickly lost, as if they had put it into a bag with holes. The drought had parched up their land, and disappointed their expectations of plenty; and what they gathered into their storehouses, God blew upon it, and it wasted insensibly; or blew it away as stubble, by some providential judgments: and the reason he informs them of, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house, diligent and active in seeking their own interests, and promoting their own advantage, and unconcerned about the house of God and the glory of his name. �ote; (1.) They who look for much from creature-comforts, must prepare for disappointment. (2.) In our common blessings we are as much dependent upon God's ceaseless providential care, as if we were fed daily by miracles. (3.) If God blows upon our possessions, we shall pine in the midst of plenty, and his wrath will embitter every comfort. (4.) They who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, consult best for both worlds; all happiness in time, as well as eternity, arising only from his favour and blessing.

3. He expostulates with them hereupon. Is it time for you, O ye, who can find no time to serve God, and build his house, to dwell in your ceiled houses? Theirs were completely finished and furnished, while his lay waste. So often do professors seek their own things, and not those which are Jesus Christ's: but great is their guilt.

4. He endeavours to rouse them from their lethargy, and to set them to work. Consider your ways, what miseries they have already brought upon you; the baseness and ingratitude of such conduct, and what will be the end of these things. Consider your ways, that, convinced of their evil, you may amend them without delay, and begin instantly the neglected work of God's temple. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood from Lebanon, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, accept their labours and the sacrifices there offered; and I will be glorified, saith the Lord, in the work of your hands; the worship there performed should redound to his praise. �ote; (1.) The first step to all godliness is serious consideration. (2.) They who consider their ways to any good purpose, must shew it by immediate reformation of what is wrong. (3.) Whenever we return to God and his neglected service, he will still be found gracious, he will take pleasure in us, and be glorified in mercy.

2nd, We have an account of the happy success with which the prophet's admonition was attended.

1. They obeyed instantly the voice of the Lord their God. Zerubbabel and Joshua

led the way, and the people cheerfully followed their good examples, fearing before the Lord, under a sense of his displeasure visible in their past visitations, and justly apprehensive lest they should provoke heavier judgments. They came and did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God, within three weeks after the warning that they had received, the intermediate time probably being spent in providing the materials. �ote; (1.) The word in the mouths of God's ministers is the voice of God, and must be respected accordingly. (2.) Holy fear is a blessed principle of action. (3.) When we see how negligent we have been, the consideration should quicken us to double diligence, that we may redeem the time. (4.) Whatever good is in us, or done by us, we owe it intirely to God's free grace, from whom alone all holy desires and all just works do proceed: nevertheless, none will have cause to complain, that he was not willing to begin and carry on a work of grace in their souls.

2. God hereupon sends his prophet to them, with a new message of encouragement. I am with you, saith the Lord, to pardon your past neglect, to assist you in your present labour, to protect you from your enemies, and to crown your work with success. �ote; If God says, I am with you in any undertaking, that is enough, we need not wish for more; his presence includes all blessedness and almighty aid.

TRAPP, "Verse 13Haggai 1:13 Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I [am] with you, saith the LORD.

Ver. 13. Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger] Or angel. {See Trapp on "Malachi 1:1"} (Then speaks) �amely, on the four and twentieth day of the month, as it is in the last verse; until which day they had been building for three weeks together. But Governor Tatnai and his complices came upon them, and discouraged the people and hindered the work, Ezra 5:6; Ezra 5:8. It was but needful, therefore, that God’s command should be repeated, and a special promise added, "I am with you," saith the Lord. Where we may well take up that of Cicero concerning Brutus’ laconical epistle, Quam multa, quam paucis! how much in a little. "I am with you," saith the Lord, you need not therefore fear what man can do unto you. God is all-sufficient to those that are altogether his, see 2 Chronicles 15:2. The Church is called Jehovah Shammah, that is, "The Lord is there," Ezekiel 48:35 "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved," Psalms 46:5. Immota manet may better be her motto than Venice’s. She is surely invincible, Zechariah 12:5-7, as having a mighty champion, even the Holy One of Israel; and this makes her (though but a virgin) to laugh to scorn her proudest enemies; yea, to shake her head at them, Isaiah 37:22-23, as rather to be pitied than envied. There were they in great fear (saith David, of the Church’s enemies); for what reason? God is in the generation of the righteous, Psalms 14:5 Hence those Philistines were so woe-begone, 1 Samuel 4:7. And the Eygptians no less, Exodus 14:25. Let us flee, say they, from the face of Israel; for the Lord fights for them. "What shall we then say to these things?" saith Paul (who had often heard when he was in the enemy’s hand, Fear not, I am with thee), "If God be for us, who can be against us?" who dare be so fool-hardy, so ambitious of his own destruction? Hath ever any waxed fierce against God and prospered? Job 9:4. Where is Pharaoh, �ero, �ebuchadnezzar, &c.? Was it safe for these or any other to

