On the four and twentieth [day] of the ninth [month], in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet, saying,
Haggai's third message came in the ninth month of Darius' second year, put to the priests as a question about the law. It tests condition, not effort: a people busy at God's work could still be unclean in all they touched.
Haggai dates his messages by a foreign king, not by a king in Jerusalem. One writer draws out why:
His prophecy is carefully dated, and noting this we see it divides into four sections, though all were spoken in the second year of Darius... The third was on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Hag. 2:10); the fourth, though distinct from the third, was given on the very same day (Hag. 2:20). God always recognises the validity of His own governmental actions. He had set Israel aside as a nation, and the times of the Gentiles had begun; so the dating is that of the ruling Gentile power and not that of the Jews.
The message goes to the men whose office was to know the law.
The message in this section is addressed to the priests... Its object was to teach the nature of true separation to God, and that His blessing was connected with keeping it. This principle holds in every age, because it rests on the holiness of God Himself. (See Leviticus 11:44-45, and 1 Peter 1:16.) In Malachi we read that "the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). For this reason Haggai was sent "on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month," two months after his last message, to ask the priests these questions about the law.
Haggai asks the priests two questions: does holiness spread by touch, and does uncleanness? The answers run in opposite directions.
Of course the priests answered truly when they said "No." He who is holy imparts no holiness to anything else. "Then Haggai said, 'If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?'" This time the answer was just as precise: yes. He who is defiled passes on defilement... As with the unclean condition of a man, so the nation of Israel defiled whatever they took up. All works and offerings are unclean. There must be personal cleanness before one can act or offer aright.
The word "holy" here does not mean pure by nature.
It is necessary first of all to be clear about what is meant by a holy thing. It is that which is set apart for the service of God... So it was not something holy in itself, holy by its own nature. God is holy in that way, and such holiness must exclude evil, just as light excludes darkness. But a holy thing in Scripture is what is consecrated, set apart for God... And whatever was holy in this way had no power to sanctify other things.
Busy hands are not the whole story.
The root of all failure with the remnant of that day, as with the people of God in this day, can be traced to a low moral condition. In other words, outward activity in the service of the Lord will not prosper unless a right moral condition goes with it.
One writer applies the second answer to mixing with evil:
The common notion is that you can cleanse the world by going into it and associating with it. Instead, you cannot fail to be defiled yourself... The notion of this day is that you can benefit or set right what is evil by association with it. That is a fallacy, and it must end in disappointment, if not in dragging you where you never intended to go. In itself the principle is nothing less than a giving up of God.
The same message does not end in condemnation. It turns to blessing:
Still, we are allowed to see that however great the failure of God's people, if they repent and act in obedience to the word, they will be blessed. So, as soon as the remnant take up the work of the house, the LORD can say, "from this day on I will bless you."
And the defect in what we offer is met by a Priest:
Let us not think that the finest offerings we ever made, whether of praise and worship or of service, were marked by perfection. They were not... But we have a great High Priest who bears the iniquity of our holy things, and presents to God our defective worship or service in His own perfections.
- Dated — The word comes on an exact day, counted by a Gentile king's reign. God stands by His own governmental dealings with His people.
- Directed — It goes to the priests, who were to guard knowledge of the law. Its subject is separation to God, grounded on His holiness.
- Diagnosed — Their answers give two rules. A holy thing makes nothing else holy. Uncleanness spreads to whatever it touches.
- Applied — Service does not prosper without a right moral condition. Joining evil to cleanse it only defiles us.
- Answered — Repent and obey, and God says, "from this day on I will bless you." A great High Priest presents even our flawed service to God in His own perfection.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts Ask now the priests [concerning] the law, saying,
Two months after the people went back to building, another word came through Haggai. This time God told the prophet to put a question to the priests. Why send a message for the whole nation through a question about the law, put to the priests? And what was that law meant to settle?
Their office made the priests the right people to answer. One writer shows what this message was for:
This message is for the priests, and it links back in history, as verse 18 shows, to Ezra 3:8-13. Its object was to teach what true separation to God means, and to show that His blessing was tied to keeping it. This principle holds in every age, because it rests on the holiness of God Himself. In Malachi we read that "the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). For this reason God sent Haggai "on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month," two months after his last message, to ask the priests these questions about the law.
