Hag 2:10-19'

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Promises of blessing (Hag 2:10-19)

At the end of three months all the foundation work was finished (cf. Hag 1:14-15; 2:18).

Zechariah had successfully urged the people to repent (Zech 1:1-6), and now Haggai emphasized again that spiritual cleansing was the only way by which they could enjoy God’s blessing (Hag 2:10).

Haggai reminded the people that their wrong attitudes in the past had been the cause of all their troubles. He gave an illustration to show that contact with unclean things made a person unclean, but contact with holy things did not make a person holy. As long as they had neglected the temple and let it lie as a ruined ‘dead’ thing in their midst, they had been unclean and therefore unacceptable to God.

All their religious activity had not made them holy, no matter how much it brought them in contact with holy things (Hag 2:11-14).

The people’s selfishness and disobedience had brought God’s judgment upon them in damage to their crops and a shortage of food. Now that they had turned from their selfish ways and obeyed God, things would change (Hag 2:15-17).

God would reverse the unfavourable agricultural conditions and give them fruitful crops again. His promise would begin to come true from that very day; for on that day, by completing the foundations of the temple, they had given visible proof that their obedience was genuine (Hag 2:18-19).