provoke the Lord to anger? were they stronger than he? Oh that men would (according to Solomon’s counsel) meddle with their match, and not contend with him that is mightier than they! Can God be with his people and see them abused to his face? Will they force the queen also before him in the house, Esther 7:8. Will they, giant-like, fight against God? will they needs touch the apple of his eye, that tenderest piece of the tenderest part? Will they invade his portion, plunder him of his jewels, pull the signet from his right hand? Surely God is so with his people, that as he taketh notice of the least courtesy done to them to reward it (even to a cup of cold water), so of the least affront or offence, to revenge it, be it but a frown or a frump, Genesis 4:6, �umbers 12:10 "Better a millstone were hanged," &c. Better anger all the witches in the country than one of God’s zealous witnesses, Revelation 11:5. Death cannot hurt them, Psalms 23:3. Hell could no more hold them (the pains of hell got hold on David, but he was delivered, Psalms 116:3) than the whale could hold Jonas; it must needs render them up again, because God is with them. �ow I had rather be in hell (said Luther) with God than in heaven without him, and it were far safer for me.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 13The people"s obedient response resulted in the Lord sending another message to Haggai , His messenger. He reported that Yahweh was with them (cf. Haggai 2:4). This assurance of His divine enablement guaranteed their success as they continued obeying by rebuilding the temple. It is God"s presence with us more than anything else that guarantees our success as we carry out His will (cf. Joshua 1:1-9; Matthew 28:19-20). Our loving obedience results in Him drawing close, but our disobedience leads Him to withdraw His presence.

PETT, "Haggai 1:13

‘Then spoke Haggai, YHWH’s messenger, in YHWH’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says YHWH.”As we have seen, the repeated repetition of the �ame is designed to bring out that all this is due to the activity of YHWH. Haggai is YHWH’s messenger, bringing YHWH’s message so that they might know that YHWH is with them. �o one can be in any doubt as to Whose impetus is responsible for the house being built. Small and insignificant it might appear, but it is the product of YHWH’s activity and the people’s obedience and therefore glorious.

And now on seeing their ‘fear before Him’ YHWH gives them a message of assurance. YHWH’s messenger (angel) gives them the assurance, ‘I am with you, says YHWH.’

PULPIT, "Haggai 1:13

Then spake Haggai. God hastens to accept their repentance and to assure them of his protection. The Lord's messenger. Haggai alone of the prophets uses this title of himself, implying that he came with authority and bearing a message from the Lord (comp. �umbers 20:16, where the word "angel" is by some applied to Moses).

Malachi's very name expresses that he was the Lord's messenger, and he uses the term of the priest (Malachi 2:7), and of John the Baptist, and of Messiah himself (Malachi 3:1). In the Lord's message (1 Kings 13:18). In the special message of consolation which he was commissioned to deliver. The Septuagint rendering, ἐν ἀγγέλοις κυρίου, "anong the angels of the Lord," led some to fancy that Haggai was an angel in human farm, which opinion is refuted by Jerome, in loc. I am with you (Haggai 2:4). A brief message comprised in two words, "I with you," yet full of comfort, promising God's presence, protection, aid, and blessing (comp. Genesis 28:15; Genesis 39:2; Joshua 1:5; Jeremiah 1:8; Matthew 28:20).

