Commentary on Haggai 1:15—2:9

In today’s reading, we have another exhortation from the prophet to the returned exiles in Jerusalem. It is a message from God through the mouth of the prophet and directed especially to Zerubbabel, the governor of the city, and Joshua, the high priest. It begins:

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai…

It is more than a year after the first prophecy—October 17, 520 BC (which we read about yesterday) and the last day of the feast of Tabernacles. It was on this feast that Solomon had dedicated the original Temple (1 Kings 8:1-2). It was also a time to celebrate the summer harvest, though for the returned exiles the crops have been meagre (a sign of God’s displeasure at the people’s reluctance to get to work on the rebuilding of the Temple).

In speaking to Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and the Remnant of Israel, Haggai is to ask them:

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?

It was possible that some of the older exiles, even including Haggai himself, had actually seen Solomon’s magnificent Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians some 66 years earlier. In any case, others would have heard parents or elders talk nostalgically about its glories. Haggai had asked if any of them had seen “this house” (i.e. the Temple) in its former glory. He was referring to the new building which was seen as a continuation of Solomon’s Temple. And what did they see in the new building? Almost nothing. That is because after the foundations had been laid, no further work had been done

But now Yahweh, through his prophet, urges Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the returned exiles to have courage and get to work on completing the Temple building because Yahweh is with them. David had given his son Solomon similar words of encouragement in the building of his Temple. Haggai is to tell them:

…take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.

The same God who helped Solomon build his Temple will empower Zerubbabel and the people. Similarly, the Spirit of God had rested on Moses and the 70 elders as they led the people out of Egypt and through the desert.

Then comes a prophecy proper:

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land…

For Haggai, God is the sole master of history. While the prophet is foretelling the disaster which is to introduce the new era, the world is temporarily at peace under the rule of Darius. The imminent worldwide catastrophe and the rebuilding of the Temple will herald the messianic age. From the later period of Ezekiel’s preaching onward, the Temple became, as here, a dominant messianic theme.

The prophet’s words are an announcement of the coming of God’s judgement on the nations—which the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great (333-330 BC) will foreshadow. The Letter to the Hebrews (12:26-27) links this verse to the judgment of the nations at the second coming of Christ. The background for the shaking of the nations here and in subsequent verses is the judgment on Egypt at the Red Sea:

I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade.
(Hag 2:21-22)

The prophet continues with the word of Yahweh:

I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with splendor…The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.

“Splendor” can refer to material splendor, or to the glory and presence of God. The latter connects the glory of the Lord with the cloud that filled the sanctuary. When Christ came to the earthly Temple, God’s presence was evident as never before. When Jesus was brought to the Temple for the first time as an infant to be presented to his Father, he was met by the holy man Simeon who spoke of the Child as:

…a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:32)

Haggai’s speaking of the future filling of the Temple with glory points ultimately to Christ who will enter it several times during his life—each time making a significant statement about himself and his mission for his Father. Ultimately, though, as he dies on the Cross, the glory will leave the Temple, the veil of the Holy of Holies will be thrown open to reveal an emptiness. From now on, God has a special presence in his new Temple, the Body of his Risen Son.

“The Lord of hosts” says:

The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former…in this place I will give prosperity…

The Temple now has become a focal point of messianic hope, a hope realised in Jesus. It is in this same second Temple of Zerubbabel, though restorations had been made by King Herod, that Jesus will teach. And that is why this temple will enjoy greater glory than Solomon’s Temple because the longed-for Messiah would be present there.

In our own Catholic faith, we have magnificent churches, some of them among the greatest artistic achievements of the human race. And yet, when it comes to glory, they are no whit greater than the straw-roofed hut in some mission station. For the glory comes not from the building, but from the Presence in the tabernacle and from the community, which as the Body of Christ celebrates its Eucharist there. The church building is holy because God’s people make it so and not the other way round. It is only as holy as they are.