God does not ask for the priests' views. He asks them to state what the law already says:
Before we come to the application of these truths, which the Lord Himself made through His servant the prophet, it will be good to consider how important they are. No priest, instructed in the law, could have answered in any other way. Read, for example, the directions for the Nazirite (Num. 6), and the directions found everywhere in Leviticus about cleansing and defilement. All of them carry principles of the deepest significance for believers in every age, for us now. That is so even though we rejoice in the truth that Christ by one offering has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
Haggai's question opens a section of moral instruction. One commentator says what puts us in a position to judge such matters:
Then comes another message (verses 10-19), but here it is moral instruction. We are best able to judge what is moral when we have the Lord Himself before us… Of course the priests answered truly when they said "No." He who is holy imparts no holiness to anything else.
Holiness and uncleanness do not spread in the same way. The reason lies in the nature of holiness itself:
The people, who neglected the LORD, had become, in effect, profane. What is holy cannot make profane things holy; but an unclean thing defiles what is holy, for holiness excludes evil. The presence of evil destroys holiness by the very fact that it is there. The one exception is holiness of a nature that, by its own existence, shuts out everything contrary to it — such as the nature of God.
This word came to people who had obeyed and were already at work on the house:
The application Haggai had to make of these questions was meant to search the people and sober them. They had been stirred up to put their hands to the work of building the house. That would tend to breed self-satisfaction, as though all was as it should be. Haggai told them plainly that it was not so, and that what was imperfect and unclean marked their best work.
One writer applies the same rule to Christian life now:
The common idea is that you can cleanse the world by going into it and mixing with it. Instead, you cannot fail to be defiled yourself… On the negative side, we are bound to separate from what dishonours the Lord. On the positive side, we are bound to follow what is good, according to His will, with those who have His glory and will at heart. Isolation is wrong. But the Christian has a binding duty to separate from what is evil in the Lord's sight — and to separate so as to unite, according to God's word, with those who call on Him with a pure heart.
- Ask. God begins with a question, not a verdict. The priests must state what the law says. Their office was to guard knowledge and carry God's message to the people.
- Law. The answer is not opinion. No priest instructed in Leviticus and Numbers could have replied any other way.
- Holy. Holiness does not travel by contact. What is set apart for God cannot make holy the things it touches.
- Unclean. Defilement does travel. Good company does not cure evil; the evil spreads into the company.
- Clean first. So the order is fixed: cleanness comes before service, because what is imperfect and unclean can mark even our best work.
If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food -- shall it become holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
Two months after Haggai's last message, God sent him to ask the priests whether holiness spreads by touch. Their answer exposed the state of the whole nation, and it settles a question we all face: can good things make bad things good?
God sends the question to the men who taught the law, and He has one lesson in view.
The message in this section is for the priests. Its object was to teach the nature of true separation to God, and that His blessing was tied to keeping it. That principle holds good in every age, because it rests on the holiness of God Himself. In Malachi we read that "the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). For this reason Haggai was sent "on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month," two months after his last message, to ask the priests these questions about the law.
The word "holy" here does not mean pure in its own nature.
First of all we need to be clear about what a holy thing is. It is something set apart for the service of God. So "holy flesh" might be, for example, part of an animal that had been devoted to God in sacrifice. It was not, therefore, holy in and of itself, by its very nature. God is holy in that way, and such holiness shuts evil out, just as light shuts darkness out. But a holy thing in Scripture is something consecrated, set apart for God. Israel as a nation was holy in this sense, because God had taken them out from all the other peoples of the earth and separated them to Himself.
The priests were right, and their two answers run in opposite directions.
Of course the priests gave the right answer when they said "No." He who is holy passes on no holiness to anything else. Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The answer was just as precise: yes. He who is defiled communicates defilement… As with the unclean condition of a man, so the nation of Israel defiled whatever they took up. All works and offerings are unclean. There must be personal cleanness before anyone can act or offer rightly.
One writer points to the single place where touch did pass holiness on: the altar.
Scripture calls the altar "most holy," and whatever touched the altar became "holy." Haggai 2:12 shows a contrast to this. Holy meat (that which had touched the altar) did not make anything else holy by touching it. The altar speaks of the person of Christ, the "most holy." Direct contact with Him makes one holy, but a secondary contact does not. In the same way, one who has personal faith in the Lord Jesus Himself is saved, but no one is saved by contact with a believer.
If holiness does not spread but defilement does, a popular strategy collapses.