BI, "Then spake Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, in the Lord’s message unto the people.

The message of Jehovah

This means in his official capacity as a messenger or ambassador of Jehovah, with the authority of Him in whose name he spake. There is something very beautiful in the sudden change of tone manifest in the message of God. The people had not yet begun to work, but as soon as they showed a disposition to do so, the stern and reproving tone of God is changed for one of the most exquisite tenderness. It is as if He hastened to forget their former unfaithfulness, and to assure them that, in spite of all, He was not only willing to be with them, but actually was with them as soon as their hearts turned towards Him. This presence of God is regarded rightly as being the highest blessing that could be bestowed on them, and the surest guarantee of success. They had the same jealous enemies yet round them that had arrested the work before, but God assures them that now He was with them, and nothing should be allowed again to hinder the work. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)

The Lord’s messenger proclaiming union

I. Jehovah’s messenger. Ministers are messengers. It is not every man that gets into a pulpit that is a messenger. God only can appoint messengers.

II. The Lord’s message. Their message is one of mercy, of everlasting life. It is the Gospel. Salvation as the gift of God. Not of works. All boasting is excluded.

III. The message is to the people. Jehovah’s elect are a peculiar people, a purchased people, a special people, elect and redeemed. We cannot tell who the elect are.

IV. The special message in the text. “I am with you.” Jehovah is always with His people, and has been, and will be so everlastingly. (J. J. West, M. A.)

14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit

of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,

BAR�ES, "And the Lord stirred up the spirit - The words are used of any strong impulse from God to fulfill His will, whether in those who execute His will unknowingly as Pul 1Ch_5:26, to carry off the trans-Jordanic tribes, or the Philistines and Arabians against Jehoram, 2Ch_21:16. or the Medes against Babylon Jer_51:11, or knowingly, as of Cyrus to restore God’s people and rebuild the temple Ezr_1:1, or of the people themselves to return Ezr_1:5 , “The spirit of Zerubbabel and the spirit of Joshua were stirred, that the government and priesthood may build the temple of God: the spirit of the people too, which before was asleep in them; not the body, not the soul, but the spirit. which knoweth best how to build the temple of God.” “The Holy Spirit is stirred up in us, that we should enter the house of the Lord, and do the works of the Lord.”

“Again, observe that they did not set themselves to choose to do what should please God, before He was with them and stirred up their spirit. We shall know hence also, that although one choose zealously to do good and be in earnest therein, yet he will accomplish nothing, unless God be with him, raising him up to dare, and sharpening him to endure, and removing all torpor. For so the wondrous Paul says of those entrusted with the divine preaching 1Co_15:11, I labored more abundantly than they all, yet added very wisely, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me, and the Saviour Himself saith to the holy Apostles, Joh_15:5. Without Me ye can do nothing. For He is our desire, He, our courage to any good work; He our strength, and, if He is with us, we shall do well Eph_2:21-22, building ourselves to a holy temple, a habitation of God in the Spirit; if He depart and withdraws, how should any doubt, that we should fail, overcome by sluggishness and want of courage?”

CLARKE, "And the Lord stirred up the spirit - It is not only necessary that the judgment should be enlightened, but the soul must be invigorated by the Spirit of God, before any good work can be effectually done.

GILL, "And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,.... He roused them up from that sleep and sloth in which they were before, both the governors and common people; he wrought in them both to will and do; or a willing mind to do his work in building his house; he gave them a spirit both of industry and courage; he enabled them

to shake off that sluggish disposition they were attended with, and that fear of men which possessed them; he inspired them with zeal and resolution to enter upon the work at once, and pursue it with close application; the Lord only could do this:

and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God; the governor and high priest came to direct and oversee, encourage and animate the people by their presence and example; and the people to do the several parts of service that belonged to them, acco

JAMISO�, "Lord stirred up the spirit of, etc.— God gave them alacrity and perseverance in the good work, though slothful in themselves. Every good impulse and revival of religion is the direct work of God by His Spirit.

came and did work— collected the wood and stones and other materials (compare Hag_1:8) for the work. Not actually built or “laid the (secondary) foundations” of the temple, for this was not done till three months after, namely, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Hag_2:18) [Grotius].

