Lifespan

Uncertain beyond 520 B.C.

Ministry

Haggai’s recorded ministry covers only three months (in 520 B.C.) and occurs shortly after Israel’s return from the Babylonian exile. Nothing is known about Haggai either before or after his approximately 90-day recorded ministry. He was an approximate contemporary of Zechariah.

Preparation and Calling

Unknown

Interaction with God

Haggai had a brief ministry in which he encouraged and challenged the recently returned exiles from Babylon to rebuild the temple. His vew was positive and promising, and he prophesied of the value that the temple would have to the community’s spiritual and, perhaps more important to the struggling Judeans, economic prosperity.

Social Situation

The Jewish exiles had recently returned from Babylonian captivity. They were very much in a pioneer mode, rebuilding, planting, struggling with few resources and no established means to turn to. They suffered repeated droughts and failed crops. They were poor, hungry, and struggling to rebuild the glory of yesteryear. And in the center of it all was God’s command to rebuild the temple. The people complained that they did not have the resources, either personally or communally. Haggai responded that they did not have resources because they weren’t faithful in building the temple.

The situation is fascinatingly similar to the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the mid-1800s in frontier America. Mormon pioneers suffered failed crops, bitter winters, and poverty, yet their prophet called for the construction of a temple in which God’s spirit could be manifest and where the people could properly worship Him. In response to the people’s questions, the prophet pointed to scriptural promises of the Messiah’s reign among His people. Even as Haggai is compared to a second Moses bringing his people out of exile, so was the modern prophet Brigham Young often called “an American Moses.”

Key Teachings

The book of Haggai contains only two chapters, both of which center on the temple. The first chapter is a challenge to the people to pursue the rebuilding the temple, and the second assures the people that the temple will be restored to a glory exceeding its former state.

Living with the Prophet

When God commanded Haggai’s people to rebuild the temple, they felt they did not have enough money to do so. They did not have the faith to take care of God’s commands first. Do you spend your money on self-satisfying computer games and entertainment, or are you actively committed to supporting God’s cause first? True wealth is not founded on a self-serving accumulation of goods and money.

Sources

Oxford Companion to the Bible, s.v. “Haggai, the Book of”

Holy Bible, the book of Haggai