On the one hand, we learn that what is holy cannot cleanse by association. On the other hand, what is unclean can defile by association. So the common notion that we can cleanse the world by associating with it, or help the people of God by associating with the corrupt systems they may be found in, is a fallacy, and worse. To act like this is not only no help to others; we ourselves become defiled.
Two lives show it. Jonathan stayed at Saul's court, and Lot settled in Sodom.
But Jonathan cannot sanction the place; Jonathan's presence did not make Saul's camp or court anything other than what it was. The only impression the soul gets of Lot in Sodom is of a tainted Lot, not of a sanctified, purified Sodom.
Haggai's verdict was that everything the people offered was unclean. One writer turns that on our own worship and service, then points to the remedy.
Let us not think that the finest offerings we ever made, whether of praise and worship or of service, were marked by perfection. They were not. The flesh is still in us, and in subtle ways it tarnishes the fairest things we offer. But we have a great High Priest. He bears the iniquity of our holy things, and presents our defective worship or service to God in His own perfections.
- Ask — God puts the question to the priests, whose task was to teach the law. Its aim was to teach true separation to God, grounded on God's own holiness.
- Holy — "Holy flesh" means flesh set apart for God, not something pure by nature. Only God is holy in that absolute sense.
- No — Holiness does not spread by contact. Defilement does. Cleanness must be personal before anyone can act or offer rightly.
- Except — Direct contact with Christ makes a person holy. Second-hand contact never does. Faith must be your own.
- So — You will not clean up the world by joining it; you will only be defiled. And a High Priest carries even our best offerings to God, bearing the failure in them.
And Haggai said, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, is it become unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
Haggai's fourth message puts a legal question to the priests. It comes in two parts. The first part asked whether holy flesh spreads holiness. This verse asks the opposite: does a man made unclean by a dead body spread that uncleanness? The priests answer yes — and that single word exposes the state of the whole nation and its work.
Haggai does not argue. He sends the question to the priests. Their job was to give God's own verdict on clean and unclean.
Note that the answers the priests gave Haggai rest on the sure word of God. They mean two things. First, a holy thing has no power to make anything holy. Second, uncleanness must defile everything it touches.
The same writer explains what Scripture means by a holy thing:
A holy thing is something set apart for the service of God. So "holy flesh" might be part of an animal that had been given to God in sacrifice. It was not something holy in itself, absolutely holy by its very nature. But whatever was holy in this way had no power, as we learn from our passage, to make other things holy.
Holiness and defilement do not behave alike. One stays where it is; the other travels.
Something holy cannot make unholy things holy. But something unclean defiles what is holy, because holiness shuts evil out. The presence of evil destroys holiness simply by being there. There is one exception: holiness of the kind that, by its own existence, shuts out everything contrary to it — such as the nature of God.
The same rule shows up in everyday things:
Everyone knows what happens if you put a rotten apple in a box of good ones: the rot soon spreads. Yet no one imagines that adding a few sound apples to rotten ones will make the rotten ones good.
The uncleanness in the verse is not that of an outsider. It belongs to someone who was clean and has since touched death.
The second principle only confirms the conclusion above. Uncleanness must defile — but what uncleanness is meant? It is the uncleanness of a man who was clean until a dead body made him unclean. Now death is the fruit of sin, and so sin is the source of the defilement. Now apply this to ourselves. The uncleanness here is not that of a sinner before God. It is that of a believer who has become defiled by evil associations. The solemn lesson about such a person is this: like tar, he stains everything he touches. What a responsibility this puts on each of us in our fellowship with God's people!
In the question, it is the man who touches these things, not the dead body.
One is unclean because of a dead body, and whatever he touches becomes unclean. The thing he touches never has to touch the dead body itself. The moment it touches the man who touched the dead body, it becomes unclean.
Haggai turns the ruling on the people themselves. Two writers draw out what had to come first.
As with the unclean condition of a man, so the nation of Israel defiled whatever they took up. All works and offerings are unclean. There must be personal cleanness before one can act or offer rightly.
Their works and offerings were all unclean, because they themselves were unclean. They needed cleansing first. So separation from evil, from what defiles, was necessary. So it is today. The order is "cease to do evil" and then "learn to do good."
Haggai did not leave them under the warning.
The prophet had warned them about the imperfection that marked their work. Then he assured them that God's blessing rested on them despite it... So it is today. There are elements of failure and uncleanness in all our service. But despite that, if the heart is right, we may expect spiritual blessing from God.