COFFMA�, "Verse 14"And Jehovah came and stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozodak, the High Priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work on the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God."

All of this verse has the concise meaning of, "All the leaders and all the people were stirred by the spirit of God, and they arose and began work on the Temple."

"Stirred up the spirit ..." "To awaken the spirit of any man is to make him willing and glad to carry out his resolutions."[18]

TRAPP, "Verse 14Haggai 1:14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

Ver. 14. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, &c.] Here is the appendix of the foregoing sermon, whereof we have heard but the brief notes. That one word, I am with you, seconded and set on by God’s holy Spirit, set them all to work. "How forcible are right words!" Job 6:25. One seasonable truth falling on a prepared heart hath often a strong and sweet operation, sc. when God is pleased to work with it, and make it effectual; this man cannot do no more than the husbandman can make a harvest. "The weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds," 2 Corinthians 10:4. Luther, having heard Staupicius say, that that is kindly repentance which begins from the love of God, found from that time forward the practice of repentance far sweeter to him than before. Galeacius Caracciolus, an Italian marquis, was converted by an apt similitude used by Peter Martyr, reading on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Dr Taylor, martyr,

blessed God that ever he became fellow prisoner to that angel of God (as he called him), John Bradford. Senarclaeus (in his epistle to Bucer, prefixed before the history of the death of John Diarius, slain by his own brother, as Abel was, for religion’s sake), I remember, saith he, when he and I were together at �ewburg, the day before his slaughter, he gave me a great deal of grave and gracious counsel: Ego vero illius oratione sic incendebar, ut cum eum disserentem audirem, Spiritus Sancti verba me audire existimarem, i.e. I was so stirred up with his discourse, as if I had heard the Holy Ghost himself speaking unto me; so fervent was he, and full of life; for he first felt what he spake, and then spake what he felt. So should all do that desire to speak to purpose; and then pray to God, as for a door of utterance, so for a door of entrance to be opened unto them; such as St Paul had to the heart of Lydia, and as Bishop Ridley had to the heart of good King Edward VI, whereof before.

And they came and did work] The governors also, by overseeing others, and ruling the business by their discretion. Where God’s glory and the common good is concerned all sorts must set to their helping hand.

CO�STABLE, "Verse 14-15The Lord stirred up the two leaders and the people to resume work on the temple (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:5). Work began again on the twenty-fourth day of that very month. Perhaps it took three weeks for the people to make their decision and make preparations, including cutting wood (cf. Haggai 1:8). There was also a harvest of figs, grapes, and pomegranates in the month of Elul, which may also have delayed them. [�ote: P. A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi , p88.]

"God is not portrayed here as a divine puppeteer who manipulates people, but as a sovereign king who rewards obedience by giving it a boost." [�ote: Robert B. Chisholm Jeremiah , Handbook on the Prophets, p452.]

PETT, "Haggai 1:14-15

‘And YHWH 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 remnant of the people, and they came and did work on the house of YHWH of hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.’Indeed having brought them to a position of obedience it was YHWH Himself Who stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel (compare Zechariah 4:6) and stirred up the spirit of Joshua the High Priest (Zechariah 3-4), and stirred up the spirit of the remnant of the people to begin work on the house of YHWH of hosts, their God. It had taken twenty four days from when Haggai had first received the world of YHWH (Haggai 1:1). It was not, of course, just a matter of building. First the site had to be cleared and the necessary building materials gathered. The actual laying the new foundation would not commence for three months (Haggai 2:18).

The ‘spirit’ in a man is that which is Godward within him. When a man dies his spirit returns to the God Who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). It is with his spirit that he looks to God (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). And it is through a man’s spirit that God stirs him (as here).

In this we have a reminder that hen God calls us to obedience and we respond He never leaves it there. He ‘works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13). He stirs our spirit to do His will. He does not just leave us on our own.

�ote On The Importance of the Temple For Israel At This Juncture.

