7. What did Haggai encourage the Jews to do, and what was the tenor of his message?

⁷ This was a very important time in the history of God’s people, and Haggai’s work proved to be most beneficial. He was not the least backward in performing his task as a prophet, and he did not mince words with the Jews. He was straightforward in telling them that it was time to quit procrastinating and to get down to business. It was time to rebuild Jehovah’s house and to restore pure worship if they wanted to enjoy any prosperity from the hand of Jehovah. The whole tenor of Haggai’s message is that if a person is to enjoy blessings from Jehovah, he must serve the true God and do the work Jehovah commands to be done.

CONTENTS OF HAGGAI

8. Why are the Jews not being blessed materially by Jehovah?

⁸ The first message (1:1-15). This is directed to Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua, but in the hearing of the people. The people have been saying, “The time has not come, the time of the house of Jehovah, for it to be built.” Jehovah through Haggai asks a searching question: “Is it the time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house is waste?” (1:2, 4) They have sown much in a material way, but it has benefited them little in the way of food, drink, and clothing. “Set your heart upon your ways,” admonishes Jehovah. (1:7) It is high time to bring in lumber and build the house, that Jehovah may be glorified. The Jews are taking good care of their own houses, but Jehovah’s house lies waste. Therefore, Jehovah has withheld the dew of heaven and the increase of the field and his blessing from upon man and his toil.

9. How does Jehovah rouse up the Jews to get to work?

⁹ Ah, they get the point! Haggai has not prophesied in vain. Rulers and people begin “to listen to the voice of Jehovah their God.” Fear of Jehovah replaces fear of man. Jehovah’s assurance through his messenger Haggai is: “I am with you people.” (1:12, 13) It is Jehovah himself who rouses up the spirit of the governor, the spirit of the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of His people. They get to work, just 23 days after the start of Haggai’s prophesying and despite the official ban of the Persian government.

10. What do some Jews feel about the temple they are building, but what does Jehovah promise?

¹⁰ The second message (2:1-9). Less than a month passes after the building activity is revived, and Haggai gives his second inspired message. This is addressed to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the remaining ones of the people. Evidently some of the Jews who returned from the exile and who had seen the former temple of Solomon felt that this temple would be nothing by comparison. But what is the utterance of Jehovah of armies? ‘Be strong and work, for I am with you people.’ (2:4) Jehovah reminds them of his covenant with them, and he tells them not to be afraid. He strengthens them with the promise that he will rock all the nations and cause their desirable things to come in and that he will fill his house with glory. The glory of this later house will be even greater than that of the former, and in this place he will give peace.

11. (a) By what allegory does Haggai point out the priests’ neglect? (b) What has resulted therefrom?

¹¹ The third message (2:10-19). Two months and three days later, Haggai addresses the priests. He uses an allegory to drive home his point. Will a priest’s carrying holy flesh make holy any other food he touches? The answer is no. Does the touching of something unclean, such as a dead body, make the one touching it unclean? The answer is yes. Haggai then applies the allegory. The people of the land are unclean by reason of their neglect of pure worship. Whatever they offer appears unclean to Jehovah God. Because of this, Jehovah has not blessed their labors, and in addition he has sent on them scorching heat, mildew, and hail. Let them change their ways. Then Jehovah will bless them.

12. What final message does Haggai direct to Zerubbabel?

¹² The fourth message (2:20-23). Haggai delivers this message on the same day as the third message, but it is directed to Zerubbabel. Again Jehovah speaks of “rocking the heavens and the earth,” but this time he extends this theme to the complete annihilation of the kingdoms of the nations. Many will be brought down, “each one by the sword of his brother.” (2:21, 22) Haggai concludes his prophecy with an assurance of Jehovah’s favor for Zerubbabel.

WHY BENEFICIAL

13. Of what immediate benefit was Haggai’s prophesying?

¹³ Jehovah’s four messages communicated through Haggai were beneficial to the Jews of that day. They were encouraged to go right to work, and in four and a half years, the temple was completed to advance true worship in Israel. (Ezra 6:14, 15) Jehovah blessed their zealous activity. It was during this time of temple building that Darius the king of Persia examined the state records and reaffirmed the decree of Cyrus. The temple work was thus completed with his official backing.​—Ezra 6:1-13.

Haggai served side by side with the prophet Zechariah, and at Ezra 5:1 and Ezr 6:14, the two are shown encouraging the sons of the exile to resume temple building. He was a prophet of Jehovah in two respects, in that he both exhorted the Jews to fulfill their duties toward God and foretold, among other things, the shaking of all nations.​—Hag. 2:6, 7.

3. What had the Jews failed to realize as to the purpose of their return from exile?

³ Why did Jehovah commission Haggai? For this reason: In 537 B.C.E., Cyrus had issued the decree permitting the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild the house of Jehovah. But it was now 520 B.C.E., and the temple was far from being completed. All these years the Jews had let enemy opposition along with their own apathy and materialism prevent them from realizing the very purpose of their return.​—Ezra 1:1-4; 3:10-13; 4:1-24; Hag. 1:4.

4. What had hindered the temple building, but what developments took place when Haggai started to prophesy?

⁴ As the record shows, no sooner had the foundation of the temple been laid (in 536 B.C.E.) than “the people of the land were continually weakening the hands of the people of Judah and disheartening them from building, and hiring counselors against them to frustrate their counsel.” (Ezra 4:4, 5) Finally, in 522 B.C.E., these non-Jewish opposers succeeded in having an official ban placed on the work. It was in the second year of the reign of the Persian king Darius Hystaspis, that is, in 520 B.C.E., that Haggai began to prophesy, and this encouraged the Jews to resume their temple building. At that, a letter was sent to Darius by the neighboring governors asking for a ruling on the matter; Darius revived the decree of Cyrus and supported the Jews against their enemies.