- Asked — Haggai gets his answer from the priests out of the law, so the verdict is God's, not the prophet's opinion.
- Answered — contact does not pass holiness on, but it does pass uncleanness on. Evil spreads; good does not.
- Applied — the "dead body" points to sin, and the person in view is a believer who was clean and has become defiled by evil associations.
- Absorbed — touching the defiled man is enough. Nothing has to touch the dead body itself.
- Assured — unclean people produced unclean work and offerings. Cleansing comes first, service second. Yet where the heart is right, God still blesses.
Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith Jehovah, and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
The priests give their ruling on holy flesh and on defilement by a dead body. The Lord then turns their answer straight back on them. The verdict falls on the returned remnant themselves. It covers everything they produced, even what they laid on His altar.
Each question had one obvious answer. Together they settle which way holiness and defilement travel.
The priests were right when they said "No." A holy person passes on no holiness to anything else… A defiled person passes on defilement… Israel was like a man in an unclean condition: the nation defiled whatever they took up. All works and offerings are unclean. A person must be clean himself before he can act or offer in the right way.
The uncleanness in view is not that of an outsider. These people were already set apart for God, and their own priorities were what defiled them.
Israel was a holy people, separated to God. (The restored remnant stood in the place of the nation before God.) But that gave them a responsibility. They had to live in keeping with the place God's sovereign grace had put them in… At this moment God's mind was on the building of His house; their minds were on their own houses. So they were out of communion with the One who had called them. They were living for themselves, and not for the Lord… In practice they had become defiled… unclean through contact with the dead body of their own selfish thoughts and desires. And what was the consequence? The work of their hands was defiled, and so were the sacrifices they laid on the Lord's altar.
The words "before me" set the standard. They had already restarted the building work. That success carried its own danger.
They had been stirred up to put their hands to the work of building the house. So there would have been a tendency to self-satisfaction, as though all was as it should be. The prophet told them plainly it was not so. What was imperfect and unclean marked their best work. A humbling lesson for them — and for us also. If God in His mercy gives us some little reviving today, how easily the defilements of the flesh creep in.
Uncleanness spreads by contact. That rules out one popular way of trying to do good.
Many people think we can cleanse the world by associating with it, or help the people of God by associating with the corrupt systems they may be found in. That idea is false, and worse than false. Acting on it is no help to others, and we ourselves become defiled — for what is unclean defiles by association.
The same principle works out in two directions. The first is a move away from evil, and towards others who want the Lord's will:
On the one side, we are bound to separate from what dishonours the Lord. On the other side, we are bound to follow what is good, according to His will, with those who have His glory and will at heart. Isolation is wrong. But for the Christian, separating from what is evil in the Lord's sight is a binding duty. We separate so that we may unite, according to God's word, with those who call on Him with a pure heart.
The second is personal watchfulness before we gather with others: "Have we become defiled through carelessness, through contact with a 'dead body'? And do we mingle with the saints, as if all were well with our souls?" (Edward Dennett)
The verse gives the diagnosis. The cure has an order.
All their works and offerings were unclean, because they were in that condition. They had to be cleansed first. Separation from evil, from what defiles, was therefore demanded. So it is today. The order is "cease to do evil" and then "learn to do well."
The message does not end with the verdict. Once the people obeyed, God's word to them changed: "as soon as the remnant take up the work of the house, the LORD can say, 'From this day I will bless you.'" (Hamilton Smith)
There is comfort here too, for anyone who fears that every offering they bring falls short.
Let us not think that the finest offerings we ever made were perfect, whether in praise and worship or in service. They were not. The flesh is still in us, and in subtle ways it spoils the best things we offer. But we have a great High Priest. He bears the iniquity of our holy things, and He presents our flawed worship or service to God in His own perfections.
- Direction. Holiness does not rub off; uncleanness does. That one-way traffic is the whole logic of the verse.
- Cause. The "dead body" they touched was their own self-interest. They neglected His house and built their own.
- Reach. Defilement did not stop at the person: it spread to their work, and then to what they offered on the altar.
- Cure. Cleansing comes first, then service. Cease to do evil, then learn to do well — separate from evil so as to unite with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart.
- Result. The moment they obeyed and took up the work, the verdict gave way to a promise: from this day I will bless you. And a great High Priest still carries our imperfect offerings in His own perfection.
