Haggai, Yahweh's Messenger to the Remnant

A prophet of the exile and the return

Haggai belongs to the generation that saw both the loss of Jerusalem and the long walk home. The era in which he lived is placed at around 606 BC to 536 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology (1650)). His own book fixes the start of his preaching more precisely: "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh's word came by Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying," (Haggai 1:1). His footprint in Scripture is small: eleven verses across four passages, nine of them in the book that bears his name and two in Ezra.

What kind of mentions these are

It is worth saying at the outset what sort of material we have. There is no story about Haggai. No birth, no call, no journey, no death. Every appearance of his name is either a heading that dates an oracle, a note that he spoke, or a passing mention in the record of the building work. We meet his words constantly and his person hardly at all. A reader looking for the man behind the message will find the message and not the man.

The dating formulas carry most of his appearances. His word comes on the first day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius (Haggai 1:1), then again with the simple line, "Then Yahweh's word came by Haggai, the prophet, saying," (Haggai 1:3). Further oracles are dated in Haggai 2:1, Haggai 2:10 and Haggai 2:20. The pattern itself is the portrait: a man whose life is measured out by the days on which God spoke through him.

The people obeyed

The nearest thing to a scene comes at the close of the first chapter. "Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed Yahweh, their God's voice, and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as Yahweh, their God, had sent him; and the people feared Yahweh. Then Haggai, Yahweh's messenger, spoke Yahweh's message to the people, saying, 'I am with you,' says Yahweh." (Haggai 1:12-13).

Two things stand in that sentence. First, the governor, the high priest and the whole remnant obeyed, and the obedience is described both as obeying Yahweh's voice and as obeying the words of Haggai. The prophet's speech and God's speech are not held apart. Second, the answer to obedience is not praise for the people but a promise about God: "I am with you." Haggai is called here Yahweh's messenger, and a messenger's dignity lies entirely in the one who sent him.

A question put to the priests

Later he takes up a matter of ritual law with the priests themselves. "Then Haggai said, 'If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, will it be unclean?' The priests answered, 'It will be unclean.' Then Haggai answered, ' "So is this people, and so is this nation before me," says Yahweh; "and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean." ' " (Haggai 2:13-14). He does not argue with the priests; he lets them state the rule and then turns their own answer on the nation. The verdict is uncomfortable: the people are unclean, their work is unclean, and even what they bring to offer is unclean. A prophet who had just seen the people obey does not therefore flatter them.

The building that went up

Ezra gives the outside view. "Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied to them in the name of the God of Israel." (Ezra 5:1). And then the result: "The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia." (Ezra 6:14). Stones were laid because words were spoken. Ezra credits the finished work to God's commandment and to a royal decree, and in between those two he names the preaching of two men.

No failure recorded

Scripture keeps an honest ledger on its prophets, and in Haggai's case the ledger is simply empty. No sin of his is reported, no rebuke aimed at him, no misstep in his ministry. That is not a claim that he had none; it is a report of silence. The uncleanness named in Haggai 2:13-14 is charged to the people and the nation, not to the prophet who announced it.

What we do not know

We do not know who his parents were, for Scripture does not name them. No children of his are named. No tribe or people is given for him, which is striking beside Zechariah, who is identified as the son of Iddo in Ezra 5:1 and Ezra 6:14. Nothing is told of his age, his home, his end. The summary the record itself forces on us is the right one: no scene is told about this person; every mention is a list, a genealogy or a passing note. He arrives with a word and leaves without a biography.

No New Testament passage is listed among his mentions, so nothing is drawn here beyond what these eleven verses carry. What remains is the sentence he was sent to deliver, and it is enough to sit with: "I am with you," says Yahweh (Haggai 1:13).