according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
The rebuilt temple in Jerusalem looked poor next to the one Solomon had raised. The small group back from exile in Babylon was ready to give up. God answered their discouragement with no display of power. He pointed to what He had never taken back.
The Covenant Word Reaching Back to Egypt
The prophet does not offer the people something new. He points them back to what God promised when Israel came out of Egypt. The years in Babylon cancelled none of it.
J. N. DarbyThe prophet encourages the Jews. He tells them that the Spirit was with them when they came out of Egypt, because God granted the Spirit to them at that time. The Spirit remained and was with them still, despite the captivity... the words of Haggai mean that what God gave when they came out of Egypt was not lost, but still remained with them.
The Same Power Without the Outward Signs
The people who came back from Babylon saw none of the miracles their ancestors saw. The verse speaks straight into that gap.
Hamilton SmithIn their present circumstances there was nothing that matched this miraculous display of power. God had indeed delivered them from Babylon. But no cloud by day, or pillar of fire by night, had marked their way. No rock was struck to quench their thirst. No manna came to meet their hunger. All the outward signs of power were gone. Yet in the mercy of God, the Spirit remained with the same power. That power now showed itself, not in outward display, but in spiritual power. It enabled faith to rise above every enemy and to care for the glory of the LORD.
Not Yet Pentecost
Commentators are careful about how much this verse promises. The Spirit here is not what came after Christ went up to heaven. It is the work God had already done in Israel.
William KellyThis is not the Spirit given in the special power, still less His personal presence, granted when Christ went up to heaven and the church was formed on earth. Instead, God had worked by the Spirit in Israel at the first. In the same way He would work in grace even after the captivity in Babylon.
Why "Fear Not" Follows
The command not to fear rests on the sentence before it. God tells them to measure their situation by Him, not by themselves.
Edward DennettIf He is with us, we rest in what He is for us. Then we measure our enemies and our difficulties, not by what we are or by our own resources, but by what He is in all His own almighty power... He would draw their eyes to Himself, so that they could work in faith and fear no enemy. Their God was with them, and He had thrown His unbreakable shield around them.
Another writer looks at what God did not do for them:
William KellyThere was no angel striking down the firstborn, no miracle done for them, not a word about plagues on their enemies. There was only this: "My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not." Whenever Israel was afraid of their enemies, they had no strength. But when they looked to the Lord, they forgot their enemies.
The Promise Kept Long After
Long after Haggai's day, God was still keeping this word. One writer traces the promise into the opening pages of the New Testament:
J. A. TrenchNote too how God had been true to His covenant word in Haggai: "My Spirit remains in your midst." Zacharias and Elizabeth are filled with the Holy Spirit. John was to be filled from his mother's womb. And the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.
Two Resources That Do Not Fail
Some translations join the word and the Spirit as the two things that remain. Read that way, the verse gives the discouraged builder two supplies that never run out.
F. B. HoleHe threw them back on two things. First, on the trustworthy word He gave at the beginning of His dealings with them, to direct their ways. Second, on the guidance and power of His Spirit, who was still among them. What resources are still available for believers today? We would have to answer that we still have the true word of God... and then that the Holy Spirit, poured out on the Day of Pentecost, still lives in believers. So if we do not grieve Him, His power is still available for us.
Summary
- Remains — the key word. The exile never took back what God gave when Israel left Egypt; the Spirit was still there.
- Remains, not renewed — not the Spirit as given after Christ went up to heaven, but the same work God had done in Israel from the start.
- Remains without signs — no cloud, no manna, no rock struck. The power stayed; only the visible display was gone.
- Remains, so fear not — measure your enemies by God's presence, not by your own strength.
- Remains still — God's word to direct and His Spirit to guide are never lost, however weak the day.