And now, I pray you, consider from this day and onward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah,
Haggai tells the people to fix a date in their minds and measure their lives against it: the day before they laid one stone on another in the Lord's house. Why should life before that day and life after it look so different?
Where the ESV reads "onward", an older translation has "upward". One writer explains which way that word points, and what had gone wrong in the years behind them:
God could not bless them while staying true to His holiness and His love for His people — not while their hearts were turned away from Him, and not while they were using His grace, which had brought them back from captivity, as a way of gaining their own ease and comfort. So He dealt with them in judgment. He disciplined them, to wake them out of their spiritual dullness, and to teach them the lesson God's people always need: their true blessing and prosperity can only be found in the Lord's ways, not in their own. This explains the prophet's words, "And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward" — that is, look back over the past, since "upward" here means taking a backward view.
The backward look prepares for the forward one.
What they were asked to remember was a run of shrunken harvests and spoiled crops — half-sized heaps, half-filled vats, blight and hail. These were not bad luck. Commenting on the same pattern elsewhere, one writer draws out God's aim:
A second lesson is this: God's ways of government with His people aim to make them take their condition to heart. That is why He uses His rod... Every stroke of God's rod should set off deep searching of heart. Where it does not, it is a sure sign that heavier discipline from His hand is coming.
The verses just before this one give the reason, and it lands on the people themselves:
Just as an unclean man makes unclean what he touches, so the nation of Israel defiled whatever they took up. All their works and offerings are unclean. A person must be clean himself before he can act or offer rightly.
The principle cuts straight into how believers handle their surroundings today:
the common notion that we can cleanse the world by association with it, or help the people of God by association with the corrupt systems in which they may be found, is a fallacy, and worse, for to act thus is not only no help to others, but we ourselves become defiled — for that which is unclean defiles by association.
The date Haggai names is not the day the work restarted. It is the day they laid the foundation, three months later. One writer says the gap was deliberate:
It is striking to notice that the Lord did not begin to bless them until the foundation was in place. He waited through those three months to test His people's hearts and the reality of their return to Him. He was working in them a sense of what their past condition had been, and so preparing them to receive the blessing He was about to give. It is always like this in His ways with His people. His heart towards them never changes, but how His heart shows itself must depend on their condition. His heart is always to bless, and if He holds back blessing, it is only because of their spiritual state.
God promised blessing from the day the foundation went down. One writer looks at people who set out only to obey, and at what God gave them:
There cannot be a more striking fact than this — the blessing God has given goes far beyond what their largest thoughts ever looked for... To many it was just a practical matter of doing the will of God, and so a settled duty of keeping clear of what dishonours the Lord. But who ever expected what He has given since: the opening up of His word, the recovery of forgotten truth, and the enjoyment of His presence...? The blessing has come and will come beyond all our thoughts, if by grace we simply hold to the Lord with full purpose of heart.
- Consider. The verse hands you a dividing date. Read your own history against it — backwards first, so the forward promise means something.
- Cause. The hard years were not accidents. God was disciplining people who used His grace for their own ease, and His rod aims at the heart.
- Contamination. Nothing holy rubs off, but uncleanness does — so the whole period before the line, work and worship alike, counted as defiled.
- Check. Three months passed between the first day of obedience and the foundation stone. God's heart never changed. He was testing whether the turn was real before He announced blessing.
- Consequence. From the day His house came first, God pledged blessing — and it has run far past what anyone expected.
-- before those [days] were, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the vat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty.
God asks His people to do the arithmetic of their lean years. Grain and wine both came in far short of what they had counted on. So where did the missing measures go? And why is the God who withheld them now about to promise blessing?
The verse is not about farming. God asks His people to read a stretch of years correctly. One writer explains which way they were told to look. (He quotes the previous verse from an older translation.)
This explains the prophet's words, "And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward." That is, they were to look back on the past. The word "upward" here means taking a backward look... Verses 15 to 17 describe how He dealt with them while they were neglecting His house. God could not bless them while their hearts were turned away from Him. That would go against His holiness and against His love for them... So He dealt with them in judgment. He chastised them to wake them out of their spiritual sleep. His aim was to teach them the lesson God's people always need: their true blessing and prosperity lie only in the Lord's ways, and not in their own.