As we look at this situation in our own day we may ask, ‘Why was God so concerned that they rebuild the Temple?’ He was clearly not so concerned that it be a grand place or one that drew admiration from passers-by. So what then was its purpose?

The first purpose that God had in the rebuilding of the Temple was to raise the hearts of the people in the land themselves to a remembrance of the vision that should be theirs, the vision of the coming King described in Genesis 49:10; �umbers 24:17; 2 Samuel 7:13; 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalms 2; Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-9, and to cause them to take the first tentative steps towards it.

In 2 Samuel 7 especially the building of the first Temple had been very closely linked in with the building of the house of David and the bringing in of the everlasting kingdom. Thus the building of a new Temple was to be a visible reminder of those promises, and was to stir their hearts towards the fulfilment of the greater vision. This in fact is what Haggai will bring out in the second chapter which clearly demonstrates that he saw the rebuilding of the Temple as but a prelude to the gathering of the nations to YHWH (Haggai 2:7) and the rebuilding of the nation under the coming new King (Haggai 2:21-23).

Secondly the news that the Temple had been ‘restored’ would spread like wildfire to many of the Jewish communities around the world who kept in constant contact with each other. It would be to them the same symbol of hope, putting new heart within them, and even acting as a magnet to draw some back to Jerusalem to participate in the new venture so as to build up a new nation, obedient under God. It would be an indication that things were ‘back on track’. In their case too the Messianic hopes would be revived.

Thirdly it would unite the true worshippers in the land, freed from the taints of idolatry, as one recognised community around the Temple. It would give them a focal point for their purified faith. For there were many in the land who would gladly have drawn them back to the old failings and the old syncretistic ways, and who indeed sought to have their part in the new Temple so as to nullify it before it had even been built (see Ezra 4:2). And they had had to be firmly rebuffed. For if the bitter experiences of the Exile had taught this new community anything, it was that any new Temple had to be free from all connection with the old syncretism. It

had to be true to the Law of Moses. Thus its purity had to be jealously guarded.

It is interesting to note in Haggai how in respect to this new community his reference to them as ‘the remnant of the people’ in Haggai 1:12; Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:2, changes in Haggai 2:4 to ‘the people of the land’ (Haggai 2:4). The Temple will give them a new status within the land. They are the seeds of the new nation.

End of note.

�ote On The Difficulties Encountered In Building The �ew Temple.

Haggai does not deal with the question of the difficulties that arose when God’s people began to rebuild the Temple. He was not concerned with difficulties. What were difficulties when YHWH had spoken? But nevertheless they were very real.

The original work on the Temple had been stopped by the activities of the people present in the land before the exiles had returned, who had been rebuffed when they had offered to join in with the building of the Temple, (in which they would have expected to be allowed to carry out their syncretistic rites), and had then done all that they could to prevent it from being built (Ezra 4:1-6), efforts which had proved successful. We do not know how far the work had got, but the work ceased and the proposed Temple had remained only partly built.

Once, however, the new rebuilding work began as a result of the activities of Haggai and Zechariah, the ‘Governor Beyond The River’ (named Tattenai), who was probably the governor of the Persian province in which Jerusalem was situated, along with other powerful men, had written to Darius asking that the work be made to cease (Ezra 5:6-17). Meanwhile, on being notified of this, Zerubbabel, Joshua and their followers continued work on the Temple, confident that they were doing God’s will and that He would therefore protect the work.

On search being made in the archives it was discovered that Cyrus had indeed given permission for the rebuilding of the Temple, and not only that, but had required that provision be made from state funds towards its rebuilding. Thus an order was issued by King Darius to the effect that the work should continue, and financial assistance be given towards the completion of the project and the provision of sufficient sacrifices to fulfil daily requirements so that they might make their offerings to the God of Heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons (Ezra 6:6-12).

BI, "And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel.

