With Haggai, we come to the only three post-exilic prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, all of whom spoke to the returned remnant. Their objective was to encourage their spiritual and moral life of this remnant, now back in their home land, as they sought to rebuild the temple and the nation. Haggai and Zechariah dealt mostly with the spiritual needs as they related to the rebuilding of the temple and Malachi dealt primarily with the moral and social needs involved with the reconstruction of the nation it-self.
Haggai’s name means “festal” or “festive, suggesting to some that he was born on one of the major feast days, though there is nothing in the text to support this. Haggai is known only from this book (men-tioned 9 times) and the mention of him in Ezra 5:1- 2 and 6:14. Little is known about him. He refers to himself as “the prophet Haggai” (1:1), but nothing is known about his parents or geneaology. He was a comtemporary of Zechariah the prophet and Zerubbabel the governor. His authorship is uncontested.
#@Date: 520 B.C.
Under the policies of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, almost 50,000 Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem. Among these were Zerubbabel (Ezra 1:2-4; cf. Isa. 44:28), Joshua the high priest and the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah. The decree allowing the Jews to return to their land and rebuild their temple occurred in 538 B.C.
Levitical sacrifices were soon reinstituted on a rebuilt altar for burnt offerings (Ezra 3:1-6), and in the second year of the return the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:8-13; 5:16). However, Samaritan harassment and eventual Persian pressure brought a halt to the rebuilding of the temple. Then spiritual apathy set in; and for about 16 more years—until the rule of the Persian king, Darius Hystaspes (521-486 B.C .)—the construc-tion of the temple was discontinued. In the second year of Darius (520 B.C.) God raised up Haggai the prophet to encourage the Jews in the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 5:1-2; Hag. 1:1).
As stated by Haggai in 1:1, his first message was given on the first day of Elul (Aug.-Sept.) in the second year of Darius. This was in 520 B.C.
As is normal with the writing prophets, the book gets its name from the prophet himself. The title in the Septuagint is Aggaios, and in the Vulgate it is Aggaeus.
The Book of Haggai is the second shortest book in the Old Testament; only Obadiah is shorter. The literary style of Haggai is simple and direct. The content of the book is a report of four messages by a seemingly insignificant postexilic prophet whose ministry was apparently of limited duration.
Though Haggai is the second shortest book in the Old Testament, we should not underestimate the power of Haggai’s four messages in his role in encouraging the rebuilding of the temple. “The truth is that few prophets have succeeded in packing into such brief compass so much spiritual common sense as Haggai did” (Frank E. Gaebelein, Four Minor Prophets: Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai, p. 199).
One outstanding feature of Haggai’s message is his strong awareness that his messages had their origin in God. Some 25 times he affirmed the divine authority of his messages. He consistently introduced his messages with, “This is what the LORD Almighty says,” and concluded them with a similar focus (“dec-lares the LORD Almighty”).
Haggai wrote to encourage and exhort the returned remnant to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. In the process of this he taught (1) God blesses His people when they put Him first, (2) that we should not grow weary in the service of the Lord, and that (3) God’s promises for tomorrow become the foundation for our confidence for today.
The repetition of the term “house” as it is used in relation to the Temple focuses the readers attention on the reconstruction of the Temple as the key focus of the book.
❝ 1:7-8. Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! “Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the LORD.
❝ 1:14. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
❝ 2:7-9. “‘And I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations; and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I shall give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.”
The Messianic nature of 2:6-9 with its prophecy regarding the future glory of the temple makes chap-ter two the key chapter.
Here Messiah is portrayed as the Restorer of the Temple’s glory (2:7-9) and the Overthrower of the kingdoms of the world (2:22).