The ten measures that never appeared were not bad weather or bad luck:
What made their failure more striking is that God was no longer keeping up His throne in Israel. Even so, He did not relax His moral government... It was the Lord who blighted their selfish efforts. He was dealing with the unbelief of the returned remnant, and with the neglect that came from it. It was not because He did not love them, but because He did. "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." When the Lord allows people to go away without rebuke, that is the clear and sure sign that every practical bond is broken — if any bond ever existed. It shows that He now disowns them, at least for the time.
This was not one bad season. It was a settled pattern:
Ever since they stopped building His house, bitter disappointment had been their lot. All their self-seeking brought them no gain, but steady loss. The Lord had withheld the blessing He gives His earthly people in earthly things... All this must be considered from the standpoint of the Jew. Even so, the principle holds good for us as well. The promise in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you," also refers first of all to the believing Jew. Yet it has its application for us... Neglect of the things of God always brings the same bitter disappointment.
The shortfall had a stated cause:
And why did He send this blight on everything they worked for and everything they expected? Let us write the answer permanently on our hearts: "Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house."
God's discipline has a purpose, and His people can miss it:
The aim of God's ways in government with His people is that they should lay their condition to heart. This is why He uses His rod... He still acts on the same principle in government... And nothing shows how unfeeling our hearts are more clearly than this. We pass through trials, whether personally or in connection with the Church. Then we pay little or no attention to the purpose God had in view, and flatter ourselves that all is well. Every stroke of God's rod should produce deep searching of heart. Where it does not, it is the sure forerunner of harder chastenings from His hand.
God counts up the lean years for people who have already gone back to work:
Three months passed between the day the people started work on the Lord's house and the day they laid the foundation. It is striking to notice that the Lord did not begin to bless them until the foundation was laid. He waited during those three months to test His people's hearts and the reality of their restoration. He also waited to work in them a sense of their past condition, and so to prepare them to receive the blessing He was about to give. It is always so in His ways with His people. His heart towards them never changes, but how He shows it must depend on their condition.
- Count. God asks His people to add up what they received against what they expected. The gap is the message.
- Cause. God Himself withheld the missing measures, because His house lay in ruins while every man ran to his own.
- Care. The blight was not the absence of love but the proof of it. Where God leaves failure unrebuked, the bond is gone.
- Conscience. Loss only profits the one who takes it to heart. Ignored chastening leads to heavier chastening.
- Change. Once their work reached the foundation of His house, the record of loss closed and blessing began that day.
I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; and ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah.
The temple foundation has just been laid. Haggai asks the people to look back over years of ruined harvests, to see who sent them, and to face what God wanted from them and never got.
The failed crops were not an accident of weather. Commentators read them as God's deliberate answer. The people had come home from exile, then settled into their own comfort while His house lay in ruins. One writer describes the reasoning behind the discipline:
God could not bless them while their hearts were turned away from Him. His holiness and His love for His people both forbade it. He had brought them back from captivity, and they were using that grace as a way to gain their own ease and comfort. So He dealt with them in judgment. He chastised them to wake them out of their spiritual sleep, and to teach them the lesson God's people always need: their true blessing and prosperity is found in the Lord's ways only, and not in their own.
The tragedy is that they never made the connection. Every explanation was available to them except the right one:
They sowed much, and reaped little. They ate and drank, but were not satisfied. They earned good money, but it trickled away as in a bag full of holes. No doubt they blamed the recession, the unstable politics of the time, the strange weather. It never occurred to them that God was trying to get through to them. "Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins."
The verse names three blows, and the last is hail. One writer explains how a gift from heaven turns into a weapon:
Hail is rain chilled into ice. The mercies of heaven, once despised, turn into pitiless judgment.
The blow fell on "all the products of your toil" — everything they worked for. The verses just before explain why. The priests had confirmed a ruling: holiness does not spread by touch, but defilement does. Haggai then applied that ruling to the nation itself:
Just as a man in an unclean condition defiles what he touches, so the nation of Israel defiled whatever they took up. All their works and offerings are unclean. There must be personal cleanness before anyone can act or offer rightly.
Condition comes first, work second. Another writer applies that to God's people now:
It shows that the root of all failure with the remnant of that day, as with the people of God today, traces back to a low moral condition. In other words, it warns us that outward activity in the Lord's service will not prosper unless a right moral condition goes with it.
The verse closes by recording what never came. One writer describes the state behind it:
The people were in such a state, and so hardened, that they felt nothing under the Lord's chastisements — they did not turn to Him.