Stirring up the Spirit

It is not right to restrict the influence of the Spirit to one thing only, as some do, who imagine that the Israelites were confirmed in their good resolution, as they say, having before spontaneously obeyed the Word of God. These separate, without reason, what

ought to be read in the prophet as connected together. For God roused the spirit of Zerubbabel and of the whole people; and hence it was that they received the message of the prophet and were attentive to his words. Foolishly, then, do they imagine that the Israelites were led by their own free will to obey the Word of God, and then that some aid of the Holy Spirit followed, to make them firmly persevere in their course. But the prophet declared, in the first place, that his message was respectfully received by the ]people; and now he explains how it was, even because God had touched the hearts of the whole people. We ought to notice the expression, when it is said that the spirit of Zerubbabel and of all the people was stirred up. For much sloth, we Know, prevailed, especially among the multitude. But as to Zerubbabel and Joshua, they were already willing, but delayed until the coldness under which they laboured was reproved. But the prophet here simply means that they became thus obedient through the hidden impulse of God, and also that they were made firm in their purpose. God does not form new souls in us, when He draws us to His service, but changes what is wrong in us; for we should never be attentive to His Word, if He did not open our ears; and there would be no inclination to obey, were He not to turn our hearts; in a word, both will and effort would immediately fail in us, were He not to add His gift of perseverance. (John Calvin.)

The duty of rulers, ministers, and the community, to promote and increase the means of grace

However vast may be the indifference to the cause of Christ, and, therein, to the well-being of the human race, it is a source of encouragement to feel that there is not only pervading our land “a holy seed, which is the substance” of the Church, from whence its fruit-bearing branches spring; but that the number is increasing—slowly, perhaps, but certainly—of those who, professing to believe the Gospel, feel the obligation of applying its truths and its responsibilities to the guidance of their conscience, and the regulation of their practice.

1. Consider the necessity of enlarged means of grace for our countrymen. This necessity arises from the incalculable increase of our population. Of these people, the immense majority are congregated in masses in the metropolis, and in the trading and manufacturing districts. But what are the moral circumstances under which they have arisen, and are hourly arising? Is it with an expansion of the national Church, commensurate with the wants of the nation? Unhappily not. Where then is the basis on which social duty is to stand? How can we indulge such wild fanaticism as to expect the fruits of honesty, sobriety, and affection, respect for property or office, authority, regard to decorum, peace, and virtue, among multitudes who are growing up utterly unacquainted with the only tie by which moral obligation binds the conscience; ignorant of the only fountain from whence relative and social affection flow, and unhabituated to that softening influence which familiarity with the means of grace, and the kind sympathy of pastoral intercourse engender and maintain? Moreover, every agency of mischief is set on foot to corrupt men more and more, to enlist their innate passions, and to array their imagined happiness and interest in opposition to all that is holy, venerable, and good. Few of us, perhaps, are acquainted with the extent of that agency of Satan—an evil press—working amongst us. The necessity being admitted, upon whom does the duty of meeting it devolve? Upon all, upon every one, according to the ability which God has given.

1. The voice of heaven appeals to the civil ruler. On him devolves the obligation of providing for the moral well-being of those who are entrusted to his charge, since by

this alone can the ends of government, peace, order, and security be attained.

2. The obligation especially devolves upon the ministers of religion. The Church of Christ is to be a witness for God, bearing testimony to man of the things of eternity; to be a light of truth, dispersing the dark and troubled desolation of falsehood, superstition, and impiety.

3. The duty devolves upon “all the remnant of the people,” the whole community of professing Christians. He who speaks of the “Church” as embracing the clergy alone, and not the “whole congregation of faithful men,” speaks unscripturally, untruly, and unwisely. If there is any class of persons upon whom this duty devolves with more responsibility than others, it is upon the land-owners, merchants, and manufacturers, who derive their wealth and their enjoyment by congregating multitudes to dwell upon their lands, or to labour for them. (John Garbett, M. A.)

15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

The Promised Glory of the �ew HouseIn the second year of King Darius,

BAR�ES, "In the four and twentieth day of the month - The interval of twenty-three days must have been spent in preparation, since the message came on the first of the month, and the obedience was immediate.

