Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will 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?
Why the Blessing Had Been Withheld
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.
Edward DennettGod 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.
The Root of the Failure
One writer looks past the building work to what lay underneath it.
Hamilton SmithThis 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.
The Empty Barn
God makes the promise while the evidence is still missing, and that gap has a purpose.
Dr. Daniel W. PatersonAnother 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.
Why This Particular Day
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.
Edward DennettIt 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:
The Christian's FriendHow God delights to bless! But obedience must come before this blessing.
What It Carries Over to Us
The blessings named here are crops and fruit. One writer separates the form of the blessing from the principle behind it.
Edward DennettThe 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:
William KellyBut 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.
Standing on an "I Will"
The last thing in the verse is not a condition but a commitment. That changes what a weak person can count on.
J Wilson SmithThe 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.
Summary
- 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.