The same writer applies this to God's people now, and warns where a missed lesson leads:
He still acts on the same principle in His government. Much of the chastening that falls on His people is meant to make them lay their condition to heart. And nothing proves more plainly how unfeeling our hearts are than this. We pass through trials, alone or along with the Church, and we pay little or no attention to what God had in view, and flatter ourselves that all is well. Every stroke of God's rod should set our hearts searching. Where it does not, heavier chastening from His hand is sure to follow.
The people have just started to obey, and the next verses announce blessing. Haggai raises the painful past to mark the turn, not to crush them:
Still, we are allowed to see that however great the failure of God's people, if they repent and obey the word, they will be blessed. So as soon as the remnant take up the work of the house, the LORD can say, "from this day on I will bless you."
- Cause. The ruined harvests were God's own hand. His people had put their own comfort ahead of His house.
- Purpose. The rod aimed at their hearts. It was sent to wake them up and show them that God's ways, not their own, hold their real blessing.
- Failure. It did not work. They stayed hard, and never heard God's voice in what was happening to them.
- Test. If a trial leaves us unchanged, still sure that all is well, heavier discipline is on the way.
- Turn. The moment they obeyed and took up His work, the record of judgment closed and the promise of blessing began.
Consider, I pray you, from this day and onward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth [month], from the day that the foundation of Jehovah's temple was laid, consider [it].
Haggai speaks on a dated day: the twenty-fourth of the ninth month. The foundation of the LORD's temple had just been laid, and the people are told to mark that day and weigh what follows from it. Why does God tie His blessing to the laying of a foundation? And why did He make them wait for it?
The people had started work on the house three months earlier. One writer traces that gap, sees purpose in the delay, and says what the foundation meant to God.
Compare Haggai 1:13-15 with this scripture. It was exactly three months from the day the people started work on the LORD's house to the day the foundation was laid. That time would have gone into the needed preparation. It is striking that the LORD did not begin to bless them until the foundation was laid. He waited those three months to test His people's hearts and the reality of their restoration. He worked in them a sense of their past condition, and so prepared them to receive the blessing He was about to give... His heart is always to bless. If He holds back blessing, it is only because of their spiritual state... At the end of that time they had reached what was nearest to the Lord's heart: the foundation of His temple. So He announces that from that day He would bless them. Now they were walking in keeping with the place God had put them in.
The backward look covers the years described just before — poor harvests, blight, hail. Commentators trace those losses not to bad weather but to God's hand, and to a specific fault in the people.
Sadly, the remnant of Haggai's day had been acting on a false principle. The result: the work of their hands was unclean in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD dealt with them in governmental discipline and struck them "with blight and with mildew."
That uncleanness was not a technical matter. It came from what filled their minds.
At this moment God's mind was on the building of His house; their minds were on their own houses. Out of communion with the One who had called them, they were for themselves and not for the LORD. They were taken up with their own things, and not with His. In this way they became defiled in practice... They were unclean themselves, so they polluted everything they touched. Nothing they did was acceptable to God — not their daily work, and not the worship they professed.
The promise lands at a moment when the barns are empty and the trees bare. One writer notes how long the gap felt between the first obedient move and any visible return, and draws the parallel for us.
The second cause for discouragement, both in the past and today, is the slowness with which blessing comes. ... For the Jews this was a blight on material prosperity. With us the flow of spiritual blessing may not come at once. Lessons on the principle of association have to be learnt. The holy cannot make the unclean holy, but the unclean can make the holy unclean.
Nothing in their record earned the change. Repentance shown in obedient work did.
Still, we may see this. However great the failure of God's people, if they repent and act in obedience to the word, they will be blessed. So, as soon as the remnant take up the work of the house, the LORD can say, "from this day I will bless you."
Those who have taken God at this word report that what He gave went past what they were looking for.
Some of us may have proved as much in God's dealing with us spiritually... To many it was simply a practical question of doing the will of God, and so a fixed duty of keeping clear of what dishonours the Lord. But who ever expected what He has given since? The opening out of His word, the recovery of forgotten truth, the enjoyment of His presence, and the blessing of many others far and wide through it, even if indirectly.
The form of this blessing suited Israel's own day. Writers hold that the principle behind it carries across to believers now.
The blessings promised here to Israel belonged to this life, in keeping with the system they lived under. But the principle of blessing, as we have often shown, is the same for believers now. Whenever God's people walk with hearts subject to His word, in communion with His own mind, they are on the sure and certain path of blessing and soul-prosperity... And whenever a believer's heart responds through grace to God's call to walk with Him like this, this word — "From this day I will bless you" — will prove as true as it was when the prophet spoke it to Israel.
