Introduction to Haggai
Copied from The Prophets of the Restoration (1856)

Haggai is the first of the trio of prophets that appeared after the Babylonish captivity. Most of the prophets had been raised up before the exile. A few, such as Jerimiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk and Obadiah, flourished near or during the captivity, but it was left to Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, to close up the solemn utterances of inspiration to the ancient Church, and give us the Apocalypse of the Old Testament. This rearward position in the prophetic ranks, invests these prophets with peculiar interest, and leads us to listen to their words with peculiar attention. The last words of any one are usually listened to with deep interest, but the last words of God to the Church before the Incarnation, ought surely have a peculiar interest to that Church in every period of its subsequent history. And that, for some reasons, the interest that really belongs to them has not attracted to them the amount of study and attention that we would have anticipated. It is to aid in awakening, if possible, some fresh interest in these parting words of the spirit of prophecy, that we invite attention to an effort to unfold some of their meaning.

Of Haggai personally we know but little. The name means literally, my feast, and throws no light on his personal history, unless we suppose with Cocceius, that it was given in anticipation of the speedy return of the people from their long exile. The Jews have, as usual, a number of fabulous traditions concerning him, that he was an eminent scholar, an assessor in the great synagogue under Ezra that restored the temple worship, and settled the canon of the Old Testament, &c.; but the tradition that has received the most credence is that recorded by Epiphanius, that he was born in Babylon during the captivity, and came to Jerusalem when Cyrus (b. c. 536) permitted a portion of the Jews to return under Zerubbabel, 2 Chron. 36 : 23 ; Ezra 1:1 ; 2:1. The same writer also states that he was buried at Jerusalem among the priests, from which it is affirmed that he was of the family of Aaron. There is, however, no certain knowledge of any of these facts. We know only that he was a servant of God, and more than this is not needful to us, or it would have been revealed.

The prophecy itself, however, compared with the historical books, furnishes us sufficient data for its interpretation.

Sixteen years before the first public appearance of the prophet, the earliest movement toward a return to Palestine was made among the exiles in Babylon. Cyrus in the first year of his exile, b.c. 536, issued an edict summoning the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple ; Ezra 1:1. Accordingly a number of the children of Judali, Benjamin, and Levi, went up to the city of their fathers under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, the civil and ecclesiastical heads of the people. The work of rebuilding the temple was begun in the second year after their arrival, when the founda- tions were laid amidst the shoutings of the young men and the tears of the old ; Ezra 3:10 — 13, The work had proceeded but a little distance when the Samaritans began to interfere, and their offers of assistance being declined, they began to throw obstacles in the way and seek to arrest the work. During the life of Cyrus these efforts were unavailing, for his noble heart never swerved in its affection for the people whose sacred writings contained so wonderful a prediction of him ; Isa. 44 : 28; 45:1, &c. But as his days were cut short on the field of battle, these efforts were renewed under his successor, Cambyses (called Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6), and obtained a suspension of the work. On the ascension of Smerdis the Magian, (called Arta- xerxes in Ezra 4:7 — 23,) it was an easy task to obtain from so suspicious a usurper an edict prohibiting the further prosecution of the work of rebuilding the temple and city. Thus the work lay for nearly four- teen years. Meanwhile, the first zeal of the people had grown cold. They found the land impoverished by the exile, and the task of rebuilding the temple, for which they had mainly returned, suddenly arrested by the schem- ings of their enemies. Discouragement and suspicion began to creep over tlieir hearts. Scepticism gradually grew up in their minds, and as a matter of course, worldliness apd avarice soon became the predominant traits of their character. Having no heart for the work of God, they easily interpreted the obstacles in their way as so many divine intimations that they were not to engage in it, and turned to the greedy advancement X of their own private affairs. Such was their condition at the death of Smerdis, and the ascension to the throne of Darius Hystaspis, b.c. 520. As the force of the prohibitory decree of Smerdis ceased with his death, an effort was instantly made by Haggai, Zerubbabel and Joshua to induce the Jews to resume the building of the temple. Opposition to this effort, by their old ene- mies, brought forth a decree from Darius, in the second year of his reign, formally re-affirming the original edict of Cyrus, and commanding the energetic prosecu- tion of the work, which was accordingly done, and the temple completed and dedicated in the sixth year of / Darius, b.c. 516. It was to urge the people to this work that Haggai came forward as a prophet of God, and co-operated with Zerubbabel, the civil leader, Joshua, the ecclesiastical, and Zechariah, his fellow-prophet, who came for- ward, two months after him, to engage in the same great work. The prophecies of Haggai are dated with an unusual accuracy. The first was delivered on the first day of the sixth month of the second year of Darius, b. c. 520, and the last, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, thus extendmg through a period of not quite four months. Jerome, in his preface to this book, notes the fact that the prophet was cotemporary with Tarquin the Proud, the seventh and last king of Rome. The book contains four distinct prophecies.

• I. (Ch.1) was delivered on the first day of the sixth month, and reproved the people for their apathy in allowing the temple to lie in ruins. This call to duty was effectual, for, in twenty-four days afterwards, we find the people commencing the work of rebuilding under Zerubbabel.
• II. (Ch. 2:1-9) was delivered on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, and designed to correct the feelings of depreciation and discouragement that some of the people had in comparing the humble structure then going up with the magnificent fane of Solomon. As Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel had pre- dicted for the second temple a greater glory than the first, some were doubting whether it was not wrong to proceed with a house that was so much inferior. To remove this reason or pretext, whichever it might be, he showed them wherein this greater glory would consist.
• III. (Ch. 2:10-19) was delivered on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, and removes an error under which they had been laboring in regard to the efficacy of outward observances, and promises them a blessing if the}^ engage heartily in the work of rebuilding the temple.
• lV. (Ch. 2:20-23) was delivered on the same day with the preceding, and addressed to Zerubbabel, as the representative of the theocratic people.

  The style of Haggai is adapted to the nature of his various messages. When he exhorts, it is with pathos and sometimes with tenderness ; when he reproves, it is with burning severity ; and when he looks forward to the magnificent future, he kindles into a poetic fervor. An intensely theocratic spirit seems to have glowed within him ; a spirit which combining all that is purest of patriotism, and all that is most powerful of piety, produced an earnestness of character as deep as could be developed in our nature before the coming of “God manifest in the flesh.”