CLARKE, "In the four and twentieth day - Haggai received his commission on the first day of this month and by the twenty-fourth day he had so completely succeeded that he had the satisfaction to see the whole people engaged heartily in the Lord’s work; they left their own houses to build that of the Lord. Here was a faithful reprover, and he found obedient ears; and the Lord’s work was done, for the people had a mind to work.

GILL, "In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month,.... Or, "in the four and twentieth of the month, in the sixth"; in that sixth month before mentioned, Hag_1:1. On this day they came and worked; not the sixth from Tisri, for the Jews had two ways of beginning their years, which would have answered to part of February; and, therefore, chose by some interpreters as being a proper time to begin building; but no regard is had to the fitness of the season, but to the order of the Lord; but the sixth month from Nisan, and answers to part of August; for so the months are reckoned in the prophecy of Zechariah, who began to prophecy the same year as Haggai did; see Zec_1:1 Zec_7:1 this

was three and twenty days after the prophecy was delivered out; during which time they might be employed in cutting of stones, and sawing and hewing of wood, as Jarchi suggests, and preparing for work in the temple:

in the second year of Darius the king; See Gill on Hag_1:1. Here some begin a new chapter, but wrongly; since, if these words do not belong to the preceding, there would be a contradiction in joining them with the beginning of the next.

JAMISO�, "four and twentieth day— twenty-three days after the first message of Haggai (Hag_1:1).

CALVI�, "The Prophet mentions even the time when they commenced the building of the temple. Three-and-twenty days interposed between the first message and the beginning of the work. It hence appears how ignorant he was who divided the chapters, having begun the second chapter at this verse, where the Prophet shows, as it were by his finger, how much was the distance between the day in which he began to exhort the people, and the success of which he speaks. He then simply tells us here when the Temple began to be built—that is, in the second year of Darius the king, and in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. He had previously said that a message was given to him in the second year of Darius the king, and in the sixth month, and on the first day. Then from that day to the twenty-fourth the people delayed; not that they disregarded the command of the Prophet, but because it was not so easy a thing to persuade them all, that they might unanimously undertake the work. Though then the promptitude of the people is commended, we must yet observe that there was some mixture of weakness; for the effect of the doctrine did not appear till the twenty-fourth day. (144) It afterwards follows-

COFFMA�, "Verse 15"in the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king."

The Catholic Bible and some other versions associate this verse with the next chapter, but the appearance of a similar dating in the very next verse surely would seem to forbid it. The significant thing here would appear to be the promptness with which the people had responded. The call to work was made on the first day of this same month (verse 1); and therefore, only about three weeks had elapsed before the work actually commenced. Deane agreed that, "The note of time was introduced to show how prompt was their obedience."[19]

It is quite obvious to practically all scholars that the Douay Version is wrong in associating this verse with the next chapter; and the amazing fact of the Tischendorf's Septuagint having done the same thing show how easily, sometimes, scholars merely adopt what is popular, instead of what is obviously true.

TRAPP, "Verse 15Haggai 1:15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Ver. 15. In the four and twentieth day] {See Trapp on "Haggai 1:13"} The time is diligently noted, to teach us to take good note of the moments of time, wherein matters of moment have been, by God’s help, begun, continued, and perfected in the Church. This will be of singular use, both for the increase of faith and of good affection in our hearts.

PULPIT, "In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month. The first admonition had been made on the first day of this month; the three intervening weeks had doubtless been spent in planning and preparing materials, and obtaining workmen from the neighbouring villages. The note of time is introduced to show how prompt was their obedience, and the exact time when "they came and did work in the house of the Lord" (Haggai 1:14). Some, on insufficient grounds, consider this clause to be an interpolation from Haggai 2:10, Haggai 2:18, with a change of "ninth" to "sixth month." In the Latin Vulgate, in Tischendorf's Septuagint, and in many editions of the Hebrew Bible, the whole of this verse is wrongly annexed to the following chapter. St. Jerome arranges it as in the Authorized Version. It is possible that, as St. Cyril takes it, the words, in the second year of Darius the king, ought to begin Haggai 2:1-23. The king's reign has been already notified in Haggai 2:1, and it seems natural to affix the date at the commencement of the second address.