- Consider — God dates the day and asks for a deliberate look back. The years of shortage stand against what comes next.
- Cause — the shortfall was discipline, not chance. Hearts fixed on their own houses defiled even their worship.
- Foundation — He held back blessing until the foundation was laid. The three-month wait tested whether their return to Him was real.
- Promise — the word of blessing comes while the shortage is still there. God speaks it before there is anything to show for it.
- Now — the form of blessing has changed, but the principle stands. Hearts subject to His word are on the sure path of blessing.
Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, the vine, and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree have not brought forth from this day will I bless [you].
God speaks these words over empty barns and bare trees, on the day the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. Why does God promise blessing at the exact moment there is nothing to show for it, and what changed on that day?
The verse looks back before it looks forward. The verses just before describe years of poor harvests. One writer explains that this was not coldness from God but care.
God could not bless them while their hearts had turned away from Him. That would fit neither His holiness nor His love for His people. They were using His grace — the grace that brought them back from captivity — as a way to get their own ease and comfort. So He dealt with them in judgment. He disciplined them to wake them out of their spiritual sleep. He wanted to teach them the lesson God's people always need: their true blessing and prosperity lie only in the Lord's ways, and not in their own.
One writer looks past the building work to what lay underneath it.
This shows that the root of all failure in the remnant of that day, as in the people of God today, goes back to a low moral condition. In other words, it is a warning: outward activity in the Lord's service will not prosper unless a right moral condition goes with it.
God makes the promise while the evidence is still missing, and that gap has a purpose.
Another cause of discouragement, then and now, is how slowly blessing comes. The first move for God followed the prophetic word spoken on the 1st day of the 6th month (1:1). By the 24th day of the 9th month (2:18) there were still signs of shortage. For the Jews this was a blight on material prosperity. With us the flow of spiritual blessing may not come at once.
The people had started work three months earlier. God did not date the blessing from the day they started, but from the day they laid the foundation.
It is striking to observe that the Lord did not begin to bless them until the foundation was laid. He waited those three months to test His people's hearts and the reality of their restoration. He waited to work in them a sense of their past condition, and so to prepare them for the blessing He was about to give. It is always so in His ways with His people. His heart towards them never changes, but the showing of His heart must depend on their condition. His heart is always to bless, and if He withholds blessing, it is only because of their spiritual state.
Another writer draws the same order out of the story in Ezra, where the work stopped and then restarted under Haggai's preaching:
How God delights to bless! But obedience must come before this blessing.
The blessings named here are crops and fruit. One writer separates the form of the blessing from the principle behind it.
The blessings promised here to Israel were material, in keeping with the arrangement they lived under. But the principle of blessing, as we have often shown, is the same for believers now. Whenever God's people walk in obedience of heart to His word, in tune with His own mind, they are on the sure and certain path of blessing and prosperity of soul.
The return outruns the obedience. One writer looks back at people who set out only to keep clear of what dishonoured the Lord:
But who ever expected what He has given since? He has opened out His word. He has brought back truth that was forgotten. He has given the enjoyment of His presence, and through it blessing has spread to others far and wide, even if indirectly. … The blessing has come and will come beyond all our thoughts. It is ours if by grace we cling to the Lord with full purpose of heart.
The last thing in the verse is not a condition but a commitment. That changes what a weak person can count on.
The feeble efforts of those who "fear the Lord" are the victories of His grace in them... He does not change; He does not consume; He encourages. When we reach the realm of God's "I am"s and God's "I will"s, we stand on clear and firm ground. There we may count on the power of His arm and on the grace of His heart.
- Withheld — The lean years were not neglect. God cannot bless His people while their hearts turn away from Him. He disciplined them to teach them where real prosperity lies.
- Diagnosed — The failure was moral before it was practical. Activity in the Lord's service does not prosper unless a right condition of heart goes with it.
- Dated — God dated the blessing from the day they laid the foundation, not the day work began. God waited three months, testing whether the turning was real.
- Promised — The barn is still empty and the trees still bare when God speaks. Obedience comes first, then the fruit; the delay is normal, not a sign of refusal.
- Overflowing — What follows outruns what anyone asked for. It rests on an "I will" — firm ground for the weakest believer.