It Was A Very Good Year
Five hundred and twenty years before the Christ came to us was a very good year though it didn't begin well. God was ruling the mid-Eastern world through Darius I Hystaspes though it's true that the Greeks refused to accept that "fact" but in Judea the Jews had little choice. A small contingent of Jews had come back to Palestine under the protection of Cyrus the Great (about 538). But they ran into trouble from local enemies and the work of rebuilding the temple ceased under Cambyses (named Artaxerxes in the book of Ezra, see chapter 4) who later went mad and committed suicide. The building of the temp[le was forgotten until Darius' second year (November 520).
The harassed returnees were badly depressed so for eighteen years the temple continued in ruins (Ezra 4:23-24). But they weren't so depressed that they were unable to build their own houses while the house of God was left untouched. All this was perfectly understandable but in the year 520 God thought he had "understood" enough and raised up Haggai and Zechariah the prophets (Ezra 5:1) to tell the Jews to get their minds back on God and to show it by building him a house (Ezra 5:2; Haggai 1:1-3).
Depressed or not, the Jewish community while ignoring the temple had been working hard to feather their own nests. To their dismay the crops failed as the result of a drought, inflation made their money worthless so the basics of life were hard to come by. They were eating little, wearing old clothes and counting their dwindling cash resources (Haggai 1:5-6). However they explained it they didn't catch on that God was trying to get their attention (Haggai 1:9-11 and compare Amos 4) and that's when God told Haggai and Zechariah to speak a few words to them and put the drought and the consequent inflation in perspective. These harsh realities were not merely physical, climatic and economic, they were theological!
Within three weeks Zerubbabel the civil leader, Joshua the high priest and the whole community were working on the temple (1:1,14-15).
About four weeks into the work (Haggai 2:1) the prophet has a message for the leader. It's true the temple building was under way but the old leading men were not impressed and it seemed to be discouraging both Zerubbabel and a significant number of others. As boys the old men had seen the temple of Solomon and this pathetic little temple was hardly worth bothering with. Those who hadn't seen it would have some sense of where the foundations and walls had been by such ruins as had been left visible (2:3). Add the moaning of the old ones and the gloom that hung over the community for numerous other reasons and the need for assurance becomes clear.
Zerubbabel and Joshua (most likely) are present with the gathered people somewhere near the temple area where everyone can look at the outline of it while the prophet speaks (2:4). He assures them all that this temple, which is the continuation of the former glorious temple (2:3) will one day be more glorious than its former condition (2:9). The Lord says that all the gold and silver of the world is his, implying that is not what makes a temple glorious (2:8). What matters is that the Spirit of the Lord dwells in the people (2:5).
Two months later the prophet is back with another message (2:10-19). The point of the message has to be hunted for and it is given on the basis of a priestly decision. The oracle does seem to suggest that what you build is only pure if you are pure. God wasn't especially anxious for them to build a physical temple but was more interested in abiding in them. If now they are building the temple as a "lucky shrine" then the temple is no better than their motives. If they seek him rather than his gifts; if they seek him to please him rather than have him as "drought insurance" they will be blessed.
Later that day the prophet gets another word for the leader of the community, David's descendant, that the turmoil that is developing among the nations is not to concern him or the new community (2:20-23). In the midst of it all he is to remember that this is the work of God and that God will preserve the house of David and keep his royal covenant (see